Hello My PSC Friends,

I have started to redesign my personal website.

Check it out: http://www.heinleindesign.net

Comments are greatly appreciated, however be gentle.

Most people won't think of themselves as Common Folk, maybe make reference in paragraph that you are there to help regular people, another point might be to say something about, don't be afraid to ask about the oddest ideas someone might come up with.
Suggestions only, from this common folk!

Thanks Martex,

I will take your suggestions.

Nice website..i saw the portfolio..its great!

nice one

I, personally, would make a contrast with the background and the layer where you have your description.
Right now, the textfield is unboxed with the rest of the field. Watching this on very high resolution, makes the header stand out, but not the rest.
The colour I'd use, is a tad lighter than the actual background.

Also, I assume you work with layers and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), try to have the textlayers at the same height as your photo. CSS comes in handy together with layers (AP DIV elements) and doesn't require you to use those nasty tables. Do you work with Dreamweaver?
I mean, make them even that the lowest textline is at the exact same height as the bottomside of your picture.

Also, the the thumbtack-website, let it open in a separate window. Once you clicked it, you can't go back because it won't allow you. Unless you know how to click fast enough, but most people don't

Try getting a webhosting of your own, linked to your domainname. There's hosting for less than 35$ a year, instead of using weebly.com

More examples without having to click too much.
In order to see your portfolio's, I have to click too much and I'm directed to other websites.

Just my 2 cents

Thank you for taking the time to view my website and for your suggestions. I really appreciate the suggestions and will try to use them to improve my website.

I do own my domain name, and my site is linked from my hosting account. I presume you knew it was weebly by viewing the source, correct?

I haven't worked too much in Dreamweaver. With so many CMS out there right now, I just wanted to get something put together.

I will take your suggestions and work with them.

Thank you,
Jim

I have to disagree. His company is based out of the States - the only country on earth where the word "intellectual" is used as an insult.

Hey Jim, I don't want to sound negative but your cover page is a little bland, maybe emphasize your services with some more tabs showing the different projects, (bus. cards, menu's, flyer's, etc.) give it some color with one or more of your images, if you don't dazzle your customer with your own site, what will they think? I know you can make this pop, use your talent to say "check this out!" Imagine that this website is for the most important customer you'll ever have, and you want to knock their socks off.
good luck

You know I was actually thinking that. My original site had more of the color and dazzle.

Then I did some researching on other Graphic Designers web site, and most of them have that clean, modern, a lot of white space look.

But you are right. My site does need more spunk to it.

I appreciate your suggestions, and I will work on the site this weekend.

Thank you,
Jim

Or you can overdo it like I did some years ago.
Never used the site though, was just my own project. Dont mind the crappy logos i experimented with

Http://www.comfiks.be/design

LIKE

I might be completely insulted by that - if I knew what the heck it meant - until I ask my congresswoman - I will feign anger!

It's pretty simple to use 3 page set out, I did a similar thing when I made mine.

Straight forward 3 pages:
1) Intro who I am/ What I do
2) My folio
3) Contact.

Nowadays it's about ease of use so I think unless your marketing merchandise there really isn't a lot more you need on there...

I made this about 5 months ago but haven't really done anything with it since.
http://thomaswrightphotos.weebly.com/photography.html


I do have a few pointers though:
The front page has to be sharp, people skim, in fact around 85% of reading is skimming over images, you need tag lines or titles.

Something simple under 5 words that conveys what you do.

For example my site
(Thomas Wright Photography)
Who I am: Thomas Wright
What I do: Photography


Yours is Heinlien design:
Your Heinlein
and you Design

Now list what you design in big bullet points!
Some thing like:
¹Image Repair
²Graphics Solutions
³Image Solutions
⁴Graphics design

You don't want to associate you're site with the cliché of "they are common folk compared to me".
It's a very out dated view point and assumes that the customer is a bit thick, although sometimes you may feel they are fresh off the shelf, it's not nice to point that out in introductions.



Your Banner shows your a pro, however, notice what it does to your content! AKA Beta test, ok your getting help from PSC but that doesn't mean you can't use it like you are a customer.

A simple oversight of any web site is ease of use, first port of call for ease of use is how much you need to scroll to use it!
Page 1- No scrolling, therefore, banner fits
Page 2 - Banner forces your folio out of page view and therefore scrolling.(Bad)
Page 3 - Banner is fine, because there is no scrolling needed

As consistency is important I would suggest removing it entirely as a banner and have it as a background element.
"Heinlein Design" on the left border
"The hand with the card logo" on the right, freeing the centre space up for more imagery and bigger font...

3) Font size, you need this to be bold and clear, bigger fonts attract attention, at the moment you have what can be best described as 8 point font. (I don't need glasses and I am leaning forward to read your text).
That is only because I am critiquing if I was skimming your site all that info you posted would be lost because as a client I am not interested in small talk I want to see the important bold things.

4) Portfolio, THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING.
Quality not quantity, there is no need to show 30 average images when you can show off the 10 great images in that folio!
Your standard is only as strong as your weakest works!

If your marketing the following these are the rules of thumb:

If your a photographer (check my page)
Photography - No Flash!
If you show flash photography you are basically showing that you cannot light a subject properly!
Sure with a flash the subject is lit but you can see the contrast is flat and lifeless, you need to demonstrate your 3 point lighting and your ability to utilise the right ISO to shutter and aperture ratio, this can be seen in image clarity, contrast, and levels.
If your subject has no shadows or seems a bit too matted then who is to say it isn't a cheap throw away Kodak job from a holiday.
If there is an immediate shadow like a drop shadow then that's even worse!

Graphics - Again select about 2-3 images that really demonstrate your effective usage of design, negative space, emotion, marketing and simple innovative imagery that can portray a short but evocative message, the rule of thumb for graphics is if your graphics are font heavy there is a problem.

Look at logos for most high end products, most have less than 5 words.
Nike - Just do it
Adidas - Impossible is Nothing
Lucozade - Aids Recovery
Coke - Always Coca cola
Pepsi Max - Max taste No sugar

All brief titles no more than 3 words with a short tag line less than 5 words and an image as the logo. You need to fit the format!

Image manipulation - PSC work can go in here preferably wins, preferably with the full image shown and not a screen cap of the PSC website.
Just note in the title it won a contest then link below to the contest entry.
It gets PSC more hits and for god sake target "blank" or the user will end up leaving your page.

Design - If your going to show off design you need to show how it is user friendly. How‽
Simple! Show how it is effective, (this is your site, duh ) your site should automatically ooze user friendliness, a tag line like "would you like a site as easy to use as this? contact me @ bla bla bla".

As much as your site may follow the simple 3 page format it is not quite yet simple is it?

Try drawing the site out on paper and looking at the space you have to work with, because paper can't be scrolled and it will help you work with the space you have and help prevent scrolling. List what you need in the pages and then set it out. don't forget empty space is important.

Thank you very much for taking the time to show me some pointers to improve my website. I really appreciate it.

I am going to take everyone's advice and start to revise the site.

This is what I love about the PSC community - everyone is always willing to help.