Web design critique

[ghall]

I was wondering if someone could give me some feedback on this website I'm working on with my dad for his business. It's obviously a work in progress, I am aware of the lorum ipsum text and the dead links. I'm just looking for feedback on the design.

The site is uploaded to:
http://grahamtastic.com/biomestest

 

[miles01110]

It looks like something out of the 90s, to be totally honest. There's virtually no font consistency, design consistency (rounded corners on some things, sharp corners on others), some of the graphics stick out like sore thumbs (like the facebook one), and in general just screams amateur effort.

Sorry if that sounds harsh.

Might I suggest starting from a template? There are very many good ones at oswd.com that you could look at and modify to fit your needs.

 

[chiefroastbeef]

It looks like something out of the 90s, to be totally honest. There's virtually no font consistency, design consistency (rounded corners on some things, sharp corners on others), some of the graphics stick out like sore thumbs (like the facebook one), and in general just screams amateur effort.

Sorry if that sounds harsh.

Might I suggest starting from a template? There are very many good ones at oswd.com that you could look at and modify to fit your needs.

I'm sorry to say as well, but it looks like a website that was designed right at the birth of the internet.

I too suggest starting with a template, or at least change the background image and some of the fonts. The bg image is very "tacky" and unprofessional in my humble opinion. The body is very weird, you have plain text without spacing, an odd picture, and more plain text.

With some small changes it can look a lot better! Keep working at it!

 

[Cabbit]

Site seems very "tacky" and unprofessional as others have suggested, it does indeed remind me of early websites and to a end user would look like the site had not been updated since 1998.

You have also used unnecessary Flash on your main page for the images, this can be much better using achieved using javascript.

 

[DaReal_Dionysus]

Dude not to be rude, but that thing is hideous

 

[jdesign]

hmm, pitty no helpful comments here not to offend anyone, but i think we should help by giving good suggestions, we didn't get smart overnight, and there is always people who is smarter than us .

Anyway, for start you can improve it by:

• 
  adding white background color in your #container that will improve your site a lot!! that blue watery background is kind of distracting

• 
  after that putting extra padding / margin so the text dont sit to close to the edge of white box

• 
  Make the main body text a tad smaller, after that add extra line-height to it so it's easier to read.

note: if you don't know javascript, i think the flash banner is ok as it delivers your message


Good luck.

 

[ghall]

hmm, pitty no helpful comments here not to offend anyone, but i think we should help by giving good suggestions, we didn't get smart overnight, and there is always people who is smarter than us .

Anyway, for start you can improve it by:

• 
  adding white background color in your #container that will improve your site a lot!! that blue watery background is kind of distracting

• 
  after that putting extra padding / margin so the text dont sit to close to the edge of white box

• 
  Make the main body text a tad smaller, after that add extra line-height to it so it's easier to read.

note: if you don't know javascript, i think the flash banner is ok as it delivers your message


Good luck.

Thanks for the feedback. I'll let my dad know as hes the one who really has the last say. I'm glad nobody likes the background, I hate it but my dad is like "I think its cool". See what I have to put up with?

 

[jdesign]

your welcome .
yes just change the Bg for middle container to white, the water BG can still stay.. that'll make your dad happy

 

[design-is]

Also consider changing the font to a sans-serif like Verdana or Helvetica etc - serif typefaces really don't sit well as body text on websites. Headings, fine, but not body text unless you've really given it some thought and effort to get it looking nice.

Also, I personally dislike centred text. Nice, short line lengths, aligned left, are how I like things - just my opinion though.

Nice icons you've used for the contact page - mind if I ask for the source?

One last thing for now - you have a right sidebar on the homepage, no sidebar on any other page, and left aligned images on the staff page. This is very inconsistent. You could consider using a sidebar on all the pages, or use the right as the 'secondary info' area, for the sidebar on the homepage and supporting images on the other pages.

Cheers

/Doug

 

[SrWebDeveloper]

Thanks for the feedback. I'll let my dad know as hes the one who really has the last say. I'm glad nobody likes the background, I hate it but my dad is like "I think its cool". See what I have to put up with?

I know he's your dad and this is an informal exercise, but even though some folks here are more than a little critical of the site - ultimately you do have to please your dad. The client's opinion is #1, above any others. This is not to say you can't make a mockup or two and show him a few screenshots of different backgrounds, layout. Then let him decide.

Less stress on you, believe me.

-jim