I recently spent a decent amount of time re-thinking my portfolio. It's been down for atleast a year, but having spent the past few months planning and building a new site. It's been published online.

I'd love some feedback. It does need some work, I feel the message isn't very clear and don't really know why people would buy a service from me yet.

That all said, I do feel this brand is a good canvas to go forward from. Filling up the portfolio and refining the text on the pages.

I'd also like to add a members area, but haven't given that much thought yet.

The site is responsive for mobile portrait also.

 

Anyway, yeah... Feedback would be awesome.

Thanks!

 

http://pixelcoder.co.uk

Based on the mobile view alone, the layout and content is good. The colour and font however did not make it feel like I was on 2014 designers website, they said to me i do functional websites not expressive/creative design work.

Interesting take and thanks for coming back to me. The font is PT Sans... known for its readability I suppose, so I'm guessing it didn't invoke the peaks and troughs of creativity. I've seen it on the internet and thought that's a really neat and tight looking font which is still readable when only at 12 or 13px. I'll have a think about that, and consider any possible changes. Truth is, I didn't give it too much thought... The font that is.

Interesting take and thanks for coming back to me. The font is PT Sans... known for its readability I suppose, so I'm guessing it didn't invoke the peaks and troughs of creativity. I've seen it on the internet and thought that's a really neat and tight looking font which is still readable when only at 12 or 13px. I'll have a think about that, and consider any possible changes. Truth is, I didn't give it too much thought... The font that is.

 

If you have access to Photoshop or some other design tool, copy a paragraph and go through the popular fonts until you find one you like. The link below has a great list

http://www.bulletinbag.com/blog/faqs/font-choices-text/

Thanks for the heads up, there's also this...

 

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-font-previewer-for/engndlnldodigdjamndkplafgmkkencc?hl=en

I recently spent a decent amount of time re-thinking my portfolio. It's been down for atleast a year, but having spent the past few months planning and building a new site. It's been published online.

I'd love some feedback. It does need some work, I feel the message isn't very clear and don't really know why people would buy a service from me yet.

That all said, I do feel this brand is a good canvas to go forward from. Filling up the portfolio and refining the text on the pages.

I'd also like to add a members area, but haven't given that much thought yet.

The site is responsive for mobile portrait also.

 

Anyway, yeah... Feedback would be awesome.

Thanks!

 

http://pixelcoder.co.uk

 

The thing that stuck out the most for me was your blog post. Greenock? You're not from my neck of the woods are you?

I would add one more colour to website, more contrast

I've had a good read, the site looks good, but like you said is missing the wow.

 

TheFlyingSquirrel commented on the font and you replied you hadn't given it much thought - Shame on you - big no no.

 

Personally I think it's the content itself that is letting things down, a touch more white space would help too around the article leaders to make them more prominent. One resource I make good use of is Entrepreneur.com and here is an article about making your online content sparkle with the message your trying to get across - All content isn't created equally:

 

It is a good starting point for understanding how the message can be perceived by others, and there are loads of other great articles on there I am sure will help you pick your content up out of the dull-drums and create a more modern 'social comment' based marketing content.

If you have access to Photoshop or some other design tool, copy a paragraph and go through the popular fonts until you find one you like. The link below has a great list

http://www.bulletinbag.com/blog/faqs/font-choices-text/

 

That is a good place for inspiration, it allows you to see some of what is trending, and to compare ideas too.

 

Another great resource for fonts is https://www.google.com/fonts so easy to use as well, a simple css link to use a font for your header or for your whole site. Plus like the previous example you can browse currently trending fonts, and there's the added benefit of when looking up a particular font you can get examples of what fonts might work well together for you. BONUS.

I like the design.

 

Something I would do is to add some kind of hover change state such as a darker shade of the colour etc, just so someone knows that by clicking what they are hovering over, then that will take them somewhere. I guess there is the pointer finger but not everyone would put 2 and 2 together. Just something small in my opinion.

 

I don't like the generic footer, looks too similar to so many other sites out there.

 

I would remove the Wordpress text from your <title> tags on the Blog page, though it's up to you.

 

<title>  Blog :: Pixel Coder :: Just another WordPress site</title>

I am maybe beginning to sound like a broken record but the fact that it is designed in Wordpress is a -1 from me but hey, that's just my opinion, again!

Edited March 15, 201412 yr by MG1878

I like the design.

 

Something I would do is to add some kind of hover change state such as a darker shade of the colour etc, just so someone knows that by clicking what they are hovering over, then that will take them somewhere. I guess there is the pointer finger but not everyone would put 2 and 2 together. Just something small in my opinion.

 

I don't like the generic footer, looks too similar to so many other sites out there.

 

I would remove the Wordpress text from your <title> tags on the Blog page, though it's up to you.

 

 

<title>  Blog :: Pixel Coder :: Just another WordPress site</title>

I am maybe beginning to sound like a broken record but the fact that it is designed in Wordpress is a -1 from me but hey, that's just my opinion, again!

-1 for wordpress, really?! Nothing wrong with the php, database dynamo. In this instance, he needs it to manage his blog.

All in all it's not a bad site, all that it really lacks is some actual portfolio items and this stands out even more so as you're on V4 of your own site... 4 versions and no client work? That could send out some bad signals to prospective clients so I'd remove any reference to it being V4.

 

Also I don't see any harm in this being developed in WordPress if as TheFlyingSquirrel says it's used to manage your blog and portfolio items etc.

I like it! The mobile view looks good too. I've got a couple of suggestions for you...

 

I would probably use the pink colour for your icons and images as well, e.g. the rockets on the company page, timeline etc. Make those elements pop.

 

I would remove the top white section with email and number. I don't think it adds anything to the overall design.

 

Style your submit button on the contact page and the tags on your blog.

 

My last suggestion is to change your photo. You don't have to wear a suit but I'm sure you can improve on the current one.

 

As Bobby said, it could do with some client work on there. I'm sure you'll fill it up in no time and I'd like to see it again in a couple of months.

Edited March 18, 201412 yr by OliverB

Thanks for all the feedback here people, I'm going to sit down and read through them all to implement some changes.

 

It feels like the site has been relatively well received and a lot of good points raised here.

 

Many thanks, and I'll post some updates asap.

1 - "Crisp clean interface design" - your site absolutely reflects this. Nicely done. Just be sure to note what it is that makes you different, and possibly better than your competition.

 

2 - You have rollover effect in your navigation. Why not have the same for the various buttons (CTA, Services, Social Media)?

 

3 - For the home slider: 4 words - "the power of three". 2 just doesn't seem enough. Add one more "wow" there that takes care of point #1.

 

Overall, good job.

Thanks iems, good to hear it resonated with you on some levels and thanks a bunch for the cool insight. I'll get onto the rollover effects in the footer soon also.

 

@Ryan Deegan...

Yeah, I grew up in Greenock but moved away aged 17. Now I live in Fife but still have family over on the West.

I love the design, it's very clean and very modern - however, my only gripe, it doesn't jump out at me and say "I'm a designer" It just doesn't do that for me. Thats the only down side if you like

favicon?

 

it's clean and ordered but lacks a little soul

 

services: "In built to every service we render there are core offerings also" not quite sure what this means - also 'In-built". or simply built-in

 

are you images 8- or 24- bit pngs? e.g. the pencil and ruler - they could be better optimised - quite small file size already but lighter is always nicer did u consider using svg for this? nice for retina and mobile - crisp at any size, could also inline ones specific to pages and save an http request.

 

i understand the minimal grey with touches of red but e.g. on front page i think the rocket coould bring some colour and impact by some/most of it being red

 

'directors' ? only one of you so 'director' or better still not at all (ok it's better than web master, but still on a par with CEO. unless you're officialyl legally the director of your company - it sounds strange.

 

i find the grid paper backgorund a little distracting - a little texture but personally not keen on this.

 

 

nice one on passing your driving test

I've implemented some changes to the site now, mainly a points area has been introduced which is making the site feel a bit more busy.

I'd appreciate some feedback on the system if anyone would be willing to signup and test the process out?

 

You can read a little about the system here - http://www.pixelcoder.co.uk/points/register/

 

and register here - http://www.pixelcoder.co.uk/points/register/

 

Thanks to all who help me through this.

 

@ryan deegan - Yeah i'm over that neck of the woods sometimes.

@cherry design - Working on that at the minute, not sure quite how to make it pop.

@dap - Haven't spend too long on the copy yet, you're right though and the icons would look good in svg. It's a bit wordy at times, but I'm working on that, and thanks for the congratulations.

Edited March 31, 201412 yr by pixelcoder

I like the clean and crisp feel of it, but like most people mentioned, it doesn't say "designer" to me. I agree with Oliver too, the top white bar before the logo is a little distracting, and it's a lot of white for just a few links - I think you'd be better off having your logo and navigation the first thing at the top. I'm sure you could find a different place for those few items.

 

The header areas on each page seem too big...a lot of white space for a smaller title. Maybe a larger font size, or a different font like TheFlyingSquirrel suggested, would help fill that area.

 

I also think that there are too many boxed elements. I understand that is part of the overall design of the site, but on the Company page, for instance, every gap between boxes disrupts my reading flow. Not sure how to fix that other than keeping a solid white background for the content and working within that to create some different areas and separations.

 

Adding a third color may help keep my interest too. Overall the site is easy to navigate, and if I was looking for a service, I could find it easily. But the overall color scheme and layout doesn't draw me in and keep me browsing.

I was thinking of changing the design some, and have played around with a modified version of the current home page.

I'm wondering if this is better than the current version available at http://pixelcoder.co.uk