[MDiddy]

I have done a major overhaul to the design of my personal web stie, and I would really appreciate some feedback. I want to use this site to get me a better job, thats about it. I have alot of experience with Tech Support, but I'd like to move into design.

I've been told I have an eye for it, and I really enjoy it. Does my design work? Should I rethink my entire approach?

New Design

Old Design

Please let me know if you like the new design vs. the old one, and any other suggestions that you have to make this better. I really want to make this the best I can, but as you all know....it can be tough to critique yourself sometimes.

[larkost]

A few comments:

I like the layout, so the rest are going to be picky things...

If you go to the professional page, anf then click through to the gallery, you have a target problem, so you get the header portion of the page twice. 'target="top"' would fix this.

I personally think that the nav bar on the left hand side should be anchored to the left hand side. But that is personal preference.

On the gallery page, you have a few extra bits in your html, namely a number of comments (nothing important) and a "{extra1}", that do not show up because they are part of a table. Some browsers will choke on this last one, so it is better to remove it.

Rather than using javascript to pre-load your rollover images, put them on the bottom of your page as a series of 1x1 images. They will load faster, and work on more browsers that way. You will get a series of dots at the bottom of the page, but you can use CSS tricks to get rid of even this.

You can feel free to add OmniWeb to your list of browsers, as it actually looks nicer in it than in any other browser... (personal thing)

I would personally re-do the rolover images at the top (home, professional, etc..) and get the antialiasing worked out better. On most browsers people won't notice this because that is how all text looks, on OmniWeb it stands out as blocky in comparison to the wonderfully rendered text in the rest of the page.

Oh... and if you are on a service that allows for PHP (or if absolutely necessary... ASP.. *ugg*), I would use an include to pop that top bar into all of the ages rather than using frames... better use of scrolling space in my opinion...

[Raman]

visually pleasing

use same value of grey in drop shadows througout

If you want the quick links to look like a quick way to get to other pages then i'd put it somewhere else. i kept on wishing it was there and clicking the back button - not clicking on the top frame.


use target="_top" because some links open up in the bottom frame when they clearly should take up the parent, too.

if it's a resume' site then i would stay away from putting anything too personal on the page.

i don't know if i like the blue on teh page. i do like the green/orange combination.

why not spice up your feedback form using css to make the input boxes blend with the site (check out www.shellstationfinder.com for an example of how i did it).

on your resume "well done" should be hypenated "well-done"

i'd definately hire you to admin a mac network BUT....

if you want to get into design then stress the design aspects of your job (did you install dreamweaver at work? did you screw around with color-calibrating the monitors you supported?) - i know you have alot of personal knowledge of design software but to someone like me who interviews and recommends who to hire, i want to know that you got paid to do some design. everyone dabbles with this stuff at home but if it's at least part of your job then tell me and i'll pick you over someone else. dont' put 'etc.' on your resume - teh people that are looking at your resume are not technical enough to knwo what 'etc.' is - they may never give me your resume because they didn't see the acronyms that i want on a persons resume.

You have no PC stuff on there. I'd put at least a little pC stuff on there. if your resume gets looked at by a company that uses mac people for design and pc people for back-end development you want them to know that you are experienced with some pc stuff, too.

anyway, nice site & good luck with your job search.

[Paco500]

First off- the site looks great, but as neither an expreinced designer nor devloper, my opinon doesn't count for much.

I'm curious what font you used for "Macintosh Specialist" and the like- looks to be damn close- if not an exact match, for Apple Garrmond. I had a copy at one pont but lost it somewhere along the way- if you could let me know what you used and where to find it, I would be very appreciative.

Paco

[diskobolos]

You said bash away...

The design is kinda nice but there isn't really any content except for news updates on how you're tinkering with css. You have some frame target issues and you should work on a better resume, ie who have you worked for, do these companies you're supporting have names? If you don't have an area up yet don't render the link yet.. I got tired of browsing just because I kept running into "come back later" pages.

It's a little to Mac-y for me.. down to using Apple garamond and taking icons from the system. Make your own graphics and select a typeface that you can start to own rather than using one that Apple already does.

Organize your content and then build your design from that.

[CyberEdZ]

Just logged on to your site and was immediately struck by the use of a frameset. Although it does allow you to re-inforce your branding and nav bar, it severely limits its accessibility to those using browsers such as Lynx.

Might I suggest a quick trip to the WAI ( http://w3.org/wai ), where they will denounce the use of frames far more eloquently than ever I could

My first impression of your homepage/site is similar to that of diskobolos - I'm a Mac™tivist of long standing, but we're a distinct minority, and many Mac users will already know a designer - should you wish to 'get into' design you will have to appeal to a PeeCee audience, which your site almost certainly wouldn't.

Your influences also may let you down - limegreen tangerine might have a killer splash, but the rest of the site is quite poorly designed, and looks like the guy came from a print background (which most of us did). Remember, most sites that you will be paid for will have a commercial bent, and content and usability will be far more important than pretty pictures.

Having said all that, however, we have many designers in my organisation (www.bbc.co.uk, specifically /scotland/ for my unit's content) whose work is, in my own humble opinion, crap. So if you really want to get into design, just do it - but Tech Support will usually put more food on the table (I knew there was a reason to join the intranet team... )

[mitchell_pgh]

1) Both sites look very much the same (both look good - as in one person made it).

2) I would move away from frames. In Netscape vs. Mozilla vs. IE, they all display the pages a little different. Also, you can't really bookmark anything.

3) You have different themes going on. When you go to professional, it looks like you went to some other website... same with contact

4) Spend more time on content. That's why people go to your page...

5) The page makes you look like you are 20-23 years old. If that's your target market, great. If not, try making your site a little more mature looking.

Again, good site...

[MasterMinds, Inc.]

I wish mine looked that good! Rock on, brother. Rock on.