Welcome to the funny farm, gilshafir. You might want to check out our :FAQ: to get yourself oriented.
Now, on to the review:
1) Rollovers: I've got to admit that something just rubs me the wrong way with these rollovers, but I'm not sure exactly what it is. At the very least, you might want to aim for some consistency between the splash page rollovers (which go "up" and "down") and the internal rollovers (which don't move at all). This is ultimately a pretty minor thing, though, and I think it comes down to personal preference. If you like the rollovers that way, that's cool.
2) Splash page: Although your splash page actually has some text on it, I'm still not sure that you really need it. All of the information there is either redundant (what kind of company you are, where you are located) or unnecessary ("welcome to our site" and other obvious stuff). I would make the "About Us" page the home page and take out the splash page, saving the user a click and getting right to the meat of the site. Also, as Lacuna pointed out, the text on your splash page is a graphic. If you are going to keep the splash page (which I would advise against, of course), turn that graphic into text.
3) Text: I have just got to ask--why is every single bit of text on your site in italics? First of all, italics on screen fonts generally don't look too nice, and that is the case here. It's just plain ugly. Second, did you notice how my question up there really stands out? That's because I used my emphasis sparingly in this post. Since all of your text is in italics, it completely loses any effect it might have had (on top of being ugly). It doesn't make me want to read it, and it looks very unprofessional.
Not helping in that department is the large text you have popping out of sentences on your About Us and Pricing pages. Again, this looks very ugly and unprofessional--it breaks up the line spacing, thus disrupting the flow of the text and making it harder to read. I understand that you might want to emphasize certain points, but that's what bullets and subtitles are for. I would recommend avoiding text size changes in mid-paragraph. I would also shy away from bolding or other attention-grabbing techniques, as they end up looking unprofessional. Here's another way to think about it (in terms of content rather than aesthetics): if you have to emphasize certain parts of your text to make sure the important points stand out, is it not possible that you have too much text? Pare down your text so that you only have what the visitor needs to know.
4) Links: On my monitor, at least, the link color is almost indistinguishable from the text color. Some of your clients might not even realize that you've got links in there, especially ones that are embedded in copy (like the "e-mail" link on the Services page--I discovered that one by accident). Visitors shouldn't have to guess where links are.
Now, on to some thoughts on the individual pages:
5) About Us: First off, the copy seems a bit awkward to me. It's not bad, but I would get someone to read it over (aloud) to clean it up a bit. Second your personnel section is a bit off as well. Descriptions for you and Kyle list a specific profession (if "guru" can actually be called a profession), while descriptions for Abel and Steve list fields. I would just stick with the general fields: Photoshop graphics, Web programming, 3D design, Internet marketing. Anything to get rid of that "guru."
6) Not much to say about this page. Nice bulleted list covering the important points.
7) Portfolio: You have four clients at the bottom of the page under the subtitle "Other Clients Include"--why no websites? If they were clients of yours, you should have something to show for it, right? I really don't understand why you are listing them if you have no links for them. At least offer an explanation for that (the sites were taken down, they are still under construction, etc.).
8) Pricing: This is probably the worst page of the batch. You have 204 words of "introductory text" at the top (no, I didn't count them by hand ;-)), but only six of those words say anything about pricing ("Wizard Graphics' prices are very affordable"). To tell you the truth, I didn't actually realize you had price plans down at the bottom until my second or third visit to the page. If people are visiting this page, it is because they want to see your price plans--they don't want to go through a sales pitch. You already went through the sales pitch on the previous pages, right?
Imagine a customer shopping for a television. The salesman gives his sales pitch, and the customer actually seems interested in the product. "So," she asks, "how much for this model?" Imagine how confused she would be if the salesman suddenly broke into a second sales pitch. She's practically hooked, and the sale will be made if the price is right, and you're going to launch into a yet another discussion of why this television is the one she wants? I can just imagine the customer standing there with a befuddled look on her face, thinking, "But all I wanted to know was how much it cost..."
My opinion: trash the text, or at least reduce it to a sentence or so of introduction. With all that text, the price plans end up being "below the fold," and I can guarantee that some people will never get to them. You could move the sales pitch to another page ("Why you should go with Wizard Graphics," or something to that effect), but I don't really think the text is necessary. If they are checking out your web page, they are already interested in having a web site built. Of the five paragraphs you have there, four are trying to convince the visitor that they need a website. Continuing with the above analogy, it would be like the salesman launching into a long speech on the benefits of television after the customer has already said she wants to buy one.
Sorry for harping on this point, but I think it is a very important one.
9) Contact: I like this page. You offer four different ways of contacting your company, including an online form for those who may not have access to the other methods.
Well, that's about it. I know this review is incredibly long, but I hope it wasn't too harsh. I only spent the amount of time I did on this because I can see that you guys are serious about what you are doing and you don't just want to put up any old piece of crap.
You'll notice I concentrated on things like usability and content, rather than design. That's just more my cup of tea, I guess. There are others here who will be able to give good critiques of the design itself.
[Edit: Grammar 'n' stuff]
[This message has been edited by Suho1004 (edited 02-03-2003).]
posted 01-31-2003 22:10
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