Website design

“Yeah I know that this is a backpacking board! Are there any TTer's that do freelance web design? And might be looking for some work? Preferable in the Northeast but not nessecarily(sp)”

“I think that Gemini does...”

“thanks maybe he will respond, I might have some work that needs to be done and I thought that I would keep it in the family.”

“Look for her profile, she might have her email addy on there...”

“cough... cough... I might be able to help you out.”

“yeah matt, taking work from a poor hiker... i am here to if you need me :)”

“Matt I have examples of your work anything I can look at gemini? Feel free to e-mail me.”

“Portfolio
I think its pretty much updated.”

“Lt, couldn't see an email address in your portfolio. you can call me at 803.699.7685 if you like what you see.”

“I do web design but most of my work nowadays is in useability and has gotten away from true design.”

“Oh, very nice stuff Gemini.

How many of the samples are URLs and how many are comps?

Either way, they look good.”

“

... but most of my work nowadays ...
humanpackmule

You're working? You're no longer a >deleted< like most of the rest of us in transition.”

“I agree just check out your site. Is this your company? I need to figure out a few things but I will get in touch with probably both you and Matt. When I am ready.”

“lt, yes my company. Just take your time. I understand if you decide to go with Matt.”

“LOL no it is not that. Who do I ask for if I call?”

“Nope, not working yet.

Still trying to drum up work.”

“Silly hiker, ask for Gemini.
LOL!”

“you can ask for gemini or gaby, hey or gabriele. same thing :)
I am the only one that will answer the phone. I gave you my home phone so hubby could answer too, but that's okay.

Gave you the home phone because I am working from home right now (downstairs)(until I get my office fixed)”

“ARE YOU NUTS? You just posted an 800# to your home!!!”

“lol I was wondering about that but it is not an 800#”

“803 is the area code for columbia. :)”

“instead of hijackin TJs thread-

so how about my site?

HPM, et al.

mine's not exactly a normal business site, and it's not finished (who's is?) but i'd really appreciate some honest feedback too.

http://www.aldebaranbulldogs.com/

muchos gracias”

“Sacco, I hate it. (Sorry :(
Everything is way to big and I had to scroll too much. Use navigation to get to the different sections. Your home page should have your contact info and general information in a concise format with easy to find navigation for additional info”

“I've been to your site before, and this is the first time I noticed that navigation drop down.”

“I agree, the text is way too big. The annimated "gifs" are a bit cheezey. I'd change the navigation to visible text located at the top and bottom of each page. The images used are way to large (file size) for the pixel dimensions displayed. Not everybody has a high speed connection and if it takes too long to load a page, your visitor may click away.

Also the "thumbnails" on your More Pics page are not true thumbnails. They have the same resolution as the larger files they link to. The smaller versions should have a smaller file size (~20-50 dpi) and then link to the larger resolution files.”

“You need a redesign bro.

Here's some questions you need to answer.

1. What do you want to accomplish with your site?
2. Who is your audience?
3. What do you like about your site?
3b. Why?
4. What do you not like?
4b. Why?
5. List three other sites do you really like and keep drawing you back?
5b. What do you like about each one?”

“The photos took forever to load on dial up.

Can you recommend a good breeder or two of Soft Coated Wheaten Terriers?”

“well back to the drawing board i go.

i appreciate the criticism guys. i'll have to repost it once i make some big changes”

“needs more monkeys.

i like the no-puppy-mills stuff at the bottom!”

“i'll be sure to add a monkey or two for version 2.0

V-man, i'd check here:

http://www.scwtca.org/helpme/”

“needs more monkeys

LOL! Couldn't every site use more monkeys?!”

“Yo Sacco, got any favorite colors?”

“huh? blue i guess.

colors for what?”

“I'm playing around.
Give me a few minutes.”

“Oh geez here we go again. ;)”

“Ok, check this out.
http://www.thebackpacker.com/pictures/pic/zwnun6.php

I can send you the larger version if you like.”

“gee HPM, i don't know what to say.
thanks, that's really nice”

“Human packmule has some good suggestions....

Question-- what are you using to create the site? Are you familiar with HTML, or are you using an editor program?

It is important to create an "outline" for yourself when creating a website-- Think about how you want to organize the information.... As others have suggested-- take a look at other sites that you enjoy visiting--They can give you some ideas to work with.

Although the paw-print background is cute, I think the pattern may be a bit too busy to use on the whole site. I think you might be better off using solid colors, or a pattern that is a lot more subtle--it makes things look more polished and professional.

Think of your website as something akin to a "resume" about your business.
You want people to get the impression that you are knowlegeable about your topic, and that you aren't just filling the space up with text (using humungous text is the secret of students who don't have enough written on their papers--they tend to make the text larger to fill up space and make it appear like they have a lot to say. Not a good impression to make on your audience!)

Definitely try using a table to organize some of your pictures, and make sure that they are of a resonable resolution and size to download quickly. You want your viewers to stay, not leave in frustration... The other thing is that if you want your business to be more professional (and looking like a business vs. a hobby or just a personal website of the family pets, I would suggest keeping the photos more simple and about the dogs vs. adding in people (unless it is a group photo of you as the owners with the dogs on a page describing you as the owners of dogs or maybe on the contact us page.)

The posed pictures with pumpkins and such are very cute, but maybe a little to informal for a business? And, if you can avoid using photos that have a date stamp on them, they will appear more professional as well. After all, if you are trying to focus on the bulldog breeding business, then that is what you should show.

Perhaps in the section where you are talking about the puppy mills, it might be a good idea to show photos of where your dogs are kept and bred-- to back up your information about the positive aspects of your business?


Also, consider using a table for your links, or perhaps using some frames on your site--so that the viewer can navigate more easily... Perhaps you can make some dog-related icons (i.e. a dog collar, dog house, food dish, bone, etc.) to link the viewers from the home page to the other information. Visual icons are a lot more appealing and easier to use than the drop down menu, which could get lost in the shuffle...

I definitely think you should stay with more of the "real life" pictures of the dogs vs. the cartoon dogs. The cartoons tend to diminish the seriousness of your business.

I also see that you show the lineage of each of your dogs. How about having a section of the site just devoted to lineage? Maybe a page that you can link to from each dog's individual page? I'm not knowledgable about dogs, but I definitely see that as something you should put in a place where it's easily found from the main page and from the individual pages...

Good luck--hope this helps! :-)”

“You're welcome and don't sweat it.

I don't get a chance to flex much creativity at work anymore so I look for excuses to do stuff like this.

I stuck to the natural colors of the dogs, if it looks good on them then why not on your site?”

“No frames. There are very few instances where a frame is the right thing to do.”

“HPM--
Why don't you prefer frames?
Do you prefer Tables to Frames? or do you feel it's not good to use frames because of lack of universitality (i.e. some browsers can't handle them very well?)

I'm a relative newbie to the programming of websites... Just curious-- do you not like frames due to the programming aspects or the visual aesthetics?”

“that's purty, HPM!”

“It's not just me. Industry wide frames are hated.

1. Frames make it difficult for users to bookmark a page.
2. Frames disrupt intuitve navigation schemes
3. Frames are less likely to be crwaled effectively by search engines. (yes they can be crawled but flat pages do much better)
4. Framed sites created ophaned pages and straned uses.
5. Those orphaned pages lose you valuable search engine referrals.
6. Frames often needlessly eat up valuable screen real estate.
7. Framed sites create a hindeance for users with disabilities. Good luck achieving section 508 compliance
8. Anything frames can do middleware (asp jsp php cf ect...) can do far better.

edit...
Oh and when clients wise up and ask us to fix their screwed up ineffective framed sites it's a pain the butt.
last edited: 5/20/05 12:40:34 PM”

“Thanks for the tip about frames--I kind of figured that might be some of the reasoning... My hubby (Thinkbubelz) told me at lunch that frames (although being used more) are still not quite "standard", so that what you mentioned makes a lot of sense....

Scratch my comments about frames then! :-)

But tables do help to organize information... ;-)

BTW-- HPM-- do you use an html editor, or do you do your code by hand? Just wondering what software you prefer if you do use it. I have both Dreamweaver and the Adobe suites, although for my class we had to do the code by hand without any editors (a definite pain to do, but at least it helps to understand how the code works and also in debugging things that are going wrong!)”

“He is wrong, frames are being used LESS.

I use both dreamweaver and notepad.

The no editor thing is holdover snobbery from the days of programmer dominance of web work. It doesn't matter what you use to code with. You will understand it if the teacher does his job correctly and the student listens.

I'm not a fan of the adobe editing tool and can't stand the kludge that frontpage produces.

Don't put all your faith in tables either. It is possible to overformat your page and induce new issues. Many are moving to a no-table approach too.

Something you will probably find interesting is pure CSS formatting. No tables, no layers and no frames. Check out www.csszengarden.com very cool stuff but you'd better know your CSS to do it. There are some very big names using that on their sites now.
last edited: 5/20/05 2:23:21 PM”

“Frames and tables are very hard for some readers/talkers (programs for the disabled) to navigate properly. Best to use Cascading Style Sheets for positioning instead of tables. And HPM's right about using ASP, CFM, etc. in place of frames. Those languages/platforms allow you to easily insert often-used code - like a navigation menu - where you might have used a frameset in regular HTML.

edit - I see HPM got his CSS mention in before I did. If you don't know CSS, learn it. Its not that hard to learn - but very hard to use sometimes.
last edited: 5/20/05 2:30:47 PM”

“Actually you should be using CSS for the vast majority of your formatting because most formatting tags are depricated.

Heck, all of HTML has been depricated for two years now, we should all be coding XHTML.

But then again, the W3C standards get ignored most of the time anyway.
last edited: 5/20/05 2:35:28 PM”

“Yes, I learned about CSS... I'm getting ready to put together my own web page to replace the ugly site that our prof MADE us do... (his was a Computer Science Class vs. a Graphics class)--our sites were about the homeliest things you have ever seen...

Can't wait to start my summer vacation so that I can devote some time to creating my own CSS pages! :-)”

“"He is wrong, frames are being used LESS." --humanpackmule

Actually, I was misquoted. What I really said was that when frames came out they were only supported on one browser, and that now all browsers support them. *noogie pink*”

“Well then, that 'esplains it.”