My Business Website...Tear it up!

[Kerbouchard]

A few typos like others have noted. On the 'Full Story' of ReDeux, you have an extra 'ring' in the description.

Overall, I liked it. I did think there was a bit too much dead space on the bottom and on others, I thought the image opened up too big. Same problem as Mike, I guess. Had to scroll up and down to be able to see the full picture. I also thought the 'Full Story' Button was a bit confusing and hard to see.

 

[PhotoTish]

I read the "process" which I found really interesting. You didn't ask for proof reading but as I noticed a couple of possible typos I thought you might want to check them. Hope you don't mind my pointing them out!

I roughed out the ring shape with a coarse file, measured roughly for the nine stones to me set. [be?]

Really though, it is called a tree. Again, i missed a step...

I have "eyeballed" it ever since. There is a little leeway between to thick or to thin and still maintain excellent results. [in this context "too thick or too thin"]

The little black blob is oxides, smut, and stray graphite that fortunately "floats" and comes out of the crucible last. [is?]

Now that the white gold ring is impeccably cleaning, it gets Rhodium plated. [clean?]

 

[bazooka]

I'm not a fan of resizing sites because it causes cross-browser compatability and screen resolution issues for the designer and end-user. I am experiencing such difficulties viewing your site on IE8 @ 1280x1024 (browser is not full screen). The footer with your contact info doesn't like being stretched larger than about 800px or it completely changes the alignment to left justified. Also, the little dot page counter display starts to overlap the text of the pages when I shrink the browser far enough.

As far as content, it's very sharp, clean, informative, interesting. I like it.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

You all have hit on all the little problems I have with it. It was done "professionally", and was a pretty penny. The experience was very frustrating, and the company severely lacks in the involvent/communication/responding to needs/time department. I will be taking what is done now to another company to refine it to what I want, and have asked for, yet am being ignored. It's sad, because they are almost there, but I can't deal with them any longer. This process was initiated in March, or April, and the website completion date was June. :roll:

I'm not a savy web user, but..and it could be my browser. On your home page, your "Full Story" buttons are covering the first letter of your Work, Process, and Craftsman buttons. When I hover over them they go fall back to the side where they should be..if I'm making any sense? LOL That's the only thing I see, and like I said, could be my browser here at work. On IE and probably outdated version.

Great work by the way!

It's hard to encompass all old browsers...

I think it is a very nicely designed webiste. Very easy to navigate, and nice to look at. I also like that it scales to the size of your browser window.

However, there is one thing that was kind of glaring at me. I am not a firm believer in all the important tidbits being above the fold (Life Below 600px | Paddy Donnelly), but I do think the website would be more eye catching if all of the nav squares fit above the fold. The footer is not such a big deal, but I think it would be very slick to have essentially a full page displaying all of the photos/nav without having to scroll to see all the images.

The other thing is, well... You need a more in-focus self portrait! :lmao:

Nice work though. I don't know if you had it professionally designed, or did it yourself. But it looks good.

I like the basic design. I do feel it is too templatey, and we got a little away from that with the last changes.
I feel the oposite though. I don't have a lot of information to give, on any page, so I feel it's pointless to need to scroll, especially the images. I think the images are too big as well. I do like the scaling though. I didn't want to use that self portrait image, but they loved it, so I caved. :roll:

I think it is very classy and elegant,very well designed. I found it super easy to navigate to where ever I wanted, very user friendly. Even though it has big images, it loaded very fast which is a big plus. I like it, and it showcases yourself very well. Congrats!

The images are served up from a "cloud" of sorts, specific to browsers and mobile devices. So on an iPhone, you are not being served the same image that goes to a PC. Which I think is pretty slick.

 

[Kerbouchard]

Sorry to hear that. I suppose I would also be a bit upset if those results went 6 months beyond schedule.

Wish you better luck with the new company.

 

[cgipson1]

I found it easy to navigate, informative, and it shows off your work beautifully! There are a few little things I would change... but those are personal things, and the next person would feel differently!

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

I love the clean look of it.
My gripes would be

1) like Tyler said, I would try to condense it for less scrolling. I also agree that the self-portrait ( while I like the shot framing and all ) could be a bit sharper.

2) I am not big on the "Arabic-esque" font at the bottom

3) I dislike the blackfont nav bar at the top. It looks too generic. I would rather it match the logo color and then change when scrolled over to either white with the stroke being the logo color, or perhaps to a gray color.

Noted.

I love the layout and design of the site. It looks great and it's easy to get around. The 'full story' button is different, can't say that I've seen that anywhere before...it works, but I'm not sure that everyone will 'get it'.

I hate that button, and asked them to do away with it, but they seem to be too in love with it to listen to what I want. The button and title text is often hard to read, depending on your window size. I asked for them to get rid of it, and have a square image on the left, and the title and text on the right. I was told they couldn't do that. Something about scaling a square image. So then, when they made the landing page, low and behold, it contains a scalable square image on the left, and the other things on the right. *facepalm* I sent an email requesting *AGAIN* that all the pages do that. They did not respond. It was at this point I knew I was done with them.

I do like that it re-sizes, but one thing that I didn't like....in the process part of the site, the image re-sizes to suit the browser window, but when my window is the width of my monitor, the picture is so large that much of it goes out the bottom and I need to scroll to see the bottom...and thus, I can't view the whole image at once. It works great if I resize my window, taking it in (to the side) by about 20%.
I'm not sure how you would fix this (if it's even an issue). Maybe limit the maximum size of the image :scratch:

They swiped the process bit from a post on my facebook page, which was never intended for my website, and went ahead and put it there without asking.
That had the same "full story button" on every.single.page. Worse, you had to click back, to get the arrow to continue forward, which I felt was absurd.
So they changed it with the text overlay on the right, which I love, but they left the images as is, and that overlay interferes with the image (as bad as they are).
So again, they move towards the direction I *WANT* but just don't quite get there.
Again, I also don't feel you should need to scroll to view that series. (with a *standard* window)

I also think it would look better if, when you click the "FullStory" for your bio, there is not a second link that needs to be clicked to actually get the full story. I think it should be a full page image like you have, with the text overlayed on the left side in a contrasting color (or even in a seperate box ) giving your bio.

Also, proof read. I notice several minor errors in the "Process" captions.

I don't see the second click issue you have, but I agree, image on the left, story on the right.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

The "Craftsman" paragraph is a bit long. You may want to consider breaking it up into 2 paragraphs.

Noted. I hate that it is in 3rd person. I am the only one here. It should be first person, and I asked them to rewrite it. But again, no response.

Overall I really like the clean design and presentation, very elegant, very professional. Awesome job!

:thumbup: that's what I wanted. Like I said, they are almost there but refuse to take it further. I am willing to pay for what I want, but it seems a case of "the designer knows more than the customer", and they will not bend.

Cut off text is meh to me.

What do you mean? On an older browser the words on the landing page are cut off at the bottom. On a newer browser they aren't. Is that what you see?

I like the clean layout of the front page, on your recent work I dont like how some of the titles are on top of the rings, I would think the rings would be on top. Also the Full Story button is great, but I would want to see it a little further to the side so it doesnt distract from the ring.

I asked them to move it over, and they said they would, but didn't. I told them repeatedly that the text gets hard to read on different images, and window sizes. I want the button scrapped. I liked the idea at first, but after seeing it implimented, I wasn't so enamored with it. It's problematic.

Your navigation on the bottom right is quite elegant, might be hard for people without the video game experience I have to select the small dots though. Just a smidge larger perhaps?

Yes. Another of my complaints. You should have seen it prior to this edition. the forward and back arrows on the images did not take you to the next or previous image. It was a "Choose Your Own Adventure" navigation feature. :roll: and when they told me to proof the site, that it's done, they still hadn't fixed that, which has been a problem since the beginning.

In the process slides some of the black text is hard to read on B&W photos. Like the photos though, especially your fingers. Just my minds musings on potential improvements, take them at your own peril.

Yeah, that needs fixed. I am not pleased with the images. Again, I did that walkthrough on a whim with my iPhone. It's not cool to me to have so many out of focus images on my professional webpage. It will be redone, eventually, with my real camera.

I don't want to have to click on a dot to get to the information about you. There is no need to have a giant self portrait and a hard to see dot to actually view your information. I would take a cue from your home page and have the text and self portrait on the same page. The text over the faded portrait does not fit the rest of the website design.

We are on the same page. I even think people would stop clicking the "full story" after a few gallery images. That whole internet attention span thing. I could be wrong, but at the end of the day, it is my website, and I should be happy with it. I'm not.

 

[mwcfarms]

Weird I thought I commented on this earlier this morning but maybe I didnt hit post. I want to know why you talk about yourself in the third person in the craftsman piece. I think there was too many Davids, this, Davids this. If you like the third person referal fine but maybe saying David over and over is too repetitive and another word such as he etc could be used.

Overall its clean and simple which I like.

 

[mwcfarms]

I just wanted to show you what I would have said to make it less repetitive. Now if your trying to brand your name by repeating David cool too. Some people just don't care for the third person referall. Hope you don't mind the quick edit to the paragraph.


As an aspiring artist all through childhood, exploring different methods of artistic expression he discovered his love for jewelry design early in college, when he took his first metal working class.
David knew at this time he wanted to go down an avenue of metal sculpture. He loved the idea of taking something that was solid and immovable, softening it to a malleable state, and creating a unique form out of the element.

After several metal working classes, he discovered the art of jewelry design and hasn’t looked back for the past 22 years. David developed a deep understanding of traditional techniques of metalworking. He has had rigorous and thorough training in metalworking that extends further than general retail metal designers.

Stylistically, Wilkinson is geared towards architectural motifs. He strongly believes that design is ultimately for everyone and the customer should receive 100% satisfaction throughout the process, from start to finish. His work is customer focused - David's determined to create something truly unique for them that will last a lifetime

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Your website opened quickly and I like the layout. The only things I noticed were that the font/colours of the footer with your contact details are very faint as is the Facebook and Twitter link at the top of the page. It might just be my laptop though!

Not really. I think it is faint too. I think they are trying to find that happy medium of shading vs. bold in your face solid.

I realise that you get back to the "Home" page by clicking your name at the top of the website but, you might want to consider having a "Home" tab to take viewers back to the Home page?

The jewellery you create is amazing and I think the photos show the products off very well. :thumbup:

I disagree. I wanted a nice landing page, and I like how clean it is, but it is really just a reiteration of the menu bar. I would think differently if there was actual information found on the landing page. If that makes sense.

A few typos like others have noted. On the 'Full Story' of ReDeux, you have an extra 'ring' in the description.

Overall, I liked it. I did think there was a bit too much dead space on the bottom and on others, I thought the image opened up too big. Same problem as Mike, I guess. Had to scroll up and down to be able to see the full picture. I also thought the 'Full Story' Button was a bit confusing and hard to see.

Yeah, there are tons of typos. You'd think they'd clean that up, no? Yeah, they are almost there, it just needs tightened up. I agree with your issues.

I read the "process" which I found really interesting. You didn't ask for proof reading but as I noticed a couple of possible typos I thought you might want to check them. Hope you don't mind my pointing them out!?

I don't mind you pointing them out. It bothers me quite a bit that these errors exist. I firmly believe, even typing here on the forum, that spelling, and grammar, make you look smart. More viewers than you would see those errors, and how does that make me look?

 

[mwcfarms]

One more quick note, sorry I keep playing with it but I think that you personalizing it with saying i love the idea of taking something that is solid and immoveable etc could be quite good as well. Anyways, I just wanted to show you what I thought by quick word change etc. keep up the fantastic crafting. You know I love your work so I am hoping that will make up for me editting your bio haha.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Weird I thought I commented on this earlier this morning but maybe I didnt hit post. I want to know why you talk about yourself in the third person in the craftsman piece. I think there was too many Davids, this, Davids this. If you like the third person referal fine but maybe saying David over and over is too repetitive and another word such as he etc could be used.

Overall its clean and simple which I like.

Wasn't my decision, I didn't write that copy, and I asked them to change it to first person. There were some other things they worded that made me sound like the god of all art and jewelery, and they did change most of that. But again, they seem stuck on *their* ideas, and don't listen to what *I* want.

 

[cgipson1]

I love the way you showed the lost wax casting process btw... really cool!

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Some other fun...

I had to come up with a business name quickly, and chose David Wilkinson Design. yeah it's simple, and not very original. But one thing I did not want was to be another Lastname Jewelery business. DavidWilkinsonDesign.com was taken, so I had to go with DWilkinsonDesign.com. A year later, the former was available, and I grabbed it. Webguys rebranded me as just David Wilkinson. That's cool. But then they choose the domain name WilkinsonJewelery.com. They refused to use DavidWilkinsonDesign. *sigh*. There was no discussion about this till later. They argued that DWD was to long, too many syllables...and that WilkinsonJewelery would be very beneficial for google search placement. We argued. They were adamant. So I told them I would prefer DavidWilkinson.Com. They agreed. *facepalm* WTF? What happened to the web search placement argument? They were surprised to hear that DavidWilkinson.Com was up for sale. They didn't even check it!!! So we acquired it. Yay!

Then there was the four months that using www.wilkinsonjewelery . com yielded a "Heroku Error", and I asked them repeatedly to fix it. They said it worked if you just leave off the www. Even though that was printed on my business cards. *sigh* How many people would know to drop the www after encountering that error. This was also forcing them to get the site launched for when I went to a big jewelery show/convention, where, I would be handing out my business cards, and meeting a lot of people in the industry for the first time. Once again, epic fail.

So enough of the bad stuff. The really cool thing about the site, and I do give them kudos for, even if it is just available scripts, is the backend of the site.

They made it so I can upload new pictures and their title and descriptions via the backend, and it would automatically populate the gallery menu, the navigation buttons at the bottom, and create the page. This is supposedly true of the Process tab as well. If I create a new process walkthrough, it would create a new gallery page, and create all the pages and links needed. That's pretty cool! So really it is a mixed bag here. They are good designers, but horrible communicators, and not willing to bend to the clients desires. I really like where the site is headed. It's a shame that I just can't handle dealing with them for, what, another year to get it finished?


Thanks for the critique. Many of you confirmed my issues, and many of you also made me feel a bit better about the site. There is good stuff there, and I think my anger was clouding that.