I have so much enjoyed looking at everyone's sites, and I am so impressed with you all! I could have gone on all day about what I liked, but I have tried to be reasonable.
Things I like: Love the intro page and the invitation text below it. Also, the way you have "animated" the photographs on your About Me and Projects pages. I discovered the motion by accident and was totally delighted.
Potential for improvement: I like your color scheme, but might like to see just a splash somewhere of a brighter contrast color--maybe a little more of the orange that your links change to when rolled over?
Jessica
Things I like: The open, personal tone of the writing, and the personal pictures are great--they engage me and make me feel connected to your story and invested in your success. I also really like the way you have incorporated so many external links into your narrative; that is a considerate way to allow the site visitor to draw on the resources you've found helpful.
Potential for improvement: The chart on your Progress page might be more informative if you attached some time frame to it (e.g, months or years along the x-axis). It might also be a good idea to have all your links to external pages open in separate windows, so the user never has to leave your site. Some of them already work that way, but others open directly in the same window as your page.
Sharba
Things I like: I love so many of your design elements: the blue/black combination, the striking photograph, the reversed-out quotes against the black bar; and the size, colors, and font of your page headers. It is so clean, accessible and stylish.
Potential for improvement: I like the "step into my shoes" graphic on the front page, but when I click it, it seems to just refresh the page. I would like to see it do something else; maybe allow me a peek inside your world through either video of photos.
Dominic
Things I like: The way your navigation mimics a physical place is great. It makes me feel like I'm actually meeting a friend somewhere to catch up and hang out. I also really like your bold use of orange and blue; you have done a great job in carrying those colors through the site without having them become the least bit repetitive or overpowering.
Potential for improvement: Your "Let's sit and chat" and "hobby lobby" pages have a different look and navigation than your other pages. It might be nice if you could bring the design of those pages into a bit closer alignment with the other pages, especially by including the top nav bar. From those pages, it took me some time to figure out how to get back to the other pages of your site.
Adrian
Things like: The movement on your site is so smooth and professional looking; I am especially impressed with how your Ashley photo gallery works. I kept spinning and spinning it! I also really like the glowing orange flower at the bottom right. It has just enough movement to be interesting, but not so much as to be distracting.
Potential for improvement: Your font is a little too small for my middle-aged eyes; also, the header font on your Contact page appears to be different from your other font.
Carie
Things I like: I think this site does such a good job of really anticipating and addressing the needs of its audience. I like the fact that it tells students right up front what its purpose is (You can use this site to access...). I also love that it's sort of a one-stop shop for all things ECS3390--including all those great resources you have compiled on the Resources page.
Potential for improvement: If it's possible, it might be nice to convert your syllabus into html rather than (or maybe in addition to?) having it open as a pdf. That might make it more accessible, if students ever found themselves in a situation where downloading wasn't possible or practical.
Ashley
Things I like: This is such a professional looking site, and the copy does a great job promoting your skills--the two descriptive words at the beginning of each copy block are especially strong. I also like the way you have put the Quick Facts in a consistent place on every page, but used different colors, which correlate to your home page.
Potential for improvement: For the sake of consistency, it might be a nice idea to make all the color-coded boxes on the home page the same size; right now, it looks like the User Documentation and Training boxes are a bit smaller than the other two. Also, because there is a lot of area at the top of your pages, the actual content starts pretty close to the bottom of the screen; you might consider making your white and blue bars at the very top a little narrower, so as to bring the content up further on the page.
Melody
Things I like: I really like the main image on your front page, with the unblurry you (and the other unblurry fellow) being clickable. I think you did a great job in finding (or composing) a photo that worked so well with the color and look of the TTU template.
Potential for improvement: If possible, it might be nice to add some additional images to the interior pages--maybe some more pictures of you? I'm not sure how bound you are by the template, so this suggestion may not work.
Rebecca
Things I like: What a great choice of background for a communication professional! And the colors are great. I also think you've done a terrific job with positioning the various elements of your pages; the asymmetrical effect works very well here.
Potential for improvement: I cannot quite tell what you are doing in the photos on your Professional page and how they relate to the rest of the information on that page. It might be nice to include captions, or to make a tie-in somewhere on the page.
Brett
Things I like: I am so blown away by your unbelievably cool phone that I hardly know what to say. It's just brilliant, and the ringtone really completes the effect. Additionally, your interior pages are very clean and well-balanced, and I like the use of orange and blue together.
Potential for improvement: Right now, clicking on the phone opens pages in new windows; If possible, it might be better to have them open in the same window, so the site stays together.
Monica
Things I like: This site is so beautifully designed and laid out! I love the colors, the brain, the background images... I like the way the design of your internal pages is different from your home page, but yet so well unified with it. I am also impressed with how cleanly you have handled the secondary navigation in your internal pages.
Potential for improvement: You might consider changing the color and font of the links on your Writing page--perhaps to a nice burgundy, to match the rest of your site. Also, you might consider switching from justified text to ragged right, just to avoid some spacing issues.
Thanks, Shawna, for the feedback. I agree- especially with the writing page which is probably one of my least favorite elements of this website.
ReplyDeleteYou people sure do like your orange!! I've never seen so much orange that was unrelated to shooting large animals in my life! :) I'll definitely check out some more contrast colors, though--thanks for the comments, Shawna.
ReplyDeleteThanks Shawna, what great and thoughtful comments. You are not the first to comment on the small font. It doesn't look small behind the scenes, but that which viewers see does look tiny. I will work on that.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the compliments to the photo gallery. Unfortunately, I think I'll have to cut it in half for an unrelated reason. I am using the same service for Lynn Ruston's project so I have to take some of my pics out to put her's in. Not that it will be on the same website, but it will be on the same account. so it is unavoidable.
Thanks for checking out my site.
Adrian
Shawna, Thanks for the comments. I was purposefully trying to set the external links to link to another page. I must have missed some. I thought that I had tested them all. I can try to add an x-axis back into the graphic, but some of the numbers won't be that useful because of the lack of weight measurements between my heaviest weight and my Weight Watcher's start weight.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Shawna. I agree. I dug through the old photo albums at work just last week and made some high res jpegs of some great OLD stuff! Hope to have them up this week and hope you'll have a look and tell me what you think about placement, etc. I've got a blog right before this last one that is about my website. I'll post there when I get the photos up, or maybe I can get them in place before class tonight.
ReplyDeleteMelody
Shawna,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the extremely kind and generous comments about my efforts so far on my homepage. That really inspires me to keep working on it. Thanks!
- Brett
Thank you for your feedback Shawna. I agree that I need to work on the consistency in sizing of my boxes. I also don't like all the white space either. It's been hard for me to figure out how to eliminate a lot it without making the rest of the page look clunky or strange. I appreciate your help!
ReplyDelete-Ashley
Thanks, Shawna. I completely agree with you. I am planning to put my podcast on my homepage. I will have to see if I can link the video to that image, as you have suggested. But, it is certainly something worth considering.
ReplyDelete~ Sharba