[ATLChris]

Originally Posted by bjzaba

Interesting discussion - I've been following in the background. I'd have to say I agree with both you. Honest and justified praise is as important as harsh and to the point critiques. Haha, I doubt this guy is even listening to us, though. For all your justified comments, maerk, I don't think he'll change it.

Why does everyone think I wont make changes. Unlike most sad excuses for web developers, I accept critisism and take into account everything I hear. Now, I wont make changes just because someone says it needs it, but I will consider and ponder all the advice I get. Especially coming from some of the very talented members of this site.

Originally Posted by freelancr

Can't be arsed to read the whole thread... but get rid of the fugly bird with the specs.

Can I ask why you think I should get rid of it? Is it because it is a stock image or because it is generic and to many people do stuff like that?

[marksk01]

Obviously it's because shes a fugly bird with specs...

[bazzle]

I don't think she's ugly. She's hot.

Don't get rid of it, makes your company appear young and fresh.

[Maerk]

Originally Posted by ATLChris

Why does everyone think I wont make changes. Unlike most sad excuses for web developers, I accept critisism and take into account everything I hear. Now, I wont make changes just because someone says it needs it, but I will consider and ponder all the advice I get. Especially coming from some of the very talented members of this site.

Well that's good to hear. I think me and Bazzle got a bit carried away having a rather large hypothetical discussion on the merits of having extensive C&C or not on sites which weren't terrible to begin with, which yours falls into.

@Bzjaba - i think the debate here wasn't even with ATLChris though I did fear after webstar's sweeping comment he might dismiss a lot of the advice which was why I ended up reacting like I did.

@bazzle - The better quality sites generally DO receive more crit and feedback than the god awful sites. Simple as, designers see something they can improve, or advise on, and want to offer a bit of help to better it.

Designers don't want to spend their time trying to teach the very basics and fundamentals to people who do not have a clue. The information on design basics is out there, giving SPECIFIC advice on a SPECIFIC design is actually new and valuable feedback. Trying to teach someone typography from scratch in every thread... do you see the difference? Those resources exist elsewhere.

Fair enough if it irks you, but it's not likely to change.

[Maerk]

Originally Posted by bazzle

I don't think she's ugly. She's hot.

Don't get rid of it, makes your company appear young and fresh.

You seem to miss sarcasm too...

[bjzaba]

Sorry for the premature assumption ATLChris, it just seemed to me you were just deflecting justified criticisms without tackling them properly. But I'd love to be proved wrong.

[pat]

maerk i wouldn't bother in future. They love a bit of generic.

[PointandStare]

it's overall ok (as in it's not the best but it certainly aint the worst either), but, as has been said, nothing sets it apart and, in my opinion, too many stock photos and icons.

[Dusteh]

Don't get rid of it, makes your company appear young and fresh.

Are you serious?

[CharmingMan]

its fine i guess, nothing offensive.

very mediochre tho, as mark rightly says the stock imagery and overused icon crap just sends out the message that the site was built to be ignored.

I think you need to define what your company is about and work on interesting and original ways of conveying that image.

[bazzle]

Originally Posted by Dusteh

Are you serious?

Yes.

She looks like a young and intelligent person who most probably has fresh ideas. Even though the company could be made up of older staff, people will look at that image and make instant judgements.

At the same time I recognise the fact that using stock photos is a bit of a cop-out, and an excuse to not come up with something truly creative, but not everyone responds to what is on the cutting edge of creative design, and often simple, solid, well presented and yes generic design has it's place.

I've already expressed those opinions earlier anyway, going to stop here before I keep going in circles.

[ATLChris]

OK, for all those that doubted me, you can suck it!

I have made a bunch of changes based on the criticism you all offered me.

List of Changes:

• Removed stock images and icons used in the "Grow Your Business With Us Section."
• Introductory Paragraph: removed bold from keywords, justified text, and added a 5px text indent.
• Portfolio Page: removed crossed out links for content no longer online. Also, removed all capitalized lettering in URL's. In the near future I plan to re approach the way my work is laid out on the portfolio page.
• Services Page: rewrote some of the verbiage used in that section.

Those are the changes I have made so far. I would love to keep hearing your thoughts on the site. For those of you who think I was just an ameture trying to get praise for my site and push traffic to it, I hope you all will reconsider me. I am a professional and to respect all feedback I receive.

Atlanta Web Design and Development | Collective Core | Graphics Design and Search Engine Optimization

I hope you all will revisit the site with the changes I have made and offer up further criticism.

[marksk01]

The bar at the top and bottom (multicoloured one) should in my opinion not span the whole page and just span the width of the navigation bar / footer

[DKuntz2]

your icons still don't really go together.

I don't see the need for subnav if it's all on the same page, if you had pages for each subnav, I would think differently.

You shouldn't make your links only bold. I would add color to them, because when I see just bolded text that isn't blue, I see emphasis, not link.

marksk01 - the bar does, in firefox 3.5 Win, at least.

[steveb]

And learn some English grammar and then use it, you lazy, ignorant pillock. I hate having to decipher dozens of your crappy spelling and typing errors.

"Defiantly" for "definitely", Jesus Christ.

[ATLChris]

Originally Posted by DKuntz2

your icons still don't really go together.

I don't see the need for subnav if it's all on the same page, if you had pages for each subnav, I would think differently.

You shouldn't make your links only bold. I would add color to them, because when I see just bolded text that isn't blue, I see emphasis, not link.

marksk01 - the bar does, in firefox 3.5 Win, at least.

You make a good point, I was just reading an article about how the common person associates a link with the color blue. I am going to brain storm my links further.

Originally Posted by steveb

And learn some English grammar and then use it, you lazy, ignorant pillock. I hate having to decipher dozens of your crappy spelling and typing errors.

"Defiantly" for "definitely", Jesus Christ.

Fuck you!

[DKuntz2]

wait, you wrote defiantly, as in being defiant, as in doing something bold instead of definitely.

Wow.

and what about the subnav and icon comments? Don't those get acknowledgment?

[ATLChris]

Originally Posted by DKuntz2

wait, you wrote defiantly, as in being defiant, as in doing something bold instead of definitely.

Wow.

and what about the subnav and icon comments? Don't those get acknowledgment?

The subnav's I am pretty happy with. Removing them will not hurt nor help the design, so I am leaving them as is. As for the icons, I would like to know what icons you feel don't fit. The only one that looks maybe a little out of place is the "Featured Testimonial."

[DKuntz2]

The icons that don't look in place are all of them. It looks like you've got three sets of icons, and used one from each set.

The client login icon has perspective on it, the featured testimonials icon is flat and big, the request a quote icon is flat, but it isn't big. The three icons just don't go together.

[DKuntz2]

is your site built on wordpress? I only ask because you have the same sidebar all over the site, and I think that on certain pages you could do something different (which isn't that hard in wordpress, but takes a bit of time)