Website Critique.

[Attila Hajzer]

http://hajzer.info/

Just curious on everyones thoughts.

[MrPixel]

Ive got to be honest, its a bit uninspiring.

The menu is bland and ive spotted some spelling mistakes. 1 here – guarintee

For me, as a web designer, your portfolio/company page should be the very best of your talents, to show your potential clients that you know your onions.

[Carlos56]

I would agree with the above. Make sure you’re spelling things right!

The yellow on its own is a bit hmm for me, too bland. Perhaps consider adding another colour in the mix?

I like the personal touch of adding your favourite websites, and people that inspire you.

I remember ‘favourites’ being a standard feature on most websites a long time ago, hardly see that now.

I think if you were to add some more colour, it would jump out a lot more.

[MrPixel]

Another thing, dont be one of those designers who just browses iStock and just puts in random photos they like, try and follow a colour scheme. So blue and yellow, blue and grey etc. On the services page you’ve got some iStocks one is red, one is blue. This doesnt work for me.

I create a type of mood board where i get colours, typefaces etc together before i design something. Try learning Photoshop, you’ll find your designs will improve. Try create yourself a strong logo, the rest of the design will flow from that.

This is a great site for colour inspiration – http://colourlovers.com/

[cssssc10]

Two words:
Background image.

I’m constantly amazed at how sites with hardly any content can really pop with the help of a background texture or two.

[chrisburton]

@cssssc10 Really? When did texture become a solution to “white space”?

[MrPixel]

@attilahajzer

good stuff, just keep practicing in photoshop. Ive had 13 years in it and im still learning new techniques.

Web design to me isnt using WordPress and changing a theme, its creating an idea from scratch and making it appear on the screen.

Me personally, i use graph paper to sketch my designs, then mock them up in Photoshop and Fireworks, then build them in CSS, HTML etc. They can be anything you want them to be then, and the clients needs can be realised.

[goalieman34]

A suggestion would be to pick a different colour for your twitter feed. I don’t feel like it goes very well with the yellow

[chrisburton]

You should have used the HTML5 Reset Theme. It removes all the bulk that comes with Starkers.

[davidlab.be]

I am with @ChristopherBurton about @cssssc10 comment. What the !#@$ are you talking about?

[Carlos56]

@ChrisopherBurton brilliant share. Thank you so much.

[gibry21]

I also agree.

White space is great….in fact its key….don’t just throw things on the page for no reason! White space lets the content breath!

As far as the site goes…2 things jump out for me:

1. The shadow on the nav menu doesn’t work, it makes it more difficult to read. Maybe just a simple:
border-bottom: 1px solid yellow;
Might work. :)

2. The first thing I see on your site is that, if I am looking for my next site to be HTML 5 and CSS3 I should come to you. Yet, your site is not HTML5 and I see no CSS3 techniques?!?! :) Just an observation.

One other small thing….do you really need a big title that says “Sidebar”…. maybe a more relevant title would be more appropriate.

Good start though. :)

[snillor]

You’ve gotten some good advice above; I agree with most if it. One exception is the “background image” reply – no idea what that’s supposed to mean. Also not sure about the “Add a small rainbow line on the top of header.” suggestion.

My initial impression is that it’s an attractive website, generally well laid out. The gray/orange/white color scheme works well, except that the orange text could be a little darker to stand out more – as it is, it’s kinda hard to read.

I agree that the aqua of the twitter section really clashes with the rest of your site.

Definitely proofread. Better yet, have several people proofread for you. Spelling mistakes (one already noted above), inconsistent punctuation (some sentences and some of the “bullet items” in your resume are missing an ending period, for example), and odd capitalization (“…and I am a Current student…”), for example. These things are never good, but are especially detrimental on a website that hopes to convince folks to hire you. A potential customer seeing these sorts of careless lapses on your website probably wouldn’t feel a lot of confidence in your thoroughness. Of course I understand that what we’re seeing could be an early, not-ready-for-prime-time-version.

Overall, a very good start, as noted above.

[Johnnyb]

I’m not gonna sugarcoat this, that’s possibly one of the least inspiring design portfolio websites I’ve ever seen. Which is funny as your tagline is ‘Designs that Inspire’. The site and your portfolio unfortunately do anything but that.

My honest feedback would be to step away from web design for a few months and practice graphic design – work on layout, typography, color theory, creative thinking – and then come back to photoshop and try again. I feel like so many people jump into web design without any design background, and you can really tell that this is the case here from the website and from your portfolio pieces.

I hope you take this advice as constructive criticism, I really think you’d benefit greatly from practicing graphic design first before trying to design websites.

[MrPixel]

Couldnt agree more ^^

I personally started in Photoshop, it was the first thing i ever got into. I learnt just by practicing long hours and eventually enrolled at University to learn Web Design. That said, i have learnt more from home courses, the Internet and actually working in the industry than i ever did at Uni. Just practice, practice, practice. Go onto the many Photoshop Lesson sites that are about and just practice some of the techniques, tricks etc to learn what each tool does.

Having a strong grasp of graphics and Photoshop, Fireworks, Illustrator will enable you to design anything. Its no good being a good coder if you cant back that up with good graphics. There are so many talented designers out there that you will be lucky to get any work if you cant demonstrate the ability to produce a nice looking site. Its a competitive industry because every man and his dog thinks they can produce a website.

Im only offering constructive criticism here, you’ve got a good starting point already, just practice some more and eventually you’ll get there.

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