Im gonna stress out so please help!

talk design
1

This is my fourth version this year and I can never get stuff to work right.
Im trying to keep it simple and let my work do the talking but i cant get my layout to look right.

the site works other than the content on the projects isnt there yet. only on the fine art section…

www.starritt.co.uk

any ideas are welcome…slate the hell out of it…PLEASE

my sister said when she looked at it, her eye didnt know where to go first!
im off to walk the dog for an hour cos im gonna stress out in a mo

thanks in advance, Billy

2

Hey man, it looks pretty good to me. One thing that threw me off a little bit was the big menu button in the top left. It is pretty prominant and it made me expect to see other navigation that had that look to it. I think you could put a little more definition in the buttons and scroll bar at the bottom and not have it compete with your work. I like the layout a lot, it’s nice and simple. good work man.

3

I really dig your site, i like the simplicity and the colors, brick red & hot pink. I agree with punkerton on the menu at the top, I understand you’re not finished yet though. I also think the horizontal scroll bar should be closer to the pictures above and not so close to the menu below it. Other than that I really like it.

4

thanksfor the comments so far, they have been really useful…

i have made changes to the menu style… www.starritt.co.uk

i am using scrollpane, and i cant see which part of the ‘sampleTheme’ movie file you edit to change the appearance of the scroll bar! any ideas?

5

hey dude…

I don’t think that you should use flash at all for that site. a cross between DHTML or JS and HTML can be used here. The only “flashy” thing on there is the rollovers, you don’t need flash for that.

Here is a tip:
“Only use flash when you need it or when nessacary, unless your playin around or something.” That should save you some bandwidth for something else. other then that here is your score:

8/10 Interface
10/10 Use of space
8/10 Use of images

from Blake, Nice lookin site you got there

6

Blake you are right. two problems though…

  1. im going to have animations in the main content… so im gonna be using flv, flash video files. html cant handle videos well can it??

  2. i know so little about html and java its pitful. i only know flash! im cutting out a lot of users i know so maybe i should do an html site too?

7

oh and thankd for the kind comments! :stuck_out_tongue:

8

Only comment I would make is that maybe the horizontal scrollbar action could be smoother (when using the buttons at either end of the scrollbar)

9

lookin’ good man.

10

Looks nice, i noticed somthing buggy with the about section. The content to the right was cut. Good idea to use html instead. Maybe just use tables and insert flash where you need it.

11

I can’t read your text it is so small but then alot of ppl on here I know I’m very old so maybe my eyesight is stuffed (I hope not!). Um , why do you call yourself an ‘industrial design engineer’? What does that mean exactly? I think you need to give more creative flair and personality to your site beyond showing a toddler photo- but then some employers might like that so who am I to say? (just personal preference).
It seems like you have a technical mind but you are not quite comfortable with the way you present yourself.
All in all though, your sister is right- I couldn’t actually find my way around your site - I couldn’t actually see anything you’ve done.
I bet you have heaps of cool stuff but I can’t find it.

12

very interesting comments jdl…

i call myself an ‘industrial design engineer’ because thats what i am doing my masters in…

it is very hard for me to explain what that means…basically now to get the best design jobs you have to be an ‘industrial designer’ and an ‘engineer’

so having done a degree in engineering and got the base knowledge, i am developing my skills to mirror that of an industrial designer but one who has in depth engineering knowledge… look at http://www.rca.ac.uk/pages/study/ma_industrial_design_engineering_169.html[url=“http://www.rca.ac.uk/”] to find out more.

but does this confuse people? you are right i dont find it easy to present myself because i am neither an industrial designer or an engineer…and people ALWAYS want to pigeon hole you as one or the other

I want my work to showcase me, not the site. so maybe i should tone it down more. the work sections are not up yet, that is why you cant find what i have done…

Can you give an instance of creative flair improving the look of my site?

13

i like you site, the only thing what bothering me is the rollover color… i dont like the pink… and i think it would be cooler if your scrolling projects would be easing instead of just scroll… (have you seen the right top of the scrollbar… the right line goes too far up)

sorry for my horrible english…

14

yeah, im having trouble skinning the scroll pane…

when you say easing, do you mean like the text box?

15

I like the site a lot the about me section tho could do with some attension.

could do with the text being bigger on the section about you but to keep in line with everything else on the site.

But apart from that good work fella I wouldn’t sweat your work is almost done :slight_smile:

stefan

16

yeah, like the textbox… that will look much better i think

17

Well you have a drawing of yourself which represents creative flair but it doesn’t seem to fit in with the rest of the layout - it appears as something foreign. Maybe you could add other elements of your design persona(i.e. other graphics) spread throughout the site and than work out what seems to gel together.