Beat it up (Portafire.net)

Megan I want your thoughts on this.

Hey, I'm supposed to be working Found time to review some other sites though so I'll go over this one quickly too.

The design, um, needs some work. First of all, lose the bevel effects. That's a little bit outdated and creates sort of an amateurish look. When in doubt, always reduce or eliminate special effects altogether.

Secondly, keep the font size close to the default (bigger is not better!) and add some more padding around it so it's easier to read.

Make it easy for people to understand what the site is offering by providng a clear, short blurb and a photo *above the fold*. Above the fold means the part of the screen that people can see when the page first loads. I didn't know what this site was about until I saw the photo. Portable fire pit/ What's that? Ooooh, the photo explains it.

The colour scheme is generally good but I think it could use a little improvement. I'd like to see less colour and a little more white. So maybe the page content area could be white instead of that pale green colour. That would create more contrast and it wouldn't be so monochromatic.

Remember that people aren't going to read a lot. they're going to skim to grab the most important points. there's a lot of stuff scattered around on the front pge - try to keep that short and clean so people can clearly see what the product does. The list of bullets at the bottom is good, but it's at the bottom

At first I was going to say something about the lack of a logo, but there is one! It's just underneath those two other headlines. That's a pretty good logo and for branding purposes it should be more prominent on the site. There's a reason why almost all sites have a logo in the top-left corner of every page on the site. In fact, it might be a good idea to change the colour scheme of the site to match the logo instead of going in a different direction.

That's all for now, gotta get some actual work done today

I agree with the bevel effect on the buttons. I am in dire need of new buttons and yes the text does not fit correctly on them.

Not sure what text you’re talking about on your second point. SEO rules like Headers, Bold text, and Italic text and color text and Hyper linked text. Is the only thing I was really going for?

All colors were from the original site. That I'm afraid I cannot get them around that. I used the colors in a different way then the existing site but they were set about using the same Forest type colors. The content area is yellow not pale green so not sure what your saying there.

The reason for the logo being where it is, if you would continue on to the products page, You would see the logo change for each product, Portafire, PortafireII, PatioFire, and Permafire. That's why I opted to put the logo where it is. As far as the bullets they are a really good tool for SEO. and yes they are at the bottom but the spiders still see them and provide me with plenty of keywords. I see your point though, We can not look at it as how will it be spidered and the Search engines seeing it and leave at the acutely Users point of view. And Or Vise Versa.

I had the picture in the top fold but it was changed and I totally agree with you on that one.

Give me some more. I Love what you have posted so far.

I understand why you didn't want to have a critique - sometimes it can feel harsh. Just know that people just really want to help.

With that being said I will give you my critique:

1. I agree about the bevel effects.
2. I think she is referring to the bolded text - it seems a point or two too big.
3. I understand about your point about the logos...but it seems to me that you have one of the products on the home page - shouldn't it just be a generic company logo - and then have all of the products link from the home page? That way you can keep the home page short and succinct. [the home page is too long in my opinion]
4. Color scheme is good. But I totally agree with Megan - that light green center [yellow center] needs to lighten. White would be ideal!
5. The fonts - most of them are times or something - make them all sans serifed.
6. The nav moving on the left side - handy but annoying

That's it for now!

Brooke

hello just curious this page is not to long http://www.cataluna.com/cataluna/webportfolio.html

Mostly agreeing with points already made. Bevels are old and I don't know about everyone else but I think you must change the fonts to sans serif, and maybe take the bold of the main text on the home page. The floating menu I kinda like but I suspect not everyone will, so 50/50 on that one. A product photo up the top of the page would be good so we can see what it is. When I got half way down the page and saw the photo I thought 'hey that's cool' so don't hide it way down there. And there is way too much material on the home page for me - by the time I get down the bottom I forgot what's at the top. I think the background colours are fine; very forresty, and I agree with Megan the logo could be more prominent.

I prefer a website to be centred than aligned left but maybe that's just me. Nice forrest image up the top although I would remove the bevelling from that too.

Hope that helps.

Blue

Thnx Everyone. Looks Like I have some work to do. Will post back when I have results. Again Thanx.

I was referrring to the home page being too long - not other pages.

Cant find any mistakes but background color is the ugliest you can find

The only thing that really stands out here is that i'm not too crazy about the scrolling menu on the right. It might just be me, but I am a little annoyed by it. While I'm reading your main content, I scroll down to see what else it says, and I am immediately distracted by the menu scrolling down. In fact, I lost my place I while I was reading.

You do have an interesting product, however, and you do present it well.

Quote: Cant find any mistakes but background color is the ugliest you can find

Can't help the colors, they are from the original site. If you read the entire post, you will see I was able to lighten the body, without them noticing.

Quote: The only thing that really stands out here is that I’m not too crazy about the scrolling menu on the right

Yes, I’m finding a 50/50 split on that. Suggestions on how to make it easy with long pages without annoying people?

Thank you both for your input.