Hello guys.

 

I'm a bit new here and would like some feedback on my website.

 

Bokenham.net

 

Please could you have a look.

 

Thanks.

Your site is nice and clean, and your content is clearly presented. I'm not very keen on the reflection used on your header - it doesn't really add much IMO.

I think your site could do with a bit more colour, and something to make it stand out a little. I do like simple, effective, sites, but I feel this is a little too simple. Adding an image on your home page would help, and I think make the arrows you've used for your list style a little smaller perhaps.

It's got the foundations of a good site, particularly in the code, I just feel you could do more presentation-wise.

Thanks for the quick reply.

 

I definately agree with the arrows. I shrunk them a little. Looks alot better now IMO.

 

I'n not quite sure what to do about the header as it could add alot of colour to it. I'm a little out of ideas at the moment.

 

Thanks for the comment about the coding.

 

Anyone else?

 

TIA

I would recommend telling the viewer that you make websites before saying:

Your problem. Our Solution.

SVBokenham are here to help and explain, not to baffle you with jargon.

Our clients are happy because our services are professional, affordable and dealt with in a friendly manner. The key to successful projects is the initial specification. We ask the right questions to determine exactly what you require so we can plan and provide accurate solutions.

What is my problem? What solution? What are your services? This first paragraph is very vague, because you haven't told us what you do yet! Tell us somewhere that your are a web designer, and make it obvious. Maybe under your header have a sub-header that says 'Quality Web Design' but something slightly less cliche.

 

Other than that, I like the simplicity, but it certainly could use more color. You don't need it to be obvious... maybe make the blue arrows green (to match your 'green' website hosting) .. something subtle. You could also change the color of the header to green to match that, which I think would be enough variation in color. I too am not very fond of the reflection, but if you're going to do it you should atleast have the reflection of the "SV" be the same as the "Bokenham".

 

Nit picks:

 

Home Page

Environmentally freindly hosting

These high quality services are not a much as you might think

As much.. what? Cost? Add that in there.

Faster loading

I would put just 'fast loading'

I would also add 'Standards Compliant' to that list, perhaps replacing 'error free'.

 

Navigation bar. If you don't rollover the text itself, but instead rollover the box around the text, the box becomes white, but so does the text. You can only see the text if you rollover it directly. This kind of defeats the purpose of the rollover box, because I can't see the text! Fix that.

Thank you for taking the time to have a look.

 

I have corrected the spelling mistakes and changed the wordings. Which now should make more sense.

 

As for the banner / colours I agree green is a good idea and will start on that shortly.

 

Any other suggestions would be great.

 

Thanks.

"This site is green" - you lie! it's blue!

"This site is green" - you lie! it's blue!

 

LMAO!^

ROFL!

Anyone else with suggestions?

 

TIA

Right, I've been at it for the last day or so changing the copy and the colours a little, please let me know what you think.

 

Thanks again.

Right, I've been at it for the last day or so changing the copy and the colours a little, please let me know what you think.

 

Thanks again.

 

I like it very clean and text content is great but I just don't like you navigation buttons think they let it down a little

I like the content part. Really easy and clean for an eye.

There are 2 parts which are a little problematic: The header and the menu.

You need to make header a little more interesting. Maybe bring in more colors, otherwise it's too boring.

Something has to be done with the menu buttons too, but I'm not quite sure what exactly.

Your copy's not bad (that's a big complement from me ) - it could do with some pow (technical term) and don't be affraid to put some personality in - with the cold blue it comes across as a bit cold and impersonal. It is succinct, sharp and is on the road to selling but never underestimate the power of a visitor's pyschological and emotional response when it comes to buying!

 

One thing I'd definitely recommend is explaining a little more why the following are important to potential customers, like you've done to some degree on your portfolio page:

• XHTML
  
• CSS
  
• PHP & MySQL
  

Do your potential clients know what these acronyms mean and what they do for them?

 

This provides you with a website that is:

• Standards compliant - so what?
  
• Cross platform - really? How interesting!
  
• Fast loading - cool, sounds good...
  
• Easy to maintain - don't websites just sit there?
  

Again, do your potential clients neccessarily recognise the true benefits of these?

 

Who is your target market? I don't get a sense of focus. Sometimes the scatter-gun approach misses everyone - I always recommend a high-powered rifle with a scope!

 

Sorry if this comes across as a mauling - it's not, your copy is in pretty good shape. I just thought I'd put my nose in because your design is so simple (in a good way ) that your copy will be doing most of the work for you, so make it powerful!

 

Hope you take this well!

From a technical point of view use a PNG for your header, not a jpg. The artifacts around your text are noticeable. Also in my opinion the buttons down the bottom are tacky (although that is not a view shared by everyone on these forums!)

Thanks for all your feedback and great comments.

 

I will change the copy a little more, thanks for the tips wizely!

 

Any suggestions for the navigation? Maybe the same sort of thing just using buttons instead? Well slightly different.

 

From a technical point of view use a PNG for your header, not a jpg. The artifacts around your text are noticeable. Also in my opinion the buttons down the bottom are tacky (although that is not a view shared by everyone on these forums!)

 

PNG why?

 

Did you mean for the gradient using it's transparency?

 

The header definately needs a little more to it!

 

Thanks all again.

Hi!

 

here's my take. I like it. It's simple and clean and works well. I would get rid of the validator badges at the bottom. They are kind of cheesy. It's good that they're valid but no one really cares. As long as the site works in the browser they are using. I've been chewed out for using them on this forum. Just an FYI. other wise a great site. Where are you based?

Right I've replaced the badges at the bottom with the text. Does look a bit neater. I'll be working on the header through the week to make it a bit more of a feature.

 

Goldstein I'm based in Colchester.

 

Thanks everyone for your help. I'll let you all know when I have updated the header.

 

Shaun.

I say remove the underline from the links in the menu. I don't think the underline is necessary and adds an unneeded affect.

 

Other than that I like it!

Hello everyone. Thanks again for all the ideas so far.

 

I have injected some colour into the site now and I think it's about finished.

 

Please can you all have a look again.

 

Thanks!

SVBokenham

Sorry I didn't follow up my earlier post. The reason to use PNG (or .gif) instead of gif is that you are displaying uncomplicated graphics with less than 256 colors (even with the gradient). Your file size will be much smaller and you wont get any artifacts that are associated with using jpeg compression. Typically you would only use .jpg for displaying photographs or complicated textures. These artifacts are less noticeable when displaying photographs, but are obvious when displaying any pictures with a rigid geometry (such as text). It's not too bad on your graphic but thats probably because you saved at a low compression rate (hence large file size). Try saving it as a .PNG (I would expect your graphic to be a third of the file size) and you'll see what I mean.

 

Not a massive point but It's serve you well for the future.

IMHO the arrows take some professionalism away from the design. I'm not sure if it's the size, shape or colour. They just don't look quite right to me. I'd recommend you try looking at Fam Fam Fam's Silk icon set. He has a variety of different icons you could try using instead (Arrows, Bullets etc).

IMHO the arrows take some professionalism away from the design. I'm not sure if it's the size, shape or colour. They just don't look quite right to me. I'd recommend you try looking at Fam Fam Fam's Silk icon set. He has a variety of different icons you could try using instead (Arrows, Bullets etc).

 

I had a look at that set, looks very nice!

 

I decided to change the ones I already had, looks alot better now!

 

I think I'm just about finished with the design!

 

Anyone else with any suggestions?

 

Thanks again!

I had a look at that set, looks very nice!

 

I decided to change the ones I already had, looks alot better now!

 

I think I'm just about finished with the design!

 

Anyone else with any suggestions?

 

Thanks again!

 

Ah yes, the arrows look much better in Green. One further suggestion I would make though, is maybe changing the colour of your footer so it's not the same as your background colour? maybe another shade of Blue perhaps? (Just so it sticks out a little more and it's distinguishable from your background).

I suggest giving the bg a gradient and try and either make the tagline smaller or move it to the right

Hi guys!

 

I think I've done it!!

 

what do you all think?

 

TIA!

It's alright, but still slightly on the simple side?

 

Typo I noticed: "Graphic Design - To being your website to life"

It's alright, but still slightly on the simple side?

 

Typo I noticed: "Graphic Design - To being your website to life"

Thought I read it through thoroughly!

 

 

May have to change the header again!

 

TIA

My only crit is that the header is a bit too big, but thats just MHO

Right I actually think I have cracked it this time! Seriously....

 

Please have a look!

 

Thanks.

Yep - that's a definite improvement!

Yep - that's a definite improvement!

 

Thank you!