My Web Design Portfolio website

Cianos

So after plenty of moaning and harassing others about their website, it's time for me to put up my own.

I've started up a web design company not so long ago, and this is the company website; ThinkWeb.ie

Would really appreciate any feedback!

Giblet

Your images are massive (4 seconds to load on 20mb Fibre, nearly 2s to DOMContentLoaded fires). Over 2MB of content overall on first load. Using PNGs where JPGs should be used
Stuff your script at the end of the page, not in the head. You also include jQuery twice, and both are different versions from each other. Remove shadows for ::selection. There are a lot of html tags that just don't need to be there, like <p> being used as a wrapper in many places. Add the correct mime-type to serve the different fonts in use (.woff, .svg etc)

It looks very nice though And looks like you could easily get a responsive design working.

benbob65

It takes waaaaaaaay too long to load; visitors won't like it and neither will Google. That is bad for any kind of website, but if I were looking for a webdesigner, I'd be gone just because of that.
Secondly, it is far too obviously template based. If you don't want to hand-write a site, you should at least make it less obvious that it a template.

Cianos

Agree about the loading time, thanks, something I'll be working on. It's not a template though, I designed it entirely myself.

Thanks for the feedback!

benbob65

That is interesting. Did you design your site on purpose to look like many of the templates?

tricky D

Like the colour scheme fo this home-content-bg.png but don't think the rest of the grey compliments it at all. That and my usual dislike for grey on grey based schemes;)

Cianos

benbob65 wrote: »

That is interesting. Did you design your site on purpose to look like many of the templates?

No I didn't, still not sure what you're talking about to be honest! Could you post a few links to some of the many templates that look the same as my site as I'd love to see them All designers are influenced by contemporary trends so I'm not sure if that's just what you're referring to.

tricky D wrote: »

Like the colour scheme fo this home-content-bg.png but don't think the rest of the grey compliments it at all. That and my usual dislike for grey on grey based schemes;)

I was going for the canvas texture to hint at the creative process as well as make the design look more tangible. I agree it is a tad dark though, and a different background would let the colours bounce out more.

Looking forward to putting the next version up and the feedback is a great help thanks all.

benbob65

Cianos wrote: »

... All designers are influenced by contemporary trends so I'm not sure if that's just what you're referring to...

That probably is what I am referring to then. I would not call it a trend though, but putting up with the limitations of templates. I have found that loads of so called "webdesigners" don't know Jack, and can do little more than slapping a site together by filling templates.
If you are one of the few that can actually really design a page, you have a major usp to set you aside from the pack. Bucking the trend has the potential to get you loads more work because you stand out from the crowd. It may sound odd and scary, but I promise you it works. I've done the same with my website, and have been laughed at and ridiculed by my peers "because it looked odd".
As the recession is hitting people harder, and harder causing them to use the web to do research in stead of just finding the first available phone number, my phone rings more and more. The others that have "instant recognition sites", find they are getting fewer and fewer calls because they don't have "something special".

I have been looking around myself for several months to find a good online source to learn more about the actual css/html5 way of positioning and displaying pages. If you know of any, I'd be most obliged. So far, I have built my site by copy-catting stuff from compilers, as my html knowledge is more than 5 years old and thus hopelessly outdated.

tricky D

For the record and give your opinions the proper context and value, your website which I assume reflects your level of design knowledge is here: http://www.boiler-breakdown-repair-london.co.uk/potterton-boiler-repairs/potterton-performa-repairs/potterton-performa-repairs.html

brimal

tricky D wrote: »

For the record and give your opinions the proper context and value, your website which I assume reflects your level of design knowledge is here: http://www.boiler-breakdown-repair-london.co.uk/potterton-boiler-repairs/potterton-performa-repairs/potterton-performa-repairs.html

lol! Good spot Tricky D.


Cianos, as soon as I saw your site it looked very very familiar.

How long have you been in business? Were you nominated in any web awards last year? Could have sworn I've seen your site last year somewhere in a web awards nominations list?

Cianos

benbob65 wrote: »

That probably is what I am referring to then. I would not call it a trend though, but putting up with the limitations of templates. I have found that loads of so called "webdesigners" don't know Jack, and can do little more than slapping a site together by filling templates.
If you are one of the few that can actually really design a page, you have a major usp to set you aside from the pack. Bucking the trend has the potential to get you loads more work because you stand out from the crowd. It may sound odd and scary, but I promise you it works. I've done the same with my website, and have been laughed at and ridiculed by my peers "because it looked odd".
As the recession is hitting people harder, and harder causing them to use the web to do research in stead of just finding the first available phone number, my phone rings more and more. The others that have "instant recognition sites", find they are getting fewer and fewer calls because they don't have "something special".

I have been looking around myself for several months to find a good online source to learn more about the actual css/html5 way of positioning and displaying pages. If you know of any, I'd be most obliged. So far, I have built my site by copy-catting stuff from compilers, as my html knowledge is more than 5 years old and thus hopelessly outdated.

Yeah I wanted to design a unique identity for myself, which I think I've done (at least I hope so after all those hours invested ). According to feedback from clients so far, it's been the uniqueness of the site that got me the job.

There are a lot of generic looking sites out there with not much evidence of original design or creative effort with overused stock imagery etc, this was the look I was trying to avoid in order to stand out as you say yourself.

I'm still really interested to see these templates that my site seems to remind you of, could you post up some links please?

Cianos

brimal wrote: »

lol! Good spot Tricky D.


Cianos, as soon as I saw your site it looked very very familiar.

How long have you been in business? Were you nominated in any web awards last year? Could have sworn I've seen your site last year somewhere in a web awards nominations list?

I wish! I've only been in business under the ThinkWeb brand since around October. Was this an Irish awards list?

benbob65

Cianos wrote: »

...I'm still really interested to see these templates that my site seems to remind you of, could you post up some links please?

It isn't any particular site, it's just the look and feel e.g. row of buttons at the top, the "table-look" just down the middle, fixed positioning.

The fixed sizing is becoming an increasing no-no with the rapid increase of various kinds of mobile web access points e.g. smartphones, tablets, androids. "Self adjusting" display is my current project since anything between 1400 and 400 width should now be considered "standard".

Cianos

benbob65 wrote: »

It isn't any particular site, it's just the look and feel e.g. row of buttons at the top, the "table-look" just down the middle, fixed positioning.

The fixed sizing is becoming an increasing no-no with the rapid increase of various kinds of mobile web access points e.g. smartphones, tablets, androids. "Self adjusting" display is my current project since anything between 1400 and 400 width should now be considered "standard".

I think you're getting a bit mixed up here Look and feel pertains to the colouring, font, type of graphics, branding etc. Layout pertains to the things you are listing.

So to say that my website looks like a lot of templates implies that I have copied the graphics directly from templates. Initially you were claiming you had seen templates that look very similar to my website. I was happy to challenge you to link me to these templates as I have personally never seen a template that looks in any way similar to my site.

Having a horizontal navigation menu and content going down the middle doesn't make it likely the site is from a template. The vast majority of websites have a horizontal navigation menu and for good reason - applying common standards make user interaction much easier. It's like saying a car is badly designed because the steering wheel is where you expect it to be.

As for the site not being responsive, well, again the vast vast majority of websites aren't responsive. A site not being responsive is no indication that it is from a template

In saying all this, I obviously don't think there is anything wrong with using templates. However as a web designer I feel it is important for me to showcase my original design and creative input in order to 'sell' myself.

benbob65

Cianos wrote: »

....In saying all this, I obviously don't think there is anything wrong with using templates. However as a web designer I feel it is important for me to showcase my original design and creative input in order to 'sell' myself.

That was exactly my point. Whether or not it was literally template based, is not that important. If you hand-wrote every single line, but "comply" with the general norm, it still LOOKS like a template, and you will still definitely not stand out from the crowd.

My site makes the average webdesigner weep, but it DOES stand out.
If you have no name/branding yet, it's not a bad idea to follow the old show-biz adage: There is no such thing as bad publicity.
A year ago my peers unanimously ridiculed my site when they first saw it. Since then, my phone rings a bit more every month and theirs a bit less every month. Few battles are so uphill as trying not to sink in the sea of mediocrity.

Cianos

benbob65 wrote: »

That was exactly my point. Whether or not it was literally template based, is not that important. If you hand-wrote every single line, but "comply" with the general norm, it still LOOKS like a template, and you will still definitely not stand out from the crowd.

My site makes the average webdesigner weep, but it DOES stand out.
If you have no name/branding yet, it's not a bad idea to follow the old show-biz adage: There is no such thing as bad publicity.
A year ago my peers unanimously ridiculed my site when they first saw it. Since then, my phone rings a bit more every month and theirs a bit less every month. Few battles are so uphill as trying not to sink in the sea of mediocrity.

I think we'll have to agree to disagree about how to sell oneself as a web designer. I would prefer to work towards contemporary and modern design, producing websites that give my clients a professional looking web presence, rather than work in the opposite direction just for the sake of standing out via cringe-worthiness.

fwiw could you give me an example of a site you don't think looks like a template?

benbob65

When I come across something that looks nice, I'll post the link.

Kenny Logins

benbob65 wrote: »

My site makes the average webdesigner weep, but it DOES stand out.

Are you talking about this one?

http://www.boiler-breakdown-repair-london.co.uk/

benbob65

Kenny Logins wrote: »

Are you talking about this one?

http://www.boiler-breakdown-repair-london.co.uk/

That's the one.
Not something I aimed for, but a surprising amount of people told me they actually liked the "no frills approach". I think I forgot to tell most of them that it is more a matter of "don't know any better" approach.

VMotion

Cianos, nice website. A bit girly. Had difficulty understanding your logo. Text-background contrast is not too sharp but fits the scheme and .. who reads the text?
The hands for the arrows do not work really well, a bit out of style.
But still a nice concept.

Feathers

Design is nice enough & nice to see some logos that you would've had to do from scratch, but the site is so sloooooowwww. Which is really the cardinal sin of a web dev. You're homepage took 10s to load uncached on my machine, on fairly decent broadband.

Also, on your portfolio page — the images themselves should be in the page, not background images; you should use CSS sprites where possible to increase load times.

Also, keep in mind that any text that you have within images (that doesn't have alt. text) isn't getting picked up by search engines & so can affect your rankings. As an example, try installing the WebDeveloper toolbar for Firefox, disabling images & taking a look at the site — lots of info missing.

Consider also marking up your contact details as microdata, as you're more likely to get it included in a Google snippet.