• Registered: January 17, 2009
  • Posts: 7

Topic: Site creation - Any feedback would be much appreciated

Ive use adobe products since ps5 .. and I work for a huge internet company .. and realizing how many people actualy need sites built is insane. So since I already know alot of tricks I decided to give it a go and start some simple designs for individuals looking for something nice but not to pricy... and I like to go a little more unique than the standard for my own pages ...

So any feed back on my website would be appreciated. It isnt fully finished yet but the layout pretty much is....

Its: Flawle ssWebDe sign (dot) com

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  • Gender: Female
  • From: San Antonio, TX
  • Registered: December 19, 2008
  • Posts: 3,893
  • Reputation: 5

Re: Site creation - Any feedback would be much appreciated

Where's your doctype?  Do you validate?

Just because my computer is online does not mean that I am.
a&b WebDesign

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  • Registered: January 17, 2009
  • Posts: 7

Re: Site creation - Any feedback would be much appreciated

woops forgot to select that.. thx for noticing that... im updating that now

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  • Gender: Female
  • From: San Antonio, TX
  • Registered: December 19, 2008
  • Posts: 3,893
  • Reputation: 5

Re: Site creation - Any feedback would be much appreciated

Frameset?

Just because my computer is online does not mean that I am.
a&b WebDesign

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  • Registered: January 17, 2009
  • Posts: 7

Re: Site creation - Any feedback would be much appreciated

Heh.. actually... just ignore that for now.. I am still going to have a final revamp and rebuild before im done... I usually skip ALOT of steps in the initial design phase to save time ... so some parts are really sloppy for code because I dont do any of the compression or shrinking and validating till i know im not touching the design part anymore.. otherwise I would never get a website built ... tongue

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  • From: Florida
  • Registered: December 19, 2008
  • Posts: 2,680
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Re: Site creation - Any feedback would be much appreciated

If you are going to use the name Flawless you better live up to it because:

-You page does not validate

-<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Frameset//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/frameset.dtd">
BAD CHOICE!  What do you have that requires frames?

-You used tables

-Embedded all your css styles in the <head>

-Email address is exposed for email harvesters (spammers)

-Important text embedded into images is bad for SEO

-Underlining text that are not links (will make people think they are links but they really are not)

-The earth background is not transparent enough causing difficulties to read the text

-Poor contrast ~ The green inline links is not good for either white or black background and it's not the same font size as the rest of the text

-Overuse of images thus you are not using the css background repeat

-Top menu links are images ~ Poor for SEO

Overall, the design is okay but certainly not flawless looking.

It's time to get away from ImageReady splicing your site together and start getting your eyes and hands into the code and code it yourself.

Imagine Building and Managing an Online Business
The Kasper Group

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  • Registered: January 17, 2009
  • Posts: 7

Re: Site creation - Any feedback would be much appreciated

Defitinally appreciate the feedback .. because even though I have the exprience in the program photoshop and dw .. Ive never built anything from scratch ... so thanks for all the input...

I dont validate till the end... I dont have my email addy put in at final publish.. i have a contact form...

Whats wrong with tables?  ...

I wasnt sure on the earth or not .. but I was more towards no .. so thanks..

And I havent made it into a template yet because I get everything adjusted and 100% to perfection before I put all the extra time in ...but it will all be css formated from creating a template out of my design...

And as far as the top links for seo .. it usually only matters if you have them as text in the page .. i didnt think it had to be at the top specifically ...

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  • From: Tenerife, Spain
  • Registered: December 29, 2008
  • Posts: 579
  • Reputation: 1

Re: Site creation - Any feedback would be much appreciated

From a design point of view, it is not very exciting, very basic and certainly not flawless.

As Newseed said, the green inline links don't look good, neither does the red and blue text. Your colour scheme is blue, grey and black, it would look much better if you stuck to this colour scheme. Likewise the yellow stars with purple around them don't match.

I particularly do not like the mix of serif and sans serif fonts and capitals and lower case. The top of the page is all serif and capitals and the bottom sans serif and lowercase. It doesn't flow together.

I think you would find it less work to mock up your design in Photoshop and get the design really down, before you even start coding it.

Lynne
180virtual

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  • From: Florida
  • Registered: December 19, 2008
  • Posts: 2,680
  • Reputation: 2

Re: Site creation - Any feedback would be much appreciated

rshannon84 wrote:

Defitinally appreciate the feedback .. because even though I have the exprience in the program photoshop and dw .. Ive never built anything from scratch ... so thanks for all the input...

You should start because what you are presenting is not living up to the company name you have chosen.

rshannon84 wrote:

I dont validate till the end... I dont have my email addy put in at final publish.. i have a contact form...

Then why add the email address on there is the first place? yikes

rshannon84 wrote:

Whats wrong with tables?  ...

-Faster page loading
-Lowered hosting costs
-Redesigns are more efficient
-Redesigns are less expensive
-Visual consistency maintained throughout website(s)
-Better for SEO
-Accessibility
-Competitive edge (job security)
-Quick website-wide updates
-Easier for teams to maintain (and individuals)
-Increased usability
-More complex layouts and designs
-No spacer gifs

rshannon84 wrote:

And I havent made it into a template yet because I get everything adjusted and 100% to perfection before I put all the extra time in ...but it will all be css formated from creating a template out of my design...

'virtual' is correct. One mockup of the design. Splice only the portion you need and use css to achieve the same visual look. Create only one html layout and css to suit. Once that is done then it becomes super easy and fast to create the remaining pages.

rshannon84 wrote:

And as far as the top links for seo .. it usually only matters if you have them as text in the page .. i didnt think it had to be at the top specifically ...

Correct but using text in the links improves it. Besides, adding/modifying the link is easier and faster.  You just use the image (without the text) as a background and put your text over it.

You have a long way to go because you are not up to speed in web design. I'm not trying to insult you. I'm just being upfront and direct.  I prefer the hard truth rather than soft opinions.

Last edited by newseed (January 17, 2009 11:19 am)

Imagine Building and Managing an Online Business
The Kasper Group

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  • Registered: January 17, 2009
  • Posts: 7

Re: Site creation - Any feedback would be much appreciated

I definitely appreciate all feedback...  and the harsh truth is always best.. that's the only way we learn..

Just like when you are always told not to touch the stove as a kid.. .. well you have to do it once just to see why you've always been told not to... otherwise you would always wonder what if .. lol

Im actually alot better building other peoples websites that my own because I already know what the finished product needs to be because I have all their content and images .. etc..  but I am a perfectionist .. I don't believe in putting my effort and time into something and not having it come out exactly as it should .. so I'm going to try harder

.. and I definitely appreciate everyone's input because time is money and you have shared your time to look at something of mine.. so thank you.

And just to check you mentioned...

You have a long way to go because you are not up to speed in web design. I'm not trying to insult you. I'm just being upfront and direct.  I prefer the hard truth rather than soft opinions.

which aspect are you referring to ... the design part .. or the technical part?

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  • Gender: Male
  • From: Chico/Sacramento, CA
  • Registered: December 19, 2008
  • Posts: 2,810
  • Reputation: 14

Re: Site creation - Any feedback would be much appreciated

rshannon84 wrote:

which aspect are you referring to ... the design part .. or the technical part?

Seems like it's mostly the technical side, though as some people said, there are some things you could do in your design to make it more consistent and usable.

Realistically, if you are new at this, you can't be expected to be perfect at everything the first time around. You'll pick up a lot of the technical details as you gain experience in the field... just try to learn something new with every website you design, take a look at other people's designs as examples (take a look at CSS galleries for good examples, like cssmania.com or webcreme.com) and be active online, reading forums or blogs.

And, of course, when you are given criticism, try to apply it and ask questions when you need to understand the criticism better, since it will help the sites you work on.

Benjamin Falk | Falken Creative : Twitter
Skills: Photoshop, Illustrator, HTML, CSS, jQuery, PHP and CodeIgniter

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  • From: Florida
  • Registered: December 19, 2008
  • Posts: 2,680
  • Reputation: 2

Re: Site creation - Any feedback would be much appreciated

rshannon84 wrote:

which aspect are you referring to ... the design part .. or the technical part?

Both.  Don't let this discourage you. Open yourself up to a new way of thinking of web design and coding. Also, post your questions in the forums to help you build achieve the 'perfect' look you are looking for.

Improvements usually comes by trial and error.

Last edited by newseed (January 17, 2009 1:02 pm)

Imagine Building and Managing an Online Business
The Kasper Group

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  • lm
  • Advanced Member
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  • From: The Netherlands
  • Registered: December 20, 2008
  • Posts: 2,806

Re: Site creation - Any feedback would be much appreciated

which aspect are you referring to ... the design part .. or the technical part?

Technical part - absolutely.
We need to get you to the level of coding as for 2009 ( for now it still like it is on the level 15 years back). It will improve not only your own website but potentially also websites of your clients.
As you have an experience in HTML, all you need is to learn how to build up an layout using minimal mark up (minimal amount of tags) and study CSS to the level which give you a freedom to style this tags the way it is needed.
So If you keen to learn I would suggest -

  • Read about semantics and accessibility, starting off with Molly's article and then accessiblity forum

I reckon it all will take just couple of days ( if not hours) to get into it. And of course ask your questions here in forum.

lm On Twitter

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  • Registered: January 17, 2009
  • Posts: 7

Re: Site creation - Any feedback would be much appreciated

Thank you for all your reply's ... I was getting opinions from friends and fellow co-workers and I knew I still had some slight areas of improvement that was needed.. I now know where I went wrong in the design and tables etc... I guess everything as div tags is the way to go.. which I know how to easily mod that...

And I do know a couple of changes that I can make to spice it up some ... I was thinking about pink? .. j/k

Im gonna be working on it today and tomarrow then ill repost after the new site has been created .. thank again for all your responses and within such a quick time period...  im in customer support myself so i appreciate all the input and time that you took to review what I could do better... thanks again

.. next time I will be back is after the new layout is done.... have a good weekend everyone. big_smile

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