REVIEW REQUEST: A1-Virtual-Assistant.com

a1va,

The site looks great, I like it a lot. There's only one thing I think you should change.. The menu at the bottom is centered to the browser, you should center it to the content. Also, if you maybe add a few pictures to the subpages, it would give it a little more life (just like the first page).

I'm running IE6 on Windows 98 SE and it looks fine. The layout is easy on the eyes and your site looks good in all resolutions. You've done a pretty good job, good luck with your site

ZOLLET:
Good eye! I went back and fixed it to be centered to the content instead of the whole page.

There are not many images on the site because I was very legal about the content but on a low budget at the same time. That one picture on the front page cost $49! Perhaps in the future if the business does well I will buy more photos and quality content that I can use to spice up the other pages.

Thanks for the advice!
~Rob

NUKE:
I'm glad you like it. Thanks a bunch for checking it out!
~Rob

Wow, $49? Where did you buy it from that it cost so much?

Zollet:
I forgot where I bought it but it was one of the those "royalty-free" stock photo sites on the net. I usually pay $29-$35 on photodisc.com when I want photos but my partner was very picky about this one so we went to more expensive sites.

Oh, ok. You might want to take a look at corbis.com
I don't know what the price is on their images for professional use, but for personal use it's around $5-$10.

Zoleet: Corbis charges $49.95 for the low-res images for professional use. They do have a nice selection though. Thanks for the link!
~Rob

Welcome to TWF Rob, maybe stop by the introductions forum and tell us a bit more about yourself.

It's not a bad looking site, just a couple of things that stood out to me:

The links on the left I think would look better if they were the buttons all the time with perhaps a different colour text on mouseover.

The text under '...you'll never pay for:' bugs me being centered

The cup you have on the background doesn't really go IMO and at 800*600 you only get the left edge showing and that definitely spoils the feel

Generally a nice site though

Julia:
Thanks for your input about the site!

The cup on the side was a tough decision in the design process. I knew that it would look wierd at 800x600 but I also don't want there to be an overload of dead space for people running at higher resolutions. Perhaps I could scoot it over to the right a little more so that when you are at 800x600 you dont see anything.

The text is centered under that line so it will be more interesting to read compared to it all being in a couple lines seperated by commas. I did take a look at it when it was right aligned and left aligned but it just seemed to be worse. I'm not sure what to do with that yet but I'll think of something.

The buttons would be nice if they looked like buttons all the time but I don't feel that it would have as much of an impact when people mouseover and its a color change. The way it is now makes it extremely obvious which link they are about to click on and it is a pleasant change when rolling over the buttons.
Again, thank you so much for your feedback.
~Rob

Julia and Saeed:
If you haven't already seen it, take a look at the "secret" page!
http://www.a1-virtual-assistant.com/free-website-design.html
It was pretty fun to create an exact inverse of colors all over the site.

~Rob

Opera 6 on Win 98 at 1152 x 864 with taskbar on right side (which makes it more like 1052 x 864)

Overall I think this looks pretty good

I do think that the logo could use some work. Just try a more interesting font, this one is kind of dull. I'm thinking something in a thin serif would look nice and businesslike.

What is with the cup anyway? It doesn't seem to relate directly to the subject matter. Maybe a telephone would be a better idea (just make it part of the background image to get it in the right spot). You could try overlapping it some with the content as well. It's okay if it's cut off a bit in some browsers, and that would solve the 800 x 600 problem as well.

There are a couple of things in here that seem to indicate that you only offer your services within one country ("Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA)", "USPS Mail Interception"). Make it clear if you are or are not including the rest of the world in your offer.

I would also put some sort of clear and prominent privacy policy or something to assure potential clients that their personal and business information will be confidential.

What I like best about this design is the way you've integrated some curves into the layout.

I like the background with the coffee cup and swoosh. The only thing though is that at my resolution (1600x1280) it repeats and looks a little odd. You could use CSS to make sure it doesn't repeat. Add something like style="backround-image:url(bg.jpg);background-repeat:no-repeat" to your body tag.

Megan:
Thank you for reviewing my site!

It is pretty obvious that I didn't spend much time on the logo. I wanted something plain and easy to read but maybe that is too plain. I will think of something and get back to that later.

The company has 2 main offers: general business services and a call center. The coffee cup is meant to represent the general business services while filling up some of the dead space on the right for people with high resolutions. I originally used a telephone receiver but I already have a telephone keypad at the top of the page so I chose the cup instead.

You are right about the countries we will offer the service to. I need to add something to the main page that says it is offered to all of North America. FICA would be a U.S. only offer. USPS mail interception can be offered to Canada and Mexico for companies that want to give the illusion of a U.S. presence if needed.

Creating a privacy policy is a good idea but it might take some time to get the legal mumbo jumbo right.

Thanks again for your input!
~Rob

Gliebster:
I like that idea! I didn't test the site on a resolution that high and when I changed to 1600x1200 I saw what you meant. That style code was added to the pages and the problem is gone now.
Thanks!
~Rob

Nice job! I really don't have anything else to add that hasn't already been said. I would like to ditto the part about a "more interesting" font for the logo at the top. The one you have isn't bad at all but it could be better.

I like the swoosh and the coffe cup doesn't bother me but I can see what the others are saying.

Looked at the site in IE6.0, Opera and NS 4.7. All is well.

Sonia