RE: FN-FORUM: New Freelancer - Help or adviced required

date posted 3rd October 2006 20:37

Hi Mike,

Having read some of the comments offered by Ian, I wanted to add some of my
own:

I like the site - the colours used are bold and give the site what I would
call a "clean" style - it is not confused.

However...

1. I agree about the use of the URL in the design - it is not necessary and
does not add anything. The URL in the browser address bar shows that you are
on the site. As it stands, it is harder to read, as you have put it in a
colour of similar contrast (I feel) to the green band used.

As a half-way point, you might want to consider perhaps using part of the
URL in the title on the page - I am thinking along the lines of "Mike
Beecham.co.uk" if you like, with a definite difference in font sizes used,
so that you get the impact required. As an alternative, you might want to
consider putting it in small text at the bottom of the image - along the
same lines of the copyright texts I sometimes see. Here you could put
something such as "(c) mikebeecham.co.uk 2006" - how does this sound?

2. I think that the whole "image" needs enlarging by about 25%, with a
reduction in size of about 15-25% for the wooden man - if I am to be
brutally honest, I would feel that the site is cramped, and not as easy to
view as it could be. It feels like there is too much green "screen estate"
which is not being used - I am not suggesting a large increase in size, but
still feel that something is needed to make better use of the screen.

3. I am not so convinced about the removal of the "about me" comment from
Ian (sorry Ian) - I still feel that people need to know who you are, or
perhaps that there is a live person behind the site and that it is not a
faceless entity out there on the web. As a compromise, perhaps moving it out
of the menu system and down to the bottom of the screen might be better - at
least people can find out who you are, if albeit not immediately.


There is one point which I feel needs to be made though - it is in relation
to Ian's comment about usability. Have you decided on what your "corporate"
colour scheme would be? The only reason I ask is that, in keeping with the
usability theme suggested by Ian, anyone who was colour blind may well find
your site hard to use, as it uses a lot of red and green - the condition is
called "deuteranopia", I believe.

Now - before I get shot down in flames, I am fully aware that colour blind
people may be a minority, they may or may not be in the business of
designing sites, need a site designed, or the services of a graphic
designer, and that justifying changes of this nature might be too much.
However, your site does use a high proportion of red and green as a colour -
had it been a smaller proportion, this may well have not been a problem.

You might ask - what is the likelihood of a colour-blind individual using
your site? The answer is - you don't know. I have always been a keen fan of
usability, and keeping any sites I have designed open to use by as many
people as possible. You might think that it is not necessary to change your
colour scheme - this is entirely up to you. Please though - I am not doing
this to scare you; I just wanted to make you aware of this "point", and let
you decide what you want to do. It has to be your decision - I cannot
control what you do, nor want to be seen to be doing so. You must decide if
you think it warrants a change, or if you are too far down the route of
setting up colour schemes to change, or even that you are not too bothered.
This is up to you to decide...

Hope this helps - please forgive the length of this posting. I hope I have
not put too much of a spanner in the works - I will not feel offended if you
want to ignore my last comments about colour!

Alex Libby.

-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL REMOVED] [EMAIL REMOVED] On Behalf Of Ian Piper
Sent: 03 October 2006 20:10
To: FN-FORUM / [EMAIL REMOVED]
Subject: Re: FN-FORUM: New Freelancer - Help or adviced required


On 2 Oct 2006, at 5:39 pm, Mike Beecham wrote:

>
> Unless it's being offered FOC...no thanks! :o)
>
> I have designed my own website, and a friend is building it for me
> to get me
> started...
>
> http://www.mikebeecham.vispa.com/portfolio/template.jpg
>
> That is the link to one of the preview pages of the new site. It's
> fairly
> simple really (apparently)...so we'll see how it goes from here!
>

Hi Mike,

Some constructive thoughts on your preview of your site.

It is a nice bold theme. I always prefer simplicity and clarity and
this - overall - has both of those. I like the use of colour - there
are some unconventional colour combinations there and I think they work.

However...

1. The bottom and top left of the curved frame are slightly
disjointed where they meet the straight sections, out of parallel on
the curves and awkward where they converge together (they converge in
different places). For most sites this wouldn't be an issue but this
is a graphic design site - needs to be perfect.
2. Are the rollover icons going to be used for a disjoint rollover?
Dude, that's soooo last century :-) Seriously though, it is not a
good usability feature (have a look at Vince Flanders "suck" site for
what he calls "Mystery Meat Navigation").
3. I'm not clear what the woodentop is doing there. It doesn't
obviously add anything.
4. Does your template design have sufficient flexibility to work
across the whole site? The layout works on this page, but what about
different form factors (much more or very little content)?
5. Somethng I learned from a plain-speaking client. No-one cares
about you - the "about me" link can be interpreted by clients as a
cue that this is a lightweight vanity site, not a professional one.
6. Do you need to have the url on the page? By the time people see
this they are already on your site, so they don't need it. Unless of
course this is how your other materials (business cards and so on)
are going to look, in which case it makes perfect sense and I'll shut
up.

Hope this helps, and best of luck. I have been working for myself
fulltime for nearly two years and wouldn't willingly go back to wage-
slavery. Nurture your networks, keep your promises, don't be evil and
you will do fine!

Regards,


Ian.
--
Ian Piper
Tellura Information Services - the web, document and information people
http://www.tellura.co.uk/
01926 811574 | 07973 156616
skype: ianmpiper
Key Minder : easy to use, inexpensive, industrial strength password
protection : http://www.tellura.co.uk/keyminder/
--



--
Freelancers, contractors earn more with Prosperity4
Call 0870 870 4414 or visit www.prosperity4.com
and benefit from Inland Revenue approved expenses today.

To advertise here: http://www.freelancers.net/advertising.html