[sappro]

I wanted to get some opinions on my portfolio website I am trying to make and I figured I would ask here as this seems to be the most professional web dev. forum I've run across so far.

It's a lot easier (at least it is for me) when you have clients telling you what they would like, lol.

I like simple and plain, but I don't know.

What do y'all think?

kchwebdesign.com

EDIT: I am aware the links do not work - that is intentional. Thanks again

[steveb]

Top marks for clarity. The copy is a little on the chatty side for a professional site and could do with some editing. Be consistent with the words Web Design - capitalize them everywhere they occur.

The colors remind me of an old lady's dingy apartment. The fleur-de-lys design on the background wallpaper is a symbol of France. Is that an association you want to make?

The links at the top would look a lot better if they were made with the same serif font as in the headlines instead of being live html text.

[lmclaney]

The colors remind me of an old lady's dingy apartment.

Yes just what I was thinking when I first saw it, the colours are very depressing and dull. I hate that wallpaper every other site now has a variation of that wallpaper.

This site feels too much like a blog rather than a portfolio. You want the user to see your work straight away, so on the front page you should have some kind of preview of your work and a brief description about your company.

I like simple and plain, but I don't know.

If you like simplicity then get rid of that wallpaper and have a rethink of your colour scheme as now your portraying a depressing mood.

[JP]

yes, re-think your color sceme.

I also think for the navigation, try not to use a color that dosent match or you haven't used yet, the red isnt very nice. But i think it would be better to change the colors.

[sappro]

Originally Posted by steveb

The colors remind me of an old lady's dingy apartment. The fleur-de-lys design on the background wallpaper is a symbol of France. Is that an association you want to make?

Haha. Really? That bad? An old lady's apartment? Ok. Ok. I'll work on lightening it! Don't want potential clients thinking I am a geriatric woman doing web design for extra money in my retirement.

Originally Posted by lmclaney

Yes just what I was thinking when I first saw it, the colours are very depressing and dull. I hate that wallpaper every other site now has a variation of that wallpaper.

Noted and noted! Do you have any examples in particular for websites that have backgrounds you prefer? In terms of colors, how would you suggest I go about picking new ones? Harmony wheels or some web application?

Originally Posted by JP

I also think for the navigation, try not to use a color that dosent match or you haven't used yet, the red isnt very nice.

I was thinking to use that as a highlight (I think is also called "accent") color for links and menu items. You don't think that is a good idea? Should I use a standard deviation from my main color scheme for links and menu item mouseover states?


Thanks again for y'alls input. It is invaluable to a small designer like myself.

[switch]

I agree with the color comments. JP brings up a good point about introducing some more color.

Think about it this way. When some one comes to your site, what do you want them to see or focus on? You site name is very prominent and it's easy enough to see your links, but the lower half starts to blend in and become lost.

Good job on having valid CSS by the way.

[afox]

It's a simple website which I gather is the point. Brown is a cool color. Well Tan... I personally don't see anything wrong with it, but as I was recently designing my 'personal portfolio' website, all the feedback I got back was "For a website design porftilio site, yours i kind of dull, shouldn't you have some kind of display of your skills that really captivates your audience". So I changed mine to be more condusive to that. I would reccomend the same, your css is valid, Kudos, but most clients aren't going to apprecaite that as we would. Apart from that, it's very clean, and I think thats important.

[lmclaney]

Noted and noted! Do you have any examples in particular for websites that have backgrounds you prefer? In terms of colors, how would you suggest I go about picking new ones? Harmony wheels or some web application?

Well personally I like white, grey and black backgrounds but thats just my personal opinion. Yeah you could use a colour wheel or this site can help COLOURlovers :: Color Trends & Palettes But ususally you just got to pick colours that are right for the content, the mood you want to induce etc.

[Snowshiro]

The first thing I noticed was that it doesn't scroll. If you don't have your browser window set large enough (or can't because of screen limitations) the bottom of the text gets cut off and there's no way to scroll down to read it.

You'll need to adjust your CSS to allow this.

[sappro]

Oh wow, I did not realize I left overflow rules in place. Thanks!

[Larixk]

colours need work, if you're absolutely rubbish at it, try looking at kuler for inspiration.
fonts need work. These don't really have any personality.

Right now it looks a bit dull. It doesn't stand out in a crowd. Having a great colourscheme and great typography will help.

[sappro]

Well. I've done a bit of updating and I wanted to get an idea of how I did!

Thanks again for all of your input.

BTW: Does anyone have any specific recommendations for rounded corners? I am doing it using about 6 different images currently, but I know there must be a much better, more efficient, and more accessible means of doing this.

[amitavroy]

Originally Posted by lmclaney

Yes just what I was thinking when I first saw it, the colours are very depressing and dull. I hate that wallpaper every other site now has a variation of that wallpaper.

This site feels too much like a blog rather than a portfolio. You want the user to see your work straight away, so on the front page you should have some kind of preview of your work and a brief description about your company.



If you like simplicity then get rid of that wallpaper and have a rethink of your colour scheme as now your portraying a depressing mood.

hey i also agree
it is not very appealing specially if you want to show your skills through that

[d*d]

that sillouhette - it's awful, get rid of it

[austers]

One thing that stands out to me is the corners. Try using illustrator or a similar vector program to get smoother corners. Also, on the main menu there appears to be a block of dark red under the red background. Is that intentional? Just looks a little out of place. The silhouette just doesn't make sense. Not sure why it's there to be honest as it tells me nothing about the site and doesn't tie in with anything.

Also, I noticed the writing about the site tends to go on more about the person behind the site and not what the site is.

[vannova]

It's a simple website

[Snowshiro]

Originally Posted by vannova

It's a simple website

Wow... With insight like that, you should write for Design Week!

I'm 50/50 on it so far. It's a nice approach in principle. I think a lot of design firms/designers are heading down the ultra-simple, minimalist/less-is-more approach. Although I tend to believe this is largely because the simpler the design, the less there is to dislike. When you're choosing a supplier, if they have a large complex site there's more of a chance that it won't be to your taste.

However, by keeping it fairly bland and functional, sites say two things to me:

1. This guy really understands simple, clean, effective layout.

2. He's scared/unable to do anything 'stronger' because he doesn't want to risk putting something out there that people might have differing opinions on.

I'm not trying to be mean, but at the moment, to me, I get more of a 2 feeling than a 1.