SITE REVIEW: Jerble.com

Re: different tastes, opinions - isn't that the point of putting a website in this 'Website Review' forum? I won't repeat my first post, I just think the site in question is very poorly designed, for what it is intended to be used for.

Re: my skills - I do not claim to have any, I'm just a beginner at this web design mullarky. Im fact I'd go as far to say that my skills are fairly limited right now. No secrets there!



How clear do you want your "constructive criticism" to be!!! Read all the posts again, almost every aspect of your site has been commented on about being improved. I did (and do) not need to repeat others constructive criticism! Start again from scratch!

Let me put it like this - think about the webpage for this designer. Now I ask, how many of you would pay $400 for that? Answers on a postcard...

I don't think that's very constructive.

Offer some specific points. Offer some specific suggestions. Saying you think everything could be improved is lazy and does nothing for the designer except dishearten.

The site is very simple. The wave effect part is too large, taking up too much space, and it isn't very attractive either imo. There is not enough content on the site about what jerble can offer. Yes there is an 'About Us' and 'Services' page, but they need serious beefing up. There is nothing here to make jerble stand out from any other web-designer. The text could be made to be more readable also. I'm not sure if it is the font or the color combination but it is a bit dull and bland looking.

For $400 I would want someone to blow me away with their skills. Especially as there are so many sites out there were $75 can give you one years access to literally thousands of website templates for you to use. Some templates which quite frankly look stunning.

Personally I'll never go down that route - whatever I create will be of my own amateur doing, but that is my choice and I am very happy with that.

I do understand though that there is a demand for the services in question here and I sincerely wish clicky all the best in his/her ventures.

Perfect.

That's about the only inciteful comment that I've read after looking at every post through this topic - other than jlknauff's posts which I enjoyed very much.

As for all these comments about being constructive....how can one be without going through every single aspect which makes up this website (buttons, background, sound, code...you name it). One can simply sum it up by saying all elements need to be pushed, I find that warranted.



My 2 cents on this site:



A lot of smoke being blown up my rear. I can see you being a good communicator and business man/woman clicky which is fantastic because you need to communicate your ideas to your clients and convince them into doing business with you (like any business).

But the bottom line here is, if you are to provide a service...you must make sure that the service you provide is top of the line and worth being involved in so that the consumer is convinced that upon coming to a contract, he/she/they are spending their dime wisely. Especially in this industry.

You speak of these standards which most sites go by....which sites are you referring to exactly? It is the year 2004 - not 1995, which is what this website refers to in look and feel.

My best advice to you is to do more research within the field. A typical client is not going to come to one webdesign company for service, they are going to research at least 5 before they sign a contract and part of their research may consist of typing in "Website Design" in Google in which case they would come across leveltendesign.com who's look and feel is much more professional looking and appealing to the user in which case they can get a sense that the company they are dealing with are capable of designing a good-looking website. I do not get this with Jerble.com

The standards of web design in this day in age are at a level far beyond Jerble right now and as far as graphic design with web - those standards in my opinion do not exist because I think they change every day. Why? Because people are more creative every day.

It comes down to numbers....does the client want to pay big bucks to a company who's presenting themselves as mediocre?

Clicky, my comments were my opinions and nothing more and I do not mean to offend....after all, bad criticism is good criticism, no?

@lionking- thanks for the review.



Most people out there who want websites (in my opinion) don't know how to manipulate templates and such, or they don't have the time. I cater to those people (doctors, dentists, nonprofits, etc)

@mr_darek - Good points, and thanks for your well thought-out opinion.



Okay, I'll keep that in mind



Completely true, thanks for the observation.


Thank you all for the great ideas and critiques.

I'm happy to say that though the site is controversial in being either professional or amateurish, some people do seem to like it as I have 4 (and possibly 5) clients at the moment.

As far as content goes, I will work on adding more to establish us as credible and pick better fonts, etc to match that style.

As far as design, this is my theory:

The top ranking sites on google (such as http://leveltendesign.com/ or http://www.website-designs.com/) are inherently popular and will be found quickly by prospective customers. Because they are at the top, effectively what they do becomes the standard that others try to equal or beat. This standard then, of the companies ranked highest, is molded into most people's minds as what professional should look like.
Like any trend, it starts with a lot of hype, lasts for a while, and ends up with many clones. The end result is a massive amount of things that look similar and this ultimately becomes boring. Then, something new emerges, gains enthusiasm, and the cycle repeats.
For the page design of web design companies, I believe that time is now.
The problem that exists in creating a new revolutionary trend is its acceptance.
Your and other previous comments in regard to dislike for jerble.com's design leads me to the conclusion that jerble.com might be a little too radical to be accepted now (not that it is perfect now, it still could use much improvement)

In any case, in order to gain as close to universal acceptance as possible (because in web design it is the customers taste that matters, not my own) I will take the current standards into mind in order to redesign the page. Ergo, this will create a transitional ground for popular opinion to travel upon even if the destination is different (possibly for the better) then what the site is now.

End theory

For now, since nobody is going to find Jerble on google (there are millions of other web design sites as I'm sure you know), I'm going to concentrate on both jerble.com and client websites to build a bigger portfolio.

Finally, to everyone:
Thanks again for your comments and I'll post any major changes as they occur.

On a side note, I am only 16 years of age, which could be a factor contributing to my radical (and perhaps erroneous) site design ideas, and I agree that I still have much to learn through experience.

hi,
nice site, just one suggestion the logo at upper left corner seems bit distorted, it should have smooth edge, thats what "I" think personally

overall great site, nice work

kashyap

For what it's worth - You are very articulate for being 16. Keep doing what you are doing - experimenting. Anyone can be great if they put in the work.

I'm assuming that you haven't been doing this for very long so I'm going to spend a little more time than I do for most people and give you a some resources. First, here are some sites that I think have been designed very well in regards to color, contrast, composition and typography. Take a look at them, but don't try to emulate them. Instead spend some time comparing them to each other then compare them to some of the other sites out there and see if you can tell what makes them effective and what makes them different. You should do this for a few reasons, but mostly this:

Art is not as subjective as most people think. There ARE certain rules that when followed will produce a better piece of art.

Here are some sites

http://www.unflux.com/index2.htm
http://thestylegroup.com/
http://alexanderhomes.com/
http://hernandochamber.com/
http://www.neenahpaper.com
http://www.neimanmarcus.com

That should get you started. Here's a link to find some stock to work with http://www.bluevertigo.com.ar/

If you're really serious about getting better check this out http://www.ogilvy.com/ and look into doing some research on the man

Funny name you got for your site , the big swirl however does not realy make it for me , at least reduce it

nice design, i like the circle back ground, almost looks like a speaker or somthing.

hi.

The site is certainly easy to navigate, as you planned. I dislike sites that make me work out how to get to what I want to find. Form over function irritates me and I feel one should always compromise, make it easy and obvious how to navigate and create a nice design around that. They are not mutually exclusive.

I have to admit I hate it when a site decides for me that I will view it at full screen (was that just on my machine or is it set to do that on all?). I don't like being dictated to and rarely view anything full screen. When a site opens full screen on my PC it always makes me swear at it.

Is it just my PC or is everything HUGE? The text seemed humungous and rather 'clunky', like a child's first reader book or something for the very poor of vision but I don't know if all see it so huge on screen (I used IE). It didn't change size when I tried setting my browser font to smallest. It had the same effect as someone speaking v_e_r_y s_l_o_w_l_y because they think you aren't too bright and won't understand otherwise. It was also all uppercase, which is like SHOUTING.

The pop ups of the sites' pages in the portfolio section also commanded full screen, yet they were far from filling it. Perhaps sizing the pop ups to the actual sizes of those site pages might be an idea. Of course, I'm not certain that was your doing and not some setting on my PC but most sites don't go to full screen, so I think it must be a site setting you added.

I liked the soft blues. I do think some other colour(s) may add to the site, rather than just blues, but as the predominant hue, I liked the blue. I certainly didn't dislike the choice of only one hue, I'm just suggesting possibilities...
http://www.colormatch.dk/ is a handy site. It allows you to select a colour and gives you others that go well with it. Sometimes the selection it gives is 6 of too similar a hue (5 shades of pink plus grey or something) but that can be remedied by picking one from that hue, say, and selecting a shade from the opposite side of the spectrum to complement it, though keeping the complementary colour not too harsh in saturation. Even if this colour is used only here and there, in small amounts, it can make it a little more dynamic than sticking to one colour plus black or white does.

I don't like music on sites but you made it obvious how to turn it off, so I could deal with that quickly. That is, in my opinion, an essential option to offer and make obvious if you put music on the site. Good move to do that.

C

I like the site, good pictures and easy to get around, wondering if there could be more content on the pages though as it just seems to lack text?

Nice site though don't get me wrong

nice site..i really like the color combination

Listen ... when I click on the link on page one of this tread, I get redirected to ... http://yourpetssupplies.net/?rid=1156126 ... is that supposed to happen?

RT the initial post is from 2004. I am not sure why nuttaphong191 pulled it back up. The site is dead.