Topic: [SOLVED] fire away

[Dorky]

the width of all my content is 70% so im not sure why it would look to you out of proportion, screenshot would help. the email is a mailto: so it can be clicked and thats why its up there. the only links are home and ways to contact me. legal info can be found at the bottom of many web site. im not sure i want to invent content for a footer. do you mean a graphic at the bottom? the minimalistic design would make that look out of place. the red question mark is there for contrasting color without overdoing it by making all the links red, i feel that would be abrasive. im not sure the red question marks are a real issue. while i am looking to make my site more appealing(researching all day today to do so) i certainly dont want to look like every website on the net, you will not make an impact that way. all im selling is web design and management. im not a multinational company with all that much info and filling my site with stuff for the sake of stuff will stand out as bad as any of the things you pointed out.

[lostprophetpunk]

If you didn't actually realise it by now, I am trying to help you build a better website. It's just at the moment, your website looks like it was put together in about 5 minutes. If you do not have a good website yourself...then how do you expect users to have the perception that you can create good enough webdesign. I am not saying you are a huge site, but the things I have mentioned help users stay on your website...so you get business. Just look at Smashing Magazine for example...it's a simple design...but it uses nearly all of the things I have mentioned. If things are presented well, then users will interpret you as a person being able to create a good enough webdesign for their needs.

You can actually get some useful advice from all of the people that have critiqued your design, or you can ignore it. But the only way you can push the boundaries or design (creating something unique etc), is to know what those boundaries are...so you can experiment. You have to weigh up the functionality and design of the website to help the user have a pleasant experience. Maybe this could help you. (If you decide to take the information in)

[KevinM1]

You may not want your site to look 'typical', but adding extra bits like bright red question marks as hyperlinks is not the way to go.  Red is the color of attention, but also of failure.  Also, the question marks themselves don't give a hint that they're links.  Overall, they're distracting, and should go.

Why do you have a contact form if anyone can call or e-mail you given the info in your header?

You should rewrite your introduction.  You may not like writing a sales pitch, but they're necessary.  Statistics don't demand anything.  And telling potential clients that you only have 15 seconds to make a good impression, then essentially say "This is what I can do.  I'm not going to go out of my way to convince you to hire me," is a very bad decision.

Let me put it this way: if the choice is between hiring you based on your site, and another person/company based on a site that appears to actually want my business, I'm going to pick the second choice every time.  Especially if the former has nothing more than a few links to incomplete sites as their portfolio.

And, yes, the footer looks chunky.  At the very least, use a smaller font.  Footers like yours are a site's fine print.  Emphasis on fine.

[Dorky]

• use more space, im using to much space
• its boring and plain, those things are pointless

i dont see as much of a consensus as you all are eluding to. in fact your opinions all pull back and forth and other then the scaling issue are just opinions and not backed up with any facts or even links to any facts. i love that you all are helping but im done with this thread.

[ILMV]

Hello, i have skimmed through most of the replies on this thread, it's an interesting one.

I didn't see your first version, but here are my thoughts on the current one, excuse me if I repeat what other people have said:

1) Get rid of the loading screen, it's almost as annoying as a flash intro. If the website is painted gradually then I can start to figure out the layout before I hit the content.
2) Get rid of the 15 seconds paragraph, as someone already mentioned I have already spent 5 seconds reading that paragraph and it's difficult because it's white on black... oh, and also it's more like 5 seconds, believe me if I surfed in from Google I wouldn't stick around for more than that.
3) Your thumbnails for your sites are too small
4) I wouldn't bother with a coming soon section, to be fair your design work isn't that great, so your work in progress stuff isn't going to be much better.
5) By all means have a T&Cs link in the footer, but put that info on a different page.
6) On your contact page your form of captcha is bloody hideous! I don't even know where to start, let's spare a thought for those who don't own a Phd in captcha forms, or even for those who use screen readers. Personally I wouldn't bother with one, just filter out the spam manually.
7) Put your CSS in a separate file
This is just a point, but your mark-up is pretty poor, consider finding a basic CSS template and learning by copying.

ILMV