Website Review

[Wolfsuit]

All

http://www.wolfsuit.co.uk

This is my first personal website, i'm well aware of a few bugs and issues on the site and its very much regarded as work in progress. Having said all of this, all comments and opinions are most welcome, especially if you've got ideas to make the site a world beater.

Cheers
Wolfsuit

[EC]

what's a world beater?

I love the colors and textures. I don't like the "mystery meat" navigation, that could be improved. Making the user play with a pretty graphic every time they want to go to another part of your site will likely annoy them. You may have all the locations for the various links memorized but new visitors won't. Good job so far though, and welcome to the GDF! :)

[Wolfsuit]

Hi

Thanks for your reply, i know what you mean about the navigation. The problem i have is i like the style of it, and am not quiet so bothered about it being a little complicated. But i agree it does need to be a little more user friendly. Sometimes when designing for yourself you need to be reigned in a little, without losing creativity. So i'm all ears.

Cheers
www.wolfsuit.co.uk

[reuber1]

I second EC's comments on the navigation. If you hover over them, and they move, suddenly they aren't clickable anymore. Maybe it's not so much an issue that the buttons move, but that the hit state for them moves. Way I see it, if a user can hover over a button to start a rollover animation, they should always be able to click that very spot to open the link.

[jasonchan]

Hi Wolfsuit,

I am a noob in web design and would like to know how you learned to make a website like that? What web languages are involved javascript, PHP, etc? also did you attend an art school because I really like your gallery artwork. just wondering bc i am still debating if i should enroll into a web design school.

thanks,
j

[EC]

hey jason I'll answer till the poster gets back - looks like it's all done in flash. Which is a whole other animal. I've been doing web design since the 90s and never touched it. Well, I touched it lol but I opted not to get too deep into it, it tends to be a specialty type thing.

[jasonchan]

Well, I touched it lol but I opted not to get too deep into it, it tends to be a specialty type thing.

specialty type thing? In what way? ...

[EC]

I mean. Um. In my opinion ... flash is a whole discipline unto it's own, it's animation. It's difficult to be 'all things' if you know what I mean. Specialization. To be REALLY good at flash, you work with it all day every day, it's a tough thing to "dabble in". Not everybody needs flash, but some people WANT it, and it's appropriate for certain things.

It's good to have familiarity with all things in web design, but finding your niche is good.

Seriously just my 2 cents, full disclosure I'm not a fan of flash.

[jasonchan]

Yea I hear that a lot from web developers. EC can send me links of some of your personal websites or work? I am very interested you [Not in that way of course ;)]. You have been the only person that has the patience to reply back to all my silly questions. I really want to thank you for that..

[Wolfsuit]

Hi J

Sorry to take so long to get back to you. Thank you for taking the time to look at my site. The site is built with a combination of things the navigation on the right is flash but the rest is HTML. Now i'm no web designer and many people on this forum would probably pull apart the way i've built the site but to me this was just a bit of fun and a way for me to show off my work and meet people who are like minded. As far as my artwork goes, i went to university for 3 years where they really tried to make you work as creatively as you could. However they offered little support or lessons in software. This is just my experience and i'm sure its not the same for everyone, i just found that i didn't learn the things that would make me employable at Uni and had to learn on the job.

Having said all of that i did have a blast while i was there.

www.wolfsuit.co.uk

[CreatorKit.com]

what for there is free space at the main page?

[Virgo Nightingale]

I dabble in Flash, if what I do with it could even be called dabbling. I can be a great program, but in order to use it to its best advantages, you need to know action script. I'm a very visual person, so for me to think in terms of code is very very difficult. I'm in the process of building my portfolio in Flash, and I've been working on it little by little for over a year.

[JPnyc]

Flash is a lot like DTHML. In fact actionscript syntax and javascript are remarkably similar. There are some methods unique to each, but the similarities are more numerous than the differences.

[Frendie]

Hi,
Agreed with EC, the navigation does has a good style, but it's not that user friendly. Maybe u should think of some ideas on how to highlight to the surfer/user that IT IS A BUTTON NAVIGATION. Some ppl might not sure what to press after entered to the main page.

Overall, it looks great ! I like the texture !

[Samakimoto Graphics]

I absolutely love your site.

The illustrations were a nice suprise, very good work on there.

[Wolfsuit]

Cheers

Thanks for all you positive comments on my site, its nice to recieve complements from your peers. I'm taking on board all the comments about the nav and am gonna work on it soon. Here's a question for you all, even though i'm quiet please with the way my site looks i'm unsure its right for using to promote myself as a freelancer. I'm undecided as to whether i should add a portfolio section to the exsisting site which includes my commercial work, or should i set up another site using my real name as a domain. Don't get me wrong i'd love to work on creative album sleeve's but i know the type of work i'd get in my area would be much more commercial. Therefore i don't want to scare off potential clients with a 'whacky' website.

All comments welcome

www.wolfsuit.co.uk

[Frendie]

It's good to show your previous project, so that your client will have confident on you.