Please critique this web site

[Digitalwave]

This is going to be my new online portfolio and personal web site for my car, my photography, and my web design. It's a breakaway from my normal clean/uniform/symetrical web sites.

Let me know your overall opinions on it. I know its boring looking so far, as the content space is pretty much empty. But that is going to be a place for thumbnails to links to my latest projects/photoshoots/layouts.

https://www.e30sport.net/stasis

[Tvan]

It looks good, as long as the site stays clean and uncluttered it should be great. In my opinion, the layout and format of any site should lend to its general purpose, and as long as the site doesn't visually detract from the content there shouldn't be any problem.

[Digitalwave]

It will remain very simple besides what you see so far. I'm all about clean, easy to read typography, paragraph structure, etc. I hate overwhelming web sites (like www.godaddy.com). It's mainly going to be an art showcase, be it graphic art, my car, or web sites ;)

[StereoInstaller1]

The background is too busy, OMO. A more conventional script would have more appeal to my (old yellow jaundiced) eye.

nice work, though

Luke

[benDASHDASH]

You need some frames and flash and a few cool animated GIF's with like a spinning mailbox that says "email me". Oh, your links are broken. I think you got hacked already.

[e30sd]

nothing works, you momo

[Ryan Stewart]

the background does take away from the content.

Also professionally, defining stasis seems a bit contrived. "Oh, he wants to sound artsy fartsy." It seems to have been done by every photog, webdev, and indi band since the age of AOL.

[318isbmw]

I personally think the background is awesome, but it's my favorite two colors, so wudevr. Ya, the links don't work.

[Brant]

Make it wider!!! If someone is still using 800*600 resolution its their fault they have to scroll to see half of your page.

Other than that it looks good. Even with all the detail in the header/background it still looks relatively simple with good design principals.

[modifiede30]

Looks good. Load seems a bit slow, not sure if you can speed that up at all.

[Digitalwave]

Obviously, nothing is done except for the layout. The background was originally a solid grey, but I wanted to try that one out. I will either tone it down a lot or go with a solid color again.

I don't necessarily think it needs to be wider. I try to abide by the "12 words per line" rule so that following the text is easy and you don't get lost on which line you are on.

The files sizes are quite large, the whole site is over 100k. But there isn't much I can do about it, compressing the images any more makes them look so shitty that I would just scrap the design as a whole. The only thing I could really do is make a splash page and pre-load the big images, but thats pretty lame I think, I don't really like splash pages.

Ryan, what has been done since AOL? Defining the word, or the word stasis? That may not stay either, it was just an idea.

[Bokes]

i like it. not my stylebut its well done. im like you, i enjoy clean and uniform stuff. this page seems to connect the bridge between clean and uniform and grungy. i personally think too much is going on in the background, maybe make the center table thing a bit darker/less transparent? who knows. good work, and it is your page. do what you'd like. :)

[Ryan Stewart]

Ryan, what has been done since AOL? Defining the word, or the word stasis? That may not stay either, it was just an idea.

Defining your site in the third person in a dictionary format. Usually its a made-up coorelation to make it seem abstract. The problem is professionally it comes off as assuming the client is a dolt and doesn't understand the simple meaning of the word.

Think of those Inifinity commercials in the early 90s. It just doesnt go over well in the long run when you are trying to sell something.


Other than the busy background I am definately with you in the layout. Simple and narrow work. People have short attention spans so a thin page with minimal words is right up your average webviewers alley. Also try can keep the site shallow (i.e. only 2 clicks to get anywhere). Also using style sheets and forcing it all into 8x6 means fewer conflcits (usually) with every bullshit web browser that comes along.

[uofom3]

the layout kicks ass - very well done... a solid background is the only thing that would clean it up a bit... i am curious what a black backgorund would look like

[Febi Guibo]

Hey man, looks real good... here are a couple of minor things you may want to consider:

- for some of your images, like the header, you may want to check your .gif settings or do it as a .jpg... the red seems a little off

- the diagonal striping on the background, I think you wanna ease off on the opacity or basically, get less contrast between the background and the stripes

- rollover state for right hand nav would be nice

- I think the definition of 'stasis' thing is cool, but make it bigger; it's hard, but you have to keep a close eye on balancing your buildout/navigation with your content... make sure the content stands out

- I would lose the 1 pixel semi transparent border around the content and nav and just put like 2-3 pixels of space between them

anyway, just my 2 cents... keep on rocking man!