I had to choose a client for a project in college and I chose a girl that I work with and she makes cakes. I designed this layout and it is my first draft, some feedback would be nice .

 

http://uploadir.com/u/hd9hnr5u

Being brutal, it's clean and it works but it fails to impress, just seems a little generic.

 

Before you designed this did you look at other websites like it?

 

How did you pick those colours, was it simply because she was a girl? Or she liked them?

Building a website is not about giving a client what they want, it's about giving the audience what they want and need, you need to research the demographic, you need to write your content for each page before design so you can give better structure to your design.

 

Check out commonly used fonts, colours, styles, layouts, features for this type of site and choose everything including images based on research and reason, pretty pictures are great but it means nothing if it is not suitable for the business and at the moment I cannot see much research into its design as it's not really suitable for a 'new' development, maybe a few years ago it would have been great.

 

I say this not to be rude but to say that for your first designed site it's really good but if you have this much skill naturally I believe a little push will give you the edge you need to move a few steps up in design.

Edited April 6, 201412 yr by Fuzzy Logic

She wanted the website to be "Girly", but not girly enough so that it looked like it was generally for girls. She liked the idea of white and pink because that's, in her own words, what she always imagined her website would look like. I chose the light pink because i thought it complimented gray the most.

 

Edit: I also really appreciate the feedback, I will certainly research more on this, though I don't really know how much further I can take it anyway, as I don't know how to code and I don't know if I can get it coded for free or how much I will be charged.

Edited April 6, 201412 yr by CurtKush

Please, take the advice of a client but always make sure they know the most important thing is the business

 

Let's take an example

 

A man who wants to sell cupcakes, is it ok to do it in black because he likes it?

 

There are plenty of colours to choose from, pink is not the only colour but you can stick with her ideas by staying light and pastel.. Here is a great example http://www.la-di-da-cupcakes.com

 

Cream, pink, blue, exactly what she is after but is not frighting away a gender, does she think her only clients will be female? Of course I would have thought the majority will be but that is no reason to kill out a potential sale.

 

Of course I am speculating as I have never researched this market but I have seen loads of sites that are in this market and nearly none (of the better ones) stick to a single gender ideal.

 

Ps please check the colour wheel, yellow or green is complimentary to pink depending on the shade, check this out http://www.creative-baby-nursery-rooms.com/baby-room-colors.html not a cake website but the colour wheel ideals are correct under all circumstances

Edited April 6, 201412 yr by Fuzzy Logic

Please, take the advice of a client but always make sure they know the most important thing is the business

 

Let's take an example

 

A man who wants to sell cupcakes, is it ok to do it in black because he likes it?

 

There are plenty of colours to choose from, pink is not the only colour but you can stick with her ideas by staying light and pastel.. Here is a great example http://www.la-di-da-cupcakes.com

 

Cream, pink, blue, exactly what she is after but is not frighting away a gender, does she think her only clients will be female? Of course I would have thought the majority will be but that is no reason to kill out a potential sale.

 

Of course I am speculating as I have never researched this market but I have seen loads of sites that are in this market and nearly none (of the better ones) stick to a single gender ideal.

 

Ps please check the colour wheel, yellow or green is complimentary to pink depending on the shade, check this out http://www.creative-baby-nursery-rooms.com/baby-room-colors.html not a cake website but the colour wheel ideal are correct

 

So you are saying that I need to change the colours up? How is the actual layout, the nav etc?

Honestly... it is way too generic. Looks like a blog, not a cupcake place. Showcase the cupcakes. Make them front and center. Think like a user. When you visit a site like that what do you want to know.

 

What cupcakes are there, prices, and how can you get a hold of the cupcakes to eat them. Focus on that. Information about the 'company' is really secondary to the actual cupcakes.

Edited April 6, 201412 yr by cibgraphics

Content, it's a pretty boring way to read it, look at the example, the menu needs a work up too

 

It's the research that is important, take ideas from different website (after you have the content ready) and place the content where it's most important

 

Draw some Wireframes and do some colour schemes and font combination, do at least half dozen and tweak them, then work them up into a design, as you go you continue tweaking, then believe me your design will be a million times better.

 

Also when you look at other websites and like their features and content, refer to your research and think

Is this suitable for the site I am making

Is it in the right position

Is it really something that will add to the website or content rather than remove from the content?

 

I keep saying content because how you display your content to the audience is the most important thing you should think about

 

Size, colour, weight, position etc all give different impressions and two things written in the same words but in different styles can say different things.

Edited April 6, 201412 yr by Fuzzy Logic

On the side where it says Tab1, 2 and 3, I planned on having special offers and discount codes etc there.

I would maybe think about featuring it on another page, although I understand your reasoning I think it might be better if you had created another page, then in the menu or to one side create a button that stands out and says something like 'discounts', you draw attention to it with contrast but at the same time you will not remove from your homepage content by doing what you have.

 

The site I showed you above has discounts but they put their discounts on their twitter page also encouraging social networking

Edited April 6, 201412 yr by Fuzzy Logic

I would maybe think about featuring it on another page, although I understand your reasoning I think it might be better if you had created another page, then in the menu or to one side create a button that stands out and says something like 'discounts', you draw attention to it with contrast but at the same time you will not remove from your homepage content by doing what you have.

 

The site I showed you above has discounts but they put their discounts on their twitter page also encouraging social networking

 

True. It's still a PSD and I can't code so It looks like it will be all editing and then just left as a PSD. I might end up having to use a horrible dreamweaver template in college to make the website if I cant find someone to code it haha, and again I really apprectiate the feedback, you have been so helpful.

No probs, there are also loads of people around that would code it for you as a psd to html service if you wanted like this one http://codemyconcept.com I have never used them but until you learn to code that type of service, or even advertising on a site like this for that service is another option you could consider

No probs, there are also loads of people around that would code it for you as a psd to html service if you wanted like this one http://codemyconcept.com I have never used them but until you learn to code that type of service, or even advertising on a site like this for that service is another option you could consider

 

I'm really trying to find anyone who will be kind enough to code it for free, or I could design them something as payment as I'm short on cash right now.

Those type of requests are not in short supply, you would be hard pushed for that, you may stand more chance finding someone at your own college who may do it.

True, it's just finding people I can trust to do it is the problem.

You won't find that over the internet, well, not anyone you KNOW you can trust

Has anyone ever told you you're like ghandi? Everything you say I feel is so true.

Lol, a little too much hair I think lol.. Nah, in all honesty that's just the results of 2 years of uni studying web and graphics, only one to go lol

Well stick at it. You seem to be doing well for yourself. I'd personally love to go to uni and do it but im not really cutting the cheese in college right now, I love to design and if I was in a web design class im sure I'd do really well.

I am 32, prior to uni I was building websites at not even a glimpse of the standards I do now.. Still not great but I think my skills are growing.. Do enough of these designs the way I have described and go for a graphic design course or a specialist web design course at uni like mine. Here is what I am currently working on http://mentiondesign.con/sitetwo/index.html - it's responsive too (if you don't know what responsive is, it's well worth checking it out)

Edited April 6, 201412 yr by Fuzzy Logic

Do you code as well? Also I think that website looks fantastic, I like when you scroll down on the homepage and it shows Discover, Develop, Design, Deploy and delight, it looks awesome.

Edited April 6, 201412 yr by CurtKush

Yea and thanks, I have for many years but uni taught me responsive and html5 too as I was not using those prior

 

That effect is called parallax, check it out, you can do loads with it but be careful it does not work on iOS devices like ipad and iPhone

Edited April 6, 201412 yr by Fuzzy Logic

You think you could maybe code mine? I know it's alot to ask after a 15 minute conversation but i'm really having difficulty finding someone to do it. Also, did you make your avatar? It's crazy good.

I am afraid I have assignments up to the eyeballs at the moment, I have a 3000 word essay to do, 6 posters for branding and logotype and I have to finish that website then integrate it in a cms called expression engine.. All by the end of April.. Sorry

 

The avatar is a photo manipulation piece I did, check the link under my posts to look at more of my work.. Try somewhere like http://www.surrealpsd.com to learn how to do it (my ex lens based media tutor owns that site)

Edited April 6, 201412 yr by Fuzzy Logic

Yeah you really do sound like you're swimming in work lol, thinking it might just be easier to learn myself haha

Might be, as a very basic kick off try http://www.w3schools.com go for html and then css, beware that the coding style they teach in not great but they use a good platform for you to practice.

http://deliciasdaval.com/sobre-mim/

 

http://www.adelaidescakes.com

http://www.vanillabakeshop.com

Might be, as a very basic kick off try http://www.w3schools.com go for html and then css, beware that the coding style they teach in not great but they use a good platform for you to practice.

 

i wud say avoid w3schools .. chk w3fools

 

go for codeacademy ,htmldogs

w3schools is ok because it allows you to try stuff as you go on, helps you learn a little faster. Their coding is not completely up to date but its a great place to start

http://gyazo.com/4660e3215eb87c1b9ac1352277b8ac1b

 

 

http://www.w3fools.com

 

 

why study erroneous code ? when code academy gives you same facility

I hate it when people point to unsubstantiated websites in order to prove a point

 

It teaches the basics, nothing more, and unless you can point to something specific in the coding it teaches (which is the only thing I suggested to use) that will make it a definite reason to avoid I am afraid I will look at the website you have pointed to with scheptisim, anyone can make a website stating anything, does not make it true without fact, it just makes it opinion.

 

I never endourced their certificates, I just suggested using it's teaching method as a starting point

Edited April 8, 201412 yr by Fuzzy Logic

W3fools was created by Paul Irish (a Developer of Jquery, Modernizer, Yeoman, HTML5 Boilerplate and more) if that doesn't carry some weight I'm not sure what does.

However, in the interest of balance, people who continuously link to w3fools should step off the bandwagon.
There are some follow up articles here and here (which Paul Irish links to on his own site, see above) in which it is acknowledged that not all developers feel the same and since w3fools launch (over 3 years ago) w3schools started to clean up their act.

They are even recommended on the Mozzila Network here (just one example of a few).

The main problem I have with the site is that they refuse to disassociate themselves from the W3C leading people to believe they are official.

Edited April 8, 201412 yr by Wynn

A fashion website ? looks cosmetics design, but its a nice design

I think it looks professional. It's true that it looks a bit generic, but in the end it's a very good looking first project.