October 16, 201411 yr Firstly, let me apologise for my absence - I began participating in this forum, and then got sidetracked and never logged back in for ages... last time I was here, some 'Babaji' was offering some magic spells ... Anyhoos, I need your help. I'm moving beyond freelancing to launching an agency... I enjoy working with other talented individuals, and think projects work best when a) the client has money to spend, it's well planned out, c) you use a combination of talents (devs, designers, copywriters, etc, etc)... Plus, despite working as front-end dev, UX, design, marketing - I still haven't found my place - or my passion... But I am passionate about digital - the way it affects behaviour (both consumer / supplier), the opportunities, etc... so I thought an agency is the best way to go? See how my mind works. Apologies... I'm waffling again... here it is: http://craft-digital.co.uk Basically, I've done the site... designed it in the browser so forgive any messy code, etc... it's not finished (when is a site ever finished?!?!), but as an mvp, a skeleton... I want your opinion? (Design is subjective I know- and I'm no designer but, I don't like or I do like it isn't really that helpful!!! But does it look professional? Does it work? What bits are broken and in what browser/ device (s)? Perceived site speed? (not actual - but perceived) - - currently I'm on cheap, shared hosting as well (£30/yr!!!)... so keep that in mind! What are your first impressions visually? The plan (I think) is to become a hubspot partner before end of q1 2015, so it will house lots of content... There's still lots of testing to do... browser testing (I will be supporting ie8, and I haven't checked it yet, so suspect its completely broken!), accessibility, seo, etc, etc... I'm far from done... but I want some early feedback to get the ball rolling.... On a side-note too, I'd love to connect with some of you guys too socially, and since it is really new, if you feel like showing me some love and being the first person to like it on facebook or something too, then that'd be great and I'd love you forever! (I've put the social pages up because I need to be held accountable otherwise I'd never do it... this way it's all public and on show)... Also, you can probably ignore the copy on the site, as it will be changing (I find it easier to ramble and type, then copy and paste lorem ipsum!)
October 16, 201411 yr i like the website, i just feel that some of the text is a little to big and could maybe be made a touch smaller and its a bit to much to all take in at once what also stood out for me was the top bar with logo could do with a little bit of padding at the bottom and maybe the logo and menu icon made a tad smaller. loving the background styles!
October 16, 201411 yr Author Thanks for the feedback @Creativescript.. Yeah, a few other people have questioned why the text is so big... Thing is - if I'm completely honest - I'm a bit different - and I wanted that to show through... it's more my personality... and hopefully on the blog post page itself, the font-size makes it easier to read... no? What are your thought on the font-sizes on different devices? Phone, tablet, big screen? But yeah, at the end of the day - the site is not for me to look at - it's aimed at other professionals (both web, and non-web alike) - they're my target audience not me... so I will take on-board everyone's feedback... You're right about the padding - it's so obvious on the "Craft Digital" link in the top left!!! And thanks again bud for taking the time to check it out...
October 17, 201411 yr Your website is good. i am viewing it on my laptop screen width is above 1300px. but site is still look like i am viewing it on a mobile device. your site is not seem to be user friendly. Menu should be showing not hidden.
October 17, 201411 yr Author @@drwebsitesuk - firstly, thank you so much for taking the time to review and comment. Secondly, the menu is deliberately not visible on desktop too. Ideally, (when the site has more content).... those that are reading the content will navigate through links within content - and there will be more visible navigation elements within the page itself... so I can have more control inhow I guide the different users throughout (that's the plan, anyways!)... One of the other reasons, is hopefully I'm trying to provide a much more consistent experience whether mobile, tablet or desktop... But thank you for bringing that point up - I've just installed sessioncam as well so I can get a better understanding of how people are actually navigating and using the site... Something that someone lese brought to my attention was that not everyone is familiar with the menu icon, and like you just said - expect the menu to be listed out... So I will see how that plays out.... To everyone: please feel free to check on different devices - I've checked on my iphone, Galaxy Tab, and 17" laptop (1600px)... but I need feedback from others too... How does it look on super-large screens? How about on blackberry's? Or the Windows phone? Any old ie8 users - is it too slow? I need to know where its broken, or lacking, so I can improve it... TO ALL DESIGNERS - the major area I do lack confidence in is with visual design... so really would appreciate suggestions / improvements / areas to focus or work on more, etc; as @@Creativescript mentioned he's concerned about the type-size - is this having a negative overall effect? I know I said it's part of the design, and I "want to be different" - but in reality that's just my ego rearing its ugly head! I'm not designing it for myself -the ultimate aim is it will aim lots and lots of good quality content - so its needs to be readable, easy to navigate, easy to share, easy to use... A place where people return to often, and basically where the site itself becomes invisible and secondary to the content it houses... On the flip side, it needs to look good too... Any people with accessibility experience - perhaps you use a screen reader, or keyboard nav yourself - would really, really love your feedback, and to discuss in more... Despite not having done anything on accessibility so far, it is an area that is very important so am keen to hear feedback... Again, to everyone, thank you for taking the time to read all this, and really do appreciate your feedback, criticisms, suggestions... Edited October 17, 201411 yr by KaiserK108
October 17, 201411 yr i agree with @@drwebsitesuk the menu should ideally be shown on the desktop version, i've had clients that don't really know what the three little lines mean, or if you insist on having the menu hidden on desktop id change the three lines to "Menu" or something so people know where the menu is. Your site speed is good on first load, for me anyway. using latest chrome. Your site looks good on mobile, just the top bar the logo and icon hangs over the bottom of it, maybe just having this a fixed a height across all devices would work. Also the logo is bright pink i think maybe changing this to a white would be more pleasing on the eye. Contact form on the contact page isn't working it looks like a shortcode "[contact_form]" Edited October 17, 201411 yr by Creativescript
October 17, 201411 yr also a little bit off topic but how are you tagging people in posts? i'm new and don't have a clue! EDIT: Doesn't matter i figured it out Edited October 17, 201411 yr by Creativescript
October 19, 201411 yr Your site is nice, nice typography, the font size on the drop down menu should be smaller I think for mobile devices. Other than that, pretty nice site mate.
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