Davez Designz - Still in Development

**DavezDesignz** · 05-02-2006, 01:23 PM

Hey All,

I was hoping some of you can visit my site http://www.davezdesignz.com and give me some feedback while I'm still in the Development Stage. Any and all Opinions are Welcome. Thank You in advance for the help everyone.

**Galaxian** · 05-02-2006, 02:11 PM

PROs:

I liked your 3D Designs

CONs:

The logo isn't clear. You can't even see the name of your site clearly.
The dark design is used unprofessionally, making you look amatuer
I recommend Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, or Century Gothic rather than Times New Roman
Imaging is generally amatuer all over the site
Firefox Compaitability needs checking as when I went on the site with Firefox, half the content was floating 200% down the page - all over the place! But on I.E. 6 it seemed fine.
The only decent logo on there really is the Eagle Squadron one really, I think people will be more interested in more professional designers.
Your background is not satisfying to the more professional user, it is more what beginner web designers use for their personal homepages rather than professionals
The Sharp Reds do not go with the blacks

Recommendation: Study your competition more. Remember, you'll have to compete with sites like http://www.metavisia.co.uk/ and http://www.ultimatepresence.co.uk/web-design/. With that competition in mind, which would the interested client pick; yours or the competition? Plus the competition has alot more publicity, advertising, and Page Rank. I'd recommend deep reconsideration into your design strategy.

Great concept ideas though!

Rating So Far: 2.5

**genihanna** · 05-02-2006, 07:06 PM

Hi Dave! The black background and use of both white & red, and the size of the font made me dizzy. I wasn't comfortable trying to read all of your content, and there is a lot. Perhaps you could split it up, maybe use some bulleted lists to offset the length. I didn't even notice your logo.

**radiocore** · 05-02-2006, 08:39 PM

Wow that page took forever to load. You may need to do a bit of optimizing.

All those borders that are made out of the silver graphic are hurting the professional feel (which is lacking as is). Go with a more clean, sophisticated border system if you want to be taken seriously. Work on your digital art a bit, the header has some bad ailiasing (sp?), and the dark red on black doesn't help.

The file tree structure for the links on the left side makes it look old school, and not in a good way. Once again, something a bit more simple may actually come off as more professional. On second thought, you could probably get that to look good, if you change the folder icons to something a little less outdated.

Color scheme...pick one. Black, red, green, yellow, and white aren't the most appealing. This thing has potential, it just needs a bit more thought. I think the biggest thing that would help it is a better and more coordinated use of colors. Change that and the whole site will look better. Plus change your fonts, make them a bit smaller, around size=2, and something similar to Arial.

You may also want to consider getting rid of the things that aren't needed, such as the calendar on the right. Its just there, as far as I can tell, because it can be there, not because it serves a purpose.

If I were you, here is what I'd do:
Throw out the odd stuff that doesn't fit, like the calendar and borders.
Find a solid color scheme, it can still be dark, but work with colors that compliment each other. Honestly I'd do something other that black for the background, but thats just me.
Fix the fonts.
Since you are selling your artistic skills, make that the first thing people notice. Clean up your banner, then on the home page, write a little welcome not explaining your business, then put some examples of your work right on the homepage. If they see something they like, they are more likely to stick around to see what else you have.

Anyway, thats a lot I know, but that is everything I could think of. Not trying to be harsh, but you still have your work cut out for you. Good luck!

**DavezDesignz** · 05-02-2006, 11:28 PM

Thank you all and keep them coming... but there are some things I have to add the font colors I'm still working with as well as the calendar and the menu on the left. I am building this site with visual web developer 2005 and I'm still learning the controls.... I was thinking about getting rid of the silver bars on the right and you helped me come to that conclusion thank you radiocore. as with the graphics most of the actual photoshop and paint shop pro files had been stolen from me on some hard drives that were taken and that was way before I had a good backup strategy.. so I'm actually making new graphics for the header and most of the logos and advertisments... but keep up the comments bc I'm putting them all in my task list

**colochris** · 05-03-2006, 12:50 AM

I like the style of your site. I too feel that the logo is a bit blurry and it does not look as professional as it would sound. But visitors will be the judge. Some will tell you that having the date is not good. Many feel that they already know the date, so why do they need to see it.

I do like the content. The crossbar coming up when you try the nav bar is weird to me, because I am not used to it.

I think your site just needs a little color tune up and youll be good

**DavezDesignz** · 05-03-2006, 09:27 AM

yeh The Calender is going to be like a news and events calender I just have not finished the implementation of it but that is coming very soon

**radiocore** · 05-03-2006, 12:12 PM

Good deal. Sounds like you have some good ideas. That sucks that you lost most of your art.

That was another thing I noticed. The crosshair thing works when you highlight a link, but it kinda threw me off at first. Most people are on autodrive to a certain extent when browsing sites, and they are used to seeing certain things happen, and when something different happens, it's more of a distraction than something that helps the design. It does work though, so that one is up to you.

**DianeD** · 05-03-2006, 12:27 PM

Gosh, where to begin? First of all, when your site loaded, my first impression (and I'm being honest here) made me think of someone's free home page at Geocities or Yahoo. Having a dark background is all fine and good, but you need to make it visually appealing, too. Grab their attention. You don't have a headline which might help.

As I navigated throughout your site, I found numerous spelling errors. You definitely want to fix those.

If I were you, I'd start over. Find or design a template utilizing more CSS. With the fairly easy layout that you presently have, you really don't need to use tables. Recreate your logo's and banner since they're really not focused enough to read, not only that, they look unfinished and really don't add any value to the overall design the way they are.

The directory structure on the left side is really unnecessary and a more simple navigation area would be better and easier for anyone to move about. The mouse pointer is definitely irksome to me, but that's my own personal preference. I prefer to be able to just find the information I'm searching for with a mouse pointer that's familiar to me.

Other items I found:

-- The fonts are too big and bold and cumbersome to read. Use a verdana instead as it's easier to read and won't tire the eyes.
-- Did you get permission from Pepsi to use their copyrighted name? Just curious.
-- Your "Links" area can be eliminated altogether since it adds no value.
-- Most of your sentences are run-on's. You might want to make them shorter or at the very least bulletize them for easier reading.
-- On your "About Us" page you talk about your "great and amazing skills" - well, what are they? Prove it by examples. Mention what they are, what programs you used to create them. How your skills will be beneficial to them and what you can do for them.

I started reading some of what you wrote, and seriously, you need to learn a bit of copywriting techniques and also grammar. Perhaps you just wrote it up very quickly, but you should proof read everything you write. I realize that on the internet, copy should read at least at the 6th grade level for the general population, but you really need to make sure your grammar is correct and understandable.

All in all, I'd say you have quite a bit of work to do before you go "live".

Just my 2 cents,
DianeD

**ebangla** · 05-03-2006, 01:33 PM

Hi you tried really hard to I must say good luck to you but you need to work on some things As far I believe....

1. You should change your color combination... dark backgrounds might thrilling you but visitors dont like them at all. It is better to have light back ground and dark fonts. You might have a passion for black but if you see from your visitor's angle you will prefer to change it.
2. You have made your fonts bold and big,,,,,,, so everything looking awful,,
Only use bold when u wanna highlight something otherwise it will not have any good effect.
3. Your logo some how merged in the black background and is partly invisible. I hope you gave your efforts and money to create it so dont hide it in the dark..

So if you see my review All points are around one first thing and that is your back ground. Try to improve all those things and wish you all the best

**DavezDesignz** · 11:49 AM

ok I found one of my old templates so tell me how this layout looks...
http://www.davezdesignz.com/NewSite/

I'm still gonna try and put the other template to the potential I know it has but for something else not my business site.. I understand too dark but for what I was going for that's the only way it could be...

for this template all of the text is just placeholding... none of it is staying...
some of the graphics such as the header will be enhanced and most likely changed. I just want to know if you think this is a better layout bc I found plenty others that I will no doubt ask you about in the future

I really enjoy your suggestions bc friends will be friends and sometimes they tell you what they think u wanna hear, which is the only reason I was spending time on the dark template I was in the middle of building..

Not sure about the text on the buttons either... still figuring out the scheme bc the whole page is going to be DB driven with admin pages where you can change anything from anywhere on a webpage so it's going to be more like a web application... I have that with the current layout but get too many bad comments about the darkness so shouldn't be too hard to move the stuff over. Also where the top text says davez designz that will be different text

**DavezDesignz** · 05-05-2006, 09:38 AM

Is anyone gonna check out the new layout design and tell me what they think?

**sakr** · 05-05-2006, 12:51 PM

Infinitely better, looks much more proffesional.

However, might just be safari, but some of your content is cut off because it is shifted about 30px right.

**DavezDesignz** · 01:23 PM

thanks, I haven't tried to view it through any other browsers yet except IE
I wonder why it's shifting though!! hmmmm...

**classeium.com** · 05-07-2006, 05:26 PM

I really dont like the dark design. It looks weak and unprofessional. try lighter, friendlier colours.

**elamigo2004** · 05-07-2006, 05:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavezDesignz

Hey All,

I was hoping some of you can visit my site http://www.davezdesignz.com and give me some feedback while I'm still in the Development Stage. Any and all Opinions are Welcome. Thank You in advance for the help everyone.

you need matching colors.

the calendar is too big for that column.

other than that, looks ok

**DavezDesignz** · 05-07-2006, 06:20 PM

yeh I know it's too dark so I am using a different layout now which can be found at http://www.davezdesignz.com/NewSite/Index.aspx . I will use the dark layout for something else later after I revise it a few times

but can you check out the new layout instead guys?

**paulrichards19** · 05-08-2006, 07:47 PM

Re design the logo at the top its not at all that clear. The contrast of colours for some people could be hard to read. It also gives the impression that it uses frames that most people dont like.
Get some fonts off my site

**ICI** · 05-09-2006, 12:27 AM

I use a T1 for my high-speed internet. It took a little time for the site to come up. I'm not sure whether those who do not use high-speed internet have a problem bringing up your site.

Although your site is a different genre than I am familiar with, it was nice and easy to navigate. Some of the print in your designs was difficult to read. Nevertheless, nice job.

**ICI** · 05-09-2006, 12:30 AM

Dave, I like your new site much better. It really looks nice. Wishing you the best.