[dcd]

Hi.

Could you tell me what you think so far please. Don't be over critical, it's a work in progress.

www.digicandesign.com

thanks.

12:18:First bit of bad news :X - it took years to load on CABLE modem :/ - it could have just been me - then i seen it was loading from your bt webspace :S arghh - ul for u.
12:20<---still waiting--->
12:21<---still waiting--->
12:21:30: Website Found waiting for reply
12:22 Hits Refresh
12:22 Opening Page
12:22:30: Gets Pissed off and presses 'X' top Right

Soz if u think this is me being negitive but its not! just what happened :X

[dcd]

Firstly its on my bt webspace just while i try it out.

its slow cos i've only worked on basic design so far and the images are still pngs

but thanks anyway!

anyone who has the patience please tell me wot u think but otherwise don't worry

[oli]

it wasnt that slow for me and Im on 56k.

Firstly, thanks for the mention on there

Right the site - im not sure about the orange colour , I think this would be better - #FF9900

Where it says portfolio and contact - i dont think the orange outline around black works.

keep us posted , to see the finished version.

[dcd]

Thanks Oli, I seem to be gettinga fast/slow/fast/slow report from every other user! strange - i'm currently looking into the best web hosting package I can find on the cheap - I have little knowledge of web space at present as have basically designed on small budgets! What should I be looking for in webspace and are there any companies that might give me free hosting for my clients custom?

Thanks

[oli]

certainly are , see http://www.designerstalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=174

or go to www.webhostingtalk.com and post in the hosting requests forum - u will get loads of replies.

A: - i did have patience to wait for it to load but i think 4 mins for a site to load without any flash content is a bit un-realistic
B: - it is now loaded and the design is pretty neat simplicity is the key pld u

Regards

Me

[dcd]

Any suggestions on why it is so slow - i've kept my images to png format - is that the problem?

[oli]

use .jpgs or .gifs instead of pngs - also the hosting may be unreliable - get it on some decent hosting.

[dcd]

Hi again, thanks oli.

http://www.vortexwebhosting.com/

That company have just shown some interest in going into a partnership with me, I design sites for them and they host sites for me type-a-thing, got that from the webhosting forum place, so I owe ya big style if this comes off.

Thanks again

And I will begin the process of changing pngs to gifs now

[oli]

now worries m8 - glad u got it sorted.

[lucidcreations]

dcd, i just copied your image from the top left of the screen and reduced the size in PhotoShop from 89k! to a 3k JPEG, thats why the sites gonna be slow. But saying that I didn't notice cos I've got a 2mb pipe 8)

[dcd]

Thanks mate

I didn't think of that - i took a piccie with my digital camera and it obviously saved it massive even though i cropped and scaled down etc

fireworks/photoshop battle again eh!!! i like both together!!!

[oli]

for optimising images I would use fireworks - it manages smaller file sizes than Photoshop. Then if u wanna go ultra-optimised download ulead image optimiser to compress them further.

[dcd]

The site has been uploaded on my new webspace:

http://www.vortexwebhosting.com/~digicand

All images are now jpgs and I think the largest is something like 9kb which is ok I think?

THanks for all the help guys, I'll post a message when it is complete.

[lucidcreations]

Thats better mate

[dcd]

Any of you got any suggestions for improvements.

Oli you said about the orange outline to black text on PORTfolio and CONTact buttons, any suggestions about them?

Thanks

[Luke Redpath]

Consider adding some line-spacing and possible even letter spacing because Verdana at that size (12px?) can look very cramped.