Review Request: TB Designs

It was rocking... I loved the first page.. but I wished menu on 'about me' could have the same spacing as it did on the first page, or vice versa. Also, the bars at the top of the first page were kind of weird, not bad... just strange. And you may want to make the font on the middle of the first page just a shade or two darker.

HEHE!! I love how you named the class="spacious".

Although I jump for joy with you on the "look ma no tables" thing, I think that you should have more on the first page (assuming that you are finished with it). Too much white space here IMO. The navigation doesn't stand out enough with it up there in the top right corner.

You could add to the first page by briefly describing your services with a good introductory paragraph or two.

On the about page, I would make the two graphics (copyright and websites by a real person) at the bottom gifs instead of jpgs. The jpgs look like they have lost a great deal of quality.

Good start!

Quote: I am going for a clean and somewhat professional look while maintaining a sense of approachability. *shrugs*

You've got clean, but I don't think you've quite nailed approachability. Could be a bit more professional too.

The bars at the top ruin the look a bit. They just feel redundant, like a deadweight just there to occupy space. You could try just leaving it open or if you're aiming for balance, try some more interesting patterns or curves.

Some more shape and structure throughout the page might be a good idea (especially the nav).

I'm not too keen on the logo. I think you could be a bit more creative than that. Maybe add another warmer colour to it too.

The big text at the right isn't fully visible. I don't see the purpose of that.

Most of all, I'd like to see another colour added to the scheme. I'm thinking orange or bronze used sparingly would do the trick.

As Sonia says, it's a good start.

I have to agree with both Sonia & Abhi on this one. It's ok but it just seems to lack life, another colour would certainly help this. Plus I don't know if it's just me but the photos you have on their seem very dark and would look better if they were all the same size/shape. The portfolio, FAQ & Contact pages give me a 404 error.

That's alot to chew on...I appreciate it very much. I'm not too suprised though. Since I've relied so heavily on tables for so long, it's very difficult to be interesting without them...lol

About the 404...in my original post I mentioned that I only had the index and about pages done.

So the logo isn't great?? And here I thought I finally came up with one that looked nice and professional.

I agree about the need for another color as well...I'll post again after I work on it some more.

Thanks again!

Steve

I've made some changes:
1. New color scheme...I decided to drop blue altogether since it's very common.
2. New image on "index" page is a work in progress. That circle thing is a modified version of the Pueblo city logo. I'm working on a more "cool" image to put there, but keeping that basic design. Unless of course you all think it totally sucks...lol
3. Other small changes to the "about" page include the menu in the top right is kept the same, the copyright is now text instead of an image and the title is an image.

Your input is greatly respected and appreciated. :)

Came back and saw the changes. I definitely like what you've done for the most part, but I kind of liked the blue color scheme too... but that's mostly personal preference. Way 2 go.

I like the colors a lot Steve but that circle at the top just doesn't fit. Have you tried something without a drop shadow? And maybe put something in the circle?

Also, I am wondering what the links would look like if they were bold.

That whole image at the top is just to see how something like that will work. I'm going to work on something more "cooler"...lol

bold, huh? hmmm...

I like the colours but agree with Sonia that the links may look better bold as at the moment, especially on the about us page, they don't stand out enough. I quite like the circle thing but the graphics are too blurry and jaggedy, they need to be much crisper to fit with the rest of the design.

On the about us page the navigation looks as though it should all site within that top header part, and have you tried the pictures on there without the drop shadow? IMO they make the site look dated and don't fit with the strong colours at the top.

Those pictures are really, really dark. You should be able to fix that in Photoshop (image > adjust > levels). They look terrible like that.

The design is okay, I think. I agree what's been said about the logo. I actually like that new graphic on the front page. Looks like something Frank would make on Trading Spaces I do think that there's too much going on here for a splash page. Look at some of taff's work in this area - he usually does good things with splash pages. Definitely lose the left sidebar and put the links in a horizontal row under the circle graphic thing. Everything on this page needs to be consolidated and brought together into a coherent whole rather than a bunch of scattered parts.

Acutally, I'm not sure about that navbar at all. It seems rather cut off from the rest of the design. I would try putting those links horiztonally underneath the logo, and definitely bold them. Actually, you might want to consider doing something completely different - the navbar should have more of an impact than this.

Oh, I can't believe I haven't complained about this yet - font sizes are a little too small. See the font sizes on TWF? The one you're reading right now? That's a good font size IMO. Anything smaller gets really hard to read. I tend to argue that you shouldn't stray from the default size too much for regular text.

I like the approach you've used here in presenting yourself as a real person. However, I think you should focus more on what you can do for a client. A "services" section should be added to flesh that out. I also like the colour scheme in this version - a big improvement over the original blue.

Frank: Yeah, I like his designs too.
Font: FINE, i'll see about making it bigger....sheeesh! Edited to say: I checked it on 1600 x 1200 and it still looked fine to me.
Scattered Parts: "waaaa, I want my tables back!" lol

What's so wrong with the background image? It's just supposed to add a sort of texture to balance the page...it doesn't do that?

nice site i enjoy touring it.

I was playing with Fireworks and thought to myself..."ya know...I can use tables if I darn well please"...lol

I went an entirely new direction with this splash page...none of the links work yet. What do you think of this...besides the font being too small, Megan.

In case you didn't notice, my "logo" for this design is the sun.

http://www.tb-designs.com/vol5/

Check your link, it's not coming up for me.

ugh, my host is having problems...sorry...try again in a little while.

OH yeah, one more thing...The colored background is just going to be on the splash page. That background will probably be used in the header image of the subsequent pages to maintain a consistant feel though.

Colours are waaay too hot. I personally greatly dislike that look. Needs to be toned down, or have a cooler colour added as a counter. Yellow on red looks great on the Chinese flag, but it doesn't work here (even considering the splash page alone)...

I agree that the coloured background does nothing for me either and actually makes the site look unprofessional IMO. I preferred the first one, but with less blurry graphics.

thanks. It was fun to try. But I still may use that sun in my logo instead of that other one that's getting so much abuse.

I think you might be on the right track here. This layout is much better - much more pulled together. The red background wouldn't be so bad if a) it wasn't textured and b) the yellows weren't quite so bright. This logo is much better - definitely go with it.

What stikes me about this design is that it's got a lot more character than your previous efforts, so it's an improvement in that regard.

Well I was kinda goin' for "hot" to get a reaction. Something about those colors together really excites me. Although the "all centered" thing doesn't appeal to my "shake off the old ways" side...I still feel good when I see that page...lol

Here's my 2 cents.

I run in 1600x1200 which is almost certainly not your average viewer, but the navigation bar on the right took me 30-45 seconds to realize it was there. So too much white space for me. I would say the right navigation bar didn't have much to pull my eye to it. So you might want to make it a bit stronger.

You might also want to make the site less liquid and put some borders on the left and right so it doesn't spread out so far.

Good luck with it!

I've made some changes here. Still just the splash page is working, but I added a "cool" feature to it. Check it out...

http://www.tb-designs.com/vol5/

LOL, not something I would expect on a webmaster site but I do actually like both sets of colours

Well, I decided that I have to let my personality and personal style show through...whether it's the current trend or not. It's all about style, right? I give up on trying to appeal to ALL potential clients.

Well, that is original. I think I like the warm one best.

Quote: I decided that I have to let my personality and personal style show through...whether it's the current trend or not. It's all about style, right?

I agree with you. What a boring web it would be if every site was the same huh?

the original link you posted, once I browsed site there was no way to get back to that, people like familiarity. I click on the top header image and it takes me to a totally different looking site? have I left your site? whats with this? now im confused. ah well ill go to computer connections in pittsburgh and have them host it.

Really really have to make a webpage super easy for people who dont like computers or dont know much and are somewhat hesitant about them. There may be millions of computers but avg households owning them is still around 60%. If youre aiming for small business people again they might not be as computer proficient.

Id make navigation links larger, include a home link to main page you enter on.

The "on the menu" section, it just doesnt sell me on your communication enough. You really have to hammer that point home the "personal touch" if thats what your aiming to.its a good design, but as a potential customer I walk away feeling "this guy is good at making webpages, but not convinced i should hire you."

""""""I employ the following programs and technologies to accomplish my web design goals: """""

"my web design goals?" no way, Our web design goals, Your web design goals, but the overall tone is just impersonal, and youre trying to sell me on your personal attention.

I briefly worked in p&g marketing last summer, "Customer is King" "know your customer" Your customer probably doesnt care whether you use HTML editors, flash dreamweaver or a black pot and hocus pocus, he might care about how quickly efficiently and professionally you do it, but not the methods employed. Im highly critical. grains of salt with all. -Josh

vol5

You might want to assign a background colour to the About page. Or else it shows up on the browser default bg colour (mine is set to grey).

Seeing as the rest of the site won't be as hot as the splash page, I guess I could live with it.

http://www.tb-designs.com/vol5/indexcool.html

change the size of this graphic, outpost firewall has it logged as [ad-size] meaning it blocks the graphic from loading and shows just text ad-size. lots of people run ad blocking software

i see on vol 5 you did link to home page, i originally reviewed vol4. -Josh

Thanks for that tip, Abhi. In order to avoid confusion I will post again when all the pages are up. I think jha got to my current page which is definitely a different layout and feel.

Which graphic on that page is being blocked? Is it blocking due to dimensions or file size?

Abhi, now that I look at my code, I DO have the background color set to white. Are you still seeing gray on the about page of vol 5 (this page isn't really ready to be critiqued yet...I'm still tweaking")

http://www.tb-designs.com/vol5/

blocking by dimensions -Josh

I am still seeing browser default. Try .tbd {} instead of body.tbd {} in stylz... if I'm right, body.tbd applies to all element within the body, and not the body itself.

88x31 or 30
120x80
234x60
470x60
468x60
125x125
100x100

commmonly blocked by ad filtering sizes. -Josh

So your saying the "button" to indexcool.html is the one (100x100)?

That's crappy.

btw, thanks for the comments about my attempts at communicating my message.

Hi, I just looked at your site. I really like the first page. I like the colors that you choose also. Very nice. Your Portfolio page was not showing up when I tried to click on it.

Thanks. It should all be working now, though I'm still working on the content for the FAQ page.

Any comments are greatly appreciated. Even if you're tired of this site already.

It's now located at http://www.tb-designs.com instead of the sub-folder.

Thanks y'all

P.S. The "cooler site" deal was just a reaction to Abhi's comment about the page being too hot. I have yet to decide if I'm going to leave that up or not.

Quote:
P.S. The "cooler site" deal was just a reaction to Abhi's comment about the page being too hot. I have yet to decide if I'm going to leave that up or not.

The red splash page is good as it is — like I said, I was assuming you'd keep as "hot" a theme as that for the rest of the site.

It's nice but I still find that the photos seem very dark

The bit at the bottom where it says " ©2003 TB-Designs.com ¤ All Rights Reserved ¤ Pueblo, Colorado" looks quite weird and "wrong" when your hover your mouse over it, I don't think you need it there.

Quote: Originally posted by The Webmistress
It's nice but I still find that the photos seem very dark

all the photos? I wonder if it's just the monitor that I'm using....or maybe the monitor that YOU'RE using...lol

Quote: The bit at the bottom where it says " ©2003 TB-Designs.com ¤ All Rights Reserved ¤ Pueblo, Colorado" looks quite weird and "wrong" when your hover your mouse over it, I don't think you need it there.

The text itself looks wierd, or the subject of the text? The mouse-over should go? or the all the text? What do you mean by "wrong"?

pictures were a little dark on about tb designs page. nice overall.
on contact page, says send message to webmaster, sort of confusing. I would stick with send message to TBdesigns, or send message to Steve. webmaster is sort of impersonal, and they may? think the webmaster is not the person who does web design. -Josh

good point

thanks