New Web Design Site?

**Gilligan** · 03-08-2008, 08:14 PM

Looking to become a website designer and obviously I need a site of my own. So here it is.

I like the design is okay but would like some feedback on the content, and if you think the content would interest people in my web design.

Thanks in advance for any feedback (I can take criticism)

http://www.sgilligan.co.uk

**aschecht** · 03-08-2008, 08:52 PM

Gilligan,

I had a chance to review your website. I like the look of the site. Navigation is clear. There's not really much content to review yet. I know you're looking for projects with which to build a portfolio but the site feels very empty right now. Perhaps you could put up a few mock sites that you've designed as samples (even if they're not full fledged, web published sites).

I like the appearance of the Coding Skills section but I think it's almost a bit too forthcoming. Many people seeking a web design won't know exactly what they need in terms of HTML, CSS, PHP, JScript, etc. I think by disclosing your inexperience so openly right up front on your portfolio page it could discourage potential customers. By all means, I think it's good business practice to be honest about your skillset and experience but maybe not as the main content on your portfolio page. Let people send you their project descriptions first. Then if they require something you're not comfortable with yet tell them and either refer them to someone else or offer to learn what you need to for their site design.

Off to a good start. Best of luck.

Andrew

**Gilligan** · 03-09-2008, 07:53 AM

Thanks, this is just the kind of feedback I want...suggestions

Should i remove the 'coding skills' from the portfolio page but leave it in the about page??

**aschecht** · 03-09-2008, 12:49 PM

My preference would be to remove this section altogether for now. RIght now, because there's so little content, someone browsing your site will spend a good chunk of their time looking at that. Perhaps when you have more content up on the site and that information is there (on the About page is better than Portfolio I think) then it won't seem so prominent (ie. it will be only a small portion of the content on your site, not 30% of it).

Andrew

**davemies** · 03-09-2008, 05:09 PM

what does this mean?!
"I specialize in design purposes..."

**jshragge@cox.ne** · 03-09-2008, 11:20 PM

Leave out the word 'young'. Age shouldn't matter but may to some. Just let them know you design websites.

**ADAM Web Design** · 03-10-2008, 01:51 AM

To expand on what Andrew said a bit, you need to understand your target market and what they'll want to see. Most people who want business websites couldn't care less what you know; they just care whether or not you can do what you're supposed to for them. It's like asking a car mechanic for his ICS diploma...who cares, if he can fix your transmission, top up your fluids, and do all that good stuff?

My only other issue is with your header. I'm not sure that you'll want to go the "excessive art" route, unless you're trying to go after design clients and not full website development clients. Keep it simple, stupid, and all that...unless you want a whole bunch of indy bands with about 50 cents to their name asking you to build their sites.

**yourmna** · 03:08 AM

Simple and good site.

In my suggestion, the both left and right colums should be same in height (as much as possible). See your about page. At left column your wrote "About me", "How does it work?", "Am I Right for the Job?", "What are my prices?" and at right column you wrote your coodding skills. They are near to about equal in height. Try to make sure they are same in size at each page. This looks nice.

Contact form working fine and quickly as look very good. You did not given you direct contact details, email, phone, address. There are many good reasons to give them. They attract customers.

Overall site has good impression.

**ddvvns** · 04:20 PM

Nice and simple site.
A couple of suggesitions:
Since this site is not competing in the search engines for the spot in the searches to drive you business it is important to have some selling points. Think of it as an extention of a conversation with a prospective customers. You need to build your experience with your target audience and get a few answers on the site for the questions they have not asked you yet.
What is it that you want to do? small html sites? small business packages? maintenance? support? and talk about it on your site.

Hope this helps

Val

< removed >

**Gilligan** · 03-10-2008, 04:35 PM

I've updated the content of the site slightly.

What privileges should I add for members??

**bakerc** · 03-10-2008, 06:54 PM

The site looks good, but I have to agree with what has been said above, it looks like the site geared more towards graphic design. Have you thought about doing sites for friends and family to help build your portfolio?

**Gilligan** · 03-10-2008, 07:08 PM

No, but now I have.. lol

**Oreo Killa 225** · 03-10-2008, 07:12 PM

Ok...I reviewed it awhile and this is what I have to say...

Try making the site a little bit bigger...that will attract more customers. Make sure you have everything up and running or don't show the site yet.(ie: member's area).

P.S. I just have to say this, in the "Contact" section when you said

"Did You Know?
This contact form was made by basic PHP, which is one of my coding skills."

I actually "laughed" for some reason...maybe "corny"?

**aschecht** · 03-11-2008, 12:35 AM

I don't see the role of a Members Area on a site which seems to be intended to inform potential customers about your business. Perhaps if you wanted to give clients with current projects a secure login area to look at their project in process that would make sense but you'd need to partition it so clients wouldn't have access to each others projects. Seems like more trouble than it's worth to me.

A.

**collegephotosus** · 03-11-2008, 09:51 AM

I guess since you have no project in the portfolio I would skip the site entirely, as that is where my attention was first drawn. Perhaps involve yourself in a couple of pet projects to put some content on that page until you get some other examples?

**Gilligan** · 03-11-2008, 05:33 PM

I guess the 'did you know' part is corny, but what should I put there instead?

Okay, members area will be forgotten (for now at least), but what should I put in the right hand box. It seems really plain. Something to fill it, some kind of feature.

Forget the site entirely?? Why would I do that? If I was looking for a web designer, i'd like to see the design for his site, or at least see that he has a site?

**roje0913** · 03-11-2008, 07:49 PM

I agree with the other person that suggested you did some mock ups to fill your portfolio as it builds , nobody wants to be a test dummy to someone new if you have no other work to show. Just me personally but I think you page might load faster if you broke your home page logo up into more than 1 section. and did progressive jpgs

**davemies** · 03-12-2008, 06:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by roje0913

Just me personally but I think you page might load faster if you broke your home page logo up into more than 1 section. and did progressive jpgs

you don't gain much from breaking it up unless there are parts that you can compress greatly compared to the others, and then you have to reassemble the whole lot into divs or at least images that sit next to each other... and the requests to the server for the sliced images add to load time too

as it is as a png it's too big and would be about half the size as a high quality jpeg.

same for the background - save it as a jpeg at a reasonably high quality but not too high - as a background image for the page it can be lower than the masthead/header graphic

**timothynblake** · 03-12-2008, 07:06 AM

personally i think you tried to copy my site but you made a really bad job of it you should try and be original and come up with you own ideas something no one has ever produced that's the key to web design originality. Also your portfolio page is lacking content your portfolio should display some of you best ever work you have created for potential customers to look out and your've used too much splatter in the banner it really does kill the effect. Also you should loo into designing a favicon.

**Gilligan** · 03-12-2008, 12:47 PM

I made this site / logo a month ago, before I saw your site.. trust me. I took one thing from your site that I think worked well, and that was the headings with the borders at the bottom.