Hey guys,

So me and my cousin (goes to York) have opened a Web Design company now for about a year, but put alot of time into improving the looks and usability of the website this year. So, we would like you guys to give us some feedback/suggestions/comments on what you think and what we can improve!

Thanks.

Visit www.blackdragondesign s.com to view our website

I think your website looks great and I guess that's really important since it's a web design company. lol It's also easy to navigate and find the information that an employer might need. Lots of samples of different sites which is good. I like that your not limiting yourself to only showing exciting stuff and you're showing other things(like Oakville Music Lessons) it shows your diversity. The only thing I would says is that it might look alittle too flashy for some older employers you might have.

Great work! I would suggest having only one font used-- I like Arial but that's just me. Also, having too many colour fonts may make you seem like an amateur especially when it goes from red to yellow to green. Nevertheless, I like it. =)

Wow guys, thanks for the quick replies!

I love the banner at the top, very cool design!
As the others above mentioned, making it a little less flashy and making the font and colour the same throughout would make it look a lot more professional.

Great work though!! =D

I'm not very impressed with your website. Please take the following as constructive criticism.

On the technical side:

• I feel there are too many colours and it's hard to focus on the content.
• The choice of font could be better, Times New Roman seems a bit too plain. On the other hand, Jokerman is difficult to read.
• Looking at your code, you're using tables for the layout, which is outdated. CSS divs are the way to go nowadays
• Speaking of CSS, your classes are generically named (i.e. style30). I feel they should bear descriptive names - for example where you use the Jokerman font, instead of the class being called "ki" it shold be named "pageHeader" or something along those lines. Programming classes have taught me from early on that an appropriately named variable saves much time when debugging. The same applies for web-development
• You're using javascript for your rollovers. They won't work if the person viewing your page has javascript disabled (a wise choice on his or her part in terms of security).
• What about PHP, ASP, .NET, WEB2.0, SQL, etc?
• EDIT: check out your home page in IE8. It does not render properly. You will need to test your and your customer's websites in the major browsers (IE6, IE7, IE8, FireFox, Opera, Safari, etc.)

On the business side,

• You suggest people "Take advantage of these unbeatable prices on all [your] services!" but I haven't found any prices.
• Along the same lines, in your portfolio, you should describe who the customer was, what were the needs and how did you meet the customer's needs?
• Please double check your spelling and grammar.
• I don't know what your sales figures are, but how are "custom buttons" doing?
• What does the customer get for your Web Hosting packages? (how much storage space? how much bandwidth? how many databases? how many email addresses?) These are things a savvy customer would know to look for.
• Price plans? How much is this going to cost me?
• You have a pretty long list of Terms & Conditions...they seem better suited for a contract.
• EDIT: You need to put the prices on the services page (you mention "Summer Discounts (Until Fall ’09) : As advertised on the Services Page" but there are NO prices on the services page

I think you need to sit down and come up with a business plan. It doesn't have to be extensive, but it should cover the things I've mentioned above (i.e. prices).

As well, keep in mind that a simple design is sometimes years ahead of a flashy and busy design.

Overall, if I was looking for a company to take care of a website (a position I have found myself in before) I would have to pass on BlackDragon designs at the moment.

I do wish you good luck in the future though, always great to see entrepreneurs!

I agree with DannyV. I don't know a whole lot on web design but the site is a bit on the unprofessional side and the styling is really inconsistent and looks kinda tacky.

Thanks danny!

Yea, we gotta update the prices. We had them on the website up until about 5 days ago, but decided to remove them and request "quotes" for our customers instead - this way they arnt scared away if prices dont meet their budget.

We are developing a lighter, cleaner, and overall simplier website. Expect that to be up in about a week, if all goes well.

Originally Posted by blackdragon

Thanks danny!

Yea, we gotta update the prices. We had them on the website up until about 5 days ago, but decided to remove them and request "quotes" for our customers instead - this way they arnt scared away if prices dont meet their budget.

We are developing a lighter, cleaner, and overall simplier website. Expect that to be up in about a week, if all goes well.

I, as a customer, would still like to know what to expect. You should make it clear that I should request a quote so that I'm not wondering what you're talking about when you tell me to look at the prices.

After a quick glance of no more than a few seconds I can already point out some serious problems:

1. Times New Roman font. No.

2. Courier font. No.

3. Coloured text. NO.

4. Comic Sans font. NO.

Comic Sans?!? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOO!! hahaha

The font used is actually "Eurostile" - We noticed recently not many people have that installed and therefore cannot use it. So by default it uses another font, TNR or comic sans for example.

Keep the feedback coming, thanks

http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=ht...line&gr oup=0

The coding is very messy. Style should be separated from the content.

If you're using an uncommon font, then you should specify alternates. (Ex: font-face: Eurostile, verdana, sans-serif; )

I think the design itself looks a bit dated.

This is great, keep it coming guys!

We figured/noticed that most people who are interested in purchasing websites are looking for a "light" colour. Currently we are thinking of putting up a greyish type style, any thoughts on that?

Also, whats a good default font that can be viewed by any and everyone?

thanks guys :p

I usually go with the Tahoma, Arial, Serif family in my CSS. It's worked well.