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Seeking review for my web design business site.

Discussion in 'Websites' started by jgold242, Feb 1, 2014.

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  1. #1
    DigitalPoint,

    I was just hoping for some feedback on my site for my small business web design company - streamlineyoursb.com. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated (good or bad). I want to make sure my value proposition is clear, the call-to-action items are clear, and that everything looks great and ties together nicely. I want the design to be as elegant and as functional as possible and would lead people to complete the contact form.

    *I plan to beef up SEO this week.

    Thanks,
    Jared
     
    jgold242, Feb 1, 2014 IP
  2. HuggyStudios

    HuggyStudios Well-Known Member

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    #2
    Just a couple of things I've noticed. I'm using Google Chrome.

    1. The dark green text in the logo is hard to read against a black background.
    2. Put the phone number in the sticky header.
    3. On the contact page add the phone number where you have give us a call.
    4. Remove the in-line styles all over the place.
    5. The main header "It's time for a better website." needs some padding on the sides for smaller screens.

    That's all I noticed at first, I'm sure there's more thou.
     
    HuggyStudios, Feb 2, 2014 IP
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  3. deathshadow

    deathshadow Acclaimed Member

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    #3
    Well, first off your use of dark green on dark grey results in illegible text. The "stream" I can just barely make out, and the "done right" text is, well... so invisible it's more like "done wrong".

    I seem to be looking at a giant blank page with no content in it. I don't know what's being blocked or is unavailable, but that I have to scroll down two full screens before I see this giant space-wasting "we we we" text that doesn't say anything useful isn't exactly blowing my skirt up.

    It scrolls jerkily in every browser I try, likely from an overuse of scripttard nonsense. Ah, Firefox is showing me images ... and look, that STUPID MALFING INACCESSIBLE PARALLAX BULL mated to an even worse image slider! (sorry, NOT a fan -- neither would you be if you cared about accessibility and practiced semi-fluid elastic responsive layout).

    The lack of responsiveness or fluidity making it at LEAST a decade out of date on development practices.

    The subscription form reeks of the typical broken form nonsense with the "false simplicity" of that artsy fartsy "placeholder" garbage, with no actual labels. Might I suggest reading:

    http://www.pardot.com/faqs/best-practices/placeholders-and-labels/
    http://www.webaxe.org/placeholder-attribute-is-not-a-label/
    http://www.456bereastreet.com/archi...te_is_not_a_substitute_for_the_label_element/
    http://baymard.com/blog/false-simplicity

    Really it's a massive amount of empty whitespace and not enough content to even warrant having a page from what I'm seeing.

    The markup is typical of what I expect the moment I see a HTML 5 doctype -- and no that's not a compliment; the worst of HTML 3.2 pre 1998 practices that until a couple years ago dev's would have thrown 4 tranny at it. Today slap 5-lip service around it while still sleazing out the same buggy broken outdated methodologies.... like endless pointless classes and DIV for nothing, META tags nothign REAL actually gives a flying purple fish about, pointless bloated script-tard nonsense that has no business on websites in the first place, IE conditionals to cover up CSS ineptitude, gibberish use of numbered headings, presentational use of classes and a general lack of anything remotely resembling semantic markup.

    Hell, this ALONE:
        <body id="collection-52538231e4b04bbc53b243a0" class="collection-type-index homepage view-list mobile-style-available collection-52538231e4b04bbc53b243a0 collection-layout-default event-excerpts event-list-date event-list-time event-list-address event-icalgcal-links  gallery-design-slideshow aspect-ratio-auto lightbox-style-dark gallery-navigation-bullets gallery-info-overlay-show-on-hover gallery-arrow-style-no-background gallery-show-arrows gallery-auto-crop   parallax-scrolling first-index-image-fullscreen index-image-height-half  title--description-alignment-center title--description-position-over-image  hide-page-title blog-layout-simple blog-width-full hide-author   product-list-titles-under product-list-alignment-center product-item-size-11-square product-image-auto-crop product-gallery-size-11-square product-gallery-auto-crop show-product-price show-product-item-nav product-social-sharing   opentable-style-light newsletter-style-dark small-button-style-solid small-button-shape-square medium-button-style-solid medium-button-shape-square large-button-style-solid large-button-shape-square button-style-default button-corner-style-square native-currency-code-usd">
    Code (markup):
    Is such a train wreck of garbage... I lack the words in polite company!

    Hence the 61k of markup to deliver 2.91k of plaintext, anywhere from six to ten times as much markup as should be used!!!

    Even worse is the 1.5 Megabyte pageload (2.5 megs uncompressed) in 26 files -- almost TWENTY times the limit I'd allow on a website for markup + images + CSS + Scripts. The ungodly 689k of CSS in 4 files leaves one asking "FOR WHAT?!?" and does nothing but say that whoever coded the style for that site has NO business working on websites in the first place! AN ENTIRE FORUM SOFTWARE doesn't need more than a tenth that CSS for ALL it's media targets!

    It's a laundry list of how not to build a website, and my advice would be to throw it ALL away, to build instead with semantic markup with accessible complete forms and logical document (heading) structure, progressively enhanced with CSS practicing separation of presentation from content, using semi-fluid elastic responsive layout, while staying the blue blazes away from the "Gee ain't it neat" script-tard nonsense.

    There is nothing there I'd even try to salvage, much less deploy on a live website. It is a poster child for everything wrong with development today.
     
    Last edited: Feb 4, 2014
    deathshadow, Feb 4, 2014 IP
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  4. malky66

    malky66 Acclaimed Member

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    #4
    I find it quite ironic that a so called web design company uses garbage like squarespace.com to build their own website.....
     
    malky66, Feb 4, 2014 IP
    Boardwalk, averyz, ryan_uk and 1 other person like this.
  5. deathshadow

    deathshadow Acclaimed Member

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    #5
    Never heard of it, but if this is typical... It's an indictment against anyone with brain cells to rub together EVER using them.
     
    deathshadow, Feb 4, 2014 IP
  6. ryan_uk

    ryan_uk Illustrious Member

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    #6
    The problem with some designers is they try to make something that looks pretty, but then completely forget about the user experience. It's not even that fancy, in my opinion. I thought I was going to click on a pointless downwards arrow, but in fact it tells me to scroll down. Well, duh. What do you think the scrollbars at the side help to indicate? Why are you not showing me the important content immediately? Instead, it's a blob of text.

    I would bounce straight away. I can't stand single page sites that scroll forever or the jumping around every time I click a link. There might be some good content there, but it's lost among the fluff. The most important points should be visible first.

    Also, you mention WordPress. Why on earth would you want to set in your visitor's mind that you just do WordPress designs? There is more out there than WP. Everyone and their granny thinks they are a webdesigner because they can install a theme in WP. It's pointless limiting yourself, you should produce what is best for the customer - using what technology is best for their needs. Hell, you might even be using WP, as you later mention powered by SquareSpace - so someone does their research and might decide you are a rip off merchant.

    Why is your telephone number at the bottom? It should be at the top, clearly visible.

    You are not even quoting your "sources" accurately (you don't even link to them), for example the one from Search Engine Land is from 2011 and is actually a quote from Google.

    The one from "Microsoft" was actually a summary of someone else's prediction (Mary Meeker), long before that infographic was published.

    And the one for WebStartToday is actually on a slideshow for ReachLocal.

    I recommend you take a design course with a focus on user experience and accessibility. When you build you next site, test it out on friends and family members who will be brutally honest and know nothing about SEO/web design. Or better, have them rate it alongside two others, without letting them know which is yours.
     
    ryan_uk, Feb 4, 2014 IP
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  7. visualwebcreation

    visualwebcreation Greenhorn

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    #7
    The design was elegant but I think it needs some improvements to become more neat. First, you could reduce the spacing. Second, the color of your header which is black or dark gray does not complement the color of the logo (the word scheme seems a little unreadable). Third, you can add contact info on the header (contact number or social media). I hope my comments could help you improve your website. Good job for overall design!
     
    visualwebcreation, Feb 5, 2014 IP
  8. Jaspworld

    Jaspworld Well-Known Member

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    #8
    I like the design but when I go on a SEO website I like to get a rough idea of the rates without having to get a quote.
     
    Jaspworld, Feb 6, 2014 IP
  9. bogi

    bogi Well-Known Member

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    #9
    Without checking the source code of the page, you can tell that it wasn't made by a web design company. Seriously, that logo is something that my grandma could do in MS Paint.
     
    bogi, Feb 7, 2014 IP
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  10. averyz

    averyz Well-Known Member

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    #10
    Reminds me of a tattoo artist I know who recently made his own site with squarespace-com. The tattoo guy is always.. bitching about people getting tattoos that are “not from a shop” calling then “scratchers” and other lowly names.

    He posted his site the other day looking for feedback it was a squarespace-com some pics, more pics, few blog pages of nonsense the description meta tag was full of 20 keys words he thinks he will rank for, but they just fill his description with a confusing mess.

    I felt like telling him his squarespace site in the web design world is the equivalent to a 9volt battery taped onto a bic pen in the tattoo world. But I decided to say nothing.
     
    averyz, Feb 7, 2014 IP
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  11. John Michael

    John Michael Member

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    #11
    Hello I take a quack view of your website. I think you make portfolio for your company. There are many thing that you need to change . I suggest you some of these.
    First The logo text is not easily readable. So change the text color from green or remove border from the the text.
    Second the alignment : Adjust the logo in the main div width or convert your website to 100% width.
    Third the make some proper footer for your web site.
     
    John Michael, Feb 12, 2014 IP
  12. Catzy

    Catzy Member

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    #12
    I do concur with all the feedback about the website. The green back ground is the most problematic..."streamline". However, if you are on a low budget, where would be the best place to have a quality website done/created? By all means, I'm not a web designer and have no intent to be one, but looking at starting a small business. Where would I go to find quality that's not a price shocker?
     
    Catzy, Feb 12, 2014 IP
  13. Enerica

    Enerica Peon

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    #13
    I find your blog very hard to read, for some reason. Maybe it's the centered text.

    Agree with everyone commenting about the green colour.
     
    Enerica, Feb 12, 2014 IP