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aFive

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Joined
Nov 4, 2007
Messages
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www.a5-studios.net

Let me know what you think, what I could change. Still early stages of beta, I plan on getting my contact form working sometime tomorrow!
 
It looks alright; fairly simple.

One thing I would change in the immediate sense; is the goofy picture of yourself :) Either don't put a picture up or get some decent shots taken. :)
 
On this website you listed as example http://www.kennettperio.com/ why is there a mushroom next to the name on the top left corner?

Also.. you should get someone to go through and proof read for mistakes. I proof read for my dad and tend to notice things. Take this for example:

I first began designing web sites at the age of 16. Few years ago, I have realized that this is what I want to be doing for a living, which resulted in me majoring in Web Design.
 
You're using 2 IDs with the same value:

http://validator.nu/?doc=http://www.a5-studios.net/&showsource=yes

You're using xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" on the html element, which is not necessary. And, it's really only meant for polyglot documents (documents that use a subset of HTML5 that are served as both application/xhtml+xml and text/html). It doesn't do anything in HTML anyway.

The charset meta can be shortened to just <meta charset="utf-8">. Although the old way is allowed, it's not very HTML5ish.

The scripts don't need type attributes in this case. Using them in this case is not very HTML5ish.

The layout doesn't degrade well at all at 800x600.

The top of the text "Find Me" is too close to the blue area".

The A5-Studios.NET (the big one) logo has its text way too close to the bottom of its container.

The prevControl and nextControl links have an empty fragment identifier.

The contact email link is not an actual mailto link.

If you do take away the mailto link from visitors and switch to a contact form, make the textarea big (as big as one would have in their mail client. And, if you're going to have a char limit in the textarea, don't make it too small.

And, if you do have a char limit, make sure you normalize newlines in a copy of the textarea's value before getting the length as browsers don't match with their newline handling. For example:

textarea.value.replace(/\r\n|\r/g, "\n").length
or
textare.value.replace(/\r\n|\r|\n/g, "\r\n").length
(the latter matching what's submitted better)

Also with the contact form, allow users to type a subject if the provided subjects in the drop-down you provide are not sufficient for the topic at hand. One of the subjects should be "Problems with this site" or "Webmaster" or something.

You have an empty class on body at the moment.

You're using style attributes in a few spots. While those are allowed, they should be used sparingly and you should use stylesheets for those too. (I see you're using them to set an initial display property so you can flip them though. You could do that without style attributes, but if they make it easier, no biggy.)

class="large" isn't very semantic.

href="#" isn't needed. href="" will resolve to the document's location, which is the same thing that href="#" does except you'll have an empty fragment identifier. (Unless you truly want clicking on the link to not navigate to a new browsing context with the same URI)

Although allowed in HTML5, <br /> is meant for polyglot documents. Use <br> instead.

The logo up top should take you to "http://www.a5-studios.net/" when you click it. It takes you to #home instead.

http://www.a5-studios.net/style.css

The properties in a selector block need to be separated by a ';', which you do. But, the last one doesn't need a ';' and is redundant. (That's just in case you didn't know. I do it anyway as it seems more programmy)
 
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I like it. It is aesthetically appealing. Easy to navigate.

The "Find Me" at the bottom is a little confusing.

Overall your layout is great. I think you have talent.
 
Overall to me the site looks nice and clean but I would definitely do some proof reading and simple grammar checks as you do have a few errors with the text on your About page.
 
one30eight said:
On this website you listed as example http://www.kennettperio.com/ why is there a mushroom next to the name on the top left corner?

Also.. you should get someone to go through and proof read for mistakes. I proof read for my dad and tend to notice things. Take this for example:

I first began designing web sites at the age of 16. Few years ago, I have realized that this is what I want to be doing for a living, which resulted in me majoring in Web Design.
Click to expand...

Yea, it's still a beta. I wanted to get my idea out there to get some feedback while I work out all of the mistakes. Text was just a quick markup, I already noticed a lot that I would change when I update it here in a bit.

That design you are referring to, the guy who coded it kind of screwed me over, one of the thigns he ended up changing was the logo. Everything else, was done by me.

Shadow2531 said:
You're using 2 IDs with the same value:

http://validator.nu/?doc=http://www.a5-studios.net/&showsource=yes

You're using xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" on the html element, which is not necessary. And, it's really only meant for polyglot documents (documents that use a subset of HTML5 that are served as both application/xhtml+xml and text/html). It doesn't do anything in HTML anyway.

The charset meta can be shortened to just <meta charset="utf-8">. Although the old way is allowed, it's not very HTML5ish.

The scripts don't need type attributes in this case. Using them in this case is not very HTML5ish.

The layout doesn't degrade well at all at 800x600.

The top of the text "Find Me" is too close to the blue area".

The A5-Studios.NET (the big one) logo has its text way too close to the bottom of its container.

The prevControl and nextControl links have an empty fragment identifier.

The contact email link is not an actual mailto link.

If you do take away the mailto link from visitors and switch to a contact form, make the textarea big (as big as one would have in their mail client. And, if you're going to have a char limit in the textarea, don't make it too small.

And, if you do have a char limit, make sure you normalize newlines in a copy of the textarea's value before getting the length as browsers don't match with their newline handling. For example:

textarea.value.replace(/\r\n|\r/g, "\n").length
or
textare.value.replace(/\r\n|\r|\n/g, "\r\n").length
(the latter matching what's submitted better)

Also with the contact form, allow users to type a subject if the provided subjects in the drop-down you provide are not sufficient for the topic at hand. One of the subjects should be "Problems with this site" or "Webmaster" or something.

You have an empty class on body at the moment.

You're using style attributes in a few spots. While those are allowed, they should be used sparingly and you should use stylesheets for those too. (I see you're using them to set an initial display property so you can flip them though. You could do that without style attributes, but if they make it easier, no biggy.)

class="large" isn't very semantic.

href="#" isn't needed. href="" will resolve to the document's location, which is the same thing that href="#" does except you'll have an empty fragment identifier. (Unless you truly want clicking on the link to not navigate to a new browsing context with the same URI)

Although allowed in HTML5, <br /> is meant for polyglot documents. Use <br> instead.

The logo up top should take you to "http://www.a5-studios.net/" when you click it. It takes you to #home instead.

http://www.a5-studios.net/style.css

The properties in a selector block need to be separated by a ';', which you do. But, the last one doesn't need a ';' and is redundant. (That's just in case you didn't know. I do it anyway as it seems more programmy)
Click to expand...


Thanks! That is going to help a lot. I will clean the code up a bit once I figure everything out. I am having some trouble with my contact form still, hoping that I can get it working the way I want to today!

DooLocsta said:
Overall to me the site looks nice and clean but I would definitely do some proof reading and simple grammar checks as you do have a few errors with the text on your About page.
Click to expand...

Will do :).

I guess I better put a more professional picture of me on there. I just quickly looked at all of my facebook pics and that one, even though old, seemed to fit best.
 
Not much substance. Plenty of things still to do as others have already detailed.

Have a professional writer proofread and adjust the wording. You're doing web design as a professional; ensure your website conveys as much to the visitors.

Edit: Go into more detail on the work history. This is going to be a big point with potential clients. Describe more about your role and contributions to the three current websites listed.
 
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Pretty terrible content. The design you show here wouldn't motivate me to hire you. The collage of Adobe icons, in particular, is off-putting and barely relevant.
  • "Denver area" should have a lowercase "A".
  • "Latest and greatest" what? Why is that an advantage? What about people who want tried-and-true, or reliable?
  • "greatest, at" doesn't need a comma.
  • "Currently attending the Art Institute of Colorado majoring in Web Design & Interactive Media." is a sentence fragment. Again, "the latest and greatest" what?
  • Wh would anyone give a darn that you had used HTML5 to create this site?
  • "You will find plenty of HTML5/Jquery in my most recent work!" is really dubious. Did you need those technologies, or did you have a real use for them? What was it? If you're just using "the latest and greatest" for no good reason, it sounds like what you design will be a disaster.
  • "Few years ago, I have realized that this is what I want to be doing for a living, which resulted in me majoring in Web Design." is a wreck of a sentence; you should fix it.
  • "basketball wallpaper in photoshop" should have a capital "P" for Photoshop.
  • The picture adds a personal touch, but it's entirely unprofessional. It's blurry, and the look and color tone in it doesn't match the site. Your pose makes it look you don't take anything seriously enough for me to consider hiring you.
  • "Contact form is currently under development. " another sentence fragment.
  • "Thank you very much, contact form should be operational shortly." Why don't you spend an hour and get it done?
  • "Find a5-studios on your favorite social networks:" has no links or anything else.

I'm confused about your goal for the site. It seems like you're earnestly looking for work, but you're also proclaiming in a few different ways that you have zero experience or education. Are you just trying to push out a four-page presence site for a project at school?
 
mikeblas said:
Pretty terrible content. The design you show here wouldn't motivate me to hire you. The collage of Adobe icons, in particular, is off-putting and barely relevant.
  • "Denver area" should have a lowercase "A".
  • "Latest and greatest" what? Why is that an advantage? What about people who want tried-and-true, or reliable?
  • "greatest, at" doesn't need a comma.
  • "Currently attending the Art Institute of Colorado majoring in Web Design & Interactive Media." is a sentence fragment. Again, "the latest and greatest" what?
  • Wh would anyone give a darn that you had used HTML5 to create this site?
  • "You will find plenty of HTML5/Jquery in my most recent work!" is really dubious. Did you need those technologies, or did you have a real use for them? What was it? If you're just using "the latest and greatest" for no good reason, it sounds like what you design will be a disaster.
  • "Few years ago, I have realized that this is what I want to be doing for a living, which resulted in me majoring in Web Design." is a wreck of a sentence; you should fix it.
  • "basketball wallpaper in photoshop" should have a capital "P" for Photoshop.
  • The picture adds a personal touch, but it's entirely unprofessional. It's blurry, and the look and color tone in it doesn't match the site. Your pose makes it look you don't take anything seriously enough for me to consider hiring you.
  • "Contact form is currently under development. " another sentence fragment.
  • "Thank you very much, contact form should be operational shortly." Why don't you spend an hour and get it done?
  • "Find a5-studios on your favorite social networks:" has no links or anything else.

I'm confused about your goal for the site. It seems like you're earnestly looking for work, but you're also proclaiming in a few different ways that you have zero experience or education. Are you just trying to push out a four-page presence site for a project at school?
Click to expand...

It was one of my projects for school, but I'm also looking to get into free lancing. I was going for something simple, yet professional. I understand that it's far from it still, I was mostly looking to test the layout itself out before I proceeded with ironing out the content. Looks like you think I should make something a bit more complex then?
 
aFive said:
It was one of my projects for school, but I'm also looking to get into free lancing. I was going for something simple, yet professional. I understand that it's far from it still, I was mostly looking to test the layout itself out before I proceeded with ironing out the content. Looks like you think I should make something a bit more complex then?
Click to expand...
Not sure how a hefty list of changes that require marginal time and effort was interpreted as "make something a bit more complex". You have enough feedback now to make a second draft of the site; I'd strongly suggest you follow the many recommendations listed in this thread.
 
Everything seems fine, but text fields should be placed more like a natural way than sticking it to corners or margins.
cool.gif
That way it will look more professional and attractive.
 
PTNL said:
Not sure how a hefty list of changes that require marginal time and effort was interpreted as "make something a bit more complex". You have enough feedback now to make a second draft of the site; I'd strongly suggest you follow the many recommendations listed in this thread.
Click to expand...


I will :). Going to work on the second draft this week and hopefully get it up for you guys to see. I have some other changes in mind, will see how it pans out. Also, any recommendations as far as getting my site known once everything is done and ready? I can't seem to even search for it in google :(. I have heard that webhostingpad only offers search engine listing for 30 days :(, that's what I am using now. I used to have inmotionhosting before switching to this.
mikeblas said:
Nope; I just think that content is more important than design.
Click to expand...

That's true, although I want something that is going to showcase my skills as a designer. Thus, I want to get the layout and placement down first. Then, I will work on all of my content, prior to actually getting my site out there.
 
aFive said:
Also, any recommendations as far as getting my site known once everything is done and ready? I can't seem to even search for it in google :(.
Click to expand...
Google Webmaster Tools is a good starting point. It will give some guidelines and registration instructions for site indexing. Just remember that "content is king" when it comes to SEO. And don't get suckered into paying for SEO assistance from 3rd party companies.
 
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