Hey all,

I have finished about 90% of the site so far and I wanted to get feedback from everyone here in the forums. The website is built from scratch HTML and CSS. I am using Expression Engine as my back-end system, so the learning curve on that was pretty steep for me. I am still working on the back-end portions of DESIGN and CLOTHING. So, right now HOME, ABOUT and CONTACT are ready to view. But the rest should be up by the end of the week.

The website is a clothing and advertising company based around sustainability. Along with myself, I have hired some artists to work on the projects with me if I need illustrations, photography, etc.

Anyway, lemme know what you think -AndyinColor

http://www.andyincolor.com/

This post has been edited by AndyinColor: Jun 5 2008, 12:38 AM

I think it's looking really good. I really like your logo.

I'm not sure about the navbar hover state. It almost looks broken; I'd prefer something more "definite".

Your code is less good. Well done for choosing a Strict doctype, but you need to validate it! For example, your homepage has 80 HTML errors. You also have 6 CSS errors (you can ignore the warnings, although ideally these should be fixed too).




Don't use &nbsp; to create margins and padding; use CSS margins and padding instead. Similarly, don't use <center>; use CSS instead.

I really like the design. Very neat and clear. Good job


I agree. That was the only one thing that struck me as a chance for improvement. The line under the menu is an visual element that structures the layout of the site. Making pieces of it disappear looks a bit strange.

Making the site error free is very important, especially providing alt properties for the menu images. If I disable all images then I can't see the top menu and I can't navigate the site.

Hi Andy!
Love the site and the entire concept of your product line!

One suggestion I would make is to add some type of "green" symbol or graphic to the "Green Tip of the Week". It's not necessary however it might be nice to have an instant visual cue.

I don't know if you are ready for SEO tips but that's what I'm going to focus on. You're missing some critical pieces which you can read more indepth about here.
Look at Improving your <title>. Andy In Color can go in there, but put it at the end. Figure out what your most important keyword phrase is and put that first. Sustainable Clothing by Andy in Color; would be a better option. Do people search for sustainable clothing? Or are there better terms?

On the homepage you do not have an h1 or h2 but you do have an h3. So You'll want to get a very well thought out h1 tag on every page. Perhaps change the h3 to h2.

Your keyword description is what will show up in Google's search page, so spend some time working on that. It's currently too long. You want to fill it with keyword phrases but also right a description that when people are looking at google's search page, will entice them to click on YOUR link.
I would recommend something like: "Designers of sustainable men's and women's clothing with proceeds going back to charity." If you think people will search for bamboo clothing then for sure put that in. The San Diego aspect probably isn't important at all in SEO if you plan to have a national audience. I'd ditch that portion because it's diluting your keywords.

I would probably rework this portion of the first paragraph and make it my h1

QUOTE

Andy in Color’s primary focus was sustainable clothing that gives something back to the community and environment.

I hope this helps!!

Like the others said... very nice. Clean and sharp. Not busy.

I really LOVE what you stand for...



...very cool that you have the chance to do that.

I would be nice to have somewhere on your home page a section for examples of your clothing line and examples of your design portfolio. Just so that people can see right away what you are about. I would put it at the top, just above your blog/news section. Just 3 big 200x200 pics of clothing design (like you see on Threadless for example) and the same for your portfolio.

It would also break the text a bit and grab the attention of the user.

I really like what Linda suggested about a "green" image for your Green Tip. Something simple that gets the user focus on that sidebar.

Great start!

I agree with Linda on this, have you heard of H1 image replacement? This is where you have a keyword rich <h1> that search engines love, but through CSS you replace it with an image, your header or logo or something.

I no you said the site is not finished, but get rid of the mailto: on your contact page and your footer, this is a magnet for spam. On the footer i would simply place a link to the contact page, and on the actual contact page look at getting a contact form set up, here are some very good examples:

http://www.thewebsqueeze.com/forum/PHP-f11...-Form-t780.html
http://www.thewebsqueeze.com/forum/PHP-f11...depun-t530.html

Good looking site so far, hope this helps

Craig

Thank you so much everyone, I will take everything in to consideration as I start to rework the site this weekend.

This is the first time I have ever done coding, so it was a hodge-podge of coding. I like to stick to design only.

Question: As for the menu tags, they are not supposed to have that rollover, there is supposed to be an image replacement of them. All links on the site have the blue outline for the rollover state, how can I disable that for the images and get an effective rollover (should I use CSS or Java)?

Thanks so much!
-Andy

CSS, without a doubt lol.

http://www.weon.co.uk/wp-content/uploaded/...rlevin_demo.htm

Here's a link that i think will help you, the image used in this demonstration is here:

http://www.weon.co.uk/wp-content/uploaded/...rlevin_demo.gif

What i would do is download these files and have a play around with the CSS see what you think, then adapt it to your site.

Hope this helps mate

Craig

Don't mean to be negative or anything, but the minute I spotted it, I saw exactly where you got all the inspiration from. Personally, it's not acceptable to take that many elements of another's design and then reuse it without any major changes in your own, regardless of the site's purpose. You might be able to fool a small community like this, but no offense, everyone is going to spot this in the greater internet community.

I won't mention the site - once you don't dispute the fact that you did copy it!

Ed.

This post has been edited by Vivara: Jun 11 2008, 01:39 PM

You won't mention it why? In case you're wrong? But well spotted. I knew there was something about that logo that looked familiar.

Nevertheless, ALA doesn't have copyright on "logos with inside borders, serif headlines, and dashed separators". I'm all in favour of protecting original work, but you can't own a style! It's entirely reasonable to mimic a site's design; it's not as though you're harming them in any way.

I wouldn't worry about it.. All the news-sites look alike as wel..

Once you don't show it to the actual professional web design world then it's obviously okay. However, A List Apart is without a doubt the most popular magazine for web designers - and I wouldn't be putting this in any porfolio of yours.

The fact that there is little imagination involved and that you haven't attempted to change it around a bit is much worse however. It's not really a matter of protecting original work, to me it's about trying to unlease someone's creative ability and not using someone's near exact style and claiming it as your own.

Ed.

I suppose that's where we differ: you see web design as artistic; I see it as functional. You see it as moral; I see it as practical.

I couldn't care less about "unleashing my creative ability". I just want to make websites that work well.



Who cares what the professional web designers think? They're not my customers and they're not my friends. Are they Andy's customers? Are they his friends?

Professional web designers can tut all they like. Their opinions are irrelevant; all that matters is whether a design is effective in helping to fulfil the website's purpose.

I agree with Mike.. who cares... as long as he didn't rip off the graphics and call them his own. A layout that is proven to work is going to get copied.

I doubt Andy was trying to intentionally fool anyone.

Bah! I visit ALA regularly and I really didn't notice it. Andy's got a 2 column layout while ALA is 3 (then 2 once you get into articles).

nah.. me neither.. I was switching back and forth to find out what Vivara was trying to say..

Guys, they must be quite similar if both Mike and I spotted it without I mentioning the name first. It's not like I'm trying to point out negative things about a site I quite like.

Ed.

Oh my god! The sites are different, he has changed it to make it his own. Yeah, if you sit there and flip back and forth you can see they are similar, but in reality all websites are similar in one way or another. The coding styles are different if you look at the code, it's not like he just went down and started coping the code. He just took a website he liked and made it his own!