Website Review and Suggestions

**krazytim** · 02-24-2010, 09:14 PM

View website: http://enimak.com/

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Hi there!

I have gone through many portfolio sites in the past 5 years, and as always,
I am always trying new things. This is my most recent portfolio, under a new
branding that is easier to remember and work with.

Please give me an honest critique, good or bad. I appreciate anyone who can
take the time to help me out with a good review. I will do my best to make
any changes that I can to improve the website overall (in terms of design or
coding). Just let me know what you think, and if the function of the website
works. Obviously, being a portfolio website, I am encouraging people to hire
me for design projects. So in all honesty, would seeing this one-page site do
it for you? Let me know.

Thanks in advanced,
-Tim

**Knight13** · 02-25-2010, 12:42 AM

The design looks good, but when i view your site with a 800 x 600 screen resolution the layout does not go all the way to the right hand side.

**janecooke** · 02-25-2010, 05:25 AM

The total size of that page including script, images, etc is @2.5 mb. It took pretty long to load on my system.

You could probably add pages by category and add a button before contact called portfolio. You can then list the categories closer together below with lighter thumbnails linking to the category page.

**krazytim** · 02-25-2010, 07:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Knight13

The design looks good, but when i view your site with a 800 x 600 screen resolution the layout does not go all the way to the right hand side.

Hello, thanks for your comment.

However, this is not a significant problem. According the the w3schools statistics, as of 2010,
less than 1% of internet users have a resolution of 800x600 or smaller. So if less than 1% of
my viewers have to scroll to the right a little bit, it's really not an issue to me. Plus, a number
of people have said that my website should be wider!

Quote:

Originally Posted by janecooke

The total size of that page including script, images, etc is @2.5 mb. It took pretty long to load on my system.

You could probably add pages by category and add a button before contact called portfolio. You can then list the categories closer together below with lighter thumbnails linking to the category page.

Most of the large loading time is due to the thumbnail file sizes. I will go through and compress
them all - that could potentially cut that time in half. Thanks for reminding me of that.

Studies show that the less users have to click, the better their experience is - which is why I
have grown to love the one-page-portfolio formula. I wanted to emphasize simplicity. I big, shiny
contact button up at the top, with an alternative email address provided leaves no room for error
or confusion of the user's end. Perhaps it just comes down to taste - at least I'm not using tiny
fonts or flash (I used to be one of those guys). :P

**Pristuno** · 02-25-2010, 08:34 AM

The site is good , good tag line, colour and layout is good. Your site is able to communicate well with the visitor . However , I feel navigation is a concern.

**Knight13** · 02-25-2010, 01:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by krazytim

Hello, thanks for your comment.

However, this is not a significant problem. According the the w3schools statistics, as of 2010,
less than 1% of internet users have a resolution of 800x600 or smaller. So if less than 1% of
my viewers have to scroll to the right a little bit, it's really not an issue to me. Plus, a number
of people have said that my website should be wider!

The problem is not that i have to scroll to the right to see your content, its that your content stops and then i see like 4 inches of black space when i scroll to the right.

**kylendm** · 02-25-2010, 03:43 PM

I really like the color scheme of the site. Very clean, nice logo and it doesn't feel cluttered like most of the sites you see these days.

**krazytim** · 02-25-2010, 03:50 PM

Hmm, I noticed that on my laptop, but it wasn't blocking the actual content, it was just showing the black chunk after the content ends to the right.

In any case, if someone is looking to hire someone to design a website for them, they probably won't be using an 800x600 resolution - I'm willing to lose the less than 1% of potential clients who will run into that issue. I'm sure most websites don't display well on monitors that small anyways.

If it were a quick fix, I would be more likely to address this, but I don't know where to start in this case. As long as my website is viewable by 95%+ of people, then I'm okay with it.

**Knight13** · 02-25-2010, 04:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by krazytim

In any case, if someone is looking to hire someone to design a website for them, they probably won't be using an 800x600 resolution - I'm willing to lose the less than 1% of potential clients who will run into that issue. I'm sure most websites don't display well on monitors that small anyways.

Well if someone hires you to build them a website they will want it to be done right where it looks good in every screen resolution and on every browser and not just rigged up.

Almost all of the websites i go to looks right in a 800 x 600 screen resolution and higher resolutions and they usually look good in every browser.

If i were you i would fix that problem at least it will show that you care about how you design your websites.

**bandwagon** · 02-28-2010, 12:59 PM

Yeah, thats a pretty bad problem. Looks fine, but if you make your browsing window smaller the problem appears.

It looks very nice and professional, but if there is a basic error then you will lose some customers who notice it.

**penttinen** · 02-28-2010, 04:13 PM

Oooh, smooth!

Can't really find anything to complain about, it's awesome

**kenjpet** · 03-01-2010, 01:03 PM

I find the meta tags very lacking. You need to use keywords in the title, and in the description more effectively. I also find the header overly big and simplistic. It lacks any pizazz.

**krazytim** · 03-02-2010, 10:15 PM

@Knight - I am not a web developer, I am a web designer. But yes, I do care about the websites I make, I am just a realist. With that said, you're right, and I tried two different solutions to solving that problem, but neither of them worked. I had a friend of mine code this for me (originally), and I have since then modified the html & css substantially. I am not done trying to solve it though.

@bandwagon - Ironically accurate name. :P It's not a very serious issue - I just did it myself, and none of the content is effected by this, it only appears of you scroll to the right, which most people don't do, especially if the scrolling pane is only going to show a few pixels on the side.

@kenjpet - Metatags, are you joking? Haha. Well, considering there are thousands upon thousands of freelance web designers, I wouldn't ever expect to rely solely on search engine results. Most of my client building over the years has been through word of mouth and features -- essentially getting myself out there.

Again, with that said, I haven't updated my description yet, I am working on it. The keywords are fine though.

I may shorten the banner in the header since a handful of people seemed to have problems with the size. Not sure why though, many sites have larger banners like that. I'm not big on following trends, but this actually matches some of the trends out there... oh well.

**kenjpet** · 03-02-2010, 10:31 PM

@kenjpet - Metatags, are you joking? Haha. Well, considering there are thousands upon thousands of freelance web designers, I wouldn't ever expect to rely solely on search engine results. Most of my client building over the years has been through word of mouth and features -- essentially getting myself out there.

I am happy you don't need the search engines to help obtain traffic. If anyone searches for Tim Silva you will come up number one
1

**mik** · 05:50 AM

A great, clean website. In terms of width, use relative sizing so that it scales across screen resolutions.

P.S., Horizontal scrolling never hurt anyone.

**krazytim** · 03-04-2010, 11:39 AM

@mik - Thanks for the comments. I can't use relative sizing though, because this design is only as wide a two thumbnails and the spacing between them (<800 pixels).

Anyways, I have made some major updates. I made the header smaller, and changed the background color:

**ariya** · 03-05-2010, 12:20 AM

Great design overall. What I would suggest is adding a phone # on top right?
Check out this website. It may come handy
http://kall8.com

**krazytim** · 03-07-2010, 11:08 PM

Thanks for the suggestion, I will look in to that.

By the way, I have made some major changes and updates to the website again. View Live: http://enimak.com/

- Logo edited. The "k" looks nicer.
- Tons of css updates.
- Contact button forms visually improved.

There are some other minor details as well. I also recompressed many of the images on the site to improve loading time.

**Knight13** · 03-08-2010, 07:34 AM

In the section where you have the images of the sites you make you should make actual demos of the sites and people will really like that, and they can see it as it really is. that would be something cool to do.

**Late Nite** · 03-08-2010, 03:16 PM

Tim,

I did not get to see the first version, but as for the revised one it is good. Excellent designs and inspirational for a new designer such as I. Good luck with your business!

-LNC