Site Design, Take a look, Give opinion

[qbattersby]

Hello all!I have completed my new site design, I still need to implement a quick and less painful way to get back from my blog, not a problem with doing it, just making the time to do so... Anyways let me know your thoughts..

 

www.qbattersby.com

 

Thanks in advance

 

UPDATE: Currently in my time (EST) 4:15pm, server seems to be down. I have issued a ticket, quite frustrating I must say.

[Quackit]

It's almost like your site is being slammed, because it's taking forever to load... yet the ping times are more than okay.

 

So far I got nothn.

[inimicus]

There's definitely an imbalance in the top part.

Especially in the weight of the lines in the fonts versus the weight of the lines in the.... thing. And why is it so big? I feel like I'm gonna topple over the right side of my chair.

 

Not sure if this is by design, but there is a rather large gap (probably ≥100px) between the top of the browser window to the top of your... thing.

 

Can we have a name for that thing? Can we call it your "branding?" And where does it stem from? I don't see a quinnbattersby or anything like it in there. Maybe the dot is Strategically (that's the S) intruding? I'm not particularly fond of it, really.

 

I enjoy the typography of your blog better than the main site. It may be because it's a larger font. Whatever the reason, it's easier to read and more pleasing to my eyes.

 

With the massive (gargantuan, enormous, gigantic, mammoth, colossal) "branding" in the top right, the menu further adds to the gonna-tip-outta-my-chair feeling. Without resizing the "brand" to fit the page better, the menu would need to move to the left side to balance.

 

It probably goes without saying, but I'm not convinced by the flash in the portfolio section. For one, I didn't even know there was content there until the fourth or fifth pass (yes, I was clicking around). The effect of the flash isn't significant enough to warrant the load time. In fact, everything I see in the flash can be done out of flash (with more benefits — direct links being a big one).

 

While I often have a lot to say, I do enjoy your work. Hopefully that's not lost in all my banter.

[ozboi]

The design looks nice and simple, but a couple of suggestions:

 

1) For everything flash, include a preloader -- otherwise it looks like there's nothing there for several seconds. I was tempted to hit the back button or close the window when nothing showed up immediately. Also, I know you've said in another thread that you liked the flash folio, but I would rather see a string of larger images straight down the page.

 

2) The whole page needs to be bumped up -- you have to scroll down to see half the content, even though there isn't much of it. Scrolling is fine when there is plenty of content, and while some might saying designing above the fold is old-hat, it is still important. (p.s. I'm using Safari, may not be an issue in other browsers, but still needs to be considered).

 

3) There is no obvious way to get back from the blog to the rest of your site. I suggest keeping the menu on the main pages on your blog pages, and in the same place (you can put the blog links underneath). You should also use the same rounded-corner inset for the blog menu.

 

4) I know you'll probably think it stifles your aesthetic, but the font-size is too small for it to be easy to read. You can widen the whole page and then notch-up the font-size a point or two.

 

5) Hide your email address in the source code ... there are way to do this unobtrusively, like using HTML comment tags, and it will save you hours of frustration sifting through spam.

 

6) The green blog headings are links, but the green headings on the rest of your pages are not. You need to make those non-linking headings a different colour, preferably black. It's all about consistency -- in this case, if I see green I expect to be able to click it.

 

7) Don't put the words "coming soon" anywhere on your site. Either have the content there, or don't mention it -- I'm specifically referring to the Word document (resume) that isn't there. Highlight what you have, not what you're missing.

 

8) The "privacy policy" is a little wanky for a portfolio site where you don't even collect user information. I suggest getting rid of it completely -- you can always inform a client in person when discussing a project. While you're at it, copyright is implied, so unless anything you've done is truly unique (in which case, if you want it really protected, you should register it) the copyright notice isn't needed either.

 

Hope this helps a little I know it was more than a couple of things, but they're all based around making your site more usable on this (the user) end.

[inimicus]

7) Don't put the words "coming soon" anywhere on your site. Either have the content there, or don't mention it -- I'm specifically referring to the Word document (resume) that isn't there. Highlight what you have, not what you're missing.

 

8) The "privacy policy" is a little wanky for a portfolio site where you don't even collect user information. I suggest getting rid of it completely -- you can always inform a client in person when discussing a project. While you're at it, copyright is implied, so unless anything you've done is truly unique (in which case, if you want it really protected, you should register it) the copyright notice isn't needed either.

 

I was thinking these things, too.

[realfolkblues]

wont load...

[qbattersby]

Site is down, extremely frustrated with my webhost who guarantees 99.9% uptime, I've received about 60% uptime! Going to switch

[qbattersby]

Okay, the site has been moved to a new server. Take a look when you get a chance. Also for anyone looking for hosting, I dont recommend www.ampedhosts.com but I do recommend www.servage.net --- sign up with coupon code "bigboyaccount" to receive an additional 25GB of storage. It's a steal at 5.95 a month!

[ozboi]

Take a look when you get a chance

 

It looks the same ...

[ozboi]

Thought I'd reply here instead of in the other thread:

 

It does help, I haven't had a chance to make the adjustments but I will make some. The preloader is something that will take some time because I will have to adjust all of my AS, I know I should have initially started with a preloader.

 

You shouldn't have to. If you keep your pre-loader in a separate FLA which actually loads the folio into it it then you don't need to make any major changes. You should be able to whip one up in 5 minutes using a tutorial. That is of course unless you were silly and used _root references.

 

P.S. Good to see you've upped the res on the photos in the folio.

 

All good points, only thing I dont think I will do is bump up the whole page, solely for preference in design.

 

Preference is one thing, but usability is far more important.

 

As for the email address in the source code, some help with this would be great, I have just started receiving some spam.

 

There would be two reasons for this: 1) Your email address is plain text and open to the world, and 2) Your email form is unsecured.

 

For the first part, you can try hiding your email address several ways, but the easiest would be hide it using HTML comment tags in the source code, like this:

 

foo<!-- >@. -->@<!-- >@. -->bar<!-- >@. -->.<!-- >@. -->baz

 

Either that, or use an image instead of text, though images aren't as effective anymore. The only problem is that you won't be able to stop any spam coming from bots that have already harvested your address, only from those yet to find your site.

 

As for your email form, have a look at using CAPTCHA images to validate the input. I know it's not the most graceful solution and requires an extra step for users, but its the most effective way of stopping spam from email forms. Either that, or ditch the form entirely.

 

I learned all this the hard way ... thankfully the new Mac Mail is decent at filtering out spam.

[qbattersby]

Hey thanks for the reply.

 

I did use _root references, new to action script as you can imagine, I think at one point when I have some time I will go through and do the portfolio more effectively however at this point time is a concern.

 

As for usability, I understand what you are saying but it is still quite usable regardless of having to do a minor scroll - I will consider it more though.

 

For the email, yea I need to adjust that, just so I understand the code you posted - are you essentially spelling "foobarbaz" so I could do -

qbatt<!-- >@. -->@<!-- >@. -->ersby<!-- >@. -->.<!-- >@. -->@<!-- >@. -->.<!-- >@. -->whatever.com

 

The CAPTCHA images is a good call - I will see if I can make that happen. I really appreciate the valuable input!

[ozboi]

For the email, yea I need to adjust that, just so I understand the code you posted - are you essentially spelling "foobarbaz" so I could do -

 

qbatt<!-- >@. -->@<!-- >@. -->ersby<!-- >@. -->.<!-- >@. -->@<!-- >@. -->.<!-- >@. -->whatever.com

 

Actually, that would end up being qbatt@ersby.@.whatever.com. The original example was the address "foo@bar.baz", so if you replace the "foo" with "qbattersby", "bar" with "whatever" and "baz" with "com" to get your email address in there. When you look at the code you can see that the "<!-- >@. -->" bits are in there to confuse any bot that might be searching. The only downside to this method is that you cannot surround it with a mailto link.

 

I did use _root references, new to action script as you can imagine, I think at one point when I have some time I will go through and do the portfolio more effectively however at this point time is a concern.

 

Well, now you know better ;-) I learned that the hard way too. The sooner you get out of that habit, the easier it is to program preloaders, and do other useful effects.

 

As for usability, I understand what you are saying but it is still quite usable regardless of having to do a minor scroll - I will consider it more though.

 

*shrug*

 

It's your site, but Inimicus also noticed it as odd and unbalanced the page.

 

I really appreciate the valuable input!

 

No probs, mate.

[inimicus]

As for usability, I understand what you are saying but it is still quite usable regardless of having to do a minor scroll - I will consider it more though.

 

 

It needs to go.

 

As well as that massive "thing."  You can do better.

[wittyncute2]

I like what you have done I found it to clean yet not boring. I did, however, found one typo that you might want to address

 

On your first paragraph in your resume section;

"I am consistently considering every possibly opportunity so my resume is growing everyday." I do believe you meant possible opportunity.

[(MoC)]

Very clean and creative HTML design. You hit the hammer right on the nail for this site

 

Just one small thing, try to see if you can implement the sidebar links for the whole site on the wordpress blog