New web page. Need your honest feedback (NOT TOO HONEST!)

forbairt

TheGooner wrote:

Very nice. I like.

I'll put you through to the boot camp for that

oh my god though ... whats next weeks challenge

Huggles

forbairt wrote:

oh my god though ... whats next weeks challenge

I want you to redesign the OPs site!

mastermind2005

@ TheGooner no offense intended.... just playing... would be curious to see an example of your work.

I have been involved in web development projects.. actually doing one at the moment. but i wont be expecting any awards

WPI20000

forbairt wrote:

While not directed at me ... I'll add my new design ... static ... no real content present ... I like to think it looks pretty decent

http://www.forbairtmedia.ie/mockup/

At least you have the ba11s to post your site. She get's around, that girl:

http://www.istockphoto.com/file_search.php?action=file&userID=323168

Huggles

WPI20000 wrote:

At least you have the ba11s to post your site. She get's around, that girl:

http://www.istockphoto.com/file_search.php?action=file&userID=323168

LOL nowt to do with balls (I don't have any anyways as I'm a layydeeeee)

WPI20000

TheGooner wrote:

I want you to redesign the OPs site!

I'm not going to let you redesign my site until I see your work.

Are you calling anyone that posts their web pages up unprofessional (eg. forbairt)? I think you're making excuses. Everyone can see that. It's very easy to knock other people's sites but hide your own and stay anonymous.

Onikage

WPI20000 wrote:

I don't see anything special about those other designers posted above. All the technical stuff you guys are talking about is means nothing if you don't have the business knowlege that we know.

Clients pay money to designers because they trust that the designer knows the "technical stuff". Business knowledge comes down to knowing who will pay for what and how much. If you think you can sell websites done to the standard you have shown, good luck. But don't go around talking down the abilities of others, or nobody will want to do business with you.

aidan_walsh

Enough. No more calling people out. If they want to volunteer a site, fine. If not, forget it.

You asked for critisism. Take it with a pinch of salt, or don't ask.

Huggles

WPI20000 wrote:

I'm not going to let you redesign my site until I see your work.

Are you calling anyone that posts their web pages up unprofessional (eg. forbairt)? I think you're making excuses. Everyone can see that. It's very easy to knock other people's sites but hide your own and stay anonymous.

I'm not calling Forbairt or anyone else unprofessional at all. It is there choice.

I work freelance for a number of web development companies in Dublin and these sites we develop make up my Portfolio.

The reasons I won't be posting links to my work here is because they are in company names and will not take too kindly to having there sites pasted all over boards.

On your last point. Yes it is very easy to sit here and 'hide' my work and stay anonymous..but I have my reasons for not poting the links.

I am sorry if I have come on overly aggressive but its a pet hate of mine when folk throw badly designed, disorganised, websites together in a couple of days and charge for it.

jmcc

Is this the equivalent of a "dance off" [1] between web designers?

Regards...jmcc
[1] Vaguely recalled from an episode of South Park.

zippo22

WPI20000 wrote:

OKOK, I'm an idiot.

Here we go

http://webpageireland.com/

You were doin' ok until you put up the link.

forbairt

WPI20000 wrote:

She get's around, that girl:

http://www.istockphoto.com/file_search.php?action=file&userID=323168

Andrzej is actually I'd say my favourite photographer ... I find his work truely amazing

TheGooner wrote:

I'm not calling Forbairt or anyone else unprofessional at all. It is there choice.

I didn't think you were ...

I gave my site purely to show what I think the difference between our work is ... and you asked for comments and many comments have been given ... they've just for the most part not being what you want to hear ...

Huggles

forbairt wrote:

Andrzej is actually I'd say my favourite photographer ... I find his work truely amazing



I didn't think you were ...

I gave my site purely to show what I think the difference between our work is ... and you asked for comments and many comments have been given ... they've just for the most part not being what you want to hear ...

Well it looks like someone is going to the live shows in LONDON!

WHOOOOOOOT!

cast_iron

OP, if you are serious about your business, take that site down asap. It looks very, very amateurish. Really. A secondary level student could do better.

If you can't see that, you need to take along hard look at yourself. Everyone here has said your site needs work and not up to professional standard.

And TheGooner is dead right not brandying about his work he's done for his clients. An amateur wouldn't think anything of it, but a pro would have more respect for his work. (Oh, and for all I know, TheGooner's sites could be rubbish, but that's not the point here)

forbairt

There are certain things I can't talk about because of NDA's ... and also because customers want people to think its done inhouse ... I'm fine with that ... for others as well its the same so asking for examples of peoples work can be a bit tricky

Tzetze

Are you tired of being quoted ridiculous for the design of a site.
...ererging technologies...
...here's just some of the many... (singularising a plural)
Customer service with a simile (this one is my favourite)


I'd be delighted to find my €5k site full of these types of errors.

mastermind2005

very curious about his actual prices...

Bananna man

How can you criticize what he can offer to his clients? Have you not read the glowing testimonials????? Sounds like they know what they are doing :rolleyes:

Ziycon

Shambles of a site!!
No one here has to prove their work or credibility either to you or anyone else! You came here asking for feedback and you got it so calm down when professionals in the web design and development industry tell you the truth and the facts!

zAbbo

CSS or XHTML is not Valid

And 'copywrite' is spelled 'copyright'

Seth Brundle

I just noticed that they refer on their homepage to "WebpagesIreland.com" not their URL which is "webpageIreland.com" - ROFL

Anyhow, I think everyone here is missing the point. The OPs company(!) don't have any design, development, graphical, gramatical, etc. skills. They do however have "business knowlege" which should more than make up for it.

cormie

You have to accept criticism.

Compare this: http://homepage.eircom.net/~pokerie/index.html (designed by me )

to this:

www.poker.ie

which would you be more comfortable depositing money into?

forbairt

cormie wrote:

You have to accept criticism.

Compare this: http://homepage.eircom.net/~pokerie/index.html (designed by me )

to this:

www.poker.ie

which would you be more comfortable depositing money into?

Great example ... I hadn't seen any of your design work before

PixelTrawler

OP, I hope to offer some constructive criticism (you asked for it!).

I'm not saying this to be smart or cruel, but your site is sub standard. The design is bad. The fonts don't work, the image is a little cheesy (sorry if thats you but it is from an outsiders point of view).

The logo / title doesn't work. The "web 2.0" reflection attempt is badly implemented (although I can see what you had in mind).

Its not attractive and it wont sell your business, and thats the critical point.

These days even non technical users are so used to seeing high quality, professionally designed sites, they can spot a dud very quickly.

If I were shopping for a new website and I came across your companies site - which is your sales brochure remember - I would quickly browse away again.

Think objectively here when you look at it. Is this the image you want to present? Try not to get defensive - theres a lot of good heads around here with good eyes! Behind it all they are trying to help!

Now for a the constructive advice part

Go to this site

http://www.openwebdesign.org/most_popular.phtml

View the most popular designs, study them. Try and pick out why they work and then take apart the code and work out how they are built.

Also, perhaps try and hook up with a designer. Perhaps you have the business vision but not the design skills. Thats fine, they are two very different skills. I think to succeed in this business you are going to have to make a few tough business decisions here. Firstly, you, or whoever designed this site, is not up to the job... yet. We all have to start somewhere though.

For now I would advise, take down this site, its harming your business. Get it designed professionally. Perhaps someone here will help even. Don't put it live until its in proper shape. Get it critiqued again before going live.

And best of luck!

Note: I'm more of a developer then a designer myself. Design is something I struggle with myself. I have the vision in my head, it doesnt always come out! Be your own hardest critic always!

Eoin

OP - I don't think you've taken one piece of criticism yet? Why post the link, unless it's just a plug?

I do like this part though:

"Customer service with a simile " - T. Mooney, Dublin.

seamus

eoin_s wrote:

I do like this part though:

It's been a long time since I laughed out loud at something on the web, but that did it.

OP, this is valid criticism, and not an attack on you;

Your "About Us" page tells me that you probably have an education in business and may know a little about marketing.
So you have come up with the idea that you can put your business knowledge to use by advising companies on their websites and building the websites.

Your idea, while understandable, is flawed. Advising companies on the best use of their websites is quite a marketing-oriented business, but not only that it requires a high degree of knowledge about what technologies exist, what can and can't be done on a website and more importantly what should never be done on a website.

Then you come to the building part. This requires more than a copy of dreamweaver and a rudimentary understanding of HTML. Well, ok, it doesn't, but to produce anything approaching a site that doesn't make you want to rip your eyeballs out of their sockets, you need to understand the various technologies involved to a pretty low level.

In reality, creating a website involves two separate processes - designing the site and developing the site. The designer decides how it should look and perhaps what certain buttons should do, then the developer takes that specification and figures out how to produce it.

I've seen beautifully-designed sites get screwed up by shoddy or lazy developing, and totally the converse I know of great developers who get handed a cheap/home-made design and spend half of their development time trying to apply some sort of reasonable redesign to the site.

One of your first replies really says it all:

All the technical stuff you guys are talking about is means nothing if you don't have the business knowlege that we know.

Not really. If you don't have the technical knowledge to build or design a decent website (which is what your site is promising), then all the business knowledge in the world is useless.
Someone without business knowledge but with good technical knowledge can put together a decent site, provided that they get the right spec. It will probably just take a few more revisions to get to what the customer wants.

One of the words splashed up on the front page also indicates to me that you're not really sure what the hell you're doing, but if you give customers a few buzzwords and confuse them, they'll think you're great.
Ubiquity. Why? Care to explain exactly what an "Ubiquitous" website is?

Ph3n0m

seamus wrote:

Care to explain exactly what an "Ubiquitous" website is?

taken from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ubiquitous

existing or being everywhere, esp. at the same time; omnipresent

So does it mean anything about uptime? Or maybe relating to SEO Or have I missed the point again

mneylon

And is the OP going to fix any of the typos, spelling mistakes and atrocious grammar?

I now understand why people charge so much for technical writing ...

DJB

If you were serious about this as a business, you would run it like a business. First thing you need in business is a product to sell. At the moment, you don't even have that. Hire or subcontract to an experienced designer and/or developer. Then you might have a business to start off with.

These guys even put ripe.ie to shame!

nikimere

This is a pi$$ take. It has to be.