10 replies to this topic

[Steven D. Sanders]

Hello everyone! I am a freelance web designer and web developer, and I recently launched my new portfolio site hosted on ASmallOrange. Check it out and let me know what you think!

Steven D. Sanders Web Design and Development

[Randy Walker]

Gorgeous design but the goofy picture might scare off some pictures ("Oh, he's not very professional.")

[Steven D. Sanders]

Thanks Randy! I need to get myself a nice professionally taken photo to put there. I used the goofy picture as a placeholder while I was designing the site, but I ended up leaving it to add a bit of character.

[billzo]

That is a nice looking site.  As far as web design sites go, that is one of the better ones.  Clean and concise.  I would reword a few things like the "if you already have a designer in mind".  Maybe something along the lines of you translating designs into HTML for other designers on a subcontracting basis.  If anyone is going to choose the person who creates the HTML based on a design, it is going to be the designer, not the client who hires the designer.

[NyteOwl]

I get a horizontal scroll bar on the Home page and on the Portfolio page, even at full screen (1920x1200). The About, Blog and Contact pages are fine.

Edited by NyteOwl, 05 January 2012 - 10:35 AM.

[Steven D. Sanders]

billzo, on 05 January 2012 - 09:39 AM, said:

That is a nice looking site.  As far as web design sites go, that is one of the better ones.  Clean and concise.  I would reword a few things like the "if you already have a designer in mind".  Maybe something along the lines of you translating designs into HTML for other designers on a subcontracting basis.  If anyone is going to choose the person who creates the HTML based on a design, it is going to be the designer, not the client who hires the designer.

Thank you! I am definitely not the best at writing marketing text, it could definitely use revisions in a lot of places.

NyteOwl, on 05 January 2012 - 10:31 AM, said:

I get a horizontal scroll bar on the Home page and on the Portfolio page, even at full screen (1920x1200). The About, Blog and Contact pages are fine.

Interesting. Would you mind sharing what browser and OS you are using? I am probably going to end up limiting the layout to a max-width of something like 1400 pixels since it looks kind of funky at super wide resolutions.

[billzo]

A further look at your site found some other things I feel the need to comment about.  If you are serious about being a web designer, lose the personal stuff.  Nobody needs to know (or probably cares) how old you are.  Nobody needs to know where you were born.  You in your pirate cap isn't going to help you win business.    I'd also lose the "freelance" stuff.  You are a professional, right?  Or do you just want to be viewed as a hobbyist?  Also, lose the mastery and working knowledge stuff.  As far as sales go, you are an expert in everything.  While nobody can be an expert in everything related to web development, your potential customers do not need to know that.  You are cutting yourself short.  Would you go to a dentist who had a "working knowledge" of drilling cavities?  A mechanic who had a "working knowledge" of fixing your particular make and model of car?

On your portfolio page, the right side column with the real estate example is hanging a little low.  I did not find out why that is, it could be a margin needs to be adjusted.

Other than that stuff it's a real nice looking site.  The colors, grid background, fonts, it's all nice.

I am curious about how much HTML you had to put in the posts when you made your Wordpress site.  I am also curious as to how you got access to the real estate listings database.  If you could answer my questions that would be nice.

[Steven D. Sanders]

Thank you for the detailed feedback! I definitely appreciate it.

billzo, on 06 January 2012 - 01:33 PM, said:

A further look at your site found some other things I feel the need to comment about.  If you are serious about being a web designer, lose the personal stuff.  Nobody needs to know (or probably cares) how old you are.  Nobody needs to know where you were born.  You in your pirate cap isn't going to help you win business.    I'd also lose the "freelance" stuff.  You are a professional, right?  Or do you just want to be viewed as a hobbyist?  Also, lose the mastery and working knowledge stuff.  As far as sales go, you are an expert in everything.  While nobody can be an expert in everything related to web development, your potential customers do not need to know that.  You are cutting yourself short.  Would you go to a dentist who had a "working knowledge" of drilling cavities?  A mechanic who had a "working knowledge" of fixing your particular make and model of car?

I am inclined to agree with your opinion on the "working knowledge" section. I will just replace that with a list of "technical knowledge." I think I might disagree with you on losing the personal information, though. Perhaps I added too much detail (such as my age and school history), but I think that some personal information is necessary. People like to get to know the person that they will be doing business with. I definitely agree that I need to replace the pirate picture with something more professional.

billzo, on 06 January 2012 - 01:33 PM, said:

On your portfolio page, the right side column with the real estate example is hanging a little low.  I did not find out why that is, it could be a margin needs to be adjusted.

Could you provide more detail on this, such as browser, OS, and resolution? I am not sure that I see what you mean.

billzo, on 06 January 2012 - 01:33 PM, said:

I am curious about how much HTML you had to put in the posts when you made your Wordpress site.  I am also curious as to how you got access to the real estate listings database.  If you could answer my questions that would be nice.

The pages didn't need much HTML other than divs for the columns. I could have set it up to require even less HTML, but I didn't find that necessary for my personal site. For example, on a client site that relies on columns like mine, I will often use separate text input boxes for each column on the page.

As far as the real estate listings go, they are embedded using iframes and URL parameters. So, for example, on the PeoriaLuxuryHomes site I would embed a url like "www.mlsfinder.com/il/agentname/SUBDIVISION_Copperfield". That is not an actual url, just a simplified example. This is definitely not a great way to do it, but the real estate listing companies used by the clients that I listed on my portfolio only allow you to do it this way. More modern listing companies will allow a database file to be downloaded and parsed by PHP, and output however you want. This is why the listings on those sites do not really match the design of the sites, since I had no control over their appearance. I hope that made sense!

Thank you again for spending the time to write out such a detailed critique and thank you for the compliments on the design. You have no idea how appreciative I am.

[billzo]

Steven D. Sanders, on 06 January 2012 - 03:28 PM, said:

billzo, on 06 January 2012 - 01:33 PM, said:

On your portfolio page, the right side column with the real estate example is hanging a little low.  I did not find out why that is, it could be a margin needs to be adjusted.

Could you provide more detail on this, such as browser, OS, and resolution? I am not sure that I see what you mean.

I included a screenshot.  I wrote on the screenshot.  I would expect the right side content to be on the same line as the left column.  It isn't.  Maybe this is by your design.  It caught my eye right away as a possible problem.



Thanks for the info about the MLS listings.  I wondered for a while how one might go about getting access to them.

[NyteOwl]

Steven D. Sanders, on 05 January 2012 - 01:32 PM, said:

NyteOwl, on 05 January 2012 - 10:31 AM, said:

I get a horizontal scroll bar on the Home page and on the Portfolio page, even at full screen (1920x1200). The About, Blog and Contact pages are fine.

Interesting. Would you mind sharing what browser and OS you are using? I am probably going to end up limiting the layout to a max-width of something like 1400 pixels since it looks kind of funky at super wide resolutions.

It occurs using Firefox 3.6.25 and SeaMonkey under Windows XP Pro (SP3). It does not occur using Opera 11 or IE8.

It also occurs using Firefox and Seamonkey and Konqueror in Linux. It is VERY pronounced in Konqueror. While it is only about 5-10pixels extra in FF the scroll bar is about half the page width in Konqueror.

[Steven D. Sanders]

billzo, on 07 January 2012 - 01:57 AM, said:

I included a screenshot.  I wrote on the screenshot.  I would expect the right side content to be on the same line as the left column.  It isn't.  Maybe this is by your design.  It caught my eye right away as a possible problem.



Thanks for the info about the MLS listings.  I wondered for a while how one might go about getting access to them.

Thank you for the screenshot! I can't believe I missed that. It should be fixed in Firefox now.

NyteOwl, on 08 January 2012 - 02:15 PM, said:

It occurs using Firefox 3.6.25 and SeaMonkey under Windows XP Pro (SP3). It does not occur using Opera 11 or IE8.

It also occurs using Firefox and Seamonkey and Konqueror in Linux. It is VERY pronounced in Konqueror. While it is only about 5-10pixels extra in FF the scroll bar is about half the page width in Konqueror.

That is very, very strange. Thank you for pointing it out. I might have to install Linux in a virtual machine to attack the Konquerer bug.