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

aidan_walsh

I'll be the judge of that, thanks.

People, if the OP is looking for help, then stick to helpful comments.

prospect

Okay, I am not a webdesigner, nor am I a developer. However, I did run a website as a sideline business and am responsible for my employeers website.

To be perfectly honest with you, I don't have the time to list the 'issues' I would have with this site if it was presented to me as a solution for my needs.

Taking the Home page for an example, I would question:
1. The font of webpagesireland. It is too cluttered and the spacing is bad.
2. The reflection/shadow effect. It does not look right.
3. The photo looks like a dodgey back-street used-car salesman.
4. The main photo has a white border on the top and the LHS, but not the RHS.
5. The top half of the page is a different width to the bottom.
6. The word, line & paragraph spacing looks wrong.

Then in general, it seems quite obvious to me you wrote these paragraphs and then replaced your words here and there with thesauraus alternatives, e.g. "free to peruse our Services page".
You are trying to create an intellegent and professional aura, but then later in your website you use the term "Snail Mail". The whole text of the website looks to me like it was written by a 13y.o. using dictionary.com.

Sorry if that is all a bit harsh, but that is the feedback you will get from your customers.

kjt

I'm surprised that nobody has noted this on the contact page yet:

Snail mail: WebPagesIreland, PO Box 3395, Dublin 7, Ireland.

lol Come on... Snail mail

P.s. Lovely new design forbairt!

Seth Brundle

I see the snail mail address refers to the incorrect name for the company also!

Laslo

Jesus wept.

Look - if you want to learn Web design and/or development then please be our guest. Everyone has to start somewhere and nobody should be lambasted for lame efforts. It takes years to master Web design and programming. More power to you for giving it a shot.

However, if you're still learning then please, please, please don't dress yourself up as a company trading in a professional capacity. It's cringeworthy and embarrassing. In particular, don't say stupid s**t like "Are you tired of being quoted ridiculous for the design of a site" (???) because what you're effectively doing is belittling and undervaluing people like me - experienced professionals of a decade who p*ss all over your efforts from a great height.

Build an enthusiast site - I don't know... a website about your family dog, a site for your friends small, home-run business or whatever. Maybe get a 3rd level qualification. You're not a Web agency so don't try to be. Would you rent an airplane and fly it yourself if you weren't a trained pilot? Of course you wouldn't.

Laslo

WebPagesIRELAND was founded in 2006 by John Sweeny & John Romano, two web designers who met whilst studying Business in DBS, Dublin

Oh... my... god... you're more than one person and you're post-grads. I thought it was some 12-year-old playing about with Frontpage in their bedroom. I weep for the future.

AngryLoner

definitely a pisstake. Wasn't there something similar going around a couple of years ago with the same URL? Or something very similar.

Rollo Tamasi

Laslo wrote:

Oh... my... god... you're more than one person and you're post-grads. I thought it was some 12-year-old playing about with Frontpage in their bedroom. I weep for the future.

I actually think it may well be a twelve year old doing a bit of masquerading. Aplologies to the OP if that isn't the case but judging from the site and you handle yourself within this thread...

mastermind2005

<tulip>WPI20000</tulip>

di11on

Man, slap some google ads up on that site quick... you must be getting a stack load of hits :-)

Laslo

di11on wrote:

Man, slap some google ads up on that site quick... you must be getting a stack load of hits :-)

Hahaha

Duckjob

Jeremy Clarkson about the Lada wrote:

It doesn't matter what way you approach the Lada - you can sense it's inherent "Wrongness"

OP, though I'm more a developer than a designer myself, I'm trying to develop more of an eye for design at the moment, and your site as it stands had me recoiling in horror.

Some specifics that stood out for me were (apologies if these have been covered already):


Visuals

Incredibly cheesy photo

The shining light effect looks cheap, particularly where it emerges from the laptop

Sloppy unformatted text - Take a look at some Web 2.0 sites and you will see text in small neat fonts, neatly formatted in different areas. Having 'big' text that just slops across the width of your page makes your site look like it was designed 12 years ago.

Blandness - No colour scheme to speak of. Very boring to the eye.

Links are inconsistent - "About us Page, "The Services"


Content

Lack of consistency - WebpageIreland - WebPagesIreland

Bad spelling - Inexcusable on any site proporting to be professional.

Lack of reference sites - If you are selling a web-design service, people will want to see your work. "John really helped with our webpage" from K.O'Hara in Clones does not cut the mustard.
"Customer service with a simile " is even less impressive, for obvious reasons. If you are starting off, do a couple of hobbyist sites that you can use as references.
These are what should sell your services, not G.Flemming in Tralee supposedly saying you're great.

Signatures on the About Us page - Why???

"Contact WepBagesIreland.com" I know I mentioned spelling already but FFS!!!

Never say "Under construction". One of the principles of web-design is that the site is constantly being updated.

The tone of the text in general is unprofessional and 'cowboyish' sounding - eg. "Here @ WebPagesIreland", "Snail Mail"


Functionality

If you put a contact email address on your page if should be hyperlinked. Ever hear of "mailto:" ?




OP some of the critisism on this thread may seem harsh. The main problem with your site is that it talks the talk, but doesnt walk the walk.
If you're going to diss your competition on your site, then you need to be able to back that up with designs that really "WOW" people.
Your site does have the "WOW" factor, but not in a good way.


"Seeing" the difference between your site and some of the well designed sites linked to here is the first step towards improvement. As other posters
said, find sites that look really good and study them - break down the elements that make them look good.

randombar

Gooner

- "Your" and "You're" are two different words.
- "Their" and "there" should be used in different situations

Please don't check my old posts cause I'm probably worse

As for the site, just take a highly downloaded template from www.oswd.org it solves everyone's problems!

Huggles

GaryCocs wrote:

Gooner

- "Your" and "You're" are two different words.
- "Their" and "there" should be used in different situations

Please don't check my old posts cause I'm probably worse

As for the site, just take a highly downloaded template from www.oswd.org it solves everyone's problems!

Pathetic. TBH. I never tried to pass as a doctor of English literature so I fail to see why my typos are issues?

Unless you have keyboard warrior syndrome?

God love ya.

AARRRGH

GaryCocs wrote:

Gooner

- "Your" and "You're" are two different words.
- "Their" and "there" should be used in different situations

In fairness to The Gooner she didn't mock the OP's spelling or grammar skills.

If she had of, that'd be a different story...

corkie

Other than that, the OP is very stupid doesn't even know who he has hosted his own site with:

Link to another of his posts

If he had used some of the facilities/templates provide by his hosting provider, he would have a better site than the static Html pages put up.

It wouldn't surprise me if some of his post here had the same IP as his host! (mods would know!)


Regards,
John

Seth Brundle

Its been a long tims since there was this level of humour on the webmaster forum - well done WPI20000!

Bananna man

corkie wrote:

Other than that, the OP is very stupid doesn't even know who he has hosted his own site with:

Every post he makes brings a smile to my face. I havent been on this forum so much in years, just to check up what other pearls of wisdom he has conjured up

WPI20000

Ok thanksthanks for all your feedback. Wow. didn't think we were that bad. to be honest, we've only been in the professional indutry for 1 year, so we're not 101% up-to-scratch BUT JEEZ we know can make a web page!!

Anyway, moving on (I guess). We're launching an update tomorrow evening. it's going live on the dot at 6.P.M (might be a bit late, though... busy day:cool: )

We've taken your suggestions (they made a LOT of ideas for us) and made a list from your suggestions and have to choose 3 out of these (that's all we have time for in phase 1.2). I'd PERSOANLLy appreciate if you could help one last time for us to pick. OK heres the option:

1. Flash footbal game (there are tonnes of these on the net but all are cr@p)
2. google search (don't know if youve ever seen it but you can put a search powered by GoogleSearchEngines on your actual web page... not really complicated stuff. PM FOR INFO)
3.Online shop (don't know about this persoannly but John says it's excellent for the hits and he really knows what he's talking about way smarter than any of you (andeven me))
4. Guess your age .this is still in development stage but basically you answer loads of questions (when were you born, do you have any sisters usual stuff ) and apparently it knows your age

OK. Thanks again for your feedback. Sorry for being rude before asking people to show there sites bye.

Liam Byrne

Those 4 options are based on "a list from your suggestions" ???

None of those 4 is of any use in promoting your "web design" business. An online shop will only work if you have something to sell, and if - assuming you're selling that - people can find your website in order to buy "something".

If you had a list that included the following, I'd take the "update" seriously:

1) Improved "look and feel"
2) Better response to search engines
3) Textual content that's better formatted/spelt/gramatically, with more impact
4) Sample designs or a portfolio of actual work done for the year that you've been in the "professional industry"

I don't want to sound cruel, since everyone has to start somewhere, but in this day and age, with teenagers in bedrooms able to come up with fairly decent stuff (albeit usually missing a few "real-life" requirements of a website) the "professional" standard is WAY higher than that site represents.

Seth Brundle

WPI20000 wrote:

Ok thanksthanks for all your feedback. Wow. didn't think we were that bad. to be honest, we've only been in the professional indutry for 1 year, so we're not 101% up-to-scratch BUT JEEZ we know can make a web page!!

So far the evidence proves otherwise.

WPI20000 wrote:

Anyway, moving on (I guess). We're launching an update tomorrow evening. it's going live on the dot at 6.P.M (might be a bit late, though... busy day:cool: )

I look forward to it.

WPI20000 wrote:

We've taken your suggestions (they made a LOT of ideas for us) and made a list from your suggestions and have to choose 3 out of these (that's all we have time for in phase 1.2). I'd PERSOANLLy appreciate if you could help one last time for us to pick. OK heres the option:

1. Flash footbal game (there are tonnes of these on the net but all are cr@p)
2. google search (don't know if youve ever seen it but you can put a search powered by GoogleSearchEngines on your actual web page... not really complicated stuff. PM FOR INFO)
3.Online shop (don't know about this persoannly but John says it's excellent for the hits and he really knows what he's talking about way smarter than any of you (andeven me))
4. Guess your age .this is still in development stage but basically you answer loads of questions (when were you born, do you have any sisters usual stuff ) and apparently it knows your age

WTF? Are you planning on putting any of these on your new site? If so, why? What benefit are they to your clients?
The recommendations from what I can remember were to:
* get a decent design
* avoid having incomplete pages
* spellcheck (do try and spell your company correctly - the current use of webpageSireland.com makes you look really really stupid)
* show proper examples of your work

If they aren't there then don't bother putting up a new site!

edit: Laim beat me to it!

cormie

WPI20000 wrote:

4. Guess your age .this is still in development stage but basically you answer loads of questions (when were you born, do you have any sisters usual stuff ) and apparently it knows your age

Wow, so you answer a question of when you were born and it can guess your age? Amazing

I agree with the others above, none of them 4 things will show your design skills to potential customers so why bother? Just get a clean, simple site to promote it.

Seth Brundle

cormie wrote:

Wow, so you answer a question of when you were born and it can guess your age? Amazing

In fairness, some people may not know their age!

heggie

it's a joke for sure

Duckjob

WPI20000 wrote:

Ok thanksthanks for all your feedback. Wow. didn't think we were that bad. to be honest, we've only been in the professional indutry for 1 year, so we're not 101% up-to-scratch BUT JEEZ we know can make a web page!!

Anyway, moving on (I guess). We're launching an update tomorrow evening. it's going live on the dot at 6.P.M (might be a bit late, though... busy day:cool: )

We've taken your suggestions (they made a LOT of ideas for us) and made a list from your suggestions and have to choose 3 out of these (that's all we have time for in phase 1.2). I'd PERSOANLLy appreciate if you could help one last time for us to pick. OK heres the option:

1. Flash footbal game (there are tonnes of these on the net but all are cr@p)
2. google search (don't know if youve ever seen it but you can put a search powered by GoogleSearchEngines on your actual web page... not really complicated stuff. PM FOR INFO)
3.Online shop (don't know about this persoannly but John says it's excellent for the hits and he really knows what he's talking about way smarter than any of you (andeven me))
4. Guess your age .this is still in development stage but basically you answer loads of questions (when were you born, do you have any sisters usual stuff ) and apparently it knows your age

OK. Thanks again for your feedback. Sorry for being rude before asking people to show there sites bye.

But.... I thought you were trying to market a web-design business???

My....brain.....hurts......

robbie1876

heggie wrote:

it's a joke for sure

Bring it on. Best thread on boards for ages.

I'm eating popcorn reading this.

Bananna man

I think he's trying to make a fool out of us to make up for the fool he made of himself.

Unless this is a joke i actually pity the poor sods. A reality check is well in order. I guess we all have to learn the hard way from time to time but man is this going to hurt!!

miju

righto judging from the OP's last suggestions post this has to be a piss take / troll

if it's not well then in all honesty my kid has actually designed a better site than ya

Seth Brundle

Can someone PM Steve in H365 and tell them to be prepared for a lot of hits on this site tomorrow evening so that the servers don't crash?

forbairt

WPI20000 wrote:

Ok thanksthanks for all your feedback. Wow. didn't think we were that bad. to be honest, we've only been in the professional indutry for 1 year, so we're not 101% up-to-scratch BUT JEEZ we know can make a web page!!

Please can you run a spell check on everything ?
Making a web page isn't exactly the problem ... making a good webpage is ...

WPI20000 wrote:

Anyway, moving on (I guess). We're launching an update tomorrow evening. it's going live on the dot at 6.P.M (might be a bit late, though... busy day:cool: )

We've taken your suggestions (they made a LOT of ideas for us) and made a list from your suggestions and have to choose 3 out of these (that's all we have time for in phase 1.2). I'd PERSOANLLy appreciate if you could help one last time for us to pick. OK heres the option:

1. Flash footbal game (there are tonnes of these on the net but all are cr@p)
2. google search (don't know if youve ever seen it but you can put a search powered by GoogleSearchEngines on your actual web page... not really complicated stuff. PM FOR INFO)
3.Online shop (don't know about this persoannly but John says it's excellent for the hits and he really knows what he's talking about way smarter than any of you (andeven me))
4. Guess your age .this is still in development stage but basically you answer loads of questions (when were you born, do you have any sisters usual stuff ) and apparently it knows your age

OK. Thanks again for your feedback. Sorry for being rude before asking people to show there sites bye.

Where on earth did this magical suggestion list spring from ?

WPI20000 wrote:

3.Online shop (don't know about this persoannly but John says it's excellent for the hits and he really knows what he's talking about way smarter than any of you (andeven me))

Can I ask if this is all a big publicity stunt of some sort ?



I for one welcome our new rulers with open arms