SITE REVIEW: Jason Stanley Design

http://www.jasonstanleydesign.co.uk/

Good day folks, this is my latest design for my homepage. Basically looking for the following.

Does it display OK?
Is the site easy to navigate?
Any Constructive Criticism?
Any points I should look to improve?

Thanks for any input on this.

http://www.jasonstanleydesign.co.uk/

The first thing I saw was the "Contact me" on the left side. That is a pretty good idea to have it out in the open and easy to get to, but it is a bit redundant with the Contact page there too.

Next I noticed the floating bubbles in the title banner thing. That is pretty cool too, but maybe make it a little bit taller so it stands out a little bit. Then your potential clients will see that and think "Oh, that's nice."

Finally, on some of your pages you have the customer comments thing. It might be a neat touch to have a script that picks those comments at random from a database, that way it is something different each time the page loads.

Looks good. Everything appears to be 100% valid, too.. nice work.

I think you did an awesome job with content and placement, and that Flash header is pretty nice. I agree with kc0tma that it could even stand out a bit more. Actually, the overall color scheme feels just a little bit watered-down. Maybe it would help even to just have the main background a little darker to add a little visual excitement by increasing contrast.

Another thing.. to me, the Tahoma font is a little hard to read because it puts some letters really close together. Something like Verdana might suit the design better.

I really like the site - clean (that's a real compliment in my book), neat and pretty.
Displayed fine and loaded quickly (I'm in IE6 at the moment)
Perfectly easy to navigate

I agree with jameson on the colors - it does look a bit washed out. Also I love the bubbles on the header but they could be a bit more noticable (as kc0tma pointed out) - maybe a little more contrast, but only a little bit - their subtlety is charming...

Of course all of these are questions of personal preference. The only thing I'd definitely change is the shadow on the title - 'Jason Stanley Freelance Design'. Either take it off or sharpen it a little - this way it makes the letters seem a little blurry, like there is something slightly wrong with them....
but hey maybe that's just me...

it's a great site.

Thanks for the comments. The reason why the header is only 50px high is because all it does is display the page your on. It was originally 100px high, however I found it difficult to justify it taking up that much space at the top of the screen.

I will have a little fiddle around the header and see if I can tighten it up.

Anyone else?

I don't have anything to add really ... everyone has said it all ... I think ...

maybe just make the page that the user is on unclickable ... that's about it ... nice ...

The colours: are they part of your CI? A darker blue and a less
poisonous green might give you a more professional image.
At present, they give a watery, washed-out impression.

MM

I would say to add a little something to the homepage to make it stand out a little more. Maybe adding the homepage of the site you are most proud of so far some how. I can't make a suggestion on quite how to do this right now as I am learning but maybe other can. Maybe a thumbnail of your best home page so far or something like that? Just making suggestions here. And don't try to make it to much more "pretty" on the home page just a little bit might help a lot.

This has also been mentioned a little bit before but I found it a little hard to get back to the home page of your site after clicking on one of the links on your home page. I think many people look for a way to get back to the home page just out of habit and your site was not where I would normally go to get back to a Websites homepage. This is also just something I noticed as well.

I would just like to compliment you on something that others have mentioned as well. How easy it is to navigate this Website. It is a very smooth transition from page to page. And it also not to difficult to figure out what each link is for which is also a plus.

The site looks clean. I would add some Images so that its not too wordy. The form is a nice touch, what I did on my site and it seems to do well is create a quote request page that way you get a bit more info on what the client is looking for. The colors that you choose are good again nice and clean. Overall good job.

Uhmmm ... Okay ... Now I'm confused ...

I should have said that most of the site was easy to navigate from page to page but I was having trouble getting back to the home page because where I usually go to get back to a home page it was not there it was somewhere else and I was having a little bit of trouble getting back to the home page.

I would agree the contact on the left side is generally for navigation.

I would probably add some images to the site to make it more visual too. If you are a consultant, I always appreciate that persons picture on the page too.

Otherwise, nice job.

I like this design. Nice and clean and the contact information is very visible. Perhaps the contact link on the top of your page could be FAQ section or something and modified a little so that it is not overkill on the "contact us". The title could use a little sharpening I think ... possibly bolder colors but overall nice job.

I like your color choices. A slightly darker blue "IMB Blue" would really be nice. Navigation is simple and quick. Your method of contact is simple and this will not frustrate your visitor. I would like to see more clients in your portfolio. Maybe you can create sample projects and put them in this area to expand your portfolio? Images would also help for those that make decisions based off emotions.