www.donnypesce.com

For some reason all of your graphics look really grainy to me. I don't know if that's something about my settings or if they look like that for everyone or what (or if it's intentional??).

I really like the look and feel you've created on this page. You've got a really unique style which is very refereshing to see. The header graphic you've created at the top is very nice.

Change the page title from "Home" to a more thorough site title. Titles are very important for search engines and bookmarks so it's good to put some thought into that.

The only other thing I can complain about is the blue background on the blank right side of the page. It doesn't do much for me (and I loved the hot pink you used on the other site you posted in your introduction). Try maybe a purple like you've used on the page headers for the Services or Gallery page. That might be a little over the top though - try it and see. Or how about the teal colour from the mouseovers? That could work.

Actually, I really don't like how you've done the page headers. There's that larger graphic header as well as the white text on grey on the right side of the page. I would definitely get rid of one or the other, or maybe combine the two ideas into one type of graphic header.

I'm getting a lot of extra space at the bottom of the page which should be eliminated.

very graphic intense (slow loading), showed the home page to be about 145kb

The grainy look kinda suits it, except on the guys face, maybe keep that non grainy, saving as .jpg will create less grain

Your code has a lot of extra lines of unused stuff, apart loosing the big empty bit at the bottom of yourpage will help your page load a little faster.

I like the graphic at the top. Not bad at all. But the one just below it that looks like several CD's is taking away from the top part. I would take that out. Also, the gray border graphic isn't looking too good. It seems to add some "blah-ness" to the site. But---it looks like that may be part of your navigation graphics so I don't know what to tell you to do about that.

The graphic that says, "Welcome to Donnypesce.com" is taking away from that nice image that you are using at the top as well. I would just use plain text there instead of the image.

One other thing. See if you can make the background color match the color of the blue image on the left side. The two shades of blue clash just a wee bit.

Nice work!

Oh, welcome to the forum. Good to see new faces here.

Sonia

Nice site. The top logo is very nice, and however not sure I like the 'grainy' effect, it fits well with the page. I noticed the blue on the left side clashes with the main graphic, making it hard on the eyes when reading the black text on white background. Also, the page scrolls more than it seems it should (unless that's for effect).

Just some minor suggestions, overall very nice site. I like the unique style.

I agree with what the others have said about the site, especially about the grainy effect which to me just makes the graphics look like they have been done badly (also on your other site) and over compressed. Definitely change the blue background to the purple to tie the colours in better. Also make the page finish at the bottom of the main section, now it runs on and makes it look like there should be more on there.

Please can you help others out by reviewing some of their sites. It is asked in the rules you agreed to when posting this thread!

Thanks everyone for the nice comments. I appreciate it I can't change anything on the website because it was one of my clients that I made it for. And he was really surprised about the look - really liked it too

About the graphics, I made them and we did actually compress them. If we wouldn't have, the website out have been WAY to large, and would have used up all of the bandwidth. I personally think the graphics are incredible. Yes, I am bragging Just kidding of course!

I usually go to websites that are just big blocks of colors. Simple table here and there, and you have a website! But not with our websites. I like to go into detail with everything

Again, I appreciate the helpful comments,
Robby

try saving your graphics as .jpg's

.gif should be used for standard or minimal colours, .jpg should be used when many colours and shades such as photos etc, but these rukes aren't craved in stone.

keep up the good work

All of us will compress graphics but they should only be compressed to a certain degree and that's the compromise between a fast laoding site and extensive graphics. I personally would prefer nice graphics in moderation and a good loading speed rather than over compressed graphics and lots of them!

I'm wondering what program you're using to create your graphics and compress them. Even compressed graphics shouldn't turn out so grainy like that. Let us know what programs you're using and maybe we can provide some tips. Looking at your top header graphic, that's a really high file size for the quality of the image. You should be able to get better compression than that. Just pulling that header graphic into Photoshop I can cut the file size in half without losing much quality)

That top graphic should definitely be saved as a jpeg, and you could really stand to get rid of the graphic page headers and use text instead. Other than that I would really hate to see this site lose some of it's graphic content. The graphics are really what makes the design so interesting and unique.

Grainy graphics aside, one other thing bothers me...

"Services" strikes me as unappropriate for the subject matter. "Profile" or "Bio" might work better.

Once more, thanks for the replies and especially to those that liked the website

First of all, I will save larger images as jpeg. However, we compressed the graphics at the minimum, and I personally think they look excellent. For most websites on the Internet, there isn't even graphics...

Quote: "Services" strikes me as unappropriate for the subject matter. "Profile" or "Bio" might work better.

Sorry, Donny requested that the pages be named specifically...

I use Paint Shop Pro 6 to create the graphics and compress them. It is an amazing program and very detailed. The compression is excellent, and it works well. It compresses file sizes down to an incredible amount!

Quote: Other than that I would really hate to see this site lose some of it's graphic content.

Me too Pssst...checked out your website, very cool by the way. Excellent flash. Oh, how I envy you who have flash!!! He he he

Thanks once again,
Robby

I was going back to have another look and the site appears to be down??

Quote: Originally posted by KnightRobby
SI use Paint Shop Pro 6 to create the graphics and compress them. It is an amazing program and very detailed. The compression is excellent, and it works well. It compresses file sizes down to an incredible amount!

I don't use PSP currently but Busy does, so maybe he can give more advice. I can't access your newly compressed page, but I noticed before that the top header graphic was 32k. I happen to be working on a similar graphic in Photoshop which I have been able to get down to 15K without losing a whole lot of quality.

Thanks for the comments on my site - unfortunately it is very outdated! That's the problem with flash sites - pain in the bum to update. Hopefully I'll get a chance to re-vamp that and post the HTML version soon.

The main graphic at the top is good, but the images seem to load very slowly... But that might just be my slow connection. lol

1.) Make your navigation consistent
2.) Improve page titles for search engine purposes
3.) Be more consistent with colors
4.) Blue color on right is too bright for me - try something less saturated

Guys, wanted to let you know that my client, Donny, edited the website himself. Now it looks really messed up - LOL! In fact, the body of the page use to be white but now is a dull grey. Some pages have completed been scrapped of their graphics (don't ask me why).

Anyway, thanks for the comments, but disregard this website for layout purposes....

Oh my gosh! That's terrible - especially the "About Me" page - why in the world would someone pay to have a site design done only to destroy it on their own ?!?!

LOL!!! You are making me laugh! That is what we thought over here. Don't ask me...

OMG that's awful! All that centered text and the grey just makes it looks like the background forgot to load :eek:

You know, I've read this and the other threads relating to your sites and it seems to me as if you have refused all advice you've been given, especially where it concerns those grainy graphics.

I realize that you've put alot of work into your sites and you've done exceptionally well. But you seem to be sacrificing overall quality by having to compress and trick your graphics in the name of page size. This has resulted in a less appealing product.

If you are not going to heed the advice you've come here to ask for, I have to question your motives for doing so. If you have experienced the amount of traffic you mentioned in the previous threads relating to your WebQuad site, and your viewers have expressed their approval of your techniques, AND you are unwilling (or unable, as you stated above) to make the suggested changes, then why bother to post a request for review on this board?

Seems to me that you are simply looking for a pat on the back and an opportunity to, albeit somewhat justified, toot your own horn, as it were.

As has been said many times regarding your efforts, you should actually TAKE SOME ADVICE, and do something about the graphics. It would improve on an already exceptional effort on your part. If you do not intend on acting on the advice you've asked for, don't ask.

Just a couple more questions:

(1). It appears that each line of each paragraph is centered on the page (rather than flush with the left text margin)?

(2). On my browser (MSNtv, formerly WebTV, with a 25" TV screen), I can't see the right side of the page. Example: In the "welcome" web address on the header graphic, I only see DonnyPesce.c (nothing more to the right of this). It's probably just my low resolution, but I thought things such as CSS would fix this?