Mild Website Facelift. (please review)

[flightrisk]

The black, golds, reds, and blues don't contrast the grey? The mixture of bright(gold, red, blue), neutral(grey), and dark colors (black) add ALOT of contrast to the site. lmao, if you dislike the color grey that's understandable.. not everyone likes grey. But to say my layout lacks contrast is reaching a little bit lol

I wouldn't even consider blue and red part of your website's color palette; I can count the number of times they appear on one hand. The way I see it, you have three shades of gray, black, white and gold. The gold text on dark gray and the black looks dull and muddy; there is not enough contrast.

Click here for a black and white version of your homepage. This gives you a better idea of the contrast.

I will do that and then keep you posted. Shouldn't be hard since most who have seen my website loved it. Plus that shoe is a mix of bright colors.. That's never the type of contrast that you want and my site has more color balance lol. Once again.. reaching

The people who told you they love the design of your website don't know anything about design or they are lying to you to spare your feelings. It's not the worst thing in the world but it looks about ten years old. The best visual aspect of your website is your logo and someone else did that for you. Also, why is it in flash?

 

[JonnyRT]

I quite like the site. I think a lot of tech sites tend to be very cluttered and have way too much information on them. Can the customer get the information they need without looking too hard? In this case, yes they probably can. Pretty looking websites don't win us customers, websites that show we solve a customer's problem and that can be trusted do.

One of the downsides is that it is very slow to load. You really should improve that.

 

[PCX]

I quite like the site. I think a lot of tech sites tend to be very cluttered and have way too much information on them. Can the customer get the information they need without looking too hard? In this case, yes they probably can. Pretty looking websites don't win us customers, websites that show we solve a customer's problem and that can be trusted do.

One of the downsides is that it is very slow to load. You really should improve that.

Actually, pretty websites do win you customers. Thats a fact. I have had so many customers come in and tell me that they came to our shop because our site did not look shady or dated. The simple fact of the matter is, people like attractive sites. Why?

Easier on the eyes
Typically easier to find information
Looks way more professional
Makes the company look more competent

And when it comes to technology, if you have a crappy looking site, then you are going to look technologically incompetent. So yes, pretty looking sites do win you customers. It happens all the time.

websites that show we solve a customer's problem and that can be trusted do.

Again, if you look technologically incompetent, how can they trust you to solve their technological problems?

I think a lot of tech sites tend to be very cluttered and have way too much information on them. Can the customer get the information they need without looking too hard?

Your absolutely right, we need to find a good balance between clean and simple and content rich SEO optimization.

 

[RockIT Man]

Pretty looking websites don't win us customers, websites that show we solve a customer's problem and that can be trusted do.

I'm going to have to disagree as well. In my eyes, the quality of a website reflects the quality of the business. I can't tell you how many times I've gone to a page and not even given it a chance because it looked so terrible. Unless I'm the only person like that, it definitely affects business.

Rex, I wouldn't go as far as some (PCX) and say that the site is ugly, but I do agree that there is a bit too much gray. You should just try changing the BG color to white or something and see how it looks. I'll bet it will make the content of the site pop a bit more. I also think you should either match the width of the content boxes to the top header width. Or just have the header and footer that width and bring everything else in a bit. And if you're going to have that many rounded corners, might as well round them all. Hope this helps. Lookin' good!

PCX, what link did you send him? Will you put it in my inbox too?

 

[Paul Rodgers]

Maybe he should ask a designer instead of techs . . . especially since most techs have the worst looking websites in the world.

And logos. I think the reason is most techs are professional techs. When it comes to coding and design it is more of a hobby though.

But knowing photoshop and html does not equal being a graphics or web designer.

 

[hightechrex]

I will see what i can do to tweak the color palette. It won't be groundbreaking or a lifechanging but changes will be made; i'm all for improvement and can take criticism. The colors seem to be the prime complaint so i'd assume that the navigation and simplicity of the website is all there. There's a difference between a "review" and bashing ONE single aspect. The idea of reviewing is to way the pros and cons of subject matter, product, service, etc and give suggestions to improve the overall presentation. Imagine if you read a review about the "new iPad" and 95% of the article was spent complaining about how much bigger it was than the old model; it wouldn't be an entirely uninformative review

 

[PCX]

I will see what i can do to tweak the color palette. It won't be groundbreaking or a lifechanging but changes will be made; i'm all for improvement and can take criticism. The colors seem to be the prime complaint so i'd assume that the navigation and simplicity of the website is all there. There's a difference between a "review" and bashing ONE single aspect. The idea of reviewing is to way the pros and cons of subject matter, product, service, etc and give suggestions to improve the overall presentation. Imagine if you read a review about the "new iPad" and 95% of the article was spent complaining about how much bigger it was than the old model; it wouldn't be an entirely uninformative review

I guess you should have clarified what you wanted. You posted your thread in the critique section, which lead me to critiquing. There are other quirks about your site that could use some ironing out, but the color just happens to be the one that sticks out most.

BTW, it has been asked several times and never answered. Why are you using flash?

 

[hightechrex]

I guess you should have clarified what you wanted. You posted your thread in the critique section, which lead me to critiquing. There are other quirks about your site that could use some ironing out, but the color just happens to be the one that sticks out most.

BTW, it has been asked several times and never answered. Why are you using flash?

It's a "because I can" type thing really. I used www.moonfruit.com created a blank template and went from there. It allows me to get everything I need out of a site done and they are releasing html 5 support for all websites on their domain. I'd love to switch over to html5 but that would be time consuming and would set me back considerably. I or no one that i've worked with has problems with load times. Google even ranks my load times pretty high



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[PCX]

On a grading scale, its one point away from a C. Thats typically when someone feels bad for you and they give you that extra point for the B. It can most def be improved for $5 a month.

 

[hightechrex]

On a grading scale, its one point away from a C. Thats typically when someone feels bad for you and they give you that extra point for the B. It can most def be improved for $5 a month.

Yep. Your abolutely right

 

[RockIT Man]

I used www.moonfruit.com

That just brought me back! I had no idea moonfruit was still around. I remember using them for my first website back in like '00 when I built a page for my Age of Empires online clan. I was just thinking about that page the other day. Wish it was still around so I could make fun of it!

Sorry for going off topic. I couldn't help it!

 

[Martyn]

Looks awful on my IPad

 

[Cambridge PC Support]

Here's my opinions:

Lose the full-stop in the header.

Some of the text is too close to the edge of it's panel.

Lose the text centering in the black panels on Home page and Services page, and anywhere else with blocks of text or lists.

The panels are different styles, colours, corners, no corners, wide, not as wide.

On the Home page: "The only thing HighTechRec.....(all the way thru to).....back from extinction" all sounds a bit naff imho.

The YouTube link goes to an empty channel, which is an improvement to what you had before.

The 't' icon, is that supposed to be Twitter, does nothing.

3 steps ahead of the competition? Really? How?

Is advancements a real word?

And do you really have to start a new thread every few days for your website critique?

 

[basic]

Overall, it's not terrible but I think the shades of gray you use could be more contrasted, mainly the background could be lighter. My main issue is the navigation and the use of checkmarks for links. If you have to include instructions to show the user how to navigate your site, it could probably be improved. Think of it this way, in the home page, you set the expectation that checkmarks are clickable links, yet elsewhere in the page, you use them how users normally interpret lists with checkmarked items. At the very least, make it so that the text label is clickable so they don't have to only click on the check mark. On another note, many of these links refer to a common page, why not just have those as available options under the "Services" drop down menu. It makes it seem like each of these links have dedicated webpage and users won't see until they actually check a bunch of your links. I click on "Macbook Laptop Repairs" but I see a generic Hardware section when I expected to see Macbook specific things.

Next, the navigation of the internal pages is inconsistent. I click on a check mark then you essentially force the user to hit the back button or scroll to the bottom of the page and use a navigation mechanism that is more appropriate for tabs or wizards. You have the same issue with the buttons in these internal pages. Only the > is clickable on the stylized button or a very small portion of the button is actually clickable.