Critique my site, Pt. 1 billion

[tominated]

Hey guys, I'm making a site for one of my mum's friend's construction company called scotmac constructions. I made a design or it about 6 months ago, but that was when I was just starting to venture in web design (can't give a link though, sorry). I have fully re-vamped the site since then (i actually started yesterday, and this took about 2-3 hours in total) and need some critique while I am waiting on feedback from the client. The url is tominatedsoftware.com/scotmac2 (http://tominatedsoftware.com/scotmac2/) (once they register the domian it will be different).
Thanks in advance.


BTW: because I did this on my pc laptop, i know it works fully in both IE6 and 7 (hell yes!). It also works in opera, firefox and safari.

[ppc_michael]

I like it a lot, it's very clean looking.

Have you experimented with other color schemes? Blue or green?

[tominated]

I like it a lot, it's very clean looking.

Have you experimented with other color schemes? Blue or green?

the idea of the site was to make it complement the business card, which has a big red stripe, not unlike on the site, through the top.

[Me1000]

I really like this...

a few things though,
when you increase the text size the bottom box goes into a scroll... you need to make it so that it will accompany larger font sizes for people who increase them for higher resolution monitors etc...

the only other thing is that the navigation doesn't stand out. Sure for people that are used to designs like that it will, but small navigations are not always quite obvious to the end user.

That said...
you did a great job on this, im loving it!


EDIT:
also you have Domestic and Commercial Architecture and Building wrapped in paragraph tags in the code (which is good practice for screen readers) however you should probably make it an H2 or something because to try to replicate the appearance/importance of what you see with the graphic.

[TwinCities Dan]

FWIW, I dig it, it looks 200% better then most the garbage out there! ;) :D

[tominated]

thanks for your input guys. I'll change that p to a h2 and I'm going to convert the whole design to php includes for cushycms (and incorporate something the client wants)

BTW: can you guys test this url - scotmac.com.au and www.scotmac.com.au
they work on 2 out of the three pc's and mac's i have tested it on. I can't figure out why it hasn't worked on all

[.Andy]

URL works fine for me (firefox on PC) tominated nice site :).

I'm a bit late with the critique but (personal opinion) I don't like the red strip continuing to the edges of the screen. The rest of the page (text, links, navigation) is within smaller borders. I think it would look sharp if you cropped the red strip to be in line with the rest of the elements (I'd like to compare it that way anyhow). Other than that it's smooth :cool:.


p.s. awesome to refrain from any clichéd use of construction black and yellow!

[tominated]

URL works fine for me (firefox on PC) tominated nice site :).

I'm a bit late with the critique but (personal opinion) I don't like the red strip continuing to the edges of the screen. The rest of the page (text, links, navigation) is within smaller borders. I think it would look sharp if you cropped the red strip to be in line with the rest of the elements (I'd like to compare it that way anyhow). Other than that it's smooth :cool:.


p.s. awesome to refrain from any clichéd use of construction black and yellow!

I thought that at first, but the client wanted it to span the whole window.

[.Andy]

I thought that at first, but the client wanted it to span the whole window.
That's cool then - customer is always right :)! My preference would be like you've got the stripe set up on your Tominated Software site with some delineation. I think it looks more balanced. Good luck with it :).

[Me1000]

love it!

though you still need to fix the "latest project" area so that if the font is a different size it doesnt resort to scroll bars...

[InLikeALion]

Me1000-

how did you get the itunes scroll-bar in your browser?

[Me1000]

Me1000-

how did you get the itunes scroll-bar in your browser?

System wide...
http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/how-to-replace-default-leopard-scrollbar/
that should do it

[tominated]

love it!

though you still need to fix the "latest project" area so that if the font is a different size it doesnt resort to scroll bars...

I'll fix that today

[InLikeALion]

Tom,

I just dropped by your site again today, and noticed that in the content section, where you have the right-aligned gray box that says "What's New", you should be using a text-replacement method. Turn of your styling in a browser and see that there is no label for that section, and as such it is a bit confusing for screen readers.

Just a little detail. Other than that, I think you're doing quite alright with the design and code.

[lofight]

lovely site!! nice colors.

[MrSmith]

The Commercial link text doesn't stand out against the background picture enough. Maybe 70% opaque or so would be better. Otherwise looks great to me.

[tominated]

thanks guys.

@inlikealion: forgot about that. I'll see what I can do.
@mrsmith: i see what you mean. again, i'll see what I can do.

[GradientMac]

I think it's beautiful, but it bares resemblance to a landing page that you get when you type the wrong URL in.

Maybe it's just me.

It's LOVELY anyway.

[wolf359design]

Nice.

I like the feel and colors. I kept on wanting to see more which is good. I would add somemore to the bottom. I felt like it was chopped off when scrolling down.

I would not change a thing design wise. I think it is perfect.

However for SEO you might want to add some copy below the projects div.

Ed

[dwcasey]

Hey guys, I'm making a site for one of my mum's friend's construction company called scotmac constructions. I made a design or it about 6 months ago, but that was when I was just starting to venture in web design (can't give a link though, sorry). I have fully re-vamped the site since then (i actually started yesterday, and this took about 2-3 hours in total) and need some critique while I am waiting on feedback from the client. The url is tominatedsoftware.com/scotmac2 (http://tominatedsoftware.com/scotmac2/) (once they register the domian it will be different).
Thanks in advance.


BTW: because I did this on my pc laptop, i know it works fully in both IE6 and 7 (hell yes!). It also works in opera, firefox and safari.

So what software did you use? Or template? Or just from scratch on the PC?

I've started using RapidWeaver on the Mac.

[tominated]

i just made it from scratch in dreamweaver (i was away from my mac - i would have used coda) and PS. the site is live at http://scotmac.com.au/ now.

[InLikeALion]

Tom,

I see you haven't added the text-replacement for "what's new", so this is just a reminder.

The use of h3 tags for Commercial, Architectural, Renovations, as well as "New Homes, Renovations..." kept bothering me (view the page with no style: it is confusing the hierarchy of information), but I've realized how you should resolve it:

If you think about it, Commercial, Architectural, Renovations is actually a list of items without a numbered order. Make them a UL and leave the h3 tags if you want, or make them h4s.

[ManWithhat]

My personal opinion (take it with a grain of salt), the huge red stripe is fine, but it limits the movement throughout the page. If you need to keep it there, add your logo within the red strip, too. When I try to read anything else on the page I keep zooming back up or down to the red stripe. If I were you, I'd throw the logo into the red stripe, slim the height down a bit, move it up right below the navigation bar, leaving more room for 'project space' before your clients even have to scroll.

[tominated]

My personal opinion (take it with a grain of salt), the huge red stripe is fine, but it limits the movement throughout the page. If you need to keep it there, add your logo within the red strip, too. When I try to read anything else on the page I keep zooming back up or down to the red stripe. If I were you, I'd throw the logo into the red stripe, slim the height down a bit, move it up right below the navigation bar, leaving more room for 'project space' before your clients even have to scroll.

that'd probably look good, but the client doesn't want the design changed now.

@ InLikeALion: I have been busy doing another design project (expression engine can be a pain in the ass), but i am going to get around to it sooner or later (the client doesn't really care - they're good family friends)

[macsrules]

Your site is tight. I like it, very clean like your own site.

I only have one suggestion. I am sure on a PC the top navigation is probably larger than a Mac due to the resolution settings on most Macs and the video cards. We know that the average consumer PC video card is a piece. Having said that, I agree with a comment earlier. The top navigation would probably benefit from standing out a little more. Suggestion I had, since you are going with the block theme for most of the elements, you might get away with putting a screen back box around the top navigation to draw more attention to it, just my thoughts, good, bad or indifferent.

Again, I really like the clean look an feel you have so far.