I'm new and would like some honesty

**Cheshire_cat** · 05-10-2007, 05:18 PM

This is one of my first website. I have done video production for a while and some graphic design, but I have recently wanted to expand to web publishing. www.pawdesign.net is my site and I would appreciate some honest assessments.

Thanks

**jameslow** · 05-10-2007, 05:29 PM

hi,
im gonna be honest ok,
Your website at the moment is bad, I had a quick look at your code and it does not look good. Don’t let this get you down ok. Smile

I would suggest going to either
http://www.w3schools.com/
or
http://www.htmldog.com/
And learn html. Once you have are confident with html begin to learn css, experiment with it, see how different things work etc.

Check out websites on http://www.seomoz.org/blog/css-inspiration

On here you can see some really good examples of what can be done with html and css. And if you are already good with graphics then that’s always good.

So that’s it, don’t give up, carry on and good luck

**Cheshire_cat** · 05-10-2007, 06:04 PM

Thanks for the tip. Could you give me an example of a line of code that is bad – just so I could see what I’m doing wrong? Thanks.

**jameslow** · 05-10-2007, 06:11 PM

hey
i would first get rid of alll the javascript on there and start with the basics.
captial letters should not be used in (x)html tags
<P></P> = wrong
<p></p> = right

if you are serious about webdesign you should not use tables to layout your website.
what are you using to make your websites , if its a program like dreamweaver stop using it, or just use the code view of it.

learn css and (x)html

thats it.

**jv16** · 05-10-2007, 07:41 PM

First of all you use flash. There is one good rule of a thumb about flash: don't. If you want to show videos on your websites or interactive tutorials then you can use flash, but don't use it for anything else. It loads slowly, it requires a plugin, it doesn't always work, it's bad for SEO, it's bad for usability and so on.

For example, I don't see any of your flash parts because they simply don't load. If this happens to a potential customer, would that give a good first impression?

Everything under the We Offer section should be links to your portfolio.

**jason_bristol** · 05-10-2007, 08:44 PM

I do think that you need to work on the design a little and up-date your code.

First thing I would do is lose that water effect animation you have.

**highanddry** · 03:55 AM

I am brand new here too, but I have a few years of web design experience...
First of all, every page I click on looks like a completely different website, hence I think you need some consistency. Pick a good format and stick to it throughout. The black looks ametuerish and hard on the eyes. If you look at all the major company websites, they are usually set in light colors and if they are not, ie the Lexus website, they are visually stimulating and consistent. Also the mouseover image changes look somewhat odd, they move in an unappealing way. Perhaps try a simple color change instead.
Good luck

**loganeast** · 05-11-2007, 12:17 PM

I agree that you need consistency in your design. That's the first thing.

The second thing is, tables are still out there, but real pro designers moved away from using them. The move is being made away from tables to style sheets (well, actually MADE but some of us are behind the curve). Its okay for you to use tables for now, but learning CSS is the way to go. Get a book and read up!

On your home page, I didn't get any header graphic like the other pages. If you're going to have the header on one page, it should be on all of them, especially the home page.

I strongly suggest not using black backgrounds. It's very 1995.

On your store page, your "Church" design T-Shirt is spelled "Chuch". You probably want to add the "r".

The buttons are very disconcerting. highanddry is right, its an unappealing transition. If you MUST have rollovers, keep the text in one spot.

And lastly, in the footer you have "pawdesign.netÂ© 2007 ". You probably want to remove the character between .net and the copyright character.

One more thing and then I swear I'll stop: Why are all of your pages third level domains? All of your links are www.contact.pawdesign.net. I don't understand the rationale behind this. Why not just have pawdesign.net/contact.htm? It just seems like you're giving yourself a lot of extra work setting up sub-domains instead of regular links.

You have a lot of work to do here, but its still better than my first site. Yuck. I don't even want to think about the sites I was churning out for people in my first year of web design. Microsoft FrontPage 97. {shudder!}

**Cheshire_cat** · 05-12-2007, 02:28 PM

Thanks for the comments; I’m trying to work on a lot of the things that were suggested. The biggest reason for the inconsistency is I’m not sure which design is the best. The home page is what I just recently did after some of the comments that I got in this forum, but before I redo the whole site I wanted to get some feedback from you guys. Is the homepage layout ok or does it need more work? Thanks again for any help.

**Connor** · 05-12-2007, 07:17 PM

I like the default layout (ie the homepage layout) I like it better than the dark one you have on all the other pages, but the "store" that you have could be more integrated into you website.

**highanddry** · 05-12-2007, 07:24 PM

In my honest opinion. The homepage is lacking. If you're setting out to design web pages for others you need a site that has an excellent, professional look. Right now its just a square and the header looks almost like a colored pencil drawing. I'm not trying to be harsh, but I feel that if you really want to make graphics and designs for others you should spend time to look at hundreds of web templates, choose one you really like and start perfecting your craft. You need to awe people to get their business with all of the excellent competition out there, and in all honesty I think there is a long way to go with this one. I have worked as a web consultant, though in terms of programming i cant be much assistance further than html/css and basic hosting issues : )
good luck

**tanjh** · 05-12-2007, 07:56 PM

It's alright, maybe you should consider changing your font to Arial..

**nuiseng191** · 05-13-2007, 11:54 AM

you color background is good but layout need to chang separate the content also

**Wonderbaum** · 05-13-2007, 06:03 PM

Don’t kill me if I am wrong but IMHO I enter your site and my initial thought is “what is this?” and then I would probably leave (as most surfers do if they are not caught in 5-7 seconds).

I can see that you like your logo and I agree that it looks great. But from a marketing perspective it is not important. Always remember the WIIFM (What’s In It For Me) way of designing websites. You need to instantly tell you visitors what they’ll get from you and why they need to keep reading.

And then… (this is not to be harsh) please drop the “Welcome to Paw Design”. This is what was used in the late 80’s when people put up their first websites.

Oh…. And then I suggest that you go for another title tag. I don’t think anyone will be searching for the term “paw design”. Something like “web design Georgia” or something. Do some research so find a term that you can rank for in the search engines.

**dansgalaxy** · 05-13-2007, 09:31 PM

I agree...

And also it appears that as has been said you have each page as a seperate address!! firstly (im guessing) most search engine will prefer it as one domain.

And it seems that each page has its own set of graphics. this is not good, becasue it means the users has to re-downlaod the same graphics for each page. if you use the same ones for each page it make s it faster for the end user because once they have them they apply to all pages etc etc...

also the green in your design for soem reason doesnt seem right to me,

and it looks very square, i mean i always think the more rounded corner sites look better.

also the whole header/naviagtion at the top jumps aound and changes from page to page.

now its obvious you not advanced (no offence) but maybe you should consider php includes for things like the navigation very simple and save loads of work.

And god TABLES... has ladynred seen this thread?... Lol...

(the funny thing is i was making tabled designs until a month or so ago XD now im all css/divs and i have really "seen the light" Lol)

same as someone else said, make all tags etc in lower case.
and use css.

Hope this helps, dont mean to be harsh.

Also im bored so, i can help bring your code up to scratch for a few quid

pm me or soemthign if your interested.

Dan

**Cheshire_cat** · 05-14-2007, 01:09 PM

Thanks for all the great info and tips – it seems I got a lot of work to do (I had a feeling I would). Does anyone know some good example sites that I can look at the layout or point me in the right direction – I know where I can buy templates, but I’m not really interested in that because I want to learn how to do it myself. Any help would be great.
–Thanks

**dansgalaxy** · 05-14-2007, 01:56 PM

I have Pmed you back

dan