REVIEW REQUEST: www.viekoslavia.com

well, the site seems kinda small(area wise) on 1024*768 maybe decrease the blank space.

most the images on the front page dont load for me all the time.

a description of the page would help. what are people who dont know what they are looking at going to think the site is?

Hi viekoslav, welcome to the forums, why not stop by the introductions forum and introduce yourself?

Your site looks quite different from many that I have seen, and different is good

Because your site is absolute width, try centreing it across the screen/page so that people on high resolutions (like me) see an equal amount of blank space on each side.

The background gradient I think you don't need, you already have enough pictures as it is.

As already mentioned, what is your site about? Try telling the user on the front page.

Your site is looking good, keep up the great work

Thanks for reviewing some of the others sites

I get a very small horizontal scrollbar at 800*600 due to your 770px table & 5px margin - get rid of the left margin and you really should have marginheight="5" as well for cross-browser compatability.

The site design/layout is different and I quite like it but there is no text on that first page, nothing for the search engines to crawl through and you certainly need to tell people what the site is about on the first page by using text not images.

I also agree about centering the site for larger resolutions and get rid of the gradient background as it breaks down on my screen into blocks rather than a smooth gradient. Although I guess it'd be difficult to do a centered site with the absolute positioning of your layers - which I also think are a bit gimmicky and not needed.

Nice site overall though

There is a lot to like here but some problems too...

As Julia mentioned, relying on graphics for text will hurt you with the search engines. This isn't only the main page - it is all through the site. This also makes the site rather heavy, filesize-wise. I'm viewing on cable so it doesn't bother me much but I'm guessing that browsing would be a bit of a chore on dialup.

I like the "edgy" look but there are a few things that spoil it for me. Primarily it is the couloured boxes on your home and about pages - they are too clean and even to go with the rest of the site. Even the outer edge of your content area falls into this category.

I also agree with the others that you need to center this - it looks lonely in the corner of a high-res screen.

I think this is one of the best sites I've ever seen posted here. It is rather graphic intensive for my usual tastes, but that is your specialty and that is what you're trying to show off here. So no problem.

I really like the way you've used design to sepawrate different types of pages - the coloured blocks for administrative details, the rough design for portfolio pages. Perhaps you could emphasize that more by moving the "about" link down to the bottom row with the other administrative links. The only problem I see is that the four portfolio pages aren't the same - two with the logo in the corner, two with the logo at the bottom. I think it would be best to keep the logo on the bottom, with the red block in the corner - that would tie the design in more with the home page. I don't think the coloured boxes are a huge problem - it's nice to see a contrast between the colour design and the more neutral rough design.

I will also say that I am really impressed with the quality and variety of work in your portfolio. What is your background? Did you study formal graphic design? Where? Just curious

Thank you all for the great feedback. You all have excellent points and I will take them all into account for my next revision. Now, let me give you a bit of background on my website and on my professional practice.

Viekoslavia is intended to be a flash site but I decided I should probably put an HTML version out first, get some feedback, let the idea mature and then develop the flash site. This website was completed in 5 days (30 billable hours) that includes coding, the design for all the interface elements, a little bit of optimizing and a little bit of browser specific fixes.

I needed to finish this project fast so I applied fastest, most practical solutions to the problems I ran into during production. Your input is great since you've shown me some aspects I had overlooked and I will most definetively take more seriously in future revisions.

Megan, I used the contrasting colored boxes for that particular reason: contrast. Since websites are on a digital medium and my website's scheme revolves around traditional media, I found it necessary to have contrasting elements in the interface. I do agree with a couple of the pages not been the same.

Now a bit about me, I've been working with computers and particularly with graphic design applications for over 10 years. I started with MacPaint on a Mac SE, photoshop 3 and Aldus Freehand (very old!) on a Macintosh Centris 650. So no formal graphic design studies, only many years of experience. I have a degree in Fine Arts with a major in drawing (U of Calgary), I am certified by Adobe and I have attended (and given) many seminars for design/art professionals. I currently work as a freelancer and constatly study (formaly or bymyself) to keep my skills up to date.

Long post, once again thanks for your feedback!

Vieko

You have an interesting look going here. I like it. However, I think you should have plain text instead of graphics for the text.

You should also add a brief summary or introductory paragraph of what the site is about on the home page.

Will there be something in that orange box on the top left? It looks like something should be there.

jammin,

I have added a little bit of information/thoughts to the about section on my site. The solid colored boxed are intended to contrast with the rest of the site however, the more I look at them the more I want to add texture to them but I'll let the idea simmer a bit longer. about adding plain text, I believe it will take away from the effect I'm going after: contrast between traditional media and digital medium. again it might just change in the future. and finally I'm developing a flash version of the site due sometime next month maybe then everything will come together as it is intended.

Thanks for the comments!

Just an afterthought on your post, why do you think I should use plain text as opposed to "picture" text?

If you want the site to be indexed by the search engines then you have to use a html text version as they can't read images or flash!

well...just from a quick check on google, the search engine is picking up the alt text on the images...I'll look into it and post about it.