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Website Criticism

G

garretruh

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 23, 2008
40
0
Minnesota
To start off, I'm a newbie web developer; so don't expect anything spectacular. Having said that, I'd like the MR community to criticize every aspect of this small website. The site is for a high school based video production company that wants to start producing for actual clients. To do that, they (we) need a visually pleasing and efficient website to attract clients. This first version was made in iWeb, but I will, in all likelihood, start from scratch using RapidWeaver and Dreamweaver. I'm hoping to incorporate all of your ideas and criticisms into the new site. Don't be afraid to tear it apart. That's what I need. Thanks in advance.

www.garretruh.com

Note: The current URL is my personal domain, so disregard that obvious disconnection.
 
You really need to think about optimizing your images for the web. They're all too large (KB-wise). I'm seeing images as large as 300-400KB. That's nearly half a megabyte for one picture, and your site is image heavy. The result is slow page loads.

Other than that I rather like the design. It's simple without being too simple.
 
Think of this website as a portfolio for the production company. That being said, you need to focus the content of the home page to the content a visitor is going to be mostly concerned about, namely to probably see examples of your work which is what I would feature on your landing page.

Take a look at various portfolio sites, from web designers, photographers, and other production company websites.
 
Re:

Thanks both of you. I'll try to incorporate your ideas into the site.

@Darth.Titan
Thanks. I'll try to down size them a little. The speed issue could also be the fact that I'm hosting it on my laptop on WiFi over a residential cable connection; I'll make the images smaller anyway.

@manueld
What's your opinion on using YouTube videos as project examples? Should they be replaced with an HTML5 based video library, or are they good enough for a small organization like ours? Thanks for the feedback.
 
4 pages are inconsistent in footer coverage.

Might want footer text that claims copyright.

Hint: YouTube is fine. If you use the right embed code it automatically serves HTML5 video on supported mobile devices.
 
Darth.Titan said:
It's simple without being too simple.
Click to expand...

x2. I like it because it is nice and clean. I am able to find what information I am looking for quickly.

Only negative comment is that it did take some time to load each page due to the large pictures. As you said, it might be because you are hosting from your computer.

Good job.
 
garretruh said:
@Darth.Titan
Thanks. I'll try to down size them a little. The speed issue could also be the fact that I'm hosting it on my laptop on WiFi over a residential cable connection; I'll make the images smaller anyway.
Click to expand...

Yes that definitely could be the major issue. :D
 
garretruh said:
@manueld
What's your opinion on using YouTube videos as project examples? Should they be replaced with an HTML5 based video library, or are they good enough for a small organization like ours? Thanks for the feedback.
Click to expand...

It depends, I would definitely utilize youtube for the social media aspect of it and you can provide a link to your website that way.

I've had clients not want a youtube embed due to the "related videos" at the end of the video.

If you have the space and bandwidth on your server, I would host my own videos.

Marketing 101, you want to reach a wide audience, upload it EVERYWHERE.
 
Re:

@designguy79
Sorry. I carry around my laptop all day and can't have it hosting 24/7. Working on hosting options this very moment.

@manueld
The related video's issue shouldn't affect this website as iWeb's built-in YouTube "widget" has a function in which one can turn of the "Related Videos" feature. But I understand what you mean about self-hosting; it would be much easier to make changes that way. Regarding another aspect of the site, does the plain black background detract from the experience? Should it be replaced with an image or alternate color? Or does it help keep the site clean?

@Consultant
Thanks for bringing that to my attention. Copyright notice and standard-spaced footer should now be live on the site.


Thanks all for your input. It's hard to get insightful feedback.
 
It looks kind of stock. Like a default template, you really have to make it special. Add a logo, a top-bar, something.
 
garretruh said:
@manueld
The related video's issue shouldn't affect this website as iWeb's built-in YouTube "widget" has a function in which one can turn of the "Related Videos" feature. But I understand what you mean about self-hosting; it would be much easier to make changes that way. Regarding another aspect of the site, does the plain black background detract from the experience? Should it be replaced with an image or alternate color? Or does it help keep the site clean?
Click to expand...

TBH, the design of the site looks very templated as someone already had mentioned. If you're looking to be hired as a professional, you need to convey that with the look of your site as that may be the a potential client's first impression of you.

Take a look at some of these portfolio sites:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/11/24/69-sexy-portfolio-designs-to-inspire-you/
 
The speed of your connection does make a difference but the images are just too heavy. Look at the backgroud images - do you really need a 250K background that is just going to be written over? For example on the about page I see these images:

http://www.garretruh.com/About_Us_files/about_me-1.png 46k
http://www.garretruh.com/About_Us_files/about_me-1_1.png 42k
http://www.garretruh.com/About_Us_files/about_me-1_2.png 44k

They should be a single image and even then it can be compressed down as a jpeg. I suspect the multiples are an artifact of the program you are using. In any case, one 15k image used three times will load a lot faster than three images totaling 150k. ;)

Same thing with other images:

http://www.garretruh.com/About_Us_files/navfill-v2.jpg

This shows up twice on every page. It looks like once in the page and once in some javascript.

Overall I like the layout. A little polish and you'll be looking good.
 
you really should find some host other than your laptop. I believe I've seen a thread around here for free hosting even if it's just for testing purposes.
 
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