Topic: Site in progress

Hey there Mad Scientists,

Been working on a site design for my freelance web/graphic design work. The site is still completely in progress, but I just wanted to know how you guys felt about the general site design. Appreciate the constuctive critisism. Peace.

Dandelion Graphics

-Adam Duro

I have to be totally honest here, and say that it looks like every other "I wanna be a designer" site out there.

The pixleated text, the 'pseaudo scientific' graphics in the header, the curvy yellow, the grid, the cheesy little wingding arrows, the 'metal tube' look of the buttons, it's all just so........done to death.

In addition, the black on yellow really doesn't work, especially with the ends blurred out. It looks kind of like you couldn't decide on a style, and it got stuck in between. Yellow is a tough color to work with sometimes. Obviously you want yellow to associate with the name dandelion - I think you need a little deeper shade of yellow though, and without anything black on top of it.

The page also does not fit horizontally at 800px, which is not a good thing.

Can't really give any specific advice to remedy the first issues I mentioned. You need to give some deeper thought to the visual style you want to define yourself with.

What ^ he said.

I see very little cohesion to this design. It comes off looking like a mix of so called "trendy" elements rolled into one in a hope those ingredients are enough to make, well, something. But they don't.

The biggest indication of this being the arrows pointing off screen top left. If you're going to use arrows, yes them to point *at* something, to draw attention to something or add emphasis. The arrow is a powerful universal symbol; if you misuse it then you'll likely come off as being nothing more than a trend whore. Which probably isn?t what you want?

My suggestion to improve this site would be to start all over again. I don't think you approached this in the right way to begin with. Not that there's any one correct way of designing something. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong here, but I'm assuming you thought that having a hip and happening website would help you land jobs. Most designer seem to have em, espically the good ones that have phat portfolios. Problem is, that's not and should never be the starting point of your design.

Firstly, design your content (that usually involves drawing out little flow charts). If you don't have any content, you shouldn't be making a website in the first place, go make some content first. If you don't have much content don't try and make up for it by over designing your website. I've seen this a million times and it always comes off very unprofessional.

Secondly, identify the goals of your website, and make sure it makes sense to have a single website that tries to meet all of those goals. It may be better to make several smaller sites. This not only applies to the amount of goals you'll want a single website to meet but the also to possible conflicts in subject matter. For example, if you want to create a professional portfolio, don't put pictures of your pet on it.

Finally, design it, using the content outline and list of site goals, making a design that supports those elements should be much simpler and work much better. The list of goals should also dictate what kind of visual styles you're likely to use, or at the very least give you an indication as to weather or not all of those ultra "hip" ideas you've had actually make sense and fit in with the content and aims of the site, or simply distract from it.

Oh and lastly, if something doesn't seem to fit, scrap it. It's better to have a sparse clean and working design than a cluttered and broken one. If you're into the habit of sketching down every idea you have (and you should be) then throw it onto the scrap pile (should have one or many of these too), might come in handy for a later project.

Although, that's just my opinion. Feel free to kick it to the kerb if it smells funny.

Thank you guys very much for your opinions and critisisms. I will definatly take all of those into consideration. For now I am satisfied with the look of the site, but I am going to start a redesign almost immediatly. The tips you guys have provided will help me immencely during my next design. You guys are obviously seasoned designers with loads of good advise. I appreciate all the reviews.

Thanx guys!