Web Site - Design Advice

I operate a website, Something Funny:

www.somethingfunny.netfirms.com...

It is based partially off of Macromedia's Halo design.
I would like to add more meta information, but am too lazy to use Google.

This is my personal site. Mainly for sharing pictures with family, but you can voice your opinion on it if you wish. It's only been up for a week, so don't be too harsh. I take full responsibility for the content, except for the crazy fonts on the front page. I'll blame my wife for that one. I'll change it when she's not looking.
My Site

Here's mine. Hasn't been updated for a while. I am a graphic designer/creative director for a living, but I never have much time for personal projects. In fact this site has been incomplete for at least a year or so. Of course I would love to have 100 hours or so to really show my stuff, but hey, what can you do when you've got bills to pay and the internet to surf.

This is more of an online portfolio, very limited and constructed in a very limited amount of time with outdated content...hope you won't be too critical :-). If you are I understand completely, even though flash and web appz are more of a hobby, I speciallize in print work.

Can I make anymore excusses??????

Street8

Hi GriBiT. It's nice to see some collegues out there .

Anyways. Since this is intended to be a site showing off you portfolio, first off I'd either shorten the intro or make it possible to skip it. As an art director myself, I quite frequently look around for graphic designers that I can use in different projects. So I'd be interested in quickly getting to the good stuff (ie; your portfolio).

Also, although I know swedish (yes, I'm a swede) and american design can be very different in style, I feel the design of the website seems to get in the way of it's content just a bit. You know what I mean?

Hope I'm not stepping on any toes here. But I think, since you're in the industry yourself, you're also quite used to dish out as well as take criticism from collegues.

Isn't it weird how it's a lot more difficult it is to create things for yourself than for clients?

[Edited on 22-6-2004 by Durden]

Durden,

Actually there is a skip option at the intro. I know the intro is a bit to dramatic. I was going for more of an "Artsy" feel, wether I acheived that or not? I think since I work in the corporate world I tend to go the the oposite extereme when creating for myself. When/if I ever create a new site I definately will create something more structured and streamlined. Any advice or input is always appreciated. That's how we all get better at what we do. I do need to seperate from the mindset that it's MY site, I would do better if this was the case. I really don't use this for promoting myself though, I use a printed portfolio since I am in corporate advertizing and promotions mostly. I do have a few examples of some more fun active flash projects under the portfolio section.

Thanks for the comments!:-)

Wow! I haven't been watching (shame, shame).

DarkLanser,

A good program that I find is reasonable is Dreamweaver (Macromedia). It can do everything you want to do, drop menus, templates, database links, etc... Unless you can write raw code, this is a good one. if you know some code it makes it that much better.

"I plan to have an integrated order form and PayPal payment links. Also, how do you get your site out to the people? "

You should be able to find a descent shopping cart that can link you to paypal. Dreamweaver has many extensions (plugins) that can do most of the work for you if you have no shopping cart experience. As for getting the site out to people, well...that is a bigger issue. For your site, you could try text links and more written text about what you do. This will help the search engines "read" the site and know more info. Right now there are many great graphic which a "bot" just can't appreciate.

For what it is...I like it a lot. Lots of stuff there and you actually update it!

Looks like you have the code down pat (even though I hate Frontpage ) so now it's time to have fun and experiment. The site works well, has good links, and is pleasing to the eyes. In fact, it is better than a few comercial sites out there.

This is a well made personal site for others out there to see.

GriBiT,
Well for what it is, I liked it...but the intro was pretty long. I have a personal site made in Flash too, so I understand the work involved (although for the last year, I have been working solid and don't update much either).

Any how, Durden is right...shorten intro and get right to portfolio easily and you would be in good shape. Even just adding a skip intro would help. Most web surfers won't stay for long (my site loads in 10 seconds).

OK I will share my site. I just started it a couple of days ago so it is not finished!!!

It is set up to be extremely simple as I want to show off my work more than my site. 80% was done in html coding using notepad. The very basics are laid out in word. I just added a photography forum today, so be sure to check that out. Logos, etc. were designed in Illustrator.

My site

________________________________________________________________
Be Cool
K_OS

[edit on 7-3-2005 by K_OS]

K_OS, i would suggest using CSS to keep your pages not so cluttered. It will also help later on if you want to make a single change you will not have to change every single page.

(apoligies if you are using an include or other statement to add the Styles)

To do that, just make a file called style.css, and put everything inside the style tags into it, leaving out the < style >,< / style > and begining and ending comment tags.

then add the following code to the head section of every page




then if you want to make a change, you just have to change the style in one place.

---Pineapple

Thanks for the reply. I must admit that I know nothing of CSS. I would be very interested in trying this, but unfortunately the code you posted doesn't show up. If you wouldn't mind I would appreciate it if you could send it to me in an u2u.

Thanks,
K_OS

I have fully control of the fonts now. Hee hee! (Or at least she lets me think I do.) I started experimenting around with php. Added a cookie to tell you if the site was updated since your last visit so you don't have to waste your time. To those of you who were saying you "Just used notepad", The java script for the image swaps on mousovers, the php (that you don't see) and <DIV> sections were all done by tweaking the code manually in a text editor.

Since then I have discovered Dreamweaver I still find myself editing the code manually half the time to get it to look exactly the way I want. My favorite features of Dreamweaver is the split code/design view the FTP integration.

My latest project is a website that lets you generate signatures....Like the one I have below . I've only got a couple small parts working, and the demo page is broken right now. (I was tweaking the php script the other day and got tired.) This is really a lot of fun to do and should be really cool when I get it finished. Give me a month or so, since I have to integrate user accounts in MySQL for this to work. I'll need some Guinea pigs beta testers when I get it working.

You guys have some pretty nice sites going on there. I've been working on my mom in laws, trying to make it look good. My biggest problem is not the actual coding/layout, rather I lack the creativity to make it look good. I was wondering if some of you guys could give me some advice/tips for this new one I'm working on. Perhaps some colors that better contrast with each other. It's still in early beta stage, and needs the actual content which I already have, just havnt added it yet.

www.cuxhaven-fewo.de/test

If you're into css, you should definitely check out this site

www.csszengarden.com...

some of the most incredible, beautiful site's I've ever seen.

Thanks, so much for the advice. I have now completely re-written all the code. If you get a chance please check it out and tell me if this is better.

Thanks,
K_OS

All the links except for Gallery are now finished. (At least for the time being) I will finish the gallery once I get a chance to print the photos that I am going to put there, I have a scanner that scans negatives, but I think they look too contrasty and crappy when I use it.

Whoever can give me a little help on my site will be adorned and worshipped like a god/goddess.

[Link Removed]
(semi-adult themes)

Someone let me know.

*removed link*

[edit on 11-3-2005 by dbates]

Let's not post links to adult, or semi-adult sites. If you're not sure then you are better off to play it safe.

I'm a big fan of DIV's but there are too many, or at least the DIV's are too small.

boy oh boy ... all of you ppl have such proff sites, makes me want to sit in the corner with a dunkey hat on !! ...lol

ESCAPE 666 Bible Prophecy Revealed

[edit on 11-3-2005 by BaastetNoir]

Alright.. I think I'm just about done with this as far as design goes.. www.rinf.com...

Some pages use different navigations depending on where you are. Be gentle?

I've started with my new page. Its just the backbone but I haven't uploaded in a while so theres much more commin. Enjoy
Feel free to comment.

oops, forgot to post link. link