[milani]

Hello everyone! I'm a new member here, and I also work at a design website (univoxdesigns.com).

I just wanted to show my site (and in future some of my work), and I also hope to be a contributing member of the community, offering my expertise with Photoshop, coding, or whatever else I can do for this community!

[Lotricthus]

It looks a bit late 90s and it'd be best to lose the table layout.

[veckd]

agreed ^^

[milani]

I don't know what late 90s means, but thanks, I guess.

[phreezerburn]

They mean its a dated look, not hip/trendy, it's like your still wearing tie-dye shirts instead of the emo wear of today.

There is layout/proportion issues, typography is poor, and its just not hip. It is however unique, unique in the way I'm bring back the slapon bracelets of the 90's to overthrow the Live Strong bracelets of a while back.

[Tom_E]

Hhmm.

[Stegg]

I don't know if I have any qualms with the background image, it's pretty interesting my opinion. I'm confused about the layout though.. why is the nav so low? Also, it looks dangerously like an operating system desktop.. is that the effect you were going for?

[milani]

Yes that was the effect I was going for. It's quite an old design. The new one, which is a work in progress still (there is an associated thread) is a lot more modern, and can be found here: Univox Designs - Professional Web Development (univoxdesigns.com/2/).

[hawken]

Although the designers at Univox Designs are highly experienced, Univox Designs is a relatively new endeavour, therefore our portfolio is small. However, we take the highest pride in our design skills, and every portfolio entry is of the highest quality. Help us build our portfolio by commissioning a design today!

what is this prattle?

[Dusteh]

Looks like you have gone about this in the wrong order, get some work under your belt and then build a company portfolio site. Currently as Hawken says it is just a load of prattle trying to cover the fact you have done almost sweet FA. Your only work to show is your own internal web hosting.

[milani]

Originally Posted by hawken

what is this prattle?

Well...

I went to a no-smoking pub in naka-meguro.

While I’m not adverse to a total ban on smoking in Japan, entering a pub where no one is smoking was kind of strange. I haven’t been back to the UK since the smoking ban was enforced, so I had no idea what it was like.

You can smell all sorts of new and exciting smells, like; wood, beer and sweat.

Needless to say I gave up after one pint and got a drink at my local where all the normal people were.

I might ask the same thing.

Originally Posted by Dusteh

Looks like you have gone about this in the wrong order, get some work under your belt and then build a company portfolio site. Currently as Hawken says it is just a load of prattle trying to cover the fact you have done almost sweet FA. Your only work to show is your own internal web hosting.

I've been doing this on and off for 8 years now. I have work under my belt, thanks. I was running a successful development firm out of elementary school. I appreciate that you guys might know a lot more than I do, but please respect the fact that I've been around the block, and I'm not the rookie that I'm sure a lot of you think I am. I'm always looking for clients, but right now I haven't found many, and I figure that by making an honest, straightforward website, I'm moving in the right direction. If you would rather make a white page with a logo on it, and an email address, then that's your prerogative.

[Dusteh]

Well your portfolio says otherwise. I'm telling you what I can see, as any client would see when they visit your site, and that is no work examples.

You must have something you can add in there from 8 years experience?

Although now your site doesn't even load for me.

[milani]

Thanks for the advice everyone.

[pgo]

Boy, that logo looks awfully familiar. See attached image.

Clearleft User Experience, Web Design and Accessibility Consultants

Originally Posted by milani

I might ask the same thing.

Besides the fact that this tactic is grossly immature and fallacious (ad hominem), perhaps you should read the introductory text before commenting - particularly the part where it says, "my personal playground".

Originally Posted by milani

I've been doing this on and off for 8 years now. I have work under my belt, thanks. I was running a successful development firm out of elementary school.

Haha. What were you developing? Websites with tips for avoiding cooties on the playground?

[Soup Of The Day]

pgo minces meat, not words

[milani]

Well I guess it's back to the drawing board for the logo then. I realize you're suggesting that I stole the logo, and that's fine, but if you followed my other thread you would probably understand that I didn't. Anyway, as I said, thanks for the advice. This thread can be closed if the moderator wishes it.

[fetusface]

Originally Posted by phreezerburn

They mean its a dated look, not hip/trendy, it's like your still wearing tie-dye shirts instead of the emo wear of today.

There is layout/proportion issues, typography is poor, and its just not hip. It is however unique, unique in the way I'm bring back the slapon bracelets of the 90's to overthrow the Live Strong bracelets of a while back.

and if you design like this you too can have a dated website in a few years/now.

[milani]

Originally Posted by fetusface

and if you design like this you too can have a dated website in a few years/now.

Lol. That's funny. Another useful critique from dt!

On a more serious note, I am actually looking for useful critiques/suggestions (on the v2 version of the site - which I'm going to do some more work on, and then upload again later), so if anyone actually has some helpful advice about the design of the website itself, I really am keen for some opinions. Thanks.

[bjzaba]

I can't call myself a design expert but you could try using larger font sizes, increasing the amount of whitespace, and use a table-less/css based layout. It seems these days people don't like huge amounts of information crammed into a small space. They like to see plenty of margin, large typography and succinct text to make it it as quick as possible for the to help them quickly scan through your website. Look around at some css showcase websites to see what I'm talking about. Don't feel you have to make something glossy and shiny to be fashionable, however.

Jason Santa Maria | Under The Loupe #3: Critiquing (Not taking sides here -I just thought it might be relevent)

***EDIT***

I just realised that you have made another thread about this design - maybe you should ask for this one to be closed...

[milani]

Originally Posted by bjzaba

I can't call myself a design expert but you could try using larger font sizes, increasing the amount of whitespace, and use a table-less/css based layout. It seems these days people don't like huge amounts of information crammed into a small space. They like to see plenty of margin, large typography and succinct text to make it it as quick as possible for the to help them quickly scan through your website. Look around at some css showcase websites to see what I'm talking about. Don't feel you have to make something glossy and shiny to be fashionable, however.

Jason Santa Maria | Under The Loupe #3: Critiquing (Not taking sides here -I just thought it might be relevent)

***EDIT***

I just realised that you have made another thread about this design - maybe you should ask for this one to be closed...

Thanks for the good advice! Yah, I made this thread initially to show off my old design (the metallic/baby one) which no one really liked. So in response, I started a new thread where I started doing a v2 redesign - located at univoxdesigns.com/2/ . Someone commented on this thread again, and so it kind of came alive again - sadly mostly in a negative way, which is really too bad because a lot of people are making useless comments about the design that I already realized was inadequate.

But yes, the new design (which can be viewed from the other thread) takes a lot of what you said into consideration - at least I hope. I've been really concentrating on the typography of the design, and it is completely div and css based now - no tables. It's coming along, but I've been getting mixed reviews the whole way - and apparently my logo idea is already used, so I have had to change it a bit as well.

It's been a tough process, and a lot of the people here are pretty inconsiderate in their responses, but I guess you have to take what you can! Thanks a lot for your comments! I really appreciate it.