Hi All

please review my new site


PNC Graphics - There’s nothing like idle creativity.

Cheers,

Matheen

Pretty ... but I looked all over for navigation and only after a while saw the "read More" link ... but what if a visitor doesn't want to read more, but wants to jump right in and see your work? Where's a link to
"Portfolio?"

I was drawn to the "must see" graphic and link, but disappointed when there was nothing to see there.

So, all you have done so far is tell me about your services but you haven't shown me anything that would sell me on your services.

And there's no navigation on the about page either ...

As far as SEO goes, I can't tell what keywords you're targeting. Your title tag has 'graphics' in it ... but beyond that, nothing. And you have no description meta tags ...

Perhaps you should get the design a little further along before you get it reviewed ... or perhaps you just wanted feedback on the look.

It *is* a very attractive design, but you are wasting a lot of real estate on the home page ... if you don't sell me on the first screen, you have lost me. Without a lot more info and sales there, I predict a very high bounce rate.

Hope this helps,

MJ

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M.-J. Taylor
SEO Web Design by Cyber Key Search Smart Design® SEO Copywriter & Traveling Vacation Gypsy

UGH. Mystery Meat Navigation. I like the color scheme, and I get that you're a graphic site, but please, lose the mmn.

I moused over the portfolio section to check it out, thumbnails are nice, and the page does not take too long to load, but when you click on a pic for a larger view, there is no continuity to the site, I get a bigger picture on a gray background. ICK.

I click on your graphic in the top left in hopes that it will take me back to the main site page and I get 404 error. I use Firefox, and the site does not fit in my browser. I have to side scroll to get to the mmn graphic.

I just now found the little house graphic on the top right hand corner. It's very small.

You may need to fix your positioning. When I scroll everything seems to jump around, very jarring to the eyes.

I went your client page, and couldn't follow any of the links. I was sort of hoping to see more examples of your work. You seem to have only one set of examples in your portfolio. You want show diversity; I understand that, but most people don't know those companies. A brief description of who they are or even a graphic example of you work for them would show your visitors how diverse your creativity is.

<snip>
Clad with the wealth of heterogeneous experience and industry knowledge in graphics design, promotions concepts & media exposure and printing technologies, we offer measurable results for your business objectives.
<snip>

Be consistent in your sentence structure. Too many and's and &'s. All commas would have worked.

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www.geocities.com/rayasroost/index.htm
No money for a hosting site with no ads.

There is a place for iframes and this PNC Graphics - There&rsquo;s nothing like idle creativity. is not the place.

And Anissa is right: DITCH THE MMN !

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Dave Barnes
+1.303.744.9024
http://www.marketingtactics.com
sitting in my basement with my iMac

It's hard work getting round this site - I gave up.

But not before I has seen your "impressive client list". But not a single example of what you did for them...

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Paul Bilton design services ~ Sites not Sights

I did *finally* find the navigation and a link to the portfolio ...

but no normal visitor is going to go that far and they will be irritated by the long wait for a link to work with the fallng petal ... or whatever that is ...

How about some text navigation? That will also serve you for SEO, which this site sorely needs.

Also, I looked at a few of the graphic samples in your portfolio, and they were not sharp at all unless I make them larger ... many web users will not be sophisticated enough to enlarge those and you will be giving an impression that is less than you deserve.

Cheers, MJ

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M.-J. Taylor
SEO Web Design by Cyber Key Search Smart Design® SEO Copywriter & Traveling Vacation Gypsy

The site is visually pleasing and interesting but you'll need to rework the navigation system.

The flash navigation is cute but totally ineffective. It looks like a simple animation but there's no indication that it's a menu system unless you inadvertently mouse over the "petals".

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Printer ink & toner cartridges in Canada | Integrated Web Payroll, Online HRMS Tools with Employee Time & Attendance

thnks all for ur replies. Actually the navigation system is done as per the client requirement, its difficult to understand at the begining, i agree, but client's need is something creative like this. its a graphic designing company, but they havent started to use this website for their business, thats why its in complete

There's nothing wrong with leaving the 'creative' navigation in place but if your client wants any sort of conversion from the site the visitor needs to be told how to use it or given an alternative.

Your job is, IMO, to help the client understand that what they want is not in their best interests and to offer them a workable solution - such as another very creative idea that is actually intuitive enough to work?

Without it, the site will have a very high bounce rate.

Perhaps there could be a Flash animation that highlights the petals at least once *as though* a mouse hovered over thus relvealing the navigation and keeping the creative in place ...

For usability & SEO reasons I would *still* add text navigation somewhere ... it can always be on the lower screen and still work for SEO.

Cheers, MJ

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M.-J. Taylor
SEO Web Design by Cyber Key Search Smart Design® SEO Copywriter & Traveling Vacation Gypsy

Sorry, MJ, I couldn't DISAGREE more."Creative" can mean: clever, innovative, visionary; the nav on this page is none of those things. I think what you meant is 'abstract' and abstract is never a good thing when it applies to site navigation.
You yourself didn't even find the nav the first time you visited and I think there are enough other comments from people above about how bad an idea it is. Would you like people to come to your site and leave not having seen anything you had prepared for them because they never figured out how to find it? If you visited a site looking fro information and you couldn't even find the navigation, you'd probably never go back; FORGET about buying or hiring them for anything; as a matter of fact, I am curious why you went back to this site again.
I disagree with your suggestions, too: if the nav needs explanation then it failed. If you're going to provide an alternative, then why do you need the 'creative' one? The only thing it says to me is that PNC doesn't have good enough design sense to come up with something creative AND functional. I don't want their unbridled creative whims getting in the way of my business, so I'm going to hire someone else.

Basically what does this site accomplish?
1. Confusion
2. Frustration (where do I click?)
3. it's Misleading
4. "heterogeneous experience" ...huh?

I don't get the impression at all based on this site that this company can do any good for anyone. I certainly wouldn't give them MY business after seeing how they treat their web audience.

If I can't get around easily and find samples to impress me, why should I give them a dime of my money? Why should i believe :
"we service an impressive client base"

Furthermore, why are you bragging to me in the first place?
I don't have time to read the "Happy Talk" just show me what you can do or I'm gone. If the portfolio is good I'm going to call. Even if it's 'fair' if I see something I like, I may call anyway... if I read how 'impressive' your clientèle is and I am not WOWED by the portfolio, I am going to think you're FOS and I'm gone.


Do you know why that is? Because the images that are loading haven't been scaled as thumbnails; they ARE the big images with little dimensions in the <img/> attributes. GRRRR... make them into thumbnails. Why make the visitor download the large images when they are only displayed as tiny little samples? Web graphics 101.

What's with the scrolly <div/>s? are you afraid to make the page longer? if so, why? Web sites, even for graphics companies (which for some reason always think they are the exception) are NOT pieces of paper. While not a major crime, I always find this to be silly. I look at the web on BIG screens so I always have to scroll these tiny content areas on sites like this. Granted, most of the visitors aren't using two 23" screens, but why not make it so that it looks fine on both? Visitors have to scroll anyway, no matter what size screen they are using, so why not just do it the standard way and make the whole page scroll? If you're going to deviate from the standards, you should be doing so to offer an 'improvement' or do it in some way that works to sell the brand/product/service better. Right now, you're forcing me to scroll more than I want to.

Ok I can't resist: You have about 10 seconds to impress me and it takes almost that long for the MMN to 'animate' and be ready; so you've made two mistakes in one: Mystery Meat Nav, AND making me wait for a pointless animation. NOt to mention the search engine issue discussed above (that may be mistake #3, but right now I am talking from the user's perspective).

And if it's not bad enough that I have to wait for it the first time, when and if I DO figure it out and I click a link, I have to wait for it to load and animate again on each page. There is a word for this: CRAP

I'm not impressed at all by this company's site nor by the designer who put it together this way. "The client wanted it" is NOT an acceptable answer. YOU are the pro, YOU should know better. They want 'creative'? then give them creative, NOT abstract. If the client absolutely insists on 'creative (abstract) features' that you know are bad ideas, then you can't ever be successful for them: it's not going to help them and it's not going to help you. Walk away from the gig; you don't need the client's bad ideas in YOUR portfolio anyway.

1. Ditch the whole Flash nav thing and promise you'll never do it again. It is not an appropriate use of your talent.
2. you probably can't control the content that the client is giving you, but perhaps you can explain how worthless it currently is, then let them decide how to improve it
3. get rid of the odometer; this ain't 1996 and visitors are not going to be impressed with how many people viewed the site; it's amateurish and all it says about the client is: "timewarp";

Oh and one more thing: don't shout at me if I don't put in the right user name and password: "The username/password is not valid. try again!".
What's it for anyway? Who is supposed to log in? Am I supposed to want to register for something? if so, for what? if the log-in is for current clients, then you should say so; if it's for people that work for PNC then get it off the home page; if it's for every visitor, then you better tell me what I am registering for. And I'll say it again, don't shout at me if I don't put in the right user name and password. It isn't polite. BTW: the 'register' link doesn't work.

I'm sorry, but this is a typical graphic design company site: lots of frustrating fluff (that THEY think looks cool) and no value.

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amorphic8
http://www.amorphicmedia.com

No, I meant 'creative' because that's what the poster called it:

and I was speaking to her point ... and so I added quotes ...

You are right, this flower would be better termed 'abstract' but when a client wants something sometimes the best you can do is make meringue pie ...

On the other hand, if she has a smart client the client will read this forum and see that they both need to return to the drawing board.

However, sometimes people get stuck on an idea, sometimes clients can't be handled, and I maintain that the flower could be effectively used if the navigation was made clear by a Flash animation when the visitor arrives. I have seen other sites do something similar and it can work.

It would not be my preference. I am for straight text navigation any day, but our member may need to make lemonade or meringue pie here ... and it is a viable way to proceed if the client is stubborn.

And yes, I agree, the designer should handle the client better, but this is where we learn to do things like that. Not all our members are as professional or experienced as you are, amorphic8, and you and I are here to help them ... and I hope we can both learn to teach a little more gently.

Cheers, MJ

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M.-J. Taylor
SEO Web Design by Cyber Key Search Smart Design® SEO Copywriter & Traveling Vacation Gypsy

Here's the hard cold truth where abstract or "artsy" navigation systems are concerned.

If you have to explain how to use a navigation system, it's not doing its' job and people are not going to waste their time trying to figure it out.

Do it right. You'll be miles ahead in the long run.

.02

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Printer ink & toner cartridges in Canada | Integrated Web Payroll, Online HRMS Tools with Employee Time & Attendance

I have to agree with everything that has been said with ONE caveat.

The posters that are posting here, including myself are from the US or Canada, so yes, if this site were selling into the North American market I would agree, BUT the site is geared for the UAE and having dealt with various Turkish suppliers whose websites seem to be from the same genre gives me some pause where at the very least you should get the opinion of individuals in the UAE

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A couple of glitches:

1. The new user & forgot password links in the upper right corner produce syntax error messages when clicked

2. Clicking on the home icon from the contact us page produces a 404 error