Freelance fun

[Johnnyb]

I’ve been having a lot of fun freelancing recently and just thought I’d share a link to a site I launched a week or so ago: http://grassriverguides.ca. It was a lot of fun as the client was very laid back and open minded, and I even got a free fishing trip out of it! I’d appreciate some critique as I’m still tweaking bits of it.. be as harsh as you like. The godaddy badge in the footer was insisted upon by the client unfortunately.

Cheers!

[sliver37]

Hi Johnnyb

Freelancing IS definitely fun for the most part!

That’s definitely not a bad looking site you just launched, I will come back and try to give some (constructive) critique tomorrow when I’m not so tired.

All the best for plenty of future clients :)

[drake]

It’s a nice site. The colors and theme match the subject.

I don’t know why you have two layer backgrounds and the glow around the top layer. It doesn’t seem to have a purpose. I would use a single background and place all the content on that. Then extend the header and footer to the edges. I have a 22in widescreen monitor and I think it would look better this way.

The header photo is a bit dark even if it is nighttime.

Maybe add a bit more ‘texture’ to the background to make it more suitable for the rustic theme.

Add a drop shadow to the pics or place it over a custom shadow to lift it off the page. Make it look more ‘rustic’.

All your lines and margins are aligned perfectly. This is great on most sites but for this theme I think they should be a more ‘casual’.

Increase the font size a bit (maybe).

[mmdl2bl]

I’m not sure if you mean to leave this. There is something at the very top on your left had side of the webpage Grassriver Guide, I think that what it say’s. I can’t barely make it out. Other then that, I love what you did.

[Johnnyb]

Hey, thanks guys for the honest feedback, really appreciate it and it rose some really good points, I find that after working with a design for a while it really helps to get the perspective of some fresh eyes, and especially those of other designers/developers.

@SpeedGun – I do feel that the header is tall in comparison with the other sections of the page, especially if you’re using a laptop or smaller res monitor to view it. I had to fit the lake images in so it couldn’t be too short, but I might try knocking it down a bit to see how it looks. Appreciate the feedback!

@wolfcry911 – Thanks! I agree about the grass, it doesn’t quite look right, I’m gonna tweak that a bit to make it look less amateurish!

@drake – Cheers for the advice, I agree with most of your points, especially regarding the backgrounds and about making the layout look less perfectly aligned. Thanks again for taking the time to give me some honest feedback!

@mmdl2bl – Not quite sure what you’re referring to unfortunately mate! Are you talking about the picture frame with the ‘Grass River Guides’ text in it?

Thanks again everyone! Really appreciate it!

[michaeloneill]

Really nice site… Your images that are links have black borders when you hover over them in IE!

[codethevoid]

Great subtle use of jquery on the rollovers, adds nicely to the feel of the site. Clean and well done. I’m just taking the first steps myself into the freelance community and my goal is to put out crisp work like this!

[Johnnyb]

Hey! Thanks a lot, really appreciate the comments!

@michaeloneill – can you tell me which version of IE/which operating system you’re seeing that problem on? I’ve tested on IE6-IE8 on windows and not seeing the problem. Are you referring to IE9?

[Tim_at_PlattFormAd]

Great looking site! I don’t think you need change anything design wise – as any change now is going to be based on personal preference as opposed to user experience. Your HTML is also really clean.

My only two suggestions would be create a contact form to send an email instead of actually listing the email. Otherwise, be prepared to get questions as to how to prevent spam.

Also, the nav buttons don’t really look like buttons until you rollover them (just text). Not the most intuitive for users. FYI – I always assume the worst in users to give a little perspective on my viewpoint :)

Nice work!

[Author]

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