Website Review and Suggestions

#1 (permalink)

I've got to the point when I can actually post links. I'd like some feedback on:

http://www.design-cycle.com/~index.php compared to
http://www.design-cycle.com/gallery

The gallery link is what I'm thinking as far as re-design (minus the adsense ads). *I* think it looks a lot cleaner then the site that is there at the moment but would like some feedback on the look. I'm going to be adding some dynamic RSS feeds on industry news and probably some specialized content to the site, but I don't want to do that until I get some feedback on the layout. A good mock-up of what I was thinking can be seen at:

http://www.nitrodesigns.ca/designcycle

Let me know your thoughts.

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#2 (permalink)

It looks good, and I get what you are looking for, but after five minutes the bright colors on the black background start to bother the eyes. A lot of orange borders begins to confuse me as to where your content sections start and end.

Just my 2 cents.

#3 (permalink)

Which one causes the confusion? http://www.design-cycle.com/~index.php or http://www.nitrodesigns.ca/designcycle ? I can see the first one doing that which is why I'm hoping the second one looks better and is easier to follow.

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#4 (permalink)

Hello,

Personaly I like the thumbnails as apposed to having to click next to go through all the images. Thumbnails will allow users to go a peak at all you hae to offer in one glance rather then have to thumb through each individually.

#5 (permalink)

Design-wise, the site looks good although I agree with the dark background/light text. It's ok for some applications but for reading articles, it's a no-no.

What I'd kill are the adsenses ads. What are you trying to accomplish here? make residual income or get customers / brand your business? It's ok to put adsense on "exit" pages (ie. pages where a user is highly likely to leave your site) but not on the homepage or any sales page.

Just my .02
Dylan

#6 (permalink)

I can probably have more thumbnails per gallery album, just don't want to hurt dial-up users too bad.

The site has been up for about 3 years already and when I checked the stats yesterday we have about 3500 unique visitors each month so the adsense is to try and generate a little income. So far after two weeks we're at about $35 from adsense alone so I'd say that isn't too bad. Right now we're still trying to decide on a direction for the site and the owner of the business is actually in limbo with a direction for his business so all I was hoping to achieve was a better design that is easier to maintain. I think I'll take your advice about the adsense ads on the main page.

Also, any articles that go on the site will be in PDF format so the dark background with light text won't affect that portion of it.

Thanks for the feedback!! I'm hoping I can put some more time in to that site sometime this week.

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