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New website, simple as I can as I'm not the biggest fan of html coding.

EDIT August 2007 New site online, much improved.

Would love some C&C. Most links are incomplete as still wip.

http://www.subjectiverealism.co.uk

Cheers,

Tim.

Hey Tim -

I think it's off to a good start, but it's hard to say much until a little more of the site is live. So much depends on how things flow - as I'm sure you know, but it looks promising!

The only thing I can comment on at this stage regards the services page. I would be inclined to find a way to simplify that list, and for a couple of reasons. One is it comes across as a lot of stuff to read and a prospective client should be able to hit on the thing *they* want to hire you for very quickly. Maybe subdividing it into categories and then sub-categories would be one way? (i.e animation/flythroughs, lighting movies, etc.)

The other is related, and this is just one POV for sure: I would be hesitant to present yourself as the master of too many things. The client who doesn't understand what you do will not always see how connected/related these skills are, or understand the breadth of your abilities, and it may read as a bit of a "jack of all trades, master of none" kind of scenario, which can turn some clients off.

Some love that idea, but my experience is that the more money/prestige attached to the job the more clients want to think/know that you are *the* guy for the particular specific job on hand. You have to balance that against pigeon-holing yourself, but I believe it can be done through artful presentation of your work/self. Subdividing the services into a few categories could provide one method of creating that feeling of focus/simplicity.

Anyway, that's my .02 - hope it helps.
b

Nice tips sir thankyou.


I'll rework the services page. Just wanted to show all jobs I can cater for, but will categorise them more.

Perhaps, arch-viz & then those relevant services, product realisation & those relevant services. etc


Cheers, I appreciate you taking the time.

Tim.

My pleasure, glad to be of help. I'll keep an eye for site updates.

b

tim, just a few hints:

1. loose the "click to enter", it's an unnecessary step in the daily browsing of everybody.
2. reorganize the menu and give hierarchy to the page. users need to know what's what at the first sight, without thinking about.
3. give the ability to crawl back from a deeper link to the homepage, and use breadcrumbs if possible to let users always know where they are.
4. use a more complete color and font scheme, to reinforce all of the above.

I hope it helps

I would look into using flash. I wasted a lot of time with this html and at the end it was not the right tool. Flash is a very nice piece of software. You can learn to use it in a matter of days. The academic version is affordable. You do not have to go overboard with it either. That's a personal choice.

The menu alignment goes against my instincts, i find myself wanting to look at the black void in the middle and not the items left and right. Unless this applies only to me, which i doubt, you should rearrange your menus. Such subtle things have a big effect on how possible customers feel when they decide about your offerings, consider that

© is © in HTML.

I think the menus should all be on one side of the page rather than split up because it's sort of dizzying to look around for what you want to click next.

The logo to get in the page is toooo big.

A smaller list of services "type size" would be cleaner if you ask me. Right now you've got to scroll a lot just to read 12 lines of text.

Overall the page seems a little dated. Maybe add a bit of flash to spruce things up?

Many thanks for the suggestions.

I've done a slight change but only to the services page.

I'll be able to spend more time over the weekend, working with your suggestions.

Thank you all.


Tim.

Hey Tim - I tried to check it out, but Firefox doesn't like it at all and IE is showing some placeholders for images, but you probably haven't got there yet.

In any case, I think it's a good step so far. Personally, I would consider cutting it to 3 categories: 3D visualization, animation, digital graphics, and have each fly-out, roll-over etc to show the next layer of stuff (i.e visualization could flow to arch viz, auto realiz, prod realiz) each with a little image or something, and then flow from there to the details you want to convey.

Just a thought, but seeing how it tightened up so far I think it could go further and help more. Might be worth a look while you are playing. Or I can shut up now

ttys
b

simmsimaging wrote:Might be worth a look while you are playing. Or I can shut up now

ttys
b

Many thanks sir, and please don't shut up either. Web design has never been my strong point.

I know what I want, but getting there is a different story.

I really appreciate your feedback & suggestions.

Cheers,

Tim.

I thought about flash for my website, but didn't want to make people have to have the plugin to view it. In most cases people don't really use any of the few flash-only functionalities when they make an entire flash webpage with it anyways. It becomes as annoying as the click to enter, or "best viewed with" page.

Have you noticed that in recent versions of explorer, you have to click once to activate an swf in a page? For the most part, the cool effects are actionscript anyways, might as well dive into javascript. CSS is cake and really nice to edit.

Almost every commonly used flash function, even animation can be done with javascript+css.

I know lots of people don't like coding, but frankly I don't see much quality stuff come out of wysiwyg, nevermind w3c compliance.

My website is relatively new and doesn't really have a gallery yet, but its very customized for what I want it to do. Check out the source, or even have w3c check it and compare to most other webpages checked via w3c:

http://codygo.com

I'm also pretty sure that &169; is the safer choice over ©

I've read lots about web usability as I considered starting a web design business several years ago. It wouldn't hurt to pick up a book about web usability to help you along. People are confused easily on the internet, and if any part of your site is confusing, you risk losing customers.

That said, here are some suggestions for you:

1. Since you apologized for the Google ads, I assume you are planning on purchasing a domain for your site. If not, I would suggest you do. Using free hosting for a business suggests that the business isn't very serious, or perhaps not very successful. Besides that, website addresses that are long or have multiple "dots" are hard for people to remember, and if they can't remember your address, you risk losing customers.

2. There are varied opinions about splash pages (the "Click to Enter" page). You can find equal numbers of people who are for them and against them. I'm against them, because extra clicks are likely to turn off viewers, and I don't see any real purpose in them. Telling people "Click to Enter" can be perceived as insulting to some, but omitting that would leave others wondering if your website isn't finished yet. Too risky in my opinion.

3. On your home page, your logo and the name of your business should be displayed prominently in a place that is easy to see. Hiding your logo as a background image while placing the name of your business in a separate place makes it difficult for people to associate the two. Remember, you’re selling a brand, and your business name and logo are part of your brand. They should be together, and the customary place for them is in the upper left corner of your page. To really enhance your brand, give your business a name. Even something as simple as "Tim Ellis Designs" is more professional than "Tim Ellis", and suggests a business more that just a freelance designer.

4. As far as your background, I'd suggest removing your logo from the background entirely. As a continuation of the previous point, if you place your name and logo in the upper left corner of your page, placing it in the background is redundant, and it can be distracting. Also, usability experts agree that white is the best color for the background. Believe it or not, it is very difficult to read white type on a black background.

5. With respect to your copyright information, the format and placement should be consistent on every page. In fact, your basic format overall should be consistent on every page. Business name/logo in the same place, menu in the same place, etc. Start by designing your home page, and then use that as the basis for your other pages.

6. Someone else commented on having a way back to the home page. Why is that important? Remember that people get confused easily on the internet, which can quickly lead to frustration, which can mean lost customers. To illustrate the point, suppose a potential customer found your website, and clicked on "Services" to read about the services you provide. They are interested in contacting you, but they don't see a link to contact information on your page. They might remember seeing a link on your home page, or they might not. Even if they remembered a link on your home page, they might not be savvy enough to figure out how to get back to that page. Again, you risk losing customers.

As an extension of that, a person viewing your website should be able to get to any page from any page. In other words, you should have the same navigation menu on every page. If you want to look really professional, when a person is viewing your home page, the navigation button for the home page shouldn't be active; this would apply to the appropriate navigation button on each page.

I can't stress enough the importance of a consistent navigation system. The images you have on your home page are great, but you really need a consistent navigation system. The navigation is typically found on the left side as a vertical bar, or across the top as a horizontal bar.

7. I wouldn't use flash, or any other cute elements, for your site. Most people use these things because they "look cool," but in most cases, they just distract from the purpose of your website, which is to market the service your business offers. The rule of thumb should be whether flash, or rollover menus, add anything to your site. If they don't drive people to view more of your site, get rid of them. Simple is always better.

8. Some suggestions for your menu items:

i. Instead of "Background", try "About". Background sounds more like information about Tim Ellis, not about the business. Under "Background", I would expect to find information about your schooling, hobbies, etc, while under "About", I would expect to find information about the company. "About" is also more standardized. The link for company information is typically found in the upper right corner.

ii. Instead of "Portfolio", try "Samples", or "Our Work". "Portfolio" suggests a freelance artist, while the others are more suggestive of a business.

iii. Instead of "Contact Tim", try just "Contact". More standardized, and more business like. The link for contact information is typically found in the upper right corner of the page.

iv. Eliminate "Links", unless they are somehow relevant to your business and might help "seal the deal" for potential customers. In the internet's infancy, every website had a page with somebody's favorite websites. For a business, this is unprofessional, and can even be disastrous. Links direct people away from your website, and they might not come back. In fact, if your links are related to the design industry, potential customers might be led to another business. You want potential customers to stay on your website so you can sell them on your services.

v. Eliminate tutorials. Every digital artist with a website has a section on tutorials, and in most cases, it's a bad idea. Potential customers are looking for an artist because either they don't know how to create digital art, or they don't have time to. Either way, they won't have any need or any use for tutorials. Remember, the purpose of your website is to market your business, and anything that does not contribute to that should be eliminated. If you really think you can contribute something by way of tutorials, I'd suggest having a separate site for that.

9. Think about highlighting a client on your home page, if you have any clients with recognizable names. If you don't, highlight one of your services. Think about coding your page so that each time the page is loaded, a different service is highlighted. This gives viewers some information about your company right off the bat.

Really, the hardest part is creating the navigation system and a basic layout. Start there, and then fill in the details. It's similar to making an outline before writing a book.

One final thought, by way of analogy: A website is similar to a book, with the home page analogous to the cover. The cover entices the reader to open the book and read more. Similarly, the home page entices the viewer to read more of the site. The other pages of the site comprise the story, with the ending being a new client.

Hope this is helpful to you, and good luck with your business.

codygo wrote:I thought about flash for my website, but didn't want to make people have to have the plugin to view it. In most cases people don't really use any of the few flash-only functionalities when they make an entire flash webpage with it anyways. It becomes as annoying as the click to enter, or "best viewed with" page.

Have you noticed that in recent versions of explorer, you have to click once to activate an swf in a page? For the most part, the cool effects are actionscript anyways, might as well dive into javascript. CSS is cake and really nice to edit.

Almost every commonly used flash function, even animation can be done with javascript+css.

I know lots of people don't like coding, but frankly I don't see much quality stuff come out of wysiwyg, nevermind w3c compliance.

My website is relatively new and doesn't really have a gallery yet, but its very customized for what I want it to do. Check out the source, or even have w3c check it and compare to most other webpages checked via w3c:

http://codygo.com

I'm also pretty sure that &169; is the safer choice over ©

You would do well to be more polite in your responses. Your arrogance is transparent, and not well-founded. It's one thing to create a site that meets w3c standards; creating a site that meets usability standards is a completely separate issue.

Flash movies don't start automatically in IE anymore because of increased security standards built into the browser. When you click on the movie, you are giving the website permission to run the movie on your computer.

Thanks a lot hothpicas for these great advices! .

Cheers.