I have been working on website recently and was wondering if some archinectors could give me a little critic. - a few pointers if you will - and maybe some random comments on the content.
-please bear in mind that this is my first website design, its not complete and I have never took a class on web design.
-also this would be important - I used godaddy.com to create the site.
The text in the headers on the sub pages (like the Brooklyn Waterfront Competition) is rather hard to read. However, combining text and images like you've done adds richness to the page.
Are your links really what you want your readers to see first? These could easily be filed under a tab. Let your work be the first image that the visitor sees.
The counter could stand to be a little less prominent.
Consider a more universal screen size. I need to use both my left-right and up-down scroll bars to view the entire page.
Websites are no easy task, and it's evident that you've already invested some time into this one. Good luck.
i agree w/ all of DCA's points and offer some copy-editing:
A Student's Life
it is a good start for sure...
on the Brooklyn and Thesis pages you lost the Europe04 tab.
the image boxes on the project pages are a bit distracting. It may be the fault of the Photo Album thing that your using, but the look of those boxes (the grey framework with the image titles etc that the thumbnails sit on)...i dunno...
Good job weAREtheSTONES – here are a few additional comments.
I would recommend changing the colors of the links (personal preference but another color might be more fitting).
Would it be possible to reduce the size of the brown header? It would make more room for the body (which is what you want to display in the center of the page).
The yellow font on some of the pages blends into the background image making it hard to read.
It is possible to reduce the size of some of the larger images (e.g. on thesis page) so that you eliminate the need for scrolling? I think smaller images would also give it a more professional looking finish.
Make sure your navigation is consistent on each page – some pages were missing the "Europe04" link. Building a template would be a great enhancement – that way any time you need to change your layout, you only have to change it from one location.
The counter on the home page has pics on each end – they look like clickable .gifs typically used to move to the next page. You might want to remove them or find another .gif that does not look so much like "forward" and "backward" arrows.
Make your Word document a PDF. - Get Cute PDF as a good, free PDF printer.
Like above, minimise your fonts.
Or, create an image for your navigation and create hotspots on the image to link through. This keeps the navigation area constant - for example, on your thesis page, a link to your Europe page is not there.
It might be better to have your images arranged along the horizontal so that you navigate with only one scroll bar - example - go into projects - in order to make this effective, you should curate your images to get some consistency in size.
you all have been way too nice. dude. it's good...for 1990. i see where you're going though, check this out for inspiration.... http://www.borat.tv/
seriously though, get GoLIve or something easier to layout the page, something you can actually work and design with. the godaddy thing isn't going to let you go anywhere design/wise with your pages.
Start with a grid. This is html so it has to be a grid. Basic design principles.
- what does A Students Life line up with? nothing that I can see.
- keep buttons the same size
- either have a gallery-type presentation or not, but don't do both on the same page
- whilte the gallery is obviously something you didn't make, it does work. I'd opt for that as the main presentation. Change the names of the photos, the colors of the gallery, etc.
Fonts:
Follow the suggestions from others. 1-2 fonts, not need for more.
headings: Kill the green. If you use a bg image, make sure it will add to the presenation and make is stand out.
Counter: Kill the counter - counters look cheap. The only reason to have one is because you won't pay for hosting (where you can easily get all and any info regarding traffic).
Good start. Just don't ever forget that the grid rules with html. Keep things proportional and lined up, make sure each size makes sense in the entire presentation, not just what size the jpg was to start.
WOW - This is some good stuff here...thanks ... i think ill be doing some work on the website this weekend so keep em coming!
-punky- i am going to call a buddy in new york to get a copy of CS2 - w/ go live and a pdf writer and all that jazz- I have a dwg-pdf cute pdf writer.(internet) uunless someone else knows where i could get it.
- the way that godaddy has me set up the website is assinine...first i can see the web page template - then if i want to put in a jpg or text another window opens and i would insert text or jpg's there...hit ok...wait...then the web page pops back up and hocus pocus the jpg is there but not exactly where i want it or the size is all ephed up. SOOOOOOOO...when i do get the image on the screen and its viewable i do back flips around my apt b/c that makes me happy.
-I definatly see everyones point about the fonts...unclear at points and too many of them -and the counter is kinda weak..i know! - just wanted to see how many people were checkin out the site. i dont know how to change whaat the image gallery looks like. its just an option that godaddy gives you...would you like a image galllery or a block ......maybe golive could help me with this? - oh and grids i wish i could have a grid set up ... i cant even see where exactly the image is going to go when i upload - trust me i graduated from a school that harped on corb ideals so i know about the grid in designing anything
-what about dreamweaver does anyone know anything about that? or mabe another program that is easy to use?
- i actually think that the program godaddy provided me is called website tonite...if that help at all.
personally, if your going to try and do a website from scratch, and your going to learn a program, i would start with Flash, not dreamweaver.
though dreamweaver has lots of perks, you can make entire sites on flash without even really needing dreamweaver (especially cause you can publish html pages fromflash)
also,
flash is an incredibley versatile program... one i believe all architects could benefit by being more familiar with
they make great presentations
great diagrams
animations
and is much more intuitive to navigate than many html coded pages
i would highly recomend learning flash... for your purposes you most likely dont even need code untill you decide its time to upgrade
i think the trap of making overcomplicated non-intuitive websites that take ages to download is a common one for all web design, and is not limited to flash based sites
one other comment stones, the quality of the images arent that great... perhaps you could retake higher quality images.
that would go a long way towards making your site look more prof.
- lletdownl - i understand the thesis page being a little unclear but the others are pretty good i thought...like brooklyn should be excellent cause i had the originalls scanned in by a problueprinter at the highest possible quality. and the europe dwgs were just scanned in from the sketch book and uploaded to the website-they are pretty clear when you open the slideshow? no?
actually the brooklyn ones are the ones i noticed most...
they look brownish in tint as well as a little blurry? especially brook21, 3 and 4.
perhaps its my monitor? or my eyeballs...
shit....maybe my eyes are going....
please tell me those images are blurry................
There are definately some depth-of-field issues with the photography, causing some elements in the foreground to become distorted slightly. This is definately a result of the photograph though, and not the website. And no, lletdown, don't call the eye doctor just yet.
web hosting companies provide stats on the visitors of your site. no need to have the counter on the site itself. the info that they provide, i believe, is fairly standard. you can review such info as # of hits a day and month, the number of hits per page, if another site refers their visitors to your site and how many times a month that occurs, and what types of users are coming to your site: educational, governmental, from the u.s., china, etc.
Dreamweaver is great but its $$$ (maybe a thousand bucks unless you find a student version). I use it all the time and love it.
Flash is great – but think about dial-up users. Yeah, yeah, screw dial-up users, but then again, I really think you could build a really cool site without the use of flash and not agitate folks that still use sloooow technology. I do like flash, but sometimes I think it's somewhat irritating to some users, especially when you are talking about download times. I prefer simple, straightforward html.
You might want to look into Site Meter. It gives you a small icon (not an obtrusive counter) for the bottom of the page that links to a page with fun stats. (location of visitors, duration of visit, etc.) It's free for blogs; I'm not sure if there is a cost for regular websites...
anything more than one scroolwheel down is not good. and, some people don't scroll at all.
http://www.archistones.com/Europe_04.php
last img is "your photo here"
since thumbs are always small size (low quality) why not edit to increase contrast if possible? (background will try to go from white to gray)
http://www.archistones.com/Brooklyns_Waterfront_Greenw.php
would be nice to see a line showing scope of design in the top large img. though i realize the img is reduced to such small size, that one more line will complicate discerning objects in the drawing.
=========
flash is ok for true video (motion). too often flash is used for slides.
architects seem more enamored with flash than web and graphic designers. so, using some flash in portfolio to employers might be a good marketing maneuver. but you should probably at least offer "skip intro".
some customers might be impressed by flash, but many are disgusted by flash.
i like the common method of a side menu of thumbs for each project. when there are more than 5-7 thumbs, the fullsize img changes by hovering the thumb (probably have to use onmouseover?) but if fewer than 5-7 thumbs, then simple clickable thumbs should be fine to change the fullsize img.
i haven't tried this, so don't know whether it can be done with css. and there's good chance that ie will ignore the css method if it exists. despite frames being out of fashion, they work in all browsers, and don't need script.
your captions hang off the right edge of associated img.
try using float left and clear left for a class for your captions. it will look like example#1 http://www.brunildo.org/test/IEWfc3.html
hopefully ie won't crap over something so simple.
need website cues. i didn't realize the slideshow imgs were clickalbe, and become slideshows.
anyway, that's all visual. i think you need more text for architecural descriptoin
which is why top banners should be very small. notice that your left nav nemu disappears after a little scrolling down. so you can afford to push the menu down a little. you may as well put your "banner" into a block at the top of the nav menu. then your "content" begins near teh top of the page.
Oct 23, 06 4:06 am ·
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Website critics - where you at???
I have been working on website recently and was wondering if some archinectors could give me a little critic. - a few pointers if you will - and maybe some random comments on the content.
-please bear in mind that this is my first website design, its not complete and I have never took a class on web design.
-also this would be important - I used godaddy.com to create the site.
Thanks in advance...website
A good start.
The text in the headers on the sub pages (like the Brooklyn Waterfront Competition) is rather hard to read. However, combining text and images like you've done adds richness to the page.
Are your links really what you want your readers to see first? These could easily be filed under a tab. Let your work be the first image that the visitor sees.
The counter could stand to be a little less prominent.
Consider a more universal screen size. I need to use both my left-right and up-down scroll bars to view the entire page.
Websites are no easy task, and it's evident that you've already invested some time into this one. Good luck.
Check out this link it has a directory of other peoples Architecture portfolio websites..just so you can see what other people have done....
http://dmoz.org/Business/Construction_and_Maintenance/Design/Architects/Resumes_and_Portfolios/
Also check out the Links portion of Archinect--There is many Portfolio websites..there.....
i agree w/ all of DCA's points and offer some copy-editing:
A Student's Life
it is a good start for sure...
on the Brooklyn and Thesis pages you lost the Europe04 tab.
the image boxes on the project pages are a bit distracting. It may be the fault of the Photo Album thing that your using, but the look of those boxes (the grey framework with the image titles etc that the thumbnails sit on)...i dunno...
Good job weAREtheSTONES – here are a few additional comments.
I would recommend changing the colors of the links (personal preference but another color might be more fitting).
Would it be possible to reduce the size of the brown header? It would make more room for the body (which is what you want to display in the center of the page).
The yellow font on some of the pages blends into the background image making it hard to read.
It is possible to reduce the size of some of the larger images (e.g. on thesis page) so that you eliminate the need for scrolling? I think smaller images would also give it a more professional looking finish.
Make sure your navigation is consistent on each page – some pages were missing the "Europe04" link. Building a template would be a great enhancement – that way any time you need to change your layout, you only have to change it from one location.
The counter on the home page has pics on each end – they look like clickable .gifs typically used to move to the next page. You might want to remove them or find another .gif that does not look so much like "forward" and "backward" arrows.
I think you should pick one (sans serif) font to use, and supplement that possibly with one other heading font.
I counted five, or possibly six different fonts on the page, including the counter (do you really need a counter?).
good point agfa8X - stones, it might be good if you build a css file to store a set of resusable font colors/sizes.
Make your Word document a PDF. - Get Cute PDF as a good, free PDF printer.
Like above, minimise your fonts.
Or, create an image for your navigation and create hotspots on the image to link through. This keeps the navigation area constant - for example, on your thesis page, a link to your Europe page is not there.
It might be better to have your images arranged along the horizontal so that you navigate with only one scroll bar - example - go into projects - in order to make this effective, you should curate your images to get some consistency in size.
you all have been way too nice. dude. it's good...for 1990. i see where you're going though, check this out for inspiration.... http://www.borat.tv/
seriously though, get GoLIve or something easier to layout the page, something you can actually work and design with. the godaddy thing isn't going to let you go anywhere design/wise with your pages.
keep going though, you'll get it.
Start with a grid. This is html so it has to be a grid. Basic design principles.
- what does A Students Life line up with? nothing that I can see.
- keep buttons the same size
- either have a gallery-type presentation or not, but don't do both on the same page
- whilte the gallery is obviously something you didn't make, it does work. I'd opt for that as the main presentation. Change the names of the photos, the colors of the gallery, etc.
Fonts:
Follow the suggestions from others. 1-2 fonts, not need for more.
headings: Kill the green. If you use a bg image, make sure it will add to the presenation and make is stand out.
Counter: Kill the counter - counters look cheap. The only reason to have one is because you won't pay for hosting (where you can easily get all and any info regarding traffic).
Good start. Just don't ever forget that the grid rules with html. Keep things proportional and lined up, make sure each size makes sense in the entire presentation, not just what size the jpg was to start.
WOW - This is some good stuff here...thanks ... i think ill be doing some work on the website this weekend so keep em coming!
-punky- i am going to call a buddy in new york to get a copy of CS2 - w/ go live and a pdf writer and all that jazz- I have a dwg-pdf cute pdf writer.(internet) uunless someone else knows where i could get it.
- the way that godaddy has me set up the website is assinine...first i can see the web page template - then if i want to put in a jpg or text another window opens and i would insert text or jpg's there...hit ok...wait...then the web page pops back up and hocus pocus the jpg is there but not exactly where i want it or the size is all ephed up. SOOOOOOOO...when i do get the image on the screen and its viewable i do back flips around my apt b/c that makes me happy.
-I definatly see everyones point about the fonts...unclear at points and too many of them -and the counter is kinda weak..i know! - just wanted to see how many people were checkin out the site. i dont know how to change whaat the image gallery looks like. its just an option that godaddy gives you...would you like a image galllery or a block ......maybe golive could help me with this? - oh and grids i wish i could have a grid set up ... i cant even see where exactly the image is going to go when i upload - trust me i graduated from a school that harped on corb ideals so i know about the grid in designing anything
-what about dreamweaver does anyone know anything about that? or mabe another program that is easy to use?
- i actually think that the program godaddy provided me is called website tonite...if that help at all.
personally, if your going to try and do a website from scratch, and your going to learn a program, i would start with Flash, not dreamweaver.
though dreamweaver has lots of perks, you can make entire sites on flash without even really needing dreamweaver (especially cause you can publish html pages fromflash)
also,
flash is an incredibley versatile program... one i believe all architects could benefit by being more familiar with
they make great presentations
great diagrams
animations
and is much more intuitive to navigate than many html coded pages
i would highly recomend learning flash... for your purposes you most likely dont even need code untill you decide its time to upgrade
Flash has the major disadvantage of making for overcomplicated, non-intuitive websites that take ages to download.
i think the trap of making overcomplicated non-intuitive websites that take ages to download is a common one for all web design, and is not limited to flash based sites
one other comment stones, the quality of the images arent that great... perhaps you could retake higher quality images.
that would go a long way towards making your site look more prof.
- lletdownl - i understand the thesis page being a little unclear but the others are pretty good i thought...like brooklyn should be excellent cause i had the originalls scanned in by a problueprinter at the highest possible quality. and the europe dwgs were just scanned in from the sketch book and uploaded to the website-they are pretty clear when you open the slideshow? no?
actually the brooklyn ones are the ones i noticed most...
they look brownish in tint as well as a little blurry? especially brook21, 3 and 4.
perhaps its my monitor? or my eyeballs...
shit....maybe my eyes are going....
please tell me those images are blurry................
There are definately some depth-of-field issues with the photography, causing some elements in the foreground to become distorted slightly. This is definately a result of the photograph though, and not the website. And no, lletdown, don't call the eye doctor just yet.
thank god...
yeah! the photos are a little blurry i forgot those - but the drawings are good i think
cs2 or flash
try mininova.org
so i have to download a download so that i can download and then i can upload...awesome
stones
web hosting companies provide stats on the visitors of your site. no need to have the counter on the site itself. the info that they provide, i believe, is fairly standard. you can review such info as # of hits a day and month, the number of hits per page, if another site refers their visitors to your site and how many times a month that occurs, and what types of users are coming to your site: educational, governmental, from the u.s., china, etc.
Dreamweaver is great but its $$$ (maybe a thousand bucks unless you find a student version). I use it all the time and love it.
Flash is great – but think about dial-up users. Yeah, yeah, screw dial-up users, but then again, I really think you could build a really cool site without the use of flash and not agitate folks that still use sloooow technology. I do like flash, but sometimes I think it's somewhat irritating to some users, especially when you are talking about download times. I prefer simple, straightforward html.
Food for thought.
BTW - I think Dreamweaver offers a 30-day trial so you could download the software and see if you like it.
re: website counters
You might want to look into Site Meter. It gives you a small icon (not an obtrusive counter) for the bottom of the page that links to a page with fun stats. (location of visitors, duration of visit, etc.) It's free for blogs; I'm not sure if there is a cost for regular websites...
Can Someone please tell me how they did this?
link
simple actionscript in flash
first link i clicked was "Professoinal". led me to a raw server directory. (ok, but not good marketing)
http://www.archistones.com/Thesis.php
could center the top and bottom images (allow only tiny left margin,padding) to reduce rightward scrolling.
anything more than one scroolwheel down is not good. and, some people don't scroll at all.
http://www.archistones.com/Europe_04.php
last img is "your photo here"
since thumbs are always small size (low quality) why not edit to increase contrast if possible? (background will try to go from white to gray)
http://www.archistones.com/Brooklyns_Waterfront_Greenw.php
would be nice to see a line showing scope of design in the top large img. though i realize the img is reduced to such small size, that one more line will complicate discerning objects in the drawing.
=========
flash is ok for true video (motion). too often flash is used for slides.
architects seem more enamored with flash than web and graphic designers. so, using some flash in portfolio to employers might be a good marketing maneuver. but you should probably at least offer "skip intro".
some customers might be impressed by flash, but many are disgusted by flash.
i like the common method of a side menu of thumbs for each project. when there are more than 5-7 thumbs, the fullsize img changes by hovering the thumb (probably have to use onmouseover?) but if fewer than 5-7 thumbs, then simple clickable thumbs should be fine to change the fullsize img.
i haven't tried this, so don't know whether it can be done with css. and there's good chance that ie will ignore the css method if it exists. despite frames being out of fashion, they work in all browsers, and don't need script.
http://www.archistones.com/Brooklyns_Waterfront_Greenw.php
slideshow. you have three stages of imgs. (two stages of popups.)
your captions hang off the right edge of associated img.
try using float left and clear left for a class for your captions. it will look like example#1 http://www.brunildo.org/test/IEWfc3.html
hopefully ie won't crap over something so simple.
need website cues. i didn't realize the slideshow imgs were clickalbe, and become slideshows.
anyway, that's all visual. i think you need more text for architecural descriptoin
=========
in what manner did you use photoshop?
(you list photoshop in your caption on http://www.archistones.com/Brooklyns_Waterfront_Greenw.php)
why php instead of regular x/html?
me. "more than one scroolwheel down is not good."
which is why top banners should be very small. notice that your left nav nemu disappears after a little scrolling down. so you can afford to push the menu down a little. you may as well put your "banner" into a block at the top of the nav menu. then your "content" begins near teh top of the page.
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