Frozen-rain.net
Li of Frozen Rain
Presentation:
I am first greeted by a very organized and centered layout. That said, I have to point out the color scheme’s appalling quality. In what universe does blue-gray and brown and reddish-pink and green go together? In attempts to come up with a really shocking and dramatic color scheme, you made a mess! Further, the background is way too loud for my taste, and it distracts me from noticing and fully appreciating the header image. These two major problems can be fixed easily. First, stray away from trying to address every color in the header image into the rest of your layout. The blue and green in the eye, for example, would shine a lot better if the colors you used stayed the brown and reddish-pink. Stick to these earthy tones: they both complement and contrast each other.
Second, remove the background to incorporate a solid color. Honestly, print backgrounds are rarely that attractive and tend to only work with more simplistic header images. Seeing as you want to draw attention to the eye and the colors in your header image, you should definitely remove the busy (and dull) background. My next criticism is that the header image seems to be saved a bit poorly. The JPEG pixellation is especially evident in the lower left of your image, where the text is. Further, “the watermarked network” is nearly illegible for two reasons, one being the pixellation and the other being that the color too closely resembles nearby colors. It wouldn’t hurt to make your site’s font a bit larger as well.
Structurally, like I said I appreciate the centered CSS layout. I always love those, and yours seems especially organized. However, I’m not impressed by the cluttered sidebar you have. You should include the “Portfolio” section as a link in the upper portion of your site with all of the rest of the links. Further, you shouldn’t have so many affiliates listed on your front page, I just got here and now you want to direct me elsewhere!! Besides, seeing as you have devoted a whole section to linking these people (paired with a paragraph) it seems a bit too much to have them show up on every single page. Speaking of stuff that shows up on every single page, remove the “back” javascript button immediately. First of all, every single browser has a back button. Most people aren’t too lazy to just click on it. Second, if someone accessed a random page on your website through google, they may click the back button hoping to be redirected to the parent page, but instead will be sent back to google. Third, some people have opted to disable javascript in their browsers. Making your site more accessible to everyone should be a priority, especially if you expect people to pay you to code for them.
While this layout definitely needs a hefty rehaul, I do appreciate the image itself. While the glasses in the background seem a bit superfluous and out-of-place to me, the eye itself is very nicely placed. The colors you emphasized also make for a really stunning photograph. Like I said, I’m not a fan of the taupe glasses, I honestly don’t see them having a place in the image.
Content:
Let’s go piece by piece.
About: I was honestly quite confused about the whole “watermarked network,” and think you could explain it better. If you wanted to name your portfolio as such, why did you buy “frozen-rain”? What was the story behind purchasing this particular domain? Instead of explaining in a bit more detail about what your site’s intention is, you rambled on about technical details such as where you bought it and when it opened. Nowhere do I see a little blurb about yourself. If you’re trying to establish a business, a good place to start would be to let people know more about you1. What makes you qualified? How long have you been doing web-design? What programs and coding languages are you proficient in? Why do you do web-design? Explaining why you’ve mixed a writing portfolio with business is something else you might want to do. Credits about the current layout should probably be filed away in the “Linkage” section.
Contact: The whole point of anyone having a contact page is to gain feedback from visitors. Having uninviting lines such as “if you wish to get to know me better [why would you...?]” may discourage people from trying to get to know you. They have every right to find out a bit more about you, since you’ve been so cryptic about your identity on your website. Potential customers may be turned away by this page, you should try to be as helpful as possible. Separating the purpose of each method of contact between business and personal, one being through e-mail and the other through instant messengers, may be a bit confusing as well.
Services: This page is horribly dense and information-packed. It’s really daunting, and quite hard to digest. Some parts even contradict one another. If someone is “top priority,” then why would you take up to a month to complete something they are paying you for?? Honestly, you should complete the work within a week, unless you are doing a pro-bono job. You also mention the month-long wait time in the “Benefits” section (though I could hardly see it as a benefit) and the procedure section. Further:
However, if you sent me back to make major changes, you might have to pay a bit more.
Why on earth would you charge someone extra if the layout you made them in the first place wasn’t satisfactory?! That’s just bad business!
As a web-designer myself, I would highly recommend that you don’t have a flat-rate for designs. Many designs vary on difficulty, it may be unfair to charge two people the same price for completely different efforts. I highly recommend you make an hourly or quarter-hourly price2. All in all, this page is a complete disaster. Most people want succinct explanations of what you do, what you specialize in. Having all of these procedural formalities seems a bit over-the-top, especially to list up-front. Talking about what kinds of sites you plan on designing for is more important than explaining sending screen-shots back and forth and not e-mailing the design until you’ve received payment. For example, it’s evident to me that you only really intend to design for fellow web-designers and already-website owners. What if someone is new to the web and they need someone to take care of hosting, domain purchasing, etc for them? Or, what if a small business wants you to design an entire website for them? It would be a really good idea to get across the idea that you don’t plan on designing for people not already familiar with the trade (even though you would probably get more customers of people who don’t yet know how to webdesign.)
Linkage: I painstakingly clicked on every single link. Luckily, most all of them were intact, with the exception of Umb-Rella Reviews.
Portfolio: Like I said, this should be a subsection like all of the previous ones I’ve discussed in this review. Having a little introduction about your design philosophy might be nice as well! As a note, you misspelled “Available” on almost every page as “Avaliable.” Please use spellcheck next time…
Layouts: I like that you tried to keep it to just four layouts per page to reduce cluttering. I think if people want to just scroll through the images, though, they’ll have a hard time. I really suggest using Lightbox2 as an image management script so people can just hit a next button instead of being redirected to a whole new page. All in all though, the image sizes are perfect, not overly large but big enough to show detail.
Artwork, Colorizations: Again, you should look into an image management script to allow a more streamlined section. I think some of your illustrations could use more vibrant colors and depth, but I respect that you tried to keep it simplistic.
Commissions: I think instead of having your comments, you shoud get your clients to issue you statements. Having testimonials on a designs site is really helpful, hearing about how you made the design is a little less interesting. Also, you might want to make these designs less monochromatic. All of the layouts you made for yourself seem to play with color much more than the commissioned artwork!! It’s a bit misleading and may turn away customers.
Photography: I’ve always been totally jealous of people who can wield a camera! These photographs are amazing, nature shots always intrigue me. You should have incorporated some of these stills in your layout to make it a bit more personal. The way this section is set up is completely daunting: 10 pages with only four images a page? Try making the thumbnails smaller so you can fit eight images per page, and definitely try to streamline this section so that people can casually browse with more ease.
Writings: I found it odd that you included such a personal section into a networking site, especially amongst other pages that feature some sort of conventional artistry you specialize in. Regardless, I’m always up for poetry. Your “Nothing More” poem tackles a really ‘overdone,’ subject, the death of a loved one. I think the imagery was done quite tastefully, except that you switch between black and gray as the colors that overpower the crimson rose put on his grave (”Against overwhelming gray.” and “Dull gray overpowers bright red.” against “Until there is nothing more / Than black dust.”) I was kind of put-off by the use of “particle” in the first stanza, maybe you could look into a different word choice? In “Where Are We Now,” the rhyme and meter was nowhere near regular, and its irregularity did not add anything to the poem. Again, you tackle a much tackled poem topic, but you have no fresh approach. Extending the road metaphor (again, quite overused…) might add a bit more imagery. This poem is definitely lacking in imagery, and the endless asking of questions is a cop-out in my opinion. I suggest that you attempt to make a fresh approach and make some unconventional analogies, ask rhetorical questions only when you’re sure it will add effect, and work on developing imagery. Definitely a forgettable piece.
Resources: I am never a fan of “freebies” on websites because they are oftentimes rush-jobs. Further, no one wants a hundred variations on the same picture, especially with regards to avatars. In the avatar section, you seemed to use and reuse the same exact yellow texture over and over again. Further, why on earth would you offer a total of 70 icons? It’s way too many, and because a lot of the art is similar it’s quite boring in my opinion. As for your premades, many of them use stolen art (while Foto Decadent may be a great model resource site, the photographer has full rights to the picture and just because you credit Foto Decadent doesn’t grant you the right to reproduce said photographers artwork). Again, I’m noticing that the freebie layouts are way more monochromatic than those in your portfolio. As for the textures, just blurring a picture or adding crosshatching doesn’t make a good texture. Try to warp them a bit more, and be a little more adventurous in the color schemes. Again, sometimes too much of a good thing is a bad thing; weed out all of the textures you’re not crazy about and try to get the collection down to a manageable size.
Coding:
I can tell that your coding is alright, just because of the structure of your website. Upon going to W3C’s validator, your site was met with 4 errors, all having to do with not declaring a doctype in your document. Some minor CSS errors as well, but nothing to get your panties in a bunch over! I thikn that you successfully separate style from coding and have a really well put together structure.
Rating:
While your coding may be up to par, your content and design are not. You need to do some hefty changes to make your website a competitor amongst all of the others vying for business! It needs to reek of professionalism if you want to get paid, and at this stage it doesn’t. Try to slim down your “services” section, having testimonials speaks a lot better than a page full of fluff!