Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Our site has just been redesigned and any feedback would be much appreciated:

www.littlemanconsulting.com

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John Hoover Little Man Consulting

    My honest opinion is your site lacks pizzaz and originality.  It looks homemade and doesn`t reflect your company as being anything special.  Also, the font used in your descriptions and writings is boring and dull as are the pages themselves.  Your website especially needs to be eye catching and exciting since you are trying to attract clients in hopes to design their websites.  I honestly wouldn`t even inquire with your company for a rate if I were someone who happened upon your site in search of a web designer.  There is nothing that tells me you do anything exciting and intriguing.

    Sorry to be so negative but I am sure you were looking for honest answers and this is my honest opinion.   One of the reasons it has taken me so long to find a web designer is trying to find one that I am comfortable with and who will design a site for me that is above all - exciting and appealing. I think I have finally found the right company but it took me a long time.  You have a lot of competition in your field so you really need your website to reflect you as being as impressive as you can make it.  I truly wish you luck in your venture and I hope I have been somewhat helpful! 

     

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Beth Downey
BoxerHaus.com
The Ultimate Boxer Shopping Experience!
www.BoxerHaus.com

Now I`m not a techie, I`m just a startup looking for a web designer - I assume I`m your target customer.  Here`s what needs improving (brace yourself, dear, sorry):

• Get clear, crisp, brightly colored photos.  Your photos need to yell HIRE ME. 
• The font is Courier New, isn`t it?  You don`t want your customers to think your technology is only as advanced as the old-fashioned typewriter, so pick a more modern font like Verdana. 
• The front page image with the hands holding the orb makes me think of a junior high sci fi novel.  Come up with something more original and crisp.
• On the homepage, size everything to fit on one screenview.  Right now I have to scroll to see just a tiny bit more.
• Your pages scream for action graphics, bullets, pizazz, excitement!

Overall, here`s what I think and take it as constructive criticism rather than getting your dander up.  I was 6 when those Apples with the black screens with green text were out.  I went to a good school and we had computer classes back when a cassette drive was actually a periphery device.  That`s what your "web solutions" page reminds me of.  I need something modern, catchy, flashy.  Do that and you`ll get your customers :)

Best of luck!

Diana

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"Whether you think you can or you think you can`t, you`re right."
paraphrased Henry Ford

I think your over all design needs to be re-vamped, here is wha`t wrong the web site needs to be balanced, sometimes using one or two colors can be as bad as using the full color palette. Here is what you need to do, if you own the graphics, try to use .gifs and with either web-adaptive or 256 color scheme, the images look distorted on my end so I`m figuring you are using low resloution export from either photshop or illustrator CS, if you are using Illustrator use the feature called save "image for web" and hike up your resolution, try not to use anything like font`s like arial or new times roman, remember! just because the font looks good on paper doesn`t mean it`s going to display good on the web, your best bet is to use; verdana, helvetica, or myraid. By any change did you do this on MSword? and then just saved as "html"?
If you are going to use any of the MS products to create a web site, try using frontpage, at least is a so called web editor.
Use other colors my friend don`t be afraid to use other color they are "free". Try using Light gray, black, dark red hovering for your links and perhaps a navy blue. The Key here is "BALANCE THE PAGE" to much white can make your customer squint and end up with eyes like this



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Edgar Monroy
Web Developer / Owner / Consultant
When starting your own business the need to "know-how" is greater than money!
http://www.nuevolution.net

no no...don`t think you are being negative...keep them coming!

say what you want as long as you get your point across...it isn`t hurting my feelings, this is business. I am actually looking to have a profound site and require as much feed back as I can get!

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John Hoover Little Man Consulting

I think the others have given you some great feedback.  In addition to what they have contributed, I wanted to add that on my 17 inch PowerBook the samller text - especially in the italicized quote - is difficult to read on the gray and white backgrounds.  Also, in all your headings the kerning (the "space between letters" is the easiest way to describe it) seems to be off.  In the word "Us" - used twice at the top of the page - the "U" and the "s" appear smooshed (a technical term) together.  Bolder, stronger fonts will help a great deal.

Your site needs to convey an image of "this is the guy I want to hire to help me."  It needs to be cleaner, fresher, brighter and more professional so the viewer wants to read the message you are trying to convey.

- J.






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Jeff Fisher | Jeff Fisher LogoMotives | Tweet! Tweet!

Based on your other posting and the information in your site (mainly the quote) it sounds to me like your target audience is more VA customers (repeat business) then it is for Web Design - which is not really a repeat business.  Not too many super flashy VA`s out there...I know because I considered doing that myself for a while.

If your target audience is more about administrative work for small offices and independant salesman...or small businesses, I would say your site is pretty good.  I agree the graphics are a little fuzzy and I don`t know if you can set up a web page to fit all screens - but it all fit perfectly on my screen so unless there`s a way to auto adjust it, you`re never going to fit everybody`s.

Maybe I`m just less of a flashy person, but I don`t care for some of the sites that I see that are all about flash or squeezing as much information onto the home page as humanly possible - the ones that look like the front windows of a ghetto liquor store.  Obviously, it`s all subjective since everybody likes something different...and keep in mind for every person you change the site to attract, there is someone else out there that you are putting off.

That`s my advice.

First I would like to ask you something, was it redesigned by you or a "professional" developer? This is a very poor design if done by someone who is supposed to be a web designer or a developer.

I only had time to check the homepage and here are my comments:

• The pictures used are either distorted or of a low quality even the logo is distorted.  Other graphics used like the ones in the blocks at the bottom of the page are so distorted and the proportions of the picture (width : height) are not as they are supposed to be.
• Exentesive unjustifiable use of pictures.  I cannot understand why the links should be a picture (the main site links and the links in the blocks).  Also they are distorted.  The extensive use of pictures isn`t recommended at all because makes the site loading time longer and it prevents the web spiders from crawling your website to be listed in search engines.
• The homepage design is not eyecatchy and it looks like an amatuer website and not a professional one.
• I didn`t find the typography appealing.
• There is no need for scrolling to view all the homepage content.  This homepage can be redesigned to avoid having such scrolling.

In breif I didn`t find the website appealing or eyecatchy.  Also, you mentioned on your website that you offer web development services and I have to say that your website doesn`t reflect a capability of offering such a service.

Sorry if I was too aggressive in my comments but you asked for honest opinions.

Some viewers, like me, have a relatively large screen (1280 X 1024). I can get a lot on the screen, but sometimes text on a web site is too small. I simply `Increase Text Size` while I`m browsing. Every browser has this option. This is usually no problem, and done very fast.
Unfortunately on your site there are many < BR > tags.  Go to the "about US" page and increase the text size to see what happens.
Keep at it, You`ll get there.

My advice.  Look at your competitor`s site or simply other sites to see what`s appealing to you.  Find a pro web developer, show them the sites you like and have them provide a free mockup for you.  If you like it, move forward.  The mockup should give you a glimps of their design style to see if it fits you.  Your site is simple enough to cost around $200-250 at most to complete.  This would also include all images used on your site.  And should not take more than 1 week to complete. 

A small price to pay for a professional look.  In some cases, your site is your first impression.  Focus on what you do best... get that client and it`ll pay for the site.

Heck! If you can`t find anyone to do it for you at that price.  I will give you a free mockup

I noticed you`re missing testimonials.  If you have some, post them.

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Peter Nguyen Founder 2Keene Ventures, LLC. www.premiersaver.com "Even heaven has a rainy day"