Alright guys, I have been Photoshopping for about a year and just yesterday, I decided to try to make a layout. I spent about 10 hours on this (it took so long because I was learning a lot while making it). Tell me what you guys think of it and whether you think its worth selling or not? I won't post the live link because I don't want anyone to steal the source.
To be completely honest... it sucks... but that's just me! If you're looking to become a professional and to make web design a career for yourself, then you'll need to make way better designs. Or if you're only interested in making a quick $ at DP then you're on the right track!
He said it was his first one... I think it's very good for your first one, but you will realize that you cannot use the font you are using for the body text on the web. You will have to use a web-compliant font like arial, verdana, times, georgia, etc.
Good for a first. Its simple and has a friendly navigation, just play around with your colour scheme, and avoid using large images in your background because it will make your site loads slow. Keep up the good work!
Thanks for the good feedback. It's probably the first good feedback I have gotten and thanks for the suggestion, geekos.
There's not much to say about your design really, it's a few boxes and a grunge brush. Try adding color and a more consistent color. Also, bear in mind that Adsense blocks (and most other ads) come in standardized formats, so if you're going to incorporate space for them at this stage, you should check out the standard dimensions. And of course, since most designs will encompass even small details such as list styles, maybe you could replace the 'Links' block with some dummy links.
We shouldnt be so hard on this person. At least he/she is trying to create something. I am a web designer (self taught) and I wasn't so good at first either!
Are you using CSS? You can do a whole lot with it to make it look better. Dark is ok, but too much is hard for some people.
I'm not sure if anyone has realized but he mentioned "I have been Photoshopping for about a year". For someone who has been photoshopping for 1 year I would've expected a better understanding of design and I'm not even getting started how that layout is a coders' worst nightmare. Victim, if you don't want negative criticism and just want to be encouraged then you should say so in your original post. There are alot of tutorials online that teach you to build a website layout from scratch, I suggest you read and do alot of them if you want to improve yourself...
Photoshop != Design. Those are two totally different skills, and it shouldn't be assumed that a PS user is a designer, or vice versa. That being said, there are a number of issues with this layout. The font can not be used as is unless you are going to be entirely in Flash or use some fairly annoying CSS. The Adsense box seems mostly random, and you need to research more about Adsense space requirements. You have a menu at the top of the layout that includes Links, so the Links on the sidebar is somewhat redundant unless you were really planning on using that as site navigation. Even if you were going to use the side bar as navigation, all of that content is already contained in the top menu. The colors are bleak, and generally speaking, with text on a black background causes eye strain and you really wouldn't want to use it on a text heavy site. For a first shot it isn't horrible (mine was much, much, much worse), but there are a lot of things that can be done differently to improve the design.