Am I missing something?? All I see is some poorly aligned text and links on a white background. If this is all you've got you really need to ... ummm.... work on it.
What I usually say in cases like this is to go around and look at what other sites are doing. http://www.coolhomepages.com is a good place to start.
I see that most of your posting have been in the Job & Barter forum. We do ask that you normally critique others sites before asking for your own to be looked at - here
Having said that the site does need a lot of work. Have you actually built any other sites? Have a good look around, see what others are doing and read through some of the basic tutorials that are out there, you will learn a lot from this and then think about a design for the site and a unique identity for your company.
Julia - if life was meant to be easy Michael Angelo would have painted the floor....
Quote: We offer graphics/web design, stationary design
If that is your best shot at web design, you are in trouble. But seriously if you are selling these services and are fully capable of delivering them, where are they? You might even put some of your portfoilio on the home page. I do have to tell you though that I was underimpressed by your portfolio.
Quote: We were founded in 2001.
I am sure that this would inspire confidence in your customers, not. I would leave it out and instead say something about your personal experience unless it is the same.
It does need work. Do check out some other sites that do this. All of the moderators here are more than glad to help you but you need to seriously rethink/think about your site design.
Mark Irving I have a mind like a steel trap; it is rusty and illegal in 47 states
Jack Michaelson posted this at 12:12 — 20th May 2001.
No offense, but I don't think that you will pull potential customers accross the line with this site.
Main reason:
If you're talking about graphic design, let the people see that you know what you're talking about by showing it on the site.
The title: I don't think Yahoo, Google etc like the kind of titles (with al lot of non breaking spaces) that you're using. Little chance of getting on their list, I think. (I used to make that kind of titles too btw)
Again, no offence.
Shakespeare: onclick || !(onclick)
junkyrddog2k posted this at 12:25 — 20th May 2001.
Hmm, sorry, but it's not to my taste. Have you tried it in all resolutions? I browse in 1280*1024 and it looks a mess.
On the front page (the really exciting one) your logo centres, the pirst paragraph is left aligned with a heft indent and the last paragraph is left aligned with no indent.
What's with plastering 'sample' over all your images?
You really need to think things out a lot more. As Bookworm says what screen sizes have you tested this on? It looks passable on 600x600 but anything larger and it looks pretty awfull. Try using tables, then it's easy to make a presentable layout. I also find black backgrounds very heavy and I won't stay on a site for long like this as it hurst my eyes afetr a while. I find light & airy sites much more appealing.
I don't like the way you go to one person's portfolio, then a link to the next & so on, plus the link to Jeff's one isn't working! Try laying it out better so that people get a brief blurb about the designers, what they do/specialise in, etc with a link to their page.
The colours you have for the links on the Adam's portfolio pages is a bad choice as well. The blue is hard to read but the purple for the visited link is almost impossible to read & people will still like to read it even if they have been there.
I personally don't think that the sample graphics you have with the click to enlarge work well, as they don't look good small and to me it is obvious that you have just resized them to be a uniform size for the purpose of the page, they just looked squashed. That isn't going to inspire anyone to want your graphics or web design services.
You need to sell yourselves! The about us just reads as if you can do a bunch of stuff and you'll do it for companies if they want it! You have got give them a reason for contacting you, you have to sell yourself as the company that'll do wonders for them. At the moment I don't think people would get past the first page.
On the services page I would list the service, price & give an example as I don't know what you class as a advanced web design and do you do more than 5 pages???
You have a start, sit down & think about how to layout the site. The home page is a bit of a jumble of all the other pages, this especially needs to show what you can do.
Julia - if life was meant to be easy Michael Angelo would have painted the floor....
Your title should include your business name. The non-breaking spaces show up as little squares in my title bar (NS, Mac). A number of your pages are all titled "New Page 15"
You have no meta tags.
I don't recommend using tags to break text for alignment. I'd put it in a table and let it flow according to the user's resolution, monitor size and preferred text settings.
On your services.htm page you state:
" * PC Setup (Great Neck, Roslyn, Manhasset area) - $55"
So where are you? State, country?
Domainregistration.htm just says "under construction". Ugh! I hate those words. I won't ever post anything that isn't ready for prime time.
So I went to "teenvibe" which you say is an example of your work. Two Geocities pop-ups instead of just one? "New Page 5" for the title? A horizontal scroll bar in the navigation at 800x600? Sorry, but this example would not inspire me to hire you.
The professional web design services field is very competitive. Good luck.
junkyrddog2k posted this at 22:18 — 20th May 2001.
It is better but still a long way off from good web design. The first thing to do is to open up Control Panel in your computer. Go to Add/Remove programs. Find Frontpage 5.0, click uninstall. Then make a coaster or maybe a windchime out of the CD. No one who does web design for a living should be using Frontpage.
Spend some time on your logo. It looks like it was done by a third grader. Several different fonts, several different colors, some blinking stuff, yuck.
Spend some time in page layout. People do this different ways. Some will sketch it out on paper, some will open up Photoshop and create a replica of the page using layers. You should also have some idea of page alignment. Try to design a site using a bare minumum or none at all of nbsp.I see that what you did to end a line would be to put enough nbsp in the sentence until it fell to the next line. Use the BR instead if you want to end the line or specify the margin.
Spend some time in marketing yourself. It is better than before but you have to sell yourself better. Part of the selling is done by well thought out site design. The other part is done by coming up with a better way of saying what you are saying.
My advice is to learn the web design business a little better. Learn how to design your site before you offer to design for others.
Mark Irving I have a mind like a steel trap; it is rusty and illegal in 47 states
Adding meta tags
Having the site finished
Having page titles
Aligning text
Using tables
Using basic style sheets
Testing the design in various browsers/resolutions/colour depths
All these things are BASIC web design.
Look, we're not picking on you, we're just trying to help. Please understand that the basics of web design are planning, design, layout and execution. In that order.
Gone are the days when you can get away with slapping a bit of code together in notepad and uploading it with an 'under construction' sign to excuse it's inadequacies.
My own sites are far from perfect but they work and I never stop fiddling and fine-tuning them. but they do include all of the above. I wouldn't have uploaded them if they didn't.
I hope I'm not being too harsh and may the moderators remove this post if I am, but that's the grim truth.
Quote: I hope I'm not being too harsh and may the moderators remove this post if I am, but that's the grim truth.
Bookworm, your criticism is truthful and constructive. As long as that is the case, no problem. Besides you have your own site up for review. That usually helps people to be nice to others.
Mark Irving I have a mind like a steel trap; it is rusty and illegal in 47 states
junkyrddog2k posted this at 01:30 — 21st May 2001.
Before we do that why don't you help us out. We have some rules here that are a bit lax but before we review your other site which has similar problems to your first one. Here are the rules:
Quote: Review Other Sites! (Mar. 20, 2001 until Dec. 31, 2002)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Web Site Critique Area is one of the most popular forums at TWF! This is understandable because almost everyone visiting TWF has a Web Site and we all want to know what others think about our site.
Anyone that has a site is free to post in this forum requesting input. We do ask though that if you request input on your site, you review three other sites. In fact, review as many sites as possible. After all, you know what it's like to receive input so why not help others?
You are not required to review other sites... But others will appreciate it.
Please understand that by requesting a review, your site will be reviewed by many. The three moderators of this forum will attempt to provide a review of each site requested... these moderators are all experienced Webmasters that have very good advice.
All reviews are simply advice. No review will be made with the intent of degrading your site or your qualities... We were all beginners at one time. If you receive a review that you feel is harsh, please understand that the individual is trying to help you and definitly didn't make the post to rip your site apart. Some reviews may be critical but take it as advice and work on the areas. You can only improve with advice.
With that being said, post your site for a review! And review other sites!
In doing a search on your name it appears that the only places that you have posted have been in this thread, in the jobs and barter forum and one other. So please help us out!
Mark Irving I have a mind like a steel trap; it is rusty and illegal in 47 states
junkyrddog2k posted this at 02:26 — 21st May 2001.
junkyrddog2k, if you will scroll up a bit, you will see that I have already given you some feedback on this site and why it would *not* inspire me to hire you.
I'd like to recommend a book to you: "Web Pages That Suck - Learn Good Design by Looking at Bad Design" by Flanders & Willis. It's a few years old now, but is still every bit as relevant as the day it came out. It has been my "bible" and I can't tell you how many times I've read it and recommended it. It's not an html "how-to" book, but rather, one that looks at design from a higher level and how to make it work better for your sites.
And as mairving stated, you should probably try giving something back to this forum as well.
In all honesty, I can tell you that reviewing other sites will improve your critical eye and will actually help you a lot with your own. I tend to notice the minitua... bad spacing, misspelled words/bad grammar, etc.
But I've started to see the bigger picture in ways I never did before. At another forum I told a guy his logo was too bland, that it needed a swish, a squiggle, a dab of color, just *something* to make it jazzier. Well, it had an "i" in it and he dotted it with a nice starburst that really made a 100% improvement in my opinion. I hadn't even thought of that option and he helped me to see another solution that worked perfectly for his site.
It's really rewarding to see your advice get taken to heart and acted upon in a positive way.
junkyrddog2k posted this at 02:38 — 21st May 2001.
Quote: Originally posted by junkyrddog2k I'm not using correct grammar and spelling correctly?
I didn't say that *you* weren't using correct grammar and spelling, just that those are the type of things I tend to notice first on many sites.
My point was that by also reviewing other sites, you develop a better "eye" and understanding of what's good or not-so-good to apply to your own as well.
junkyrddog2k posted this at 02:49 — 21st May 2001.
I did try to point out our rules to you at the beginning!
Did you actually build these sites?
What are you going to be doing in this venture if you get others to the web design part?
Do what we have all said, look around at others sites, especially ones that are posted in this forum and give your opinions of them. It really does help gain a better perspective of sites and using Frontpage in my opinion is not going to help you build good sites. Also look around at the sites that offer exactly what you are offering, see how they promote themselves and learn from them (not copy)
Julia - if life was meant to be easy Michael Angelo would have painted the floor....
junkyrddog2k posted this at 10:25 — 21st May 2001.
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Megan posted this at 03:28 — 19th May 2001.
She has: 11,421 posts
Joined: Jun 1999
Am I missing something?? All I see is some poorly aligned text and links on a white background. If this is all you've got you really need to ... ummm.... work on it.
What I usually say in cases like this is to go around and look at what other sites are doing. http://www.coolhomepages.com is a good place to start.
Megan
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The Webmistress posted this at 10:30 — 19th May 2001.
She has: 5,586 posts
Joined: Feb 2001
Hi junkyrddog2k,
I see that most of your posting have been in the Job & Barter forum. We do ask that you normally critique others sites before asking for your own to be looked at - here
Having said that the site does need a lot of work. Have you actually built any other sites? Have a good look around, see what others are doing and read through some of the basic tutorials that are out there, you will learn a lot from this and then think about a design for the site and a unique identity for your company.
Julia - if life was meant to be easy Michael Angelo would have painted the floor....
mairving posted this at 19:19 — 19th May 2001.
They have: 2,256 posts
Joined: Feb 2001
If that is your best shot at web design, you are in trouble. But seriously if you are selling these services and are fully capable of delivering them, where are they? You might even put some of your portfoilio on the home page. I do have to tell you though that I was underimpressed by your portfolio.
I am sure that this would inspire confidence in your customers, not. I would leave it out and instead say something about your personal experience unless it is the same.
It does need work. Do check out some other sites that do this. All of the moderators here are more than glad to help you but you need to seriously rethink/think about your site design.
Mark Irving
I have a mind like a steel trap; it is rusty and illegal in 47 states
Jack Michaelson posted this at 12:12 — 20th May 2001.
He has: 1,733 posts
Joined: Dec 1999
No offense, but I don't think that you will pull potential customers accross the line with this site.
Main reason:
If you're talking about graphic design, let the people see that you know what you're talking about by showing it on the site.
The title: I don't think Yahoo, Google etc like the kind of titles (with al lot of non breaking spaces) that you're using. Little chance of getting on their list, I think. (I used to make that kind of titles too btw)
Again, no offence.
Shakespeare: onclick || !(onclick)
junkyrddog2k posted this at 12:25 — 20th May 2001.
They have: 15 posts
Joined: Apr 2001
the sites updated tell me what you think...
junkyrddog2k posted this at 12:27 — 20th May 2001.
They have: 15 posts
Joined: Apr 2001
when going to the portfolio section type http://www.vibesolutions.com/portfolio.htm because the flash designer made an error and he isn't online now to fix it. Sorry
we do have alot of kickass flash designs in the portfolio if you check the other portfolio on there.
Bookworm posted this at 13:58 — 20th May 2001.
They have: 32 posts
Joined: Apr 2001
Hmm, sorry, but it's not to my taste. Have you tried it in all resolutions? I browse in 1280*1024 and it looks a mess.
On the front page (the really exciting one) your logo centres, the pirst paragraph is left aligned with a heft indent and the last paragraph is left aligned with no indent.
What's with plastering 'sample' over all your images?
Hen & Frog, review forums.
The British Sci-Fi & Fantasy Forums
_________________________________________________________
The Webmistress posted this at 14:43 — 20th May 2001.
She has: 5,586 posts
Joined: Feb 2001
You really need to think things out a lot more. As Bookworm says what screen sizes have you tested this on? It looks passable on 600x600 but anything larger and it looks pretty awfull. Try using tables, then it's easy to make a presentable layout. I also find black backgrounds very heavy and I won't stay on a site for long like this as it hurst my eyes afetr a while. I find light & airy sites much more appealing.
I don't like the way you go to one person's portfolio, then a link to the next & so on, plus the link to Jeff's one isn't working! Try laying it out better so that people get a brief blurb about the designers, what they do/specialise in, etc with a link to their page.
The colours you have for the links on the Adam's portfolio pages is a bad choice as well. The blue is hard to read but the purple for the visited link is almost impossible to read & people will still like to read it even if they have been there.
I personally don't think that the sample graphics you have with the click to enlarge work well, as they don't look good small and to me it is obvious that you have just resized them to be a uniform size for the purpose of the page, they just looked squashed. That isn't going to inspire anyone to want your graphics or web design services.
You need to sell yourselves! The about us just reads as if you can do a bunch of stuff and you'll do it for companies if they want it! You have got give them a reason for contacting you, you have to sell yourself as the company that'll do wonders for them. At the moment I don't think people would get past the first page.
On the services page I would list the service, price & give an example as I don't know what you class as a advanced web design and do you do more than 5 pages???
You have a start, sit down & think about how to layout the site. The home page is a bit of a jumble of all the other pages, this especially needs to show what you can do.
Julia - if life was meant to be easy Michael Angelo would have painted the floor....
TheGizmoid posted this at 20:45 — 20th May 2001.
They have: 168 posts
Joined: Apr 2001
Your title should include your business name. The non-breaking spaces show up as little squares in my title bar (NS, Mac). A number of your pages are all titled "New Page 15"
You have no meta tags.
I don't recommend using tags to break text for alignment. I'd put it in a table and let it flow according to the user's resolution, monitor size and preferred text settings.
On your services.htm page you state:
" * PC Setup (Great Neck, Roslyn, Manhasset area) - $55"
So where are you? State, country?
Domainregistration.htm just says "under construction". Ugh! I hate those words. I won't ever post anything that isn't ready for prime time.
So I went to "teenvibe" which you say is an example of your work. Two Geocities pop-ups instead of just one? "New Page 5" for the title? A horizontal scroll bar in the navigation at 800x600? Sorry, but this example would not inspire me to hire you.
The professional web design services field is very competitive. Good luck.
junkyrddog2k posted this at 22:18 — 20th May 2001.
They have: 15 posts
Joined: Apr 2001
k i'll stress this again i send out advanced webdesign to my partner.
mairving posted this at 22:56 — 20th May 2001.
They have: 2,256 posts
Joined: Feb 2001
It is better but still a long way off from good web design. The first thing to do is to open up Control Panel in your computer. Go to Add/Remove programs. Find Frontpage 5.0, click uninstall. Then make a coaster or maybe a windchime out of the CD. No one who does web design for a living should be using Frontpage.
Spend some time on your logo. It looks like it was done by a third grader. Several different fonts, several different colors, some blinking stuff, yuck.
Spend some time in page layout. People do this different ways. Some will sketch it out on paper, some will open up Photoshop and create a replica of the page using layers. You should also have some idea of page alignment. Try to design a site using a bare minumum or none at all of nbsp.I see that what you did to end a line would be to put enough nbsp in the sentence until it fell to the next line. Use the BR instead if you want to end the line or specify the margin.
Spend some time in marketing yourself. It is better than before but you have to sell yourself better. Part of the selling is done by well thought out site design. The other part is done by coming up with a better way of saying what you are saying.
My advice is to learn the web design business a little better. Learn how to design your site before you offer to design for others.
Mark Irving
I have a mind like a steel trap; it is rusty and illegal in 47 states
Bookworm posted this at 23:02 — 20th May 2001.
They have: 32 posts
Joined: Apr 2001
Adding meta tags
Having the site finished
Having page titles
Aligning text
Using tables
Using basic style sheets
Testing the design in various browsers/resolutions/colour depths
All these things are BASIC web design.
Look, we're not picking on you, we're just trying to help. Please understand that the basics of web design are planning, design, layout and execution. In that order.
Gone are the days when you can get away with slapping a bit of code together in notepad and uploading it with an 'under construction' sign to excuse it's inadequacies.
My own sites are far from perfect but they work and I never stop fiddling and fine-tuning them. but they do include all of the above. I wouldn't have uploaded them if they didn't.
I hope I'm not being too harsh and may the moderators remove this post if I am, but that's the grim truth.
Sorry.
Hen & Frog, review forums.
The British Sci-Fi & Fantasy Forums
_________________________________________________________
mairving posted this at 23:17 — 20th May 2001.
They have: 2,256 posts
Joined: Feb 2001
Bookworm, your criticism is truthful and constructive. As long as that is the case, no problem. Besides you have your own site up for review. That usually helps people to be nice to others.
Mark Irving
I have a mind like a steel trap; it is rusty and illegal in 47 states
junkyrddog2k posted this at 01:30 — 21st May 2001.
They have: 15 posts
Joined: Apr 2001
could you review my other site? http://www.geocities.com/jccteens/teenvibenew/ ?
mairving posted this at 01:55 — 21st May 2001.
They have: 2,256 posts
Joined: Feb 2001
Before we do that why don't you help us out. We have some rules here that are a bit lax but before we review your other site which has similar problems to your first one. Here are the rules:
Anyone that has a site is free to post in this forum requesting input. We do ask though that if you request input on your site, you review three other sites. In fact, review as many sites as possible. After all, you know what it's like to receive input so why not help others?
You are not required to review other sites... But others will appreciate it.
Please understand that by requesting a review, your site will be reviewed by many. The three moderators of this forum will attempt to provide a review of each site requested... these moderators are all experienced Webmasters that have very good advice.
All reviews are simply advice. No review will be made with the intent of degrading your site or your qualities... We were all beginners at one time. If you receive a review that you feel is harsh, please understand that the individual is trying to help you and definitly didn't make the post to rip your site apart. Some reviews may be critical but take it as advice and work on the areas. You can only improve with advice.
With that being said, post your site for a review! And review other sites!
In doing a search on your name it appears that the only places that you have posted have been in this thread, in the jobs and barter forum and one other. So please help us out!
Mark Irving
I have a mind like a steel trap; it is rusty and illegal in 47 states
junkyrddog2k posted this at 02:26 — 21st May 2001.
They have: 15 posts
Joined: Apr 2001
i must be blind cause i had someone review it on 2 different resolutions and they both worked perfectly.
TheGizmoid posted this at 02:35 — 21st May 2001.
They have: 168 posts
Joined: Apr 2001
junkyrddog2k, if you will scroll up a bit, you will see that I have already given you some feedback on this site and why it would *not* inspire me to hire you.
I'd like to recommend a book to you: "Web Pages That Suck - Learn Good Design by Looking at Bad Design" by Flanders & Willis. It's a few years old now, but is still every bit as relevant as the day it came out. It has been my "bible" and I can't tell you how many times I've read it and recommended it. It's not an html "how-to" book, but rather, one that looks at design from a higher level and how to make it work better for your sites.
They also have a web site - http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com
And as mairving stated, you should probably try giving something back to this forum as well.
In all honesty, I can tell you that reviewing other sites will improve your critical eye and will actually help you a lot with your own. I tend to notice the minitua... bad spacing, misspelled words/bad grammar, etc.
But I've started to see the bigger picture in ways I never did before. At another forum I told a guy his logo was too bland, that it needed a swish, a squiggle, a dab of color, just *something* to make it jazzier. Well, it had an "i" in it and he dotted it with a nice starburst that really made a 100% improvement in my opinion. I hadn't even thought of that option and he helped me to see another solution that worked perfectly for his site.
It's really rewarding to see your advice get taken to heart and acted upon in a positive way.
junkyrddog2k posted this at 02:38 — 21st May 2001.
They have: 15 posts
Joined: Apr 2001
I'm not using correct grammar and spelling correctly?
junkyrddog2k posted this at 02:40 — 21st May 2001.
They have: 15 posts
Joined: Apr 2001
oook then... anyway thats why i'm not offering webdesign and have other services as well.
TheGizmoid posted this at 02:47 — 21st May 2001.
They have: 168 posts
Joined: Apr 2001
I didn't say that *you* weren't using correct grammar and spelling, just that those are the type of things I tend to notice first on many sites.
My point was that by also reviewing other sites, you develop a better "eye" and understanding of what's good or not-so-good to apply to your own as well.
junkyrddog2k posted this at 02:49 — 21st May 2001.
They have: 15 posts
Joined: Apr 2001
ok, well i'm learning and i understand what you mean but i have stated that i outsource it to our partners.
The Webmistress posted this at 08:10 — 21st May 2001.
She has: 5,586 posts
Joined: Feb 2001
I did try to point out our rules to you at the beginning!
Did you actually build these sites?
What are you going to be doing in this venture if you get others to the web design part?
Do what we have all said, look around at others sites, especially ones that are posted in this forum and give your opinions of them. It really does help gain a better perspective of sites and using Frontpage in my opinion is not going to help you build good sites. Also look around at the sites that offer exactly what you are offering, see how they promote themselves and learn from them (not copy)
Julia - if life was meant to be easy Michael Angelo would have painted the floor....
junkyrddog2k posted this at 10:25 — 21st May 2001.
They have: 15 posts
Joined: Apr 2001
yes these sites were built by me and the flash by my partner.
ok - outsourced meaning going to another friend of mine acting as a 3rd party
partner - theres two of us that run the site.
TFE posted this at 22:18 — 21st May 2001.
They have: 43 posts
Joined: Mar 2001
Jeff.
Drop it.
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