First Web Site I've Made For a Client. Please Review

[Digigamer]

http://www.civilservicetestprep.com

Alright, this is the first website I've ever been paid to make. There are however a couple things I must tell you. I did not make the intro or the header of the website with the picture of the guy in it. They are both templates that the client bought and asked me to use :a:. Though the intro does look really cool.

Other then that I did everything else. Any feedback is greatly appriciated.

[gmh526]

as impressive as the intro was, it doesnt really seem to fit civil serives too well. some of the text is blurry.
howd u create the planets and stuff? very nice, but maybe not intirely relevant to test prep.

as for the site..... im not really digging it...
the regular old table on the side with the regular font is not very professional.
as for the nav, the buttons dont seem to align perfectly. maybe the font needs to be arced also to make the effect look better.
the content is reminiscent of a used car add with the beveled italisized text. also not terribly professional looking.
finally, the flash seems kinda abused. the benfits page content in flash with all the masked text just doesnt seem all that professional either.

its just now im reading what u wrote, about the header and the intro. yeah, so disregard my question about how u made it.

well, u asked, so theres my three cents

[Digigamer]

thanks gmh526. I don't really dig the layout he chose for the site either :-/. I plan on remaking the table on the left very soon so that it is no longer plain and boring. I also do not like the benefits movie I made and am going to do something with it when I get the chance.

but yeah, i guess I better just come to face it....the site sucks :-/

[SureShot]

well digigamer, first off, the site does not "suck". I have seen waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay worse sites out there - done by "proffessional designers". I wouldnt give up just yet.

The intro to the site is great, I would really to know how you did some of the effects you achieved but I do agree with Charlie Brown up there, it doesnt really go with the whole "civil services" thing. It's impressive none the less.

As for the layout - the top looks great and is very nice. Again, repeating what Charlie said, you should make the text line up with the angle of the buttons, round them so they are on the same plain as the surrounding area. You could do this pretty easy in photoshop if you have that available to you.

As for the rest of site, just dont make it so "in your face!" Shrink the size of the text, add a couple more smaller graphics, just lay it out a little cleaner. Maybe use the top navigation as a desin idea for the navbar on the side that you are redoing.

I think you have a great start there man - it just needs some fine tuning. Keep it man!

[gmh526]

charlie browns gotta agree with sureshot, it doesnt suck.
i too have seen/created waaaaaaaaaaaay worse sites. :)

[SureShot]

as have I my friend, as have I :P

[Digigamer]

Wow, thanks for the great feedback SureShot. That really lifted my spirts. I will definately do everything you mentioned there asap.

The reason the site is probably so "in your face" is because I am designing this website on a widescreen laptop with a resolution of 1680 x 1050 and the website only takes up about 40% of the screen to me. I guess I need to keep that in mind.

Finally, I am not making a side navagation bar. The ugly table on the side is a schedule of upcomming events. But you gave me an idea by refering to it as a nav bar and I will move it to the right side to keep people from getting mixed up.

Once again thanks for the great advice SureShot.

[SureShot]

Anytime man :)

Just a sugestion - when you design on a huge monitor, be sure to everyonce in a while, preview it in a browser, then change your res to either 800X600 or 1024X768 and have a look to see what others without the AMAZING monitor you have see :) Another good idea is to keep your browser window that size so when you change back to your regular screen size you can just preview it over and over in that browser and see the correct size.

you understand what i mean?

[superman ii]

mm yeah, don't have all of the text beveled, and I hate the table on the left, but the header etc, is pretty good, and as the others have said I have maded/seen a lot worse.

[abichap]

how much are you being paid for this project ?

[Nikini]

hey, one question, that presentation, the flash intro, i've seen it twice on other websites, only the text is changed, did you really make it? be honest, i really did see it on other websites for other firms. DID YOU MAKE IT?

[superman ii]

Originally posted by Digigamer

I did not make the intro or the header of the website with the picture of the guy in it. They are both templates that the client bought and asked me to use :a:. Though the intro does look really cool.

Please read what he said, it says he didn't make the flash intro.

[Nikini]

Oups, i didn't see that.

[superman ii]

ok.

[Digigamer]

Originally posted by abichap
how much are you being paid for this project ?


very very little. About $100 is all.

[abichap]

$100 bucks as in USD? sorry, i'm not from the US

[Digigamer]

yes $100 USD

[sigmastudio]

love the intro hate the site. the site is just messy not clean at all.

peace

[sigmastudio]

so what did you do if you dident make anything on the site?
i dont get it.

PS: your site " http://www.riding-free.net/ " ripoff...
cant say that its inspired. if i did that then i would be lying to you.

[Digigamer]

Originally posted by sigmastudio
so what did you do if you dident make anything on the site?
i dont get it.

PS: your site " http://www.riding-free.net/ " ripoff...
cant say that its inspired. if i did that then i would be lying to you.

oh lmao! Riding-free.net is my brother's domain. We JUST changed hosts and my brother is hella lazy of late and he hasn't gotten the inspiration to upload his site yet. So the one that is on there right now came on there for some reason.

[sigmastudio]

okey, but i still dont get what they paid you to make?

[Digigamer]

well, he knew nothing about web design himself and I was in the right place at the right time so he gave me a few bucks to put together a very quick website for him. Sure its not great in the least but noone else better offered to do it so I was really his only choice. He didn't post about it here it was on another board. Also working with this guy is not as easy as you'd think. He wants about a million things changed everyday. It's really not that fun working for this guy :-/