talkmagic.co.uk

Just finished the new look to my website. Comments welcome.

(edit new site 09/01/11)

http://www.magicpackagingdesign.co.uk/

Why can't you get it to work in any browser other than Firefox?

A couple of technical points - you're loading Javascript and CSS from your hard drive, and if you're going to use images you're going to have to include alt attributes

Hi Kolm, PM'd you

I like the colours.

It seems to work OK in Opera, except for the portfolio page. However, a commercial website should work in all common browsers and should never recommend one browser over another.

The design is very busy, to the point of confusion. My eyes didn't know what to look at first. Since you're advertising a design service, this isn't a good thing.

People expect to find navigation controls at the top or left. Having yours at the right is confusing, and there seems to be no compelling reason for it.

Similarly, I expected that clicking on the main display would send me somewhere, at least to a portfolio. The same with the white circles and headings beneath the display. (Especially since you use the circles on a navigation icon.)

The Twitter icon makes the page just a smidge too long; I have to scroll down to see the whole icon.

For some great advice on site design, have a look at Web Pages That Suck -- especially the checklists.

I had been having trouble with certain browsers not reading my Portfolio page. This is where Kolm stepped in and fixed the problem over the weekend. Many Thanks to Kolm!

www.magicpackagingdesign.co.uk/portfolio.html now works in IE and Opera.

I like it, didn't find it that 'cluttery' and the feel of the site follows through from the products you design so it flows quite nicely imho.

Two things though (and they ARE minor):

There's a typo on your bio page (creater vs creator)
and
Your banner for Consignment - if you're going to have a banner, at least have it link somewhere!

Good work all round though, I have a sneaking suspicion we'll be having a conversation about my business card design sometime soon

Thanks for the feedback Van_der_Belt, talk soon

Van_der_Belt wrote:I like it, didn't find it that 'cluttery' and the feel of the site follows through from the products you design so it flows quite nicely imho.

True, it's not cluttered. And the individual elements are really good and striking. Just something about the balance is slightly off, needs to have a stronger focal point.

On Crazy Browser (and IE) the page is larger than the screen so needs to be moved left to right to view everything, Not a problem but I thought you'd like to know!

Mandrake- is you screen resolution 1366x768?

No, it's set at maximum which is 1024 x 768. It's quite an old screen but shows TM and most other sites in one width. I'll check it out again on a different machine later on and let you know the appearance and resolution details.

One problem I have with it, is the index page rotating images. There's a lot of information in those images, and they don't stay on the screen for very long - making it impossible to really take a look at the work that goes into them.

If you want to showcase your work on the main page, that's fine - but I would either isolate individual items, or extend the time between transitions.

From a usability standpoint - navigation on the far right is sometimes confusing. Remember that your audience isn't always internet savvy, and the sheer amount of visuals/information on the page can cause some viewers to lose the navigation entirely. People tend to look in 2 places for navigation (across the top or down the left side). Deviating from that is not out of the question, and it's not a hard rule - but I get the feeling the navigation looks like an afterthought, something tacked on at the end, and doesn't have a cohesion with the overall layout.

As for the portfolio page, I found this to be somewhat of a letdown. So much obvious attention was paid to the overall look and feel of the site, and to have basic text-based hyperlinks for your individual portfolio pieces undercuts what you're trying to sell in the first place. You're marketing yourself as someone who designs packaging/advertising that gets noticed and will stand out. Your portfolio page does anything but. For me, the portfolio page needs to be more visually impressive. Your work is strong, and you obviously have talent - but your ENTIRE site has to meet those standards.

Demitri wrote:...to have basic text-based hyperlinks for your individual portfolio pieces undercuts what you're trying to sell in the first place.

Thanks for the comments Demitri

I may well look into this in the future, the site has developed alot in the last 18 months and I now have a definate look that I like that will continue to develop.

The latest version of my site is now up.

www.magicpackagingdesign.co.uk

Thanks to kolm for help with iorning out a few technical issues