It’s taken me a lifetime and a half, but I’ve finally redesigned my own web site. It’s not very big and I have more to add, but for now it’s all up and it seems to actually work.
This is the first time I’ve used layers throughout (or “DIVs” in the proper lingo, I guess) and I’ve made use of Carousel and other actions I’ve never previously even tried. Thanks to all of you who assisted while I fiddled with those.
Any bugaboos you can spot? Typos? Poor placement or weirdness? I haven’t yet examined this in every browser. On to that next.
I’m glad you got the time to put it together Laura. I will say that it was bugging me a bit so I removed the white from your existing frog graphic so it’s smooth around the edges. If you want to take a look it’s here:
*I named it differently so you wouldn’t overwrite your current file name.
Other than that I like the carousel slides for each section. It doesn’t drive people to pages with little bits of information on them. It seems to run smooth on Safari which is good. Another huge plus, which is a big pet peeve of mine when this doesn’t occur, is that you did proper page titles for your site. May that be an example to people who choose to put ‘home’ ‘about’ and so on.
I’m happy that you got it up and running and best of luck as more content takes shape on there.
Really great site Laura! Given me some ideas, and a slight inferiority complex. I also like your use of humour, and the intriguing ‘come ons’ from the frog are brilliant.
You’ve inspired me to revisit my own site right away. I put it together some years ago, and it’s gotten a bit old & tired.
all best wishes
Dick Tapsall
Web Design and Training Consultant
Voluntary Sector Management Standards Consultant
The great beauty about your site, Laura, is it makes you want to poke
around to see what’s there. The frog is a good device to encourage you
to leap from page to page and your no nonsense text content shows you
skills as a writer - an element often overlooked in web design
(usually by the client!), yet is so important in both quickly making a
message sink home and boosting Google (and other) rankings.
Really clean and simple design, might not appeal to aficionados of
complex or highly graphic formats, but certainly does the business -
and should bring you some, too.
Ah!, but there must be a negative. Afraid so, but only a minor one at
your stage of web development. The ‘portfolio’ examples look a bit
samey and ‘straight up and down’. Perhaps a bit book like, since
that’s your background. Now that you have gained confidence with
Freeway, let you imagination run riot and get a little more shape in
to some of your designs, where appropriate, say with pull quotes or
graphics that blend across the page. Not too much though, clarity is a
virtue in web design.
Just my thoughts.
Colin
On 27 May 2010, at 11:01, thetribe wrote:
Really great site Laura! Given me some ideas, and a slight
inferiority complex. I also like your use of humour, and the
intriguing ‘come ons’ from the frog are brilliant.
You’ve inspired me to revisit my own site right away. I put it
together some years ago, and it’s gotten a bit old & tired.
all best wishes
Dick Tapsall
Web Design and Training Consultant
Voluntary Sector Management Standards Consultant
It’s taken me a lifetime and a half, but I’ve finally redesigned my own web site. It’s not very big and I have more to add, but for now it’s all up and it seems to actually work.
Very nice it is, too. I particularly like the ‘tone’ of the writing. Good copy makes such a difference.
This is an amazingly helpful and thoughtful list, and I thank every one of you for your comments.
Dan? I took a page right out of your book in terms of naming pages. I studied your own site, having watched many of your videos, and tried to incorporate some of your techniques, but in keeping with my own style. And thank you for the smoothing out of the frog. I use Photoshop Elements and obviously, I’m no expert.
Dick? No greater reward than knowing that I, of all people, somehow inspired another person. It’s very difficult to redo one’s own site when there are client demands for their own.
Colin? Point well taken about the staid look to the portfolio page. I might have tried something more imaginative, but for now getting anything down in Carousel and using proper rollovers was challenge enough. Know, though, that I’ll most certainly have you in the back of my mind when I find time to do some serious tinkering.
Paul? You’re one of the best out there and that you took the time to respond and note the writing tone was a major deal to me. Writing has been a strength for me because of my background in it. And I do wind up doing a lot of it for clients who realize they don’t have time when all is said and done to produce their own.
Thank you all, and to Thomas Kincaid as well, who responded with my form to make certain it was working.
I’ve learned most of what I know from this forum. It perhaps is Freeway’s strongest – if unintentional – marketing tools.
the pre-name might be correct, the family-name sounds really cool.
Once a day, when I have to emigrate into the states because Germany is bankrupt (… I guess it will be tomorrow or the day after tommorrow…) I´d like for sure pick up your proposal - lol.
Another good reason that I have an international nickname called
“Hopsing”.
Maybe I should change my profile to sound a bit more international.