My first three Web Sites - any feedback appreciated

[Noel]

I've been working on these in parallel so can't really say what order they were done in, but they all came to a reasonably finished state about the same time. I even got paid for 2 of them!

I would appreciate any feedback both positive and negative because these are the first sites in my portfollio and it is important to me to get them right.

All pages were hand coded using a text editor.

In no particular order:

http://www.jackiedearden.co.uk/

Created for an Educational Psychologist to promote her services. The layout is dynamic and my first attempt at using CSS for a serious project. It Exhibits some slight problems on ie6 but still loks ok. I've learned the hard way that all the bugs in Internet Explorer gang up to stop you from creating a succesful dynamic layout that works on all browsers.
Accessability is very important for this site, so I would appreciate some feedback from that point of view.

http://www.alaskanwolf.co.uk/

OK, I know the domain name has very little to do with the content, but that is what the customer wanted and the customer is always right, right?

http://www.kingazera.net/

Also Uses lot's of javascript.
This is for some friends of mine that play in a "Grandad Band". I don't charge them for it, so I have complete freedom over what I do with it - it's my experimental playground for developing new ideas and is constantly under development. If you look closely at some of the (rather blurry) pictures you can see me working the mixing desk.

The next stage in my master plan is to create some interactive forms for customers to upload and manage the images and textual content. Also I want to add a gig list page to the band web site hosting (if they ever get any gigs!) that they can manage by themselves.

[RSVEcosse]

I think they are all excellent m8!!!.

First site, the only thing I could say I wasn't too keen on was the size of the text. Other than that, very good. Nice design and it somehow suits the "quirkiness" of the subject matter, no offence intended!!!

Second site, Looks excellent, nice crisp, clear design. No clutter. Perhaps a little too scant in info as to what the guy can offer as a tradesman, but good. What did you use for the sliding gallery on that one, did you hand code that also?.

Third site, again, really keen on the layout and design. Everything a band needs really, especially the media side of things with the pics and vid clips.

I take my hat off to you Noel, your hand coding all of those?. I used the easy way out and used Dreamweaver CS3 to do mine, in "split mode" so I can see the coding as well as the design.

I thought about attempting to hand code at first, but I'm happy with the results I have achieved with DW. I do however, intend to attempt a few experimental pages with just hand coding though.

Really good stuff there, keep up the good work!!!.

P.S. How do you easily Search Engine Optimization a website hosting about a roofer/builder that has the domain name "alaskanwolf"????!!!!!.

[Noel]

Hi, thanks for your comments

Both the galleries were done by hacking javaScript by hand. The code on the band web site hosting is a bit messy and needs a good refactoring.

Did you find the up/down scroll controls easily enough? I'm kind of hoping that people can't help but stumble across the features without too much prompting. The flash movie player is freeware I found on the web ( http://www.jeroenwijering.com/?item=JW_FLV_Player ) - highly recomended - very versatile.

The code on alaskanwolf is cleaner (did it afterwards), but still not clean enough for my liking. I was quite pleased with the "twitch" effect to draw attention to the little inset images. I agree it needs more content. I need to get the customer to provide some, but he is difficult to pin down.

Not sure how useful Search Engine Optimization is for a web site hosting like that. A well placed add in google's local business section and other local directories would probably work better. I think the main thing is that it's catchy and it's written on the side of his van. For what I charged him I'm not going to waste any time trying to get pole position on google. I'd like to put some useful technical articals on there, and maybe a page about his wolf with links to useful info to justify the domain name - but he'd have to pay me more money first.

Do you think the text on the academic web site hosting should be larger or smaller? It was larger originally but it reminded me of a LadyBird book so I made it a bit smaller. In any case you can resize the text with the browser, but I'd like the result to look right on the default setting.

Thanks again for the encouragement

[Noel]

More Feedback please. It's OK I can take criticism, don't be afraid of hurting my feelings

[colin]

Hi Noel

Here are my thoughts....Hope they are useful.

Kingazera

Like the way pictures come up

Very quick.

………………………………………………………………………………..

Jackie Dearden

Lot of scrolling on http://www.jackiedearden.co.uk/training.html

Maybe split up the headlines into different pages

Also for http://www.jackiedearden.co.uk/research.html

Regards the text:
Been taught to take out the I’s and put in the You’s

Example:

I have almost 30 years experience in education and psychology.

You will be getting my 29+ years experience in education and psychology.

The call to action seems a negative to me and why duplicate the contact details.

If you would like to talk to me about employing my services, or about anything else,

Talk to me now about employing my services or discuss your ideas it’s easy
My contact details can also be found at the top right hand side of every page.

(Perhaps you could you put a link to here?)
(Maybe get a copywriter for the text?)
……………………………………………………….

http://alaskanwolf.co.uk/
This I like….clear, good use of pictures that sell the product.
Think contact details could stand out more.

One thing on all the sites there are no recommendations, this is great opportunity for somebody else to sell your product which is being missed.

On the Kingazera you could use visual comments form people at the gigs very easy to do just take small digital camera to record comments and film them at the same time.


Colin

[Noel]

Thanks Colin, I really appreciate you taking the time to offer such constructive criticism.

Point taken about the length of some of the pages. We had feedback from another source along similar lines. As a result the article abstracts on the "Research" page have been moved into separate pdf files. I also agree that the Training page is too long - and contains too many links as well.

Your comments about the text are all good as well. I will relay them to Jackie. She's in the process of getting feedback from colleagues as well. In the end it is up to her, all I can do is make suggestions.

I like the idea of adding recommendations and testimonials - especially the idea for on the spot video testimonials for the kingazera site. Only trouble is they don't do that many gigs, but I will definitely go to their next one armed with a video camera. You've certainly set me thinking with that one. I've already got a few ideas for how they could be integrated into the site. Thanks for that.

I'll also suggest to Mr Mack that he should solicit some testimonials from his customers.

Thanks again - much appreciated.

[Dave_Connolly]

I like the kingazera web site hosting - it's got more personality, probably because you've used more colours in the backgrounds, instead of the plain white/grey look of the other two.

[Noel]

Originally Posted by Dave_Connolly

I like the kingazera web site hosting - it's got more personality, probably because you've used more colours in the backgrounds, instead of the plain white/grey look of the other two.

I know what you mean. With the other two sites I was trying to create a more business like appearance, but I personally prefer the more informal look of kingazera - it's my creative playground, I just do it as a favor for some friends.