I need some opinions!

Springsteen · Oct 31, 2013

Hello everybody!
During this summer a company asked me to design and code their website. I accepted their offer although i was not very experienced with HTML nor CSS.

I spent several weeks learning how to code and followed just about every tutorial aviable to mankind, and only some month ago the company forced me to publish the site (sort of a strange deadline since they were a startup).

They liked it and so do their clients, but i feel like there is something missing or something that just doesn't feel right. I would really appreciate it if you guys could take a look and give me some feedback.

Here is the link:
http://www.fysioklinikencity.se

Its a swedish company, just so you know it.

Thanks!

Apple Key · Oct 31, 2013

The page wont load for me.

Springsteen · Oct 31, 2013

Apple Key said:
The page wont load for me.

Im not sure why. What browser are you using? Have you tried putting "http://" in front of the link?

Apple Key · Oct 31, 2013

Springsteen said:
Im not sure why. What browser are you using? Have you tried putting "http://" in front of the link?

I did try putting "http://" in the link. I was using Safari and I just tried it in FireFox also. It's not loading at all.

960design · Nov 1, 2013

It's missing the english translated bits in a database. The site could query the users location and send the appropriate language. Not necessarily a need just a thought.

I like the layout and clean design. Definitely keeps the user focused on the content.

Great job.

Springsteen · Nov 1, 2013

Apple Key said:
I did try putting "http://" in the link. I was using Safari and I just tried it in FireFox also. It's not loading at all.

I'm not sure why really. It could be that the site is blocked for some reason, but i can't say for sure.

960design said:
It's missing the english translated bits in a database. The site could query the users location and send the appropriate language. Not necessarily a need just a thought.

I like the layout and clean design. Definitely keeps the user focused on the content.

Great job.

I was thinking of adding Google Translate for international accessibility, but the company made very clear that their business is aimed at swedish-talking citizens (at least for now).

Thanks for the compliments!

Ap0ks · Nov 1, 2013

I like it, the design is a bit simplistic but that makes it clean and easy to read.

One thing I did notice that seemed a little odd was that in the blue & green footers you have a nice link hover effect yet in the main body there isn't a hover effect on links and so they feel a bit static.

As for translation I'd say it really doesn't need it, I imagine most of their customer base will be in the local area and so knowing some Swedish would be a given. If they expand to other areas then maybe it's something to consider in the future.

Apple Key · Nov 1, 2013

Springsteen said:
I'm not sure why really. It could be that the site is blocked for some reason, but i can't say for sure.

Not sure why it wasn't working before. I'm able to see it now.

Overall you did a great job on the site. It is a very clean and simplistic design and it works very well. The colors are simple and pleasing to the eye. Excellent job on the responsive design, it feels very well thought out. I do have a few small suggestions.

I notice that the logo is a link but isn't linking anywhere (<a href="">). I'm assuming you meant to have this link to the homepage, but forgot to put in the link. I would update it to do that.

The section of the page that seems to me as if something is missing is the top white section, with the logo. The logo is left aligned and there is nothing on the right which leaves a lot of empty white space. I would recommend either adding or moving an element to that area (such as a tagline), or center aligning the logo. When viewing the mobile version of this page, the design seems more finished because the logo is centered (or close to it), and doesn't have that empty white space. You may also want to center the navigational links for consistency.

On the mobile optimized version of the site the headline (Välkommen till Fysiokliniken City!) is quite large and also breaks up in a strange way. I would recommend reducing the font size so that it breaks up more evenly.

In the blue horizontal bar near the bottom, you have more pace at the top of the box than at the bottom. As far as I can tell, there is no reason for this. I would make them equal, or at least appear to be equal visually (similar to how you have the footer centered in the box with the same amount of space at the top and bottom of the text.

Also on the mobile version, the images are a bit small. I know it may increase the code on the page, but you might want to use crop the images to have more height rather than using the mostly horizontal ones that you are using now.

Hope this helps. If you have any questions, let me know.

Springsteen · Nov 2, 2013

Ap0ks said:
I like it, the design is a bit simplistic but that makes it clean and easy to read.

One thing I did notice that seemed a little odd was that in the blue & green footers you have a nice link hover effect yet in the main body there isn't a hover effect on links and so they feel a bit static.

As for translation I'd say it really doesn't need it, I imagine most of their customer base will be in the local area and so knowing some Swedish would be a given. If they expand to other areas then maybe it's something to consider in the future.

Thanks for noting the links, i never thought of it! I'll keep that in mind for the next update.

Apple Key said:
Not sure why it wasn't working before. I'm able to see it now.

Overall you did a great job on the site. It is a very clean and simplistic design and it works very well. The colors are simple and pleasing to the eye. Excellent job on the responsive design, it feels very well thought out. I do have a few small suggestions.

I notice that the logo is a link but isn't linking anywhere (<a href="">). I'm assuming you meant to have this link to the homepage, but forgot to put in the link. I would update it to do that.

The section of the page that seems to me as if something is missing is the top white section, with the logo. The logo is left aligned and there is nothing on the right which leaves a lot of empty white space. I would recommend either adding or moving an element to that area (such as a tagline), or center aligning the logo. When viewing the mobile version of this page, the design seems more finished because the logo is centered (or close to it), and doesn't have that empty white space. You may also want to center the navigational links for consistency.

On the mobile optimized version of the site the headline (Välkommen till Fysiokliniken City!) is quite large and also breaks up in a strange way. I would recommend reducing the font size so that it breaks up more evenly.

In the blue horizontal bar near the bottom, you have more pace at the top of the box than at the bottom. As far as I can tell, there is no reason for this. I would make them equal, or at least appear to be equal visually (similar to how you have the footer centered in the box with the same amount of space at the top and bottom of the text.

Also on the mobile version, the images are a bit small. I know it may increase the code on the page, but you might want to use crop the images to have more height rather than using the mostly horizontal ones that you are using now.

Hope this helps. If you have any questions, let me know.

Thank you, the site was built mobile first so it's not that strange that the site feels more complete there, but you're right regarding the images. Do you have any good ideas when it comes to delivering these images? Breakpoints that spawn a selected crop maybe?

The headers were meant to be smaller on mobile, but i didn't have enough time to change them. But i will do my best to push out an update!

I'll try to center everything and ask the company how they feel about it, but i don't think they will mind.

The footer is definitively going to be fixed, and so will the logo link.

Thank you both for the suggestions! I truly appreciate it.

Consultant · Nov 2, 2013

It's just a standard responsive theme with very little design work put into it.

Springsteen · Nov 2, 2013

Consultant said:
It's just a standard responsive theme with very little design work put into it.

Could you specify what you think the website lacks design wise? If it comes off as a boring theme to you i would really appreciate some deeper toughts regarding the subject instead of a snarky remark.

After all, i am here to learn!

trenthanover · Nov 27, 2013

Hi

I don't know about your problem...but i would like to say about your layout and designing is very good...Nice work !

mark! · Nov 28, 2013

Springsteen said:
Could you specify what you think the website lacks design wise?

Just my opinion, it's a good design. I think what makes it come off as "boring" is that there is too much white space up by the logo. I don't get 'excited' until I scroll down.

Flood123 · Nov 28, 2013

Not trying to rip this apart. Please take this as constructive.

looking at your markup you are using html5 tags such as header, footer, and aside but not section or article. It's not necessary but if you are using html5 you might as well use html5.

Also you seem to have a stray closing script tag on line 9
i know you have it commented as the </div> but this is being listed as a validation error as well. I would go back and make sure every opening tag has it's closing tag in order.

This is not best practices. All layout should be done in a style sheet separate from the html. What you have done works, but it is not best practices.

<p style="margin-top: 40px; text-align:center"> </p>

I hope this helps. If you have any questions please feel free to ask. I would be more than happy to help.

ohbrilliance · Nov 30, 2013

Consultant said:
It's just a standard responsive theme with very little design work put into it.

This article was written for you: https://medium.com/design-ux/d4485896ba31

(and no, I don't think Springsteen's site is ****** at all. I think he's done a great job.)

ezekielrage_99 · Dec 2, 2013

ohbrilliance said:
This article was written for you: https://medium.com/design-ux/d4485896ba31

(and no, I don't think Springsteen's site is ****** at all. I think he's done a great job.)

+1

BTW a great article, I've just emailed it around work.

From experience, experience drives these sorts of responses (we have all been guilty of them) forgetting you not necessarily dealing with experienced full time creatives.

For the OP, agreed it's a standard Wordpress theme but it does look very good and clean. My only suggestion would be for the logo because there is a lot of whitespace and with the menu it does push the content under the fold within the page.

sarah3585 · Dec 3, 2013

Website is nice and clean, easy to read and get the info you want.

The green and the blue in close proximity at the footer is a little jarring.

NumeroTen · Dec 11, 2013

I like the color scheme, but I would suggest you add more content. The site just looks incomplete.

Davidmiller999 · Dec 15, 2013

Web Design

Hi,
I am not an expert in web design but I think that your site has too much free or blank space.
.....
Internet Marketing Strategies Analysis

trenthanover · Dec 23, 2013

I would suggest you add more content...by the way color design is very good..

Springsteen · Dec 30, 2013

mark! said:
Just my opinion, it's a good design. I think what makes it come off as "boring" is that there is too much white space up by the logo. I don't get 'excited' until I scroll down.

Thank you for the feedback. I also feel that there might be a tad bit too much white-space, but the company would not let me do anything about that sadly. They liked the "clean look" of it, and i guess i'm not one to judge.

Flood123 said:
Not trying to rip this apart. Please take this as constructive.

looking at your markup you are using html5 tags such as header, footer, and aside but not section or article. It's not necessary but if you are using html5 you might as well use html5.

Also you seem to have a stray closing script tag on line 9
i know you have it commented as the </div> but this is being listed as a validation error as well. I would go back and make sure every opening tag has it's closing tag in order.

This is not best practices. All layout should be done in a style sheet separate from the html. What you have done works, but it is not best practices.

<p style="margin-top: 40px; text-align:center"> </p>

I hope this helps. If you have any questions please feel free to ask. I would be more than happy to help.

Thank you! I'm working on these problems at the moment.
The wonky inline styling is leftovers from when i started out, but i will deal with it once everything else is corrected!

ezekielrage_99 said:
+1
For the OP, agreed it's a standard Wordpress theme but it does look very good and clean. My only suggestion would be for the logo because there is a lot of whitespace and with the menu it does push the content under the fold within the page.

Thank you for the reply!

The site is based on skeleton but the rest is just me fiddling about, sadly no wordpress going on here. I guess it could make a pretty theme.

Anyways, I totally agree with you, but as said, the company does not want me to change the logos placement sadly.

sarah3585 said:
Website is nice and clean, easy to read and get the info you want.

The green and the blue in close proximity at the footer is a little jarring.

I also fought it was quite jarring to begin with, but the company found it nice and "refreshing", so it seems like it will stay that way.

The company wanted the footer to be red and green to begin with. Imagine that!

NumeroTen said:
I like the color scheme, but I would suggest you add more content. The site just looks incomplete.

Davidmiller999 said:
Hi,
I am not an expert in web design but I think that your site has too much free or blank space.
.....
Internet Marketing Strategies Analysis

trenthanover said:
I would suggest you add more content...by the way color design is very good..

Sorry, it's not exactly up to me when it comes to filling the site with content. The company has handed me an extremely small amount of text and pictures to use.

A lot of the text you see on the website was written by me as a placeholder but the company liked it and wanted to keep it.
___

Thank you all for the feedback! It's been very helpful.

I need some opinions!

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