Web Design Critique: www.TemplatePutty.com

IainQ

Member
Hi all,

I'm a freelance designer and as a self-created project i decided to upgrade my brain & learn content management based web design.
I have created Template Putty using Drupal and I am using the name and site to get my name (or my alias name) heard across the web. It originated as an experimental site, but now is growing into more.
If you guys could take a look at my site, let me know what you think of the structure of it - areas to improve etc it would be much appreciated.
ps. I know i still have to add imagery up on there ;)
 
Why is the majority of the text on your home page an image? I would also recommend enabling Clean URLs in Drupal for SEO purposes. Good luck with the business :icon_smile:
 
Ok, I'm totally skiving in work so my comments may well come in dribs and drabs. First click, first impressions - the colours make it look very, very dated. I don't know if it's just me but the site seems to be quite slow (i don't seem to be having problems with other sites). The logo is, well, as dated as the colours and not the most imaginative thing i have ever seen to put it politely. Agree with post above about the majority of the text on your home page being an image - if you were using some crazy font for some reason i could understand but what you have done is perfectly do-able with code.
 
ok points taken - cheers - It's an experimental site like i mentioned above, and with all the advice i can get i will grow it and improve it. Many thanks for the comments.
 
I'm not seeing much difference to be honest, I'm still not blown away, and for a company that is offering design services, it really should have a memorable design and really show what you can do.

The colours are very safe, and it's a scheme that has been used a million times before - not that there's a scheme that hasn't been used before but this one has been done to death.

Personally i wouldn't trust my company design work to a company that appears to have not put much effort into their company logo - the design of it needs pushing further, again, it needs to be memorable. The word "putty" has so many potential visual representations, you could explore this avenue.

The simply putting a gradient fill on the logo and the "call us for a quote" bit looks like a desperate attempt to "jazz it up" - it doesn't work, and again, it looks dated.

You offer design services yet nowhere on the site can i see examples of what you have done? This is one of my biggest issues with the site and i don't know anyone who would bother to contact a design company for a quote without seeing something they have done first.

What's the user login bit for? Do you require people to sign up to your site?

Again the slowness of the site when first loading up and when navigating from page to page is frustratingly slow, and I'm not having any problems with any other websites.

Phew - sorry for the epic message! Hope this feedback helps, sorry if it sounds harsh :/
 
Not at all! :) No need to apologise, this is a real positive step forward for me and input from others in the field is helping me further grow, so thanks for your constructive comments :icon_biggrin:
I have made a few changes. Login gone, banner has previous clients, still need to add work examples though, logo has a more "putty" feel to it, but i still need to posibly tweak and make more interactive and interesting... Oh, and i have lost most of the green.
 
I think a lot of Linziloop's observations still apply: the logo's still got a long way to go and I'd add the following:

1. You need to proof the copy ('total piece of mind', for instance).
2. The three steps for getting a quote looks a bit padded out with the inclusion of 'you respond accordingly' as the third step (kind of goes without saying, no?). It's also repeated across the site and consequently smacks even more of something included to fill up space in the absence of more meaningful content.
3. The Tech News also feels out of place; why would people looking to hire a web designer want this?
4. The news page appears to include a link to a directory of web designers (I couldn't follow the link but that's what it looks like): isn't this a bit a counter-productive when you're trying to get work as a web designer yourself?
5. Why don't the previous client images have links to the sites you've presumably built? There's a good slice of your portfolio right there!

In short, my view (for what it's worth) is that you need to first nail the logo and then build the site around the content you don't yet have: at the moment it feels like a one-page site stretched across five pages.
 
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