Review Request: DragoonDesign.com

I think your layout is neat & tidy and the text appears organised.

But I didn't really read the text. There wasn't too much text, I don't think, but there was little 'pictorial impact'. (There is visual impact with colors and design but nothing in pictures to quickly convey your message/services.)
My eyes naturally scanned the page for the pictures before I even considered reading the text.
You might think about incorporating a couple of stock photos relating to your field. That nav area is really empty.
I know it's probably overused but it'd be a lot better than plain text.

It all looks good in IE5.

Nice layout. I agree that perhaps some visual stimulae might help.

Give you text a good review. What the heck is "Tutution"?

IE6 - fine, Opera6 - fine

The site looks fine in Netscape also. No problems in 4.x and just the slightest of horizontal scroll in 6.2. I would suggest fixing that slight problem and presenting a truly crossbrowser friendly business site rather than taking sides in the browser wars.

Overall, good work!

Right now I seem to be in a place where NS 4.61 is the default and only (!) browser. That's why I didn't expect too much when I clicked your link.

But the site appears correctly (I think) and hey, even the mouse-over in the menu works!

Nevertheless I think you'll need another color (too blue IMHO) and less text (like Abhishek alReddy mentioned )

I will check again later with IE 5/5.5/6.

Do a spell check on all of your pages. There are spelling errors here and there. This one is on every page:
Optimised for 800 x 600 resolution in Internet Explorer 6. IMO you don't that sentence anyway.

Not bad but have you considered adding a little color somewhere? it just looks like it needs a little excitement. You might also consider adding some text links at the bottom of each page. And I'm not sure I would use the image map that you have for "Out latest clients".

d-m: "Optimised" is only a typo in the US

OPPS!!! Forgive please. Guess I have led a sheltered life. LOL

Learn something new everyday!

Quote: Originally posted by Jack Michaelson
...(like Abhishek alReddy mentioned )...

lol

Strange it took so long for someone to modify the name. Usually takes about a day with most others.

Lukster, I dug up these two links you might be interested in:
http://www.wdvl.com/Internet/Writing/index.html
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9703b.html

I don't think you have a real problem with the arrangement as it is now but I think you will benefit from contracting the text for better scannability.

eg: a simple "Why Us?" would be more effective than "Logical reasons why you should choose Dragoon!"

I guess it depends on your angle, but right now it's just semi-persuasive... not really maximising your potential (?)

Thanks for the comments all, any suggestions on what I could add to spice it up abit, other than a few pics? I designed it one night and I know it just needs that somthing to give it a bit of a kick

I would say the use of another colour (maybe orange) would help spice it up as it's just very blue at the moment.

I'll be different, I like the layout and colors and dont think another colour is nearly needed (but couldnt hurt I suppose), the banner adds a lil extra colour wise.
The links at the left (navigation) these to me are a little fuzzy.

the "Optimised for ..." should never be used, especially from a web design company, gives a real negative view to the client, what if they only use Netscape or Opera? works fine in NS4.7
you could easily make your site 100% instead of fixed width if you wanted, that littlse section between icon and banner could be expandable. I like it looks good and clean

one question, how does the poll meant to work?

The poll doesnt work atm , been soooo run off my feet I haven't had time to recreate that part with a real poll, instead of the slice from my design.

I would also say that the site is a little heavy graphic wise. I would replace some of the gifs used in the layout with table background colors.

Heyas, in the middle of rebuilding my site. Im trying to portray a professional image, not that of a 19 year old working out of his bedroom (such as i am)

http://www.dragoondesign.com/index.htm

I have merged this with your previous thread about the site so that people can refer back if needed.

I like the design/layout and it certainly looks professional. I'm not sure about the rollover colour for the top links though, maybe have them turning orange to tie in with the orange below? What is the flash animation going to be? Your links to client sites should really open in new browser windows otherwise visitors will have to use the back button to get back to your site, or they may not bother!

That looks really good Lukster. The only thing that I see is you do not have your css classes applied to some of your paragraphs or 's and in NS 4.79 this is causing some of the text to show up as default. Looks fine in IE though.

For example, on the home page, the first paragraph and list are times new roman and the last two paragraphs are verdana. Not a biggie to fix.

Nice work!!

Typos in Training -

"At Dragoon we a number of..."
"Tutution in how to delete, replace, edit, format text."

Typos in Contact Us -
"Please be sure to send your email to the corrosponding address:"

I think you've done pretty well to hide the 19yo-bedroom-office thing.
It's a good improvement from your previous design.

I notice that the logo/title image doesn't link to the homepage. Maybe it should.

Situated in Victoria, Australia; Dragoon offers a number of services - I'd say that semicolon should be a comma

on linussafe

Many are eventually forced to close. - I might change "eventually" to, say, "ultimately" to avoid using it twice in two sentences

LINUS SAFE is a cost-effective service that protects your valuable data - period missing

backup your data at a pre-set time every day - "preset" is typically not hyphenated

Stored off site, far away from the computer - "offsite" should be one word - you often see it hyphenated, incorrectly imo

including banks, oil companies, etc

We store our clients' data

on an Hitachi Freedom Storage?

For as little as $5 per month (after the free evaluation period), your secure corporate data can easily be restored? - also, this sentence ends a little awkwardly ...

these are of course only suggestions

(self-promoting content deleted)

I had a nice long reply written out here but unfortunately my browser crashed and it is lost.

Overall this design is very nice, very professional (although you could say that it is a little too corporate looking for a design company. Maybe for your next redesign you could consider something a little more creative).

I agree that the design could benefit from the addition of another colour. You have used that orange colour for text headings and on the splash page, so maybe it would be an idea to integrate that more into other areas of the design.

I also agree that the writing style really needs work. On the front page here the style is vey, very formal (too formal IMO). Try to get your point across more directly. Example:

Quote: Dragoon Multimedia & Design is a dedicated Website & Multimedia development/management consultancy, committed to providing clients with sensible internet solutions at an affordable price.

This is much too convoluted - what is "a dedicated Website & Multimedia development/management consultancy"?? The meaning of this sentence is disguised by the overdone wording of the first phrase. Leaving out that section and simply saying "Dragoon Multimedia & Design is committed to providing clients with sensible internet solutions at an affordable price." would be much more effective.

So, you've got this formal style on the front page and yet when I click on "web design" I get a very casual, "catchy" style with the "Don't be a dummy" heading. This is on the other end of the spectrum here - it's too casual and marketing-ish. The writing on the rest of this page seems better as far as style goes. Just try to keep sentences shorter and cut out anything that isn't absolutely necessary at this point in the process. You shouldn't have to use 6 separate pages to explain the process at this stage in the game. One short paragraph per step should be enough to tell the visitor what she needs to know at this point. Those links on the left aren't working for me either.

Once again, picking on writing because there isn't much to say about the rest - it looks great.

I like the design, but I have seen it too many times

http://www.connetic.net/

Hmmm, it is almost exactly the same design/layout! Is it a template??