Critique wanted, will gladly return! (Dream-Pool.co.uk)

Hello Bonz,

- Although I see that you tried to give the site a clean look, your using different kinds of blue that kind of sits in the way of that clean look. Try to pick two or three blue colors that match and for everything that you want to be blue, choose one of these colors.
- Besides that: when I think 'garden' I think 'green'
- In Firefox the big rounded box is broken (screenshot)
- A bit technical: when I look at the source, I see tables and lots of td-elements. I think you can do this with half the amount of code (or even less), using xhtml in stead of html 4 and use (external) CSS for making up the page.

Overall: keeping in mind that this is your second site, I'd say: great job! It's ten times better than my second site

edit: why not check this topic as well?
http://webmaster-forums.net/showthread.php?t=35121

I agree 99% with the comments above - gardens make me think green. The pale blue looks nice, but a pale green could be nicer. The box is very broken in Firefox. But I wouldn't worry about changing the code from tables to xhtml - too much work for not enough reward

The site is definitely very nice for a 2nd website.

ps. On the About Us page, it has 'gardenfeatures' without a space between.

I think you did a great job so far considering that making websites is a very painstaking process. I like the simple yet elegant look that you have to your pages.

Another thing I like is your "Services Page" Because I think you have great products for sale, displayed very nicely on it. However, I think your page and button heading for this page should be changed to "Garden Products" or simply "Products" because you show quite a bit of tangible goods on this page.

Unless I am mistaken-like if you don't sell these products, and just install them. You could also title this page "Products and Services" or something like that too.

I also like very much that it looks clean, and as far as I can see no layout errors. That is tough sometimes, especially if you were to attempt to put in syndicated ads. Anyway...only one small thing...

I just want you to be aware of one thing...when I see "Dream Pool" I think of a backyard Jacuzzi. I don't really think much of gardens. Can you change the name of the site (unless that is the name of your operation) to "Garden Pool" or "Dream Garden Pool"-or similar? If you did that you wouldn't need much of a tagline, or it could say something different.

I also would like to see the border/box around the text square, and not round, and I agree with the viewer who said gardens are associated with green. It would also be neat to see some garden clip art on either the inside or outside edge, surrounding the text border.

I think the word "specialise" in the following sentence should be "specialises,"...(see sentence quoted from your site below)

[indent]"DreamPool specialise in the construction of garden features made entirely to your own desire and specifications."[/indent]

Other than that you have a great site, and keep up the good work. Please review my site if you would. Thank you the URL is as follows, and it's supposed to be like a newsletter format (I know there are some grammatical errors for one-he he):

http://www.shoppingfishtnet.com/Home_Page.html

The gaps mentioned by Jack Michaelson when viewed in firefox can be fixed by adding some more content.
The index page needs more content, it's basically a splash page (a useless page) as there is no content, just a welcome. Use the page to mention what you do, what you offer. You have 10 secs to grabs someones attention so use it wisely.
The image on the index is very hard to make out what it is, the banner isn't to bad as it shows log work and water, of which you do both. The word 'Dream Pool' could be another colour as there is a lot of blue, the blue kinda goes with what you are doing as water (blue) is always involved with gardens whether it be a pond, a pool, or even just watering the garden

The about us page's content should be the index pages content. the about us page tells of your products and services and nothing about who you actually are. The about us page should be about the company, how long been going, whether family operated, if the cat or dog is involved, where abouts in the world you are ... Don't list your life story but tell people about the company, gives that sense of trust and professionlism.

On the 'services' page, it looks like you've missed out a word; "At DreamPool we can provide you with garden features ??? fit entirely to your specification." I'm thinking either 'which' or 'that' but even with either of those the word 'entirely' could be removed.
You need more information, while the contact us method is good you really need to offer more information for people to go on. Example, a shelf garden, ok its a shelf and its in the garden, I've never heard of it before so where does it go, what do you do with it, what grows on it, how tall/short is it, how wide? I'm sure your answer to most of these will be "to whatever size you want", but I don't know what I want, I want you to sell me on this. A fixed pond - can i keep goldfsh in it, can the kids swim/bath in it ... I'd change the names of things into links and create a page for each item, this not only gives you a lot more keywords for the search engines it also gives your visitors a lot more info on the subject.

The services page, you need to remove the underline from beside the pictures, it makes the text look like visited links.

I like your phone number on the contact page, sadly my phone only has numbers

The top links should be text, not images, same as your copyright at the bottom of the page.

The line at the bottom of the page looks out of place, is faded on one end - why? I know it's opposite to the top but the blue borders have seperated the content so the relationship is lost. make it solid all the way across.

Good job with it. I agree with every said above, especially the splash page comparison. Fixes two of your problems.

I'm not sure if I'm a fan of the white background though. But that might be because I just don't like white all that much.

The first thing I need to say is.. cross-browser check. Displays as expected in IE but with Firefox I get spaces in the outside blue border

I tihnk the "blur" on the main picture is too weird. The picture kind of fades out, but rather loses color and I still see a very distinct edge to the graphic where it meets white... try to make the fade more smooth.

I like the effect of the name "resting" on the white bar at the top (hope that's what you were going for! haha)