Quote: Original post by sunandshadow

Quote: Original post by smr
* I have to scroll to the right to see all your thumbnails

That definitely shouldn't happen. Can I ask what your screen resolution is? It should work fine on screens with horiz 1024 or greater, and hopefully nobody should be using less than that these days.


I would like to point out that the previous version had a plain white background, all black text, no graphical dividers, and no tables. So personally I consider this to be progress. ;) I will certainly give serious consideration to all suggestions made for improving the page, but my my main goals are something that is low maintenance, has everything up front rather than hidden in subpages where a prospective customer might miss it, and functions as a catalog showing a potential customer all the option they can order from, without seeming crassly commercial.


I changed the link text to: (Link To My Writing And Editing Services Page) Is that better or does that make it seem like I want people to link to me from their pages? I fixed the comma. Anyone have suggestions for alternate colors rather than just not liking these? I am not going to be using a wallpaper, so if you make a recommendation for the background please suggest a solid color. I don't understand what's not attractive about a large font? (I personally have trouble reading small fonts because of my astigmatism.) The font type is just the default html font because I'm not using a stylesheet. I'll look into what other sorts of fonts are available but if I have to specify the font on every line that's too much work.

Maybe just [My Writing and Editing Services Page is Here]

I changed the link text to that, and played around with the colors (using the whole 20 that html has names for lol) trying to make them harmonize with the graphical dividers - I like the colorscheme a lot better now. :)

Ok, I'm going to give some advices that won't require you to redo the whole thing, however, it would be valuable for you to make the effort to learn CSS since it's pretty easy and saves loads of time in the long run.

1- there's more than 20 names for colors in html, but need not limit yourself to names, pull out photoshop or you image editing software, choose pretty colors and check up their hex number (#ff44aa for exemple) if you want to keep a dark bg I would try something desaturated that won't steal the show from your images.

2- if you absolutely much use a table, the least you can do is the hide the borders, they are very distracting.

3- use smaller thumbnails, big enough to recognize the images but small enough that the user isn't scrolling through miles of stuff before finding what he's searching for. Crop them all to the same size, the user will see them complete when he clicks to enlarge.

4- drop at least one of the big tribal designs at the top, they take space that should be used to display your work.

5- no emoticons on your professional website please.

6- only show your absolute best work.

This could just be me, but the aliasing on the prettydividertop and prettydividerbottom is really distracting. Also, the inside the table cells, the borders around the images detract from the images themselves. Layout-wise a side bar or at least a quick jump link menu would be helpful.

I posted this to your previous thread; clearly you didn't read it.

Excepts:

Quote: Don't take the trouble to get a domain name. Art directors will remember "mac.com/users/~joeblow/web/portfolio/intro.html" much more easily than "joeblowillustration.com" when they go to hire their next artist. Plus "tripod.com/members/~janedoe/paintings/gallery/thumbnails.html" is so easy to mention in conversation or recommend to someone else, and it looks great on a business card. Don't consider the fact that domain names can cost less than $10 a year, and are often free with real web hosting accounts. Hey, the good ones are all taken or squatted on, right, so why bother? And if you do get a domain name, longer names that are more closely associated with your name or studio, and might be easier to remember, can't possibly be a cool as bizarre, clever, short ones that have nothing to do with you or your work.

...

Don't bother to find out how to make your site search-engine friendly.

...

Don't learn anything about usability, information design or good navigation practices. If you're making your site yourself, you don't want to stifle your creativity with such things, nor do you want to be aware of them if you've hired a "creative" web site designer or agency who has promised to make your site "cutting edge". All that nonsense about making a site easy to use just gets in the way. Make sure you don't read books on web site usability, like Steve Krug's Don't make Me Think. Don't try to look at your site like someone who's never been there before. Hey, you know where everything is, if some newbies can't figure it out, screw 'em!

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Don't focus! ... Oh, and while you're at it, make sure to cram as much as possible on your home page. It's the most important page, right? So everything should go there. Make it long and scrolling and squeeze stuff into every corner. You don't want any wasted white space! The more stuff vying for attention, the better! MAKE EVERY LINE A HEADLINE! Mix colors! MAKE YOUR HEADLINES LOOK LIKE LINKS! MAKE YOUR LINKS LOOK LIKE HEADLINES! Be sure to underline, italicize and bold all kinds of stuff for EMPHASIS!!. Isn't this fun?! Don't forget, the computer gods gave you a milliOn fOntS for a reason; it would be a sin not to use them.

Your site is an aesthetic disaster, Mare.

1. Layout/Color. Dark text on dark background is a no-no. I know; you wanted to create something atmospheric, in keeping with your own stylistic preferences. That does not excuse violating basic usability. Further, once you're selling your services, your preferences become secondary. Your customers rule.


2. Layout. You waste the most important portion of your page - the first screenful - with content that doesn't wow, interest or appeal. Take a look at ConceptArt.org. Take a look at CGSociety.org. Take a look at Drawn!. Take a look at Cold Hard Flash. Sites that are serious about showing off artwork start by showing off artwork! Put your content as high up on the page as possible.


3. Layout. People don't want to scroll indefinitely. It's excused for blogs because they are serial content, and the presumption is that you'll only read up to the last entry you'd seen (or subscribe to RSS and thus see each entry separately). Paginate your content.


4. Layout/Pagination. Separate pages for each of your content categories - and you already have categories - is a good idea. For one thing, it allows people to focus on what they are interested in without having to sift through what they're not. For another, it allows your presentation of each item to be the focal point of the page, rather than having all your work compete. I really recommend something like ConceptArt.org's galleries: on the main page, one icon represents a category (remember to add alt tags, so search engines can find your content), with the name of the category below, clearly legible even without mouse hover (text that appears and disappears is a navigation hurdle); the category gallery presents thumbnails of all available pieces, and clicking on each thumbnail shows the work in full - with "previous" and "next" links to keep going through the gallery and links back up to the main page.


5. Editorial Selection. Show your best work only. Nobody wants to sift through your earlier, weaker work. Select your strongest pieces to make the best impression and give you the best chance of winning commissions.

All that said, I must absolutely congratulate you for putting something up. Some people, myself included, talk and talk about what they're "going to" do, but don't get around to actually doing. I think it was Steve Jobs that said, real artists produce. Congratulations. You're a real artist.

Olusey - Again I find myself put on the defensive by your rather abrasive communication style...

Actually I did read that link when you posted it, it was even posted twice in that thread. I thought it was mostly BS. My site is not intended to be found from search engines, and it doesn't generate enough income to justify paying for a domain name when my webservice provider already gives me a free one which is relatively short and for which I got to pick my directory name. This is only the second time I've made a webpage, the last time _was_ in the 90s, and I am copying the html I need out of a text book one line at a time. I'm all for making improvements to the page which can be done without too much effort or knowledge, but lacking both tools and experience I don't expect to end up with something really professional looking.

I did try to have good "usability, information design and navigation practices" - I made the webpage the way I like to read webpages, which is having everything in one place in linear order, so I can skim it with one scrolling glance and decide whether it's worth actually looking closely at. From everyone's comments I can see that's obviously not the prevailing philosophy, but I can only wonder how other people don't get confused by having too many options and non-obvious site structure. And I seem to be the only one who thinks the table lines were an improvement on the previous lineless design. That at least I'm going to experiment with - see if I can kill the image borders or change the color of the borders or anything.

Now, the point of only showing my best work is an interesting one. I wanted to show the array of content types and techniques I sell, but IMO some of these are categorically mediocre, like flat coloring and my attempts at drawing architecture. Some of them I simply dislike doing, like soft shading. But I think removing all the examples of these 3 things would be less productive than leaving them there for prospective clients to decide what they like. So, if anyone thinks a particular piece is bad I can try to replace it with a different example of the same content type or technique, but when I picked these pieces I did spend a good bit of time agonizing over which were the best examples of each category. I made the birch tree sprite new, re-cropped or adjusted the contrast on several images, smoothed some lines of the roosterlizard, and re-exported the running animation because it wasn't scaling cleanly to thumbnail-size. I basically ransacked my harddrive for all the art I had ever done, so whatever quality the stuff that's on the page is, is probably the best I had on hand. There's also the fact that my favorites among my art are often not the same as other people's favorites - I really have no ideas which pieces would be considered the best by the average viewer.

Bassically, the page matches the content and thats a good thing. If you feel the above posters communication style abrasive your being far to defensive. He posted the link in the original thread, if you read through it you will know you bassically ignored everything in it, it was a good link as well, I liked it.

But then again, no one can blame you for not designing a good web-page right, you dont know coding and your not a useability expert. Use some business sense though, you have to spend money to make money. Get someone to design a page for you, someone with a bit of experience, hopefully they will be able showcase your work in a better light, because your woefully off-center with this attempt, not that thats bad; the site is amaturish, and your an amature at web design, go figure.

Other then that, and I know what you will say but I feel the need for some reason, your work is not worth giving away. You've ventured into the realm of art without ability and, as long as I have seen you posting on these forums, no apparent sense or capability to take criticism or advice. Normally I wouldn't be so harsh when it comes to art, afterall, most of the best artists werent any good when they started and/or their poor work was the early stages of the newest fads and styles that other would mimic for years afterwords. Yet you continue your attempts to copy anime in a completely amaturish manner, again with no reguard for those suggesting a more formal foundation, youve even argued with seasoned industry veteran while taking their class about your self proclaimed abilities. Not that I expect you to take my advice.

[replied to slowpid here, but decided to PM it rather than taking the thread any further into flamy irrelevancy]

I have to agree with all the points that Oluseyi made. Especially about the colour scheme; I literally cannot read the whole of one of those large dark magenta blocks of text as my eyes can't take it.

Overall though, I guess my main criticism (apart from the colour scheme) is that it just doesn't look that professional. In fact it reminds me of some of the websites I saw when teaching middle school IT classes, although by no means the worst out of those I've seen (decorative frilly pink fonts on hot pink backgrounds, ugh). But it just doesn't look up to what I'd expect from someone looking to be hired for contract work. I do recommend you follow Oluseyi's suggestions and split everything up in separate pages and make it a bit more navigatable. It doesn't need to be that fancy a website, just clean and usable.

Alright, I give up. If the consensus is that the site is a piece of crap and needs to be redesigned, I'll redesign it. I'm pissed off that I apparently wasted a week working on it, and was prematurely really happy that I was finally done with the stupid thing, but oh well. Maybe in another week I'll have a new version.