At 5/11/08 10:24 PM, Anim8or666 wrote:
I've redone my site, and I think it looks decent. What do you think?
SITE IS HERE.
Yeah, it still has problems in IE 6... but I'm working on them.
Eh, I don't feel like being productive atm, so I'll gripe for a while.
Who is your target audience? Do you think that the current site design appeals to that target audience?
The entire page is stuck in a little column in the center of the page, even when viewed at 800x600 resolution. Still aiming for those 640x480 users or what?
100% valid XHTML doesn't ensure anything.
Don't use paraenthesis in formal writing--they're nearly never needed. If the parenthesised content can form a complete sentence on its own, then do that. If not, set it off with commas or something else. If it isn't relevant enough to be said outside of the parentheses, don't include it.
I'm not a fan of the 'technical' section idea. Chances are your clients either aren't going to care about what particular terms mean, or they do care and, thus, already know what they mean. You might write a few paragraphs about what you do from a conceptual level, then enumerate how it's done (without tables, XHTML validated, etc) later on for those who are interested. It's not a good idea to make a potential customer read a bunch of technical jargon before they can even begin to understand your 'main' page.
Don't say stuff like "Internet explorer, the one we love to hate". Maybe here, but not in 'the real world'. Most people looking to get a website made from a budget freelancer probably don't know other browsers exist, and even if they do, they may actually like IE. And again--clean code, who cares? No tables? So what? It matters to you and me, but probably not to most clients... and, again, the ones who do care don't need the concepts explained to them.
If you want to offer a garuntee or whatever, fine... but here's how your last paragraph reads: "we make errors, so we'll offer a garantee to make up for it--BUT you better catch our fuck up within 30 days or you're screwed!". Pretty good deal, huh?
I can't visit any of the sites in your portfolio except for gumgames.net (if I manually type in the URL), which is clearly not being actively used by anyone.
So that's my constructive criticism... and here's my opinion: I don't like the site design, and I don't like any of the sites in the portfolio. They're virtually identical and completely unoriginal, and don't seem very professional or business-like (which, imo, can compensate for a lack of originality). I'm sure you saw my huge-ass rant in the reg lounge on this sort of thing. I won't say that it won't work for your potential customers, but I'm completely positive that you could do much better than this. Honestly, how much time did you put into it? It's essentially a handful of links and one or two very simple graphics, and completely unformatted content (unless you count your hyphens...)
Anywho, good luck!