Can you help with a critique?

[selenemoon1022]

Hi there,
So I've been working on my website and need a few professional opinions on how this thing is looking. I have a terrible time working with this particular client. Shes picky, she overworks everything and has a tendancy to try to fill up every available space on a page. I hate making designs for myself.

Right now the home page has an under constrction message but the rest of the pages linked have their content.

Can you help?:confused:
www.alaskanartistnicoletaylor.com (http://www.alaskanartistnicoletaylor.com)

[budafist]

Just want to clarify, you are talking about yourself here?

[selenemoon1022]

Just want to clarify, you are talking about yourself here?

Yes, I'm the horrid client. I'm my own worst enemy!:o

[Kool]

It's not horrible but based on your other work I think it could be a lot better. Everything is in boxes, maybe try freeforming the layout a little more. :)

[shalom_m]

Nicole,
From the way the site loaded I was nearly sure that it was created with that abomination spawned in the dark dungeons of Microsoft. Unfortunately my suspicion was confirmed.


No self-respecting web-designer would use this pretense of a design program to create a website.

It is akin to a pastry-chef using a supermarket baking mix and a watchmaker using a sledgehammer. It both stifles your creativity and does not allow for fine-tuning.
Any potential client (or his 12 year old son) looking at the code will recognize it and draw his own conclusion.
The Inchworm.
If you can configure the Inchworm to crawl "naturally" it may be a nice (not to my taste) addition to the site. If it half crawls and half floats across the screen it suggests, at best, that web-design studio does not have access to an animator.
General Layout is clean.
I think that the fonts are 20-30% too large.
Background, very cold, icy. You may have wanted to reflect some kind of "Alaskan" mood in that. That's good for the tourists, the locals whom you are aiming at may appreciate a warmer background.
Identity.html and Zazzle.html
Background repeats itself vertically. I think that may be an oversight or that you did not define the pages properly.
At the bottom of portfolio.html you have an unintended link to Heather.
In your Contact Us form you display your contact address in the HTML code: AdXmin-AT-alaskanartistnicoletaylor.Xom (disfigured deliberately) for robots to pick up and send you SPAM. – Not very professional.

[selenemoon1022]

Yes my html skills are dreadfull (intro to HTML only) and I don't have dreamweaver so I created it not in Microsoft but in Yahoo site builder, is that a Microsoft application. I'm not exactly sure what you meant about the reply form and the way the info is entered, if you could clarify.

My hope is that you'll all take some pity on me and help me out. ;) I havn't spent a fortune getting a degree and have only taken a few online courses, so all things considered it could be much worse, luckily the region I come from has far worse design skills so I get to be the expert.:cool:

[zach-e2]

nicole,

forgive me for being so blunt,
but i hope that it helps in some form of fashion.
it honestly doesn't seem like much time was taken in the design or development of the site. the site seems like something that might have floated in the web around '98 or so.. there's not really anything eye-catching on this site design.

i would encourage you to visit sites like cssremix.com & faveup.com and study each and every site very carefully. there are rules for design that you don't have to abide by but you do need to be aware of... especially when designing with "web 2.0" in mind.

so, spend some quality time with the designs at those sites, and after you're done, jot down what you dig and what you don't. then take those ideas and apply them to your own site.

remember, design doesn't always mean fancy graphics, or graphics at all that matter. one of the best sites on the web has no graphics built into the actual design itself... www.joshuablankenship.com

just some food for thought.
let me know how things work out!

blessings
z

[selenemoon1022]

It's not horrible but based on your other work I think it could be a lot better. Everything is in boxes, maybe try freeforming the layout a little more. :)

That's halpful, I wasn't liking the boxes either. In the alternative freeware program to dreamwaever can you alter the shape of the text boxes and or place them at angles? that would give me alot more freedom.

[shalom_m]

luckily the region I come from has far worse design skills so I get to be the expert.
Yes; "In the Kingom of the Blind, the one eyed person may be King!"

Microsoft of Yahoo - The application was made in Hell!

First get Komposer at: http://www.kompozer.net/
Download and install, its FREE.

It is a WYSIWYG Editor.
It has some quirks but they are easy to eliminate.
Play around with it for a while. Within a week or two you should be ready to do something better than you have done so far.

In the mean time, take your favorite graphic program and design the site/pages - Visual concept only.

Read up on some CSS in your spare time.

Once the Visual concept is ready let me know and we will convert it to CSS and HTML together. My price - If and when you are good enough, offer a similar service to someone else.

[selenemoon1022]

My price - If and when you are good enough, offer a similar service to someone else.

Well I can afford that, I'l get crackin' tonight.:cool: