Los Angeles Computer Repair Website — OZONE Asylum, home of the Mad Scientists

Los Angeles Computer Repair Website

This page's ID: 21750

Edit Post

Who can edit a post?	The poster and administrators may edit a post. The poster can only edit it for a short while after the initial post.

Your User Name:
Your Password:
Login Options:	Remember Me On This Computer

Your Text: Insert Slimies » Insert UBB Code » Close Last Tag \| All Tags UBB Help	The site is not a nightmare, the site is average. We are very critical here. This site would not go for any major outfit, it might be what small mom and pop shops would have gotten back in the 1990's. It looks much like a first attempt site. I.E. your first attempt at designing a professional site. But now it is time to move on. This design is flawed in many ways. Those that stick out are your use of tables and not a CSS based design. Your flawed navigation which is just bad form using two different menus. Finally that the site looks dated, like it was designed 5 years ago. If you want to continue designing this web site you need to scrap this current version and move onto version 2. Start from the ground up. First : The Competition ---------- Take a look at other computer repair sites, or computer sales sites, you have a lot of different places that offer this kind of service. So it shouldn't be hard to find some. Lets have a look at some links. First the big boys: http://www.dell.com http://www.ibm.com http://www.gateway.com These sites are all very standard. You don't have much variety. You also have a huge budget since the online sales is an important business function. That means you will get lots of photographs done by a pro, and professional illustrators doing your graphics. This does not mean you can not do this stuff, but most time it will involve purchasing royalty free photographs, or taking your own pictures. But in all these sites you will find that really people with computers are being depicted, and they are all happy. You don't want people standing over broken equipment. You want it pristine. Now go find 10 more of your own competitive sites that offer the same or similar services that you offer. I think you will find that there isn't much different between many of the designs, they are all clean and easy to navigate, you will see the ones you like, and the ones you don't. For the 10 sites write down exactly what you like and exactly what you don't like. Lots of the designs are similar because that is what works, breaking the mold is often what designers say they are trying to do. But most times it is just plain wrong, and doesn't work well. If you need to ask for critiques of your work you are not at the level where you have mastered the basics enough to try and branch out in new directions. (This is a side rant, sorry it made it in here) Second : The Sketch ---------- Now get out a pad of paper and a pencil. Quickly sketch between 10 to 20 different designs using the list that you came up with as your guide to site creation. Don't include anything you didn't like in the other sites, and include things you did like. Once you have 10 or 20 sketches down, pick out your favorite ones, and spend some more time on new sketches using them. Include more detail refine them all. You will most likely be drawn to one of the sketches, but work on all of them. You should have no less than 3 that you like, and have spent and equal amount of time on. Normally 3 to 5 at this point is good. Your end results should be well drawn, you might even use colored pencils, markets or crayons to do some basic color work on your designs. Third : The Code ---------- Make your designs digital. Either do it all in photoshop or using some XHTML / CSS to prototype each of your designs. Spend some time refining them. They should still be a bit basic, but they should give you a basic idea of where you are going with them. Then you should show them to us and ask for opinions and ideas. Let us know what your inspirations was, if you have any problems ask questions. Tell us what you think of the designs. [url=http://www.codetown.org] [img]http://www.codetown.org/img/sig/robot_002.gif[/img] [/url] Loading...
Options:	Enable Slimies Enable Linkwords

« Backwards — Onwards »

Show Forum Drop Down Menu