Design Criticism

[Shamil]

I've rolled out a big update to a style I'm using on a website. The content is to change soon, but I'd like your initial thoughts on a few designs.

Have a play round on my staging site, and tell me what I can improve on.

In the sidebar, on any About Us pages, scroll down, and you'll find a note thing. I can't choose between this and the box style above it.

 

[erich37]

review:

you should remove the vBulletin stuff.....

 

[Shamil]

review:

you should remove the vBulletin stuff.....

:/ The vBulletin-orientated products and services accounts for a good percentage of the income.

 

[Caelum]

It's a pretty good design. Personally preferred your old one though, but this one definitely has its good points.

Some of the navigation links are behaving awkwardly in Opera though, showing a gray background when clicked/subsequently hovered over.

In all, definitely a valid design.

 

[Shamil]

It's a pretty good design. Personally preferred your old one though, but this one definitely has its good points.

Some of the navigation links are behaving awkwardly in Opera though, showing a gray background when clicked/subsequently hovered over.

In all, definitely a valid design.

Interesting. Dark backgrounds just annoy me, but I'm not the focus of the design

That reminds me, I need to install Opera.

 

[Slavik]

Looks a lot like the old futuremark site, quite clean.

a) The images in the scrolling banner seem horrible low res?
b) The links in the footer need to be made the same color as the company information, the darker link style while ok, still strains the eyes a little.
c) Top links just seem so.... meh.... in comparison to the rest they just seem boring and un-interesting.

 

[Floris]

:/ The vBulletin-orientated products and services accounts for a good percentage of the income.

I will forward those who ask me to you then. Seeing how you're one of the few that still has an active business around it. I tell people I don't do anything with vB anymore, and that I am focussing on xf. I can extend that with 'but there are others who still believe in its future' and link them to you

 

[Shamil]

Looks a lot like the old futuremark site, quite clean.

a) The images in the scrolling banner seem horrible low res?
b) The links in the footer need to be made the same color as the company information, the darker link style while ok, still strains the eyes a little.
c) Top links just seem so.... meh.... in comparison to the rest they just seem boring and un-interesting.

I hate the banners. They just don't fit in. They're going to be replaced with ones with lower overhead, but better graphics.
Do you mean the copyright text and company info in the footer below it? I'll change it.
Navbar. Any examples of how I could spruce it up?

 

[Mikey]

:/ The vBulletin-orientated products and services accounts for a good percentage of the income.

vBulletin accounted for about 75% of my income on my web services site, When vB released 4.1.2 adding all the bloat, I made the hard decision to stop offering vBulletin services now, sometimes you gotta make the hard decisions.

 

[Mikey]

regarding the design, the jquery image scroller, way too fast, slow that down by about 900 ms.

 

[Slavik]

I hate the banners. They just don't fit in. They're going to be replaced with ones with lower overhead, but better graphics.
Do you mean the copyright text and company info in the footer below it? I'll change it.
Navbar. Any examples of how I could spruce it up?

Yea, the links

• Business Profile

• Work with us

• Legal

• Terms of Service

• SLA

ect should be made to match the copyright and company info.

 

[Shamil]

vBulletin accounted for about 75% of my income on my web services site, When vB released 4.1.2 adding all the bloat, I made the hard decision to stop offering vBulletin services now, sometimes you gotta make the hard decisions.

Ouch. I have the staff and resources to keep going though. This wouldn't be possible without the help of someone special.

regarding the design, the jquery image scroller, way too fast, slow that down by about 900 ms.

Done.

 

[Bob]

http://rs-stg.radonsystems.net/services/website-hosting.14

the 2 learn more buttons are really hard to read. Also, one of them is on 1 line, the other wraps. would look better if both were on one line IMO.

 

[Shamil]

http://rs-stg.radonsystems.net/services/website-hosting.14

the 2 learn more buttons are really hard to read. Also, one of them is on 1 line, the other wraps. would look better if both were on one line IMO.

Oh lord, not that bug again. :/

Thanks for finding it.

And it's squashed

 

[Shamil]

I've added a small effect to the navigation bar. Preparing to add submenus.

 

[SchmitzIT]

I prefer the post-it note look, mostly because it stands out.

 

[Shamil]

I prefer the post-it note look, mostly because it stands out.

Thought so. I need to make the damn thing wider, I just can't find the original psd to do it, and convert the blue edges to grey/black mist.

 

[tmb]

Footer is entirely too large for the amount of stuff you have in it.

 

[Shamil]

Footer is entirely too large for the amount of stuff you have in it.

I've reduced the height of it.

 

[tickedon]

My only suggestion... stick your address on the Contact Us page. I know you're fulfilling the legal requirement (afaik) by having it on your 'Business Profile' page, but, people are likely to start looking for it on the 'Contact Us' page