REVIEW REQUEST: Genesis Designs

Looks very good overall. The only thing I'm not too keen on is the logo - can't really explain why.

Everything here seems good - I would try to refine your writing a bit to use more of a professional style. It's okay to use the first person (you're being honest about being a one-man operation) but I feel that you're using "I" little too heavily in here. Try to orient things towards the more towards the users. The heavy use of "I" and "me" makes you sound rather self-centered. You coud even stand to get rid of the "me" in "About Me" and "Contact Me" and just use "About" and "Contact". Imagine yourself talking to the client. You'll probably want to use "you" a lot - make it sound like you're talking directly to them and their business interests are important to you.

There are also a few details that make you look a little unprofessional and that your users don't need to know (i.e. "I do not host web sites because I don't have a 24/7 connection". Instead say something like "Genesis Designs will work with you to find a hosting plan that suits your business needs")

Quote: I started this business because I would like to do more of this stuff and to get a little more money. My hopes for this business is that it will be known nation wide some day.

The first sentence makes it sound like you're in it for the money. Say something that would be more meaningful to the client, like you want to help small businesses get started on the web, or you want to open up more opportunities to them or something like that. The second sentence just bugs me personally - I hate that word "nationwide" - which nation? Why confine yourself to one country? Personal pet peeve talking here.

It's going to sound like I'm really harping a lot on your writing here but I really don't have much else to say. The rest of the design is fine, it's simple and clean, I like the colours, there's nothing annoying...

hey Sean - only a chance to look briefly at yer site this time - I guess I'd agree with Megan that the design seems generally effective but the writing could be improved - e.g., I think you want a "B" in "bible" and the perspective in these phrases

Quote: developing a web site is something coming into existence

is inconsistent - you could say

Quote: the development of a web site is something coming into existence

both passive, or

Quote: developing a web site is bringing something into existence

both active

Quote: but I have to give all the credit to my dad he's the one who thought of the name

I think you need something between "dad" and "he's" - either a comma or a period or a semicolon or a dash - seems like they'd all work

I'd try to refer to the biblical roots of yer company's name without necessarily saying, "I'm a Christian" - I'd argue that if you do it well enough, it would carry even more weight than a proclamation of faith and perhaps benefit from a measure of subtlety

and yeah, the logo is fine is terms of general layout, imo, but there may be ways to improve the appearance of the text - it just looks a little "ragged" to mme - maybe it's just the diagonals on the ens - not a lot of material there at 1024×768

found one more

Quote: Secondly Genesis means 'The origin of something coming into existence'.

in Wyoming and the rest of the US (sorry to be parochial ), you want to leave the period inside the quotes and I'd say use double quotes

Thank you for all your advice!

first thing i notice is the date is wrong, are you using PHP time? if so DON'T, PHP works of the hosts time, use javascript instead as it works off the users pc clock

your poll is a bad topic, i use the 3 mentioned but am only able to choose one answer, how about a "all of the above" option?

the very bottom link, you have "click here", do away with the "click" or use one of the words in the sentence as the link.

in NS4.7 the page is aligned left and the top and content sections dont align properly, also check your style sheet, fonts etc are showing as default

I too like the overall design of the site and agree with Megan that about the only thing I can comment on is that the first thing I thought was that I didn't like the logo. I think for me it's that the top part is a bit too deep and I'm not keen on the font used, but that's just my personal opinion of course!

Hello,

Thanks ladys for all your advice. I have been working on the look of it with NS4.7... I think I have it pretty much done now... except some more text changes.

Thanks!

Not bad.

One thing I would suggest is to have your external links open in a new window. That way people don't leave your site.

Not sure about the guestbook idea for a web design business site. Guess that depends on how personable you want to be though.

Your quick jump menu links don't go where they are suppossed to.

Oh, that is cute what you did with the Bible verse in your code. I like that.

Well, right now the web site is under construction. There isn't much changing about the site, but its under heavy constuction.

I would agree with most that has been posted so far with just a couple of suggestions. The first paragraph,

Quote: Welcome to GENESiS DESiGNS. The purpose of this web site is to provide quality web and graphic design to all those who need it. If you need a web site for your business or a personal interests web site, you've come to the right place!

is a yawner and not very exciting. I also think that you should tell people the purpose of your site without using the phrase 'the purpose of'.

This I would remove:

Quote: It looks okay with Netscape, but it even looks better with Internet Explorer (like all web sites.)

For one thing it is just not true. NS renders pages just fine. You are making a statement that everyone should be using IE just because you think that it looks better. Some people don't have the option of using IE. Others consider IE to be such a security hazard that they stay away from it. So I would remove it since it is not true and not worth a flamefest either.

Some of the other writing should be improved. Mmi gave you some grammar tips but stuff like this:

Quote: GENESiS DESiGNS just built a small web site for race-talk.com. It's not anything spectacular, but it's a web site that I did.

Let the viewer think that it is not spectactular. From your prespective, it is great and should be mentioned as such.

Overall it is not too bad but it can be improved.

Quote: Originally posted by gdesigns
Thanks ladys for all your advice. ...

for the record we arent all females.

Quote: for the record we arent all females.

:jump:
Don't worry gdesigns. I did the same thing (confusing busy with a female) a while back. It is not that he is feminine but maybe this goes to show that the average person doesn't associate the word "busy" with the male gender. HEHEHAHALOL

*my male bashing session for the day*

Hello, I have an incorporated business named Gen1Design, and originally I was going to name it Genesis One Web Studios, but couldn't. My lawyer told me I would be infrenging on another company called Genesis Designs, based in Seattle - not too far from myself. You may want to check into this, and of course it's very possible that my Lawyer is full of it...

Oh, and my site is at http://www.gen1design.com

Cheers

I think I prefered the other one. This one is very minimalistic and muted, which is ok but rather bland IMO. The right side navigation to me looks odd with the words sat partly on that grey line, I'd loose the line of move it to the end of the links but I do like the boxes. The text is very small and the begining of the capital letters seem to be missing, especially on the W's. Certainly on for smaller screens again.

While the page was loading, I started reading the text. I noticed that the placeholder for the logo was the normal size for an undefined graphic.
Then the logo loaded and pushed all the text down. (this happened with I.E. 5.0. This does not happen with N.N. 4.7)
Looks like you are missing width and height attibutes on your image tag.
(img name="top" src="./images/top.jpg)
The slogan (Creative designs for creative minds) is a bit hard to read
at 800x600. I switched to 1024x768 and it's even harder.

Ahh, I really don't see the need for putting the current date (or current time) on a website. Are there people out there who aren't aware of the current date?
A good majority use windows, when I mouseover the current time in the lower right corner, I also get the date.

About: "This business is ran by Sean Kennedy..."
This business is ran?

Portfolio:"Well GENESiS DESiGNS is a new business so I have only done two web site so far."
(sites)

regards,
roland
aka holzi

Quote: Originally posted by holzi
Ahh, I really don't see the need for putting the current date (or current time) on a website. Are there people out there who aren't aware of the current date?

Yes, I often forget what the exact date is. Maybe I should put a calendar up on my desk so I remember when to pay rent However, I don't necessarily agree that it should be placed on a site for no reason. If it was something like a portal site or something else that people would visit every day or set as their home page there would be reason for it but otherwise I'm not so sure.