Topic: More opinions please

[andyodey]

Hey guys,
I'm looking for a critique on the following 2 sites: thanks!

http://www.andrewodendaal.com/
and
http://blog.andz.co.uk/

 

[neil.johnson]

On your first site

Does your website look dull and boring?

I think your colour scheme, layout and content is very dull and boring. I am intrigued as in your portfollio you have the following site http://www.crew-agency.co.uk/ This is a really attractive and clean design although the font is a little small and am a bit stumped as to why your site has none of the creativity that another site on your portfollio has.

The second link you posted looks like a standard wordpress template, nothing new. Most blogs look like this. Maybe a bit more colour on the module headers rather than the gray gradient.

[wemustdesign]

if you offer image consultancy I would suggest adding more images to your own site

[svgmx5]

Layout looks nice, clean, but how about adding a little more life to it? Like someone else stated it, it looks dull and boring. Considering that under imaging consulting it reads:"Does your website look dull and boring?" i think you might want to add some more life to your site

[steviewdr]

I agree with the earlier comment on http://blog.andz.co.uk/ It needs a little spicing up. Perhaps some images. I know its a blog type website, but it could do with some colors, maybe a dropshadow or something similar. You could make the calendar icon red and bring some other colors into the website.

http://www.andrewodendaal.com/ is better. A little sparse and could do with some text. It looks to be a wordpress template "slate theme".
The search box could do with a search button instead of having to hit enter on the keyboard.

-steve

[fabrydesign]

For the first site (http://www.andrewodendaal.com/), it all seems pretty dull. Grey on grey with the high contrast blue used for everything except stuff that needs to be contrasting (use grey for the dividers, and blue for the titles, not the other way around). Also, coming to the home page and all that is there is a form to request a quote seems like you're jumping the gun- as if your site is there solely for people to request a quote. Put some interesting stuff to draw people in on the front page, that would make them want to click somewhere else to get a quote, if they are impressed with what they see. "This site is the online portfolio of work for Andrew Odendaal" isn't a really strong introduction.

Also, the only thing the sidebar is used for is a search box. Would be worthwhile to put some content in there, or find a different place for the searchbar instead of having a ton of whitespace.

Conclusion: the colors aren't great and are chosen for their elements badly, and there's too much text and nothing that says to me "this guy knows what he is doing and looks good".

[rhodry_korb]

http://blog.andz.co.uk/ looks similar to Apple's website

[sKunKbad]

http://blog.andz.co.uk/ looks similar to Apple's website

That's a good observation.

[noober]

Much like most of the people posting for critiques on this site, you're a programmer lacking design skill. Check out the latest design trends by keeping up with the blogs and tutorial sites such as http://www.fuelyourcreativity.com, http://www.smashingmagazine.com, http://www.abduzeedo.com, etc.

Simply slapping on an apple-esque navigation bar just doesn't cut it. I think we can all agree the site is rather bland and cold to the viewer. Overall design, composition, whitespace, typography, etc. . . needs to be taken into account when creating a great website.

[andyodey]

Thanks everyone for your opinions! They are all greatly appreciated!

Thanks