Yes, I know I have to optimize the images for the navigation (damnit, Fireworks), and have to make the SEO work a bit better, but I haven't submitted the site because I wanted to have it critiqued first. I know the font is too small - I may raise it to 12.

So... please be gentle. This is my first serious attempt at a design. I'm not a designer (obviously) but let me know how to improve it. I'm at a loss. It's getting excellent at sitereportcard.com and is XHTML transitional compliant, but the design...is...oh, I don't know. :( It should probably be more 'professional', but I don't want it to look too...corporate for a porfolio site.

anyway, thanks for checking it out and your comments.

- kahluagal

Didn't look at anything you told me not to.

Font is to small. I wear bifocals and had trouble.

Had trouble finding your blog. Had to chase it. Make it easy to get there.

Posted a comment to let you know I had been there. Delete it.

Good looking site. Wish mine looked that good.
JF

Hi Rachel

Nice clean site, although there are a couple of things I would change; Your 'welcome, woman etc' links are bitmapped. Try saving them as jpegs instead of gifs. This may help. On the 'woman' page you have a 'continue in html or pdf, in the middle of the page. Move this to the bottom of the page. It offers no service as the page loads quickly and looks out of place where it is. The clip art computer and pen do nothing for the site and in my opinion your site would look a lot more elegant without these two items. Otherwise I think it is a nice simple design and not bad at all for as you say "a first attempt at design". Well done.[/i]

thank you you two so much for the reviews... I appreciate your kind comments! I'm going to put your suggestions into action, although I still like that line drawing of an iMac :(

thank you...

You are putting yourself down about the design look & feel - it's really quite good for a first design. You've got a consistent colour scheme and graphics that emphasise what you do. You've even got yourself a favicon. You'll have a job with search engines as there is not much content to work with and a heck of a lot of code soup. Delete this <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> from the very top of your page. Dreamweaver puts that in but it will send some browsers into quirks mode. Those navlink graphics do look blurry - I would guess you have re-sized the graphics inside DW and they have bitmapped. Keep the graphics to 100% of their original size to stop this happening.

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PAUL - SkyRocket Design Co
web design sydney northern beaches

This site is a good foundation from which to create what could be a great looking site. You have all the correct design elements in place, they just need a bit of work. Look at your navigation system. It needs to be a little clearer. Perhaps make the button more soli looking, as opposed to see through.

The black text on the blue background is also quite difficult to read. Alot of people seem to fall into this trap. Try a lighter colour (maybe a mid grey) for the text.

I noticed that my cursor changed to a crosshair when on your site. This has the detrimental effect of not allowing me to know when I am over a link. You might want to think about whether this is a good idea.

Finally, you might want to reduce the size of the graphics on the front page. They are very overbearing on the page. Perhaps give them a rollover image as well, just to make it clear that they are buttons.

All in all this site is a great starting point, that with a little care and attention to detail could become a great looking website.

Keep up the good work and good luck

David

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Great looking site. I agree with the other suggestions, my only comment is this....is this a business or a resume? As a business I think it needs more content on what you do, why you do it and the benefits of your services. If this is a resume, then you've hit the nail on the head because that's what I thought it was. For a first design it's good just needs refinement, that usually happens over time. Which I am learning myself. Good Luck

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