What do you think of my first web site design?

[chamferface]

Hello!

I've been referred to this forum by an individual known as Triple Threat. What do you think of my web site (taking into consideration that it's one of my first attempts at web design)?

http://www.geocities.com/normantang1/

It's on a free server because it's still in the testing stage.

Please be nice!

[Crimson]

I'm not a web expert either but here is my critique. I hope it doesn't seem to harsh...

The function seems to have good flow. Working with better images can add the wow factor to it. Kill the table borders. It screams I was designed in Microsoft publisher/Excel hybrid. The green is a bit minty fresh for me. The frog illustration is weird. Are you trying to be playful or a serious law firm?

[chamferface]

Did you mention table borders? There isn't supposed to be any borders! Are you viewing it using Internet Explorer? I'll say it again, view it on Internet Explorer and you won't see the borders!

[garricks]

Dude,

I don't know about Crimson, but I'm on a Mac. I use FireFox and Safari, and occasionally Opera. I can't remember the last time I booted IE, and Microsoft doesn't even develop it for Mac any more.

If you're serious about Web design, you'll have to take other browsers into account.

[chamferface]

I was browsing using Safari earlier, and I was shocked to see crappy borders around my buttons and text. Shit!

[urstwile]

You're going to need to troubleshoot in more browsers than just Internet Explorer.

[tZ]

I would recommend including more style specifications to make the composition more interesting. Currently its very bland and default looking. The design appears unresolved and in turn its giving me a negative impression of the company. A website should increase and improve an image not take away from it.

[Kesh]

I'm looking in Firefox on a PC.

I can see on some tables you have border="1". Try border="0"

You should definitely look into learning table-less layouts with CSS. You'll be glad you did. Tables for layout are a thing of the past.

Don't know about that frog image.

You should also style those blue underline default links in the left navigation.

[DesignVHL]

Hi there - I'm a web designer, maybe I can offer some help here.

First, I have to agree with kesh. Websites should never be done with tables. Your site is not compliate with current web standards - and the only way to move ahead with browser compatibility and bringing the web more unified, is to try and adhere to current standards. I'd check out www.w3c.org (http://www.w3c.org) if you would like to learn more. But using CSS and tableless layouts is the best way to do sites these days. It makes it more accessible by search engines, and is the proper way to display information. Tables should only be used for data - like product specifications or something like that. It also makes your code cleaner, and pages load faster.

I do suggest learning HTML and CSS and really grasp a better understanding of it. It'll make you a better web designer! This is your first site, and I think if you learned proper coding instead of just editing in DW, you could come away with a much stronger web presence. That isn't to say it isn't a total disaster, I can just tell you opened an old DW template, edited it, and used that. New DW templates are not done with tables - only HTML and CSS.

Your site could use a lot of work imho. The design is as someone said, very default and bland. Kind of boring.

Also the code of your site is just a mess. The dreamweaver template you used doesn't do much for me. The same layout can be done with about 3/4 the amount of coding you have in there, and using CSS to create better style. Javascript isn't even necessary. You can do the nav/menu at the top with CSS. Many people turn JS off these days - some just do not like it. And if that happens, that makes your site harder to navigate, as half your nav would not work!

I would try browsing other sites you think look good to you, and see if maybe those inspire you. Look at their code and see how they've done it.
You need a stronger design concept, and something that better represents the brand/identity of your company. I am not sure why you chose to use the frog illustration either. Its cute, but I am not sure if it fits w/ the serious nature of your business. I'd also prefer to see this site in blue and grey tones over the weird green color. That color scheme is throwing me off for some reason!

Not a fan of the beveled buttons style in conjunction with the flat design style of everything else. It just doesn't go well together.

All in all, I find that this site looks like something designed over 5 years ago at least. It just doesn't fit with today's standards of design imo. Maybe just not MY standards of design, idk.

I think the site is organized well though, and is easy to get to. But it could use some images to go along with the content I think. I think most of the problems you have here are visual/design oriented. Have you done much design before? It really helps to have a strong visual design because it really can deter people from taking your business seriously enough to want to move forward. A website can either hurt or help a business, and I think this site could use a good amount of work to bring it to that level of helping.

If your not really a designer, I think you should consider a new design template that is more visually appealing, and one that adheres to current standards. There are MUCH MUCH better, classier, and updated styles than the one you have chosen to use. Check out these sites (listed below) and see if you think they would be a better fit for your business. I really do suggest you pick one of these out to edit and implement - it wouldn't be too tough to recreate your pages and paste in content. And if you find your having dificulty, maybe you should consider hiring a web designer to help you implement the template. We have a classified section, and I am sure someone here would love to tackle it! :)

http://www.freecsstemplates.org/
http://www.free-css.com/


I hope I wasn't too harse, and sorry for the long post! I hope it helps you to improve it. Please keep us posted if/when you update it, I'd love to see it progress!

[chamferface]

If you're interested I do have a background in design, but it's very brief. I did an Art Foundation Course and that's about it (got a distinction). As you can probably guess this is one of my first attempts at web design, so it's not that good.

It's funny that you say that the design belongs about 5 years into the past, as I'm using Dreamweaver MX 2004 which is 4 years old. Should I upgrade to the latest version?

[chamferface]

What do you mean it's "default looking". I built this from scratch without using an prebuilt templates.

[DesignVHL]

Default just refers to simple - standard - not much visual design put into it.

I'm still using MX2004 too. I never use pre-made templates (tho I DO create my own to use).

[colonel5]

for your first attempt you could have done a lot worse. I agree with others though. If you're going to get into web design you should definitely listen to what people referenced above about css the w3c site etc.

Hey mods, could we add a sticky to this section with some kind of reference to web standards, tables vs css layout, etc?

[tZ]

The blue links, table borders and font-family.

Dreamweaver isn't going to help you.

You should learn css, xhtml, some javascript and a little php if you plan on web work as a career.

This site showcases many beautiful designs you can use for inspiration:

www.smashingmagazine.com

Here's something to start reading immediately(regarding the technical side):

http://www.hotdesign.com/seybold/20semanticmarkup.html

[1ooScreamingTrees]

It's funny that you say that the design belongs about 5 years into the past, as I'm using Dreamweaver MX 2004 which is 4 years old. Should I upgrade to the latest version?

Design in its purest form has NOTHING to do with software. Software is a tool. Upgrading to Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 is not going to make your web site any better - the design is the problem, not the execution (although there are problems here as well.)

Hire a designer.

[DesignVHL]

I concure.

Designers have experience - we've learned the ropes, we know how to integrate color, typography, photography, illustration, etc. with proper functionality to make designs work properly. There ARE despite what so many think guidelines and certain aspects you just pick up on! Do you know what the golden spiral or golden section is? Because I pretty much use this concept daily! Its things like this, that make us qualified and able to produce visually appealing and smart designs that work. These cannot by any means be learned through becoming proficient at using software.

[carolyn]

I was browsing using Safari earlier, and I was shocked to see crappy borders around my buttons and text. Shit! this is a great site you can use to test what your site will look like in different browsers:
http://browsershots.org/

(http://browsershots.org/)