Website review

[jWolf85]

Hello,

So, I think I need some advice. I have a website, and have been sending out proposals on eLance. The few responses I have gotten back, after viewing my website, have said that my design style is not for them.

Now...I thought the design/style of my website was the leading part of my design. That it is out-of-the-norm but it is still a fully functional website.

So my question is this. Is my design terrible that its costing me prospective clients (and potentially a FT job as a web dev'r, as I'm in the second part of the interview process)...or is it just those particular clients that do not like my scheme?

Any help/advice is appreciated...as most of you know, if you sink alot of time into a project, you want it to work. At the same time, its hard to see it from outside the box.

http://www.jjsitedesigns.com/

Thank you in advance!

 

[ronaldroe]

To be honest, it looks like you slapped it together in iWeb. The HTML doesn't look like you did, but the site itself looks a little drag-and-drop, if that makes sense.

When I clicked on the portfolio link, the animation was really slow. In fact, it took me a second to realize that there was an animation happening, and my browser wasn't about to crash. It was also off center, which I suspect was intentional, but it makes it look disjointed.

The paint splashes look neat, but don't really speak design. You could still incorporate them into the design, but they just aren't working the way you have them.

"Made on a Mac" has to go.

Your blog needs to be integrated into the rest of the site, so they flow together. You can make the entire thing in Wordpress using page templates, which would keep things consistent.

 

[d a v e]

to me it looks confused: the arty paint splatters, the pink liquid, the communist looking red flag on the logo and then the dry diagrams...
using <.../> i your logo looks dated, too, and clients don't understand or don't care about that idea, or the technologies you use, only what problems you can solve for them.

smashing mag (i think) had a good article on writing what you can offer the client - like how you can solve their problems a sort of a "need a web site? i can make it easy with this simple 3-4 step process 1. free consultation 2. draft design 3. review 4. publish (i'm not a copy writer but i think you'd agree that keeping it simple works better than your grammatically, a-bit-dodgy explanations (that are far too small)

too much contrast between the very dark background and the white main copy background

the tracking/kerning on the "designs you want. delivered" leaves a lot to be desired

your paragraph first-line indent is huge and also uneccessary when you have (increased) paddind between paragraphs

main copy needs more white space
and your naviagation could do with being below the logo

 

[enat]

Speaking as an employer, and I might be a bastard here, but if a webdesigner sought to work for me, and I caught that site as a reference of his or her work, I'd be seriously dubious..

Luckily employers like myself likes to test people practically to see what they can do in a limited time given a list of prerequisites. =)