Zend Studios

Webmonkey

Hey there, i'm thinking of starting a new website to show all my services and stuff.

http://www.irelandpages.com/zendstudios/

Thats the layout i'm thinking of using, do you think its ok?.

./Webmonkey

mneylon

Putting "Site designed for IE5" puts me off it immediately.

If you aim to develop sites professionally you are going to have to realise that Internet Explorer is NOT the only browser used by people.
That does not mean that you have to make a site which looks and works in EXACTLY the same way with all the browsers. However, there are ways to make the user's experience similar if not identical across all platforms and using most browsers.

Putting an IE5 notice on the main page is like saying "get lost" to users of Opera, Netscape, Konqueror etc

dahamsta

Originally posted by blacknight
If you aim to develop sites professionally you are going to have to realise that Internet Explorer is NOT the only browser used by people.

And won't be de facto for much longer either, since IE6 SP1 is the last standalone browser Microsoft will develop (and IE for the Mac has been discontinued). Webmonkey, there are a few problems with your site, but I'm not going to go through them because you're going to have to rebrand anyway.

adam

p

To be honest, the site isn't professional grade. You might be able to blag yourself some work, but there's tons of companies and freelancers out there that are miles ahead of you.

Webmonkey

Ok first of all i didn't mean designed for IE5 there, ment 1024x768 believe it or not , i even tried it on Netscape and Opera and it works fine. As for the branding yeah i know i didn't know that such thing existed. I'll change the branding later, Its just the design i'm interested in feedback on.

./webmonkey

Webmonkey

Originally posted by p
To be honest, the site isn't professional grade. You might be able to blag yourself some work, but there's tons of companies and freelancers out there that are miles ahead of you.

Why do u put me down? That isn't very nice i'm just a 16 year old yet like. Have to start somewhere don't I? ffs

./Webmonkey

dahamsta

Originally posted by Webmonkey
Ok first of all i didn't mean designed for IE5 there, ment 1024x768 believe it or not

Also a bad idea. The minimum you should design for these days is 800x600, or effective 750x500. For a truly compatible site, you should still be catering for 640x480 (600x400). I worked on a computer only yesterday with a 15" monitor at 640x480. Even Dell was a pain to browse. They're unusual these days, but they're still out there -- and don't forget that we have more mobile devices coming online every day.

Heh, he was complaining that he was running out of disk space. He had a 1GB HDD.

adam

mneylon

Originally posted by Webmonkey
Ok first of all i didn't mean designed for IE5 there, ment 1024x768 believe it or not , i even tried it on Netscape and Opera and it works fine. As for the branding yeah i know i didn't know that such thing existed. I'll change the branding later, Its just the design i'm interested in feedback on.

./webmonkey

1. Designing for a specific screen resolution only is a bad idea
2. You posted to a public bulletin board looking for feedback. If you can't take the critique you shouldn't post, as we will be honest with you.
Neither myself nor Adam care whether you are 16 or 36 and the clients won't either. If you do a professional job it won't matter,but if you wish to receive concessions due to your age then you are only deceiving yourself


On another point - you should change the name, as Zend Studios is far too close to Zend Studio which is a trademark.

Webmonkey

Right ok.

Blacknite ur site doesnt look very well in 640x480 does it. It looks like you designed mainly for 800x600 and 1024x768 also. Don't most sites design in that these days and ye know damn well i'm right. If it fits into 640x480 then god what does it look like in 1280x1024.
I don't want any more bs - Isn't it wierd if some newbie posted a website, a fairly newbie looking site that you would say good job its nice and critisize on it ina new way, not by slagging them off

Thanks for making me lose confidence. and i'm not sulking here or anythig just pised off

Webmonkey :rolleyes:

Webmonkey

By the way Blacknight and Adam i do'nt have anything against ye, P pissed me off, all he does is complains i've seen similer posts on other topics

dahamsta

Webmonkey, Blacknight's already told you that we had no way of knowing what age or skill level you were. If you can't take the heat, stay of the kitchen.

adam

mneylon

Exactly

Webmonkey

Originally posted by dahamsta
Webmonkey, Blacknight's already told you that we had no way of knowing what age or skill level you were. If you can't take the heat, stay of the kitchen.

adam

aw its just that ye judged me o well i spose id have done the same thing. lads i'm sorry i have nothing WHAT SO EVER against ye, i have good respect for ye but i kinda overreacted when p posted that. so what ye think of the header part of the design lol, ignore bottomthat will be changed

havok*

You asked for ppls opinions, thats all thats been posted here. If you decide to take everything personally you should'nd post.

Your shades of red and blue really dont work well together, theres too much of a contrast between the top banner graphics and the content area.
It looks as if you designed it separately and then stuck it all together?

mneylon

Zend

Webmonkey

Originally posted by havok*
You asked for ppls opinions, thats all thats been posted here. If you decide to take everything personally you should'nd post.

Your shades of red and blue really dont work well together, theres too much of a contrast between the top banner graphics and the content area.
It looks as if you designed it separately and then stuck it all together?

Am well no i designed it all in photoshop. hmm i thought the contrast looked ok well that could be cause i have a tft i amn't sure mite look dark on crt. thanks for the comments

RicardoSmith

Overall its not bad....but.....

You be better sticking to standard fonts and not anti aliasing the text when its small. It just makes it hard to read the menus etc. I also found it quite slow to load. Did you optimise those images at all? Also nothing actually works. A single image/page does not a website make. I know your not finished but its hard to judge a site based on one page. If you look at any site reviews. Navigation and usability are v.important you'd need a bunch of pages for a decent review.

Webmonkey

Originally posted by RicardoSmith
Overall its not bad....but.....

You be better sticking to standard fonts and not anti aliasing the text when its small. It just makes it hard to read the menus etc. I also found it quite slow to load. Did you optimise those images at all? Also nothing actually works. A single image/page does not a website make. I know your not finished but its hard to judge a site based on one page. If you look at any site reviews. Navigation and usability are v.important you'd need a bunch of pages for a decent review.

Thanks...am yeah i know what u mean by the fonts, This won't be a site, its just a demo site that i was practising on one nite when i was bored so I'm not going to do anymore work on it, waste of time, i know i said i would start it as a site for my services , well i thought i would be nah i'll leave it now. too busy.

Thanks for the contacts

PhilipMarlowe

Expect some really useful critiques the next time you post for a review.... you can't expect people to offer helpful advice if you are going to **** around and waste their time.

bringitdown

Check cross - browser compatibility with tools at:

http://www.delorie.com/web/

PS: Is there an accepted level of degradation? i.e. my site looks grand in the latest browsers, acceptable in older ones, and ****e in lynx et. al. but it displays (no errors, tags exposed etc.) is this acceptable or should it look 'excellent' in all browsers.

mneylon

Originally posted by bringitdown
Check cross - browser compatibility with tools at:

http://www.delorie.com/web/

PS: Is there an accepted level of degradation? i.e. my site looks grand in the latest browsers, acceptable in older ones, and ****e in lynx et. al. but it displays (no errors, tags exposed etc.) is this acceptable or should it look 'excellent' in all browsers.

It depends on which browsers you are talking about. If your site is W3C compliant some older browsers may bitch, but making it 100% compliant with every version of every browser might not be worth the effort unless it is a large corporate site.

dahamsta

Also depends on your audience. I have a client who sells diets online, which obviously enough means most of their customers are dumbass AOL users, so I don't give a chuff about Lynx or Linux. I don't really care about Opera, Mozilla or other browsers either. Sad but true.

adam

GoneShootin

Webmonkey

The site SCREAMS what it was downloaded from www.freewebtemplates.com

Im not saying that it was, and tbh when I was 16 my site was nothing as nice as yours. (me remembers the days of Notepad and HTML For Idiots)

Were I a customer looking at that site, I would not be overly impressed. This said however, if your clients links were working, and those sites looked good, it would change my mind a bit.

I hope it works out for you, I can only imagine what its like to be 16 again and having your own webby. Ah the ripe old age of 21

zAbbo

tbh webmoneky, you`ve been posting here about your sites for about the past year, at the first sign of critisim you start whinging about your age, and how you should be encouraged etc.

Its a dog eat dog world, Websites are viewed purley on merit, not on oh thats a nice site for a 16yr old. If you want to be professional at least act professional.

Theres enough cowboy outfits out there already

Webmonkey

Free templates gave me an idea yeah, they inspired me but it is orginal. I am used my fone der lol.

thanks for the comments, hmm strange the minute i get worked up i use my age i'm 17 soon hehe

thanx

MojoMaker

Design is about 50%, the other half is intelligent writing for the web. I suggest you investigate the use of a decent content writer if you ever expect any customer to take your services/products seriously.

Poorly constructed business cliches such as "Our services are very affordable and designed to meet the requirements of any business in both quality and affordablilty" won't get you diddly-squat in the professional services marketplace.

On the design side the site is quite good, although to be honest it does smack of a template - mind you this phenomenon is becoming more and more obvious every week on the 'Net so you're by no means alone. If you take a look around at competitors offerings you'll notice that dumbing down your site into fast loading html with minimal frills is definitely the new Black. Professional sites with a well defined business strategy are moving away from garish designs and back to basic principles backed by clear, easy-to-use simple interfaces.

As a start, young and all as you are with no exposure to building a professional business web presence, it's pretty good. You should be happy with what you have done, and look forward to taking the next step and getting better. Stick to your guns and it could even become a rewarding career for you if you invest the time and learn to see the value in genuine criticism.

Webmonkey

Originally posted by MojoMaker
Design is about 50%, the other half is intelligent writing for the web. I suggest you investigate the use of a decent content writer if you ever expect any customer to take your services/products seriously.

Poorly constructed business cliches such as "Our services are very affordable and designed to meet the requirements of any business in both quality and affordablilty" won't get you diddly-squat in the professional services marketplace.

On the design side the site is quite good, although to be honest it does smack of a template - mind you this phenomenon is becoming more and more obvious every week on the 'Net so you're by no means alone. If you take a look around at competitors offerings you'll notice that dumbing down your site into fast loading html with minimal frills is definitely the new Black. Professional sites with a well defined business strategy are moving away from garish designs and back to basic principles backed by clear, easy-to-use simple interfaces.

As a start, young and all as you are with no exposure to building a professional business web presence, it's pretty good. You should be happy with what you have done, and look forward to taking the next step and getting better. Stick to your guns and it could even become a rewarding career for you if you invest the time and learn to see the value in genuine criticism.

Hey there,

Thanks a lot m8, am ok well don't mind the products and services, any of the links nor the text, i wrote that text off my head in like 10 seconds, just to fil a gap if u know what i mean. I know the design mightn't be good but o well i'll get there. i've more plan designs like kerrypages.com done, i just wanted to make a fancy design this ttime :P



thanx once again

JustHalf

You should look into using CSS for layout.

As I have a train to catch, that is all for now

damnyanks

Yes Css is a good idea.

It will allow you to control the layout of your page much more easily, it would also get rid of all those blank images on the page. The whole thing didnt load for me it was a disgusting load time. If it were a site I was just browsing I would of just left instead of waiting for the broken images to show.

Look into Css its quite handy Div and Span become your friend


Also try and get xhtml complient.