Red Giant website, opinions please?

[Mark Atkinson]

Hi guys,

So, as I've stated on my blog, we've been working on and off (inbetween client projects) on our new website.

Would like to get your opinions on the site so far. Constructive criticism would be great.

I'd like your opinions on things like:

- General design and appeal
- Load times
- Format
- User friendliness
- Etc.

For those who have been reading the logo design posts on my blog, be sure to have a look at the corporate design portfolio, we've put together a couple case studies there.

It is incomplete - the photography portfolio is still being put together and we need to optimize a few images to make sure our load times are quick enough. Other than that we are planning to do custom showcase images for each page. Unfortunately, client sites come first.

For anybody who is interested, the site is built in Joomla. We created a custom template (basically built the site from the ground up, just using Joomla to manage content). No special components or applications at all, just a simple form component for the side bar. All elements were customized to fit the design of the site.

I like to think of it as a good example of the flexibility of Joomla as a CMS.

Looking forward to hear what you all have to say!

Oh yes, the link: Red Giant Design

[Dave A]

As one might expect, it's hard to be critical of a professionally designed website from a clearly talented team, but



what's your contact telephone number again? Would that be a six or an eight in there

I'd dial up the font size for that a notch or two, just in case I've been putting off getting new glasses for a while now. And especially because it is in red which makes it drop out of focus just that much easier.

The fine print on the latest projects is a touch marginal too.

[IanF]

Mark
The site loads quickly and is well designed. One thing I always look for is a physical address and landline number, my thoughts are this shows stability. Not sure how others view this point.

Anyway looks like joomla might be the way to go for the website redesign, is it easy to learn or quite geeky ito coding etc.

[KimH]

Mark your site is absolutely stunning!

One day when this little biz of mine is making enough money, I would definitely want you and your team to design me a kick ass site.

Ian, with regards to physical addresses - as a home based business I chose not to put my address up for a few reasons:

a. I always meet with clients at their offices,
b. Mine is quite obviously a home address and I am concerned that it could send out the wrong message to potential clients (ie) small, one man show - can't be taken seriously?

My letterhead and invoices etc do however have my address on them.

What say you other home based biz owners?

[Mark Atkinson]

Thanks so much for all the great feedback guys. It's the best feeling in the world getting positive reactions after you've put so much hard work into something.

I'd dial up the font size for that a notch or two, just in case I've been putting off getting new glasses for a while now. And especially because it is in red which makes it drop out of focus just that much easier.

The fine print on the latest projects is a touch marginal too.

Thanks, Dave. That is just the kind of feedback I was looking for. Sometimes, us younger guys tend to forget that if we can see something, others may not be able to.

We'll do our best to increase the font size on those elements. The info in the footer is just a bit extra to fill up the site, though. In fact we don't usually have contact details in there at all. There is a slightly enlarged version of our details on the Contact page.
Nevertheless, you are right, if the info is there everybody should be able to read it.

The site loads quickly and is well designed. One thing I always look for is a physical address and landline number, my thoughts are this shows stability. Not sure how others view this point.

Anyway looks like joomla might be the way to go for the website redesign, is it easy to learn or quite geeky ito coding etc.

Thanks Ian. I tend to agree with Kim regarding addresses etc. If you have a business address, then by all means, show it. We, however, run our business from all over the place. It's completely location independent. For invoices and letterheads I use my personal address, but I prefer to keep it off the website for the reasons mentioned by Kim.

As far as designing a website on Joomla goes, the great thing about it is that its flexibility scales with the designer's skill level. Anybody can design a website on Joomla by using the Joomla backend and a decent commercial template.

To design a site like ours, however, took a LOT of code tweaks and creating the template itself is a bit of a learning curve with a lot of coding involved.

Basically, a Joomla site designed by "anybody" will look like a typical Joomla site. A site designed by a designer with coding knowledge will look like any normal website. The scalability is so good that we can put together practically anything in Photoshop and then create a template to match.

Mark your site is absolutely stunning!

One day when this little biz of mine is making enough money, I would definitely want you and your team to design me a kick ass site.

Ah, thanks so much Kim!

Great, I'll look forward to it! I'm sure the cost of a website is less than you have in mind, though.

[Blurock]

Mark I like your site. Looks professional, loads easily and has all the relevant information. As with any product, you will find out over time what works and what not and will be able to tweak your presentation accordingly.

[Mark Atkinson]

Thanks so much Blurock Appreciate the feedback.

[Nienke]

Sorry, no critisism from my side, looks very professional, yet young and hip! Easy to navigate as well, which is usually my problem with many sites. Good luck with your business!

[Mark Atkinson]

Thanks so much - really appreciate the positive comments, Nienke.

We did try to focus specifically on simple navigation - glad it worked!

[mother]

Very professional, yet trendy! I especially like how you've "owned" the facebook, twitter and linkedin buttons; that's such a clever communication of your brand identity. Gosh, after seeing yours, I definitely wouldn't want you looking at our website now!

[Mark Atkinson]

Thanks so much, mother! (Haha, that sounds so weird in my head)

Really appreciate the feedback. It's also nice when people notice the little details, as you have! Sometimes one wonders if anybody is ever going to notice little things like that. Glad to know they do.

Gosh, after seeing yours, I definitely wouldn't want you looking at our website now!

After a comment like that, how could I resist! I took a quick peek - you'll be happy to know it really isn't that bad. Suits your target market well. It could do with a wee bit of modernizing (excuse my bluntness), but other than that - not too shabby. Loads quickly too which is always a plus.

[mother]

Thank you Mark, but I meant it, I REALLY didn't want you going there!!! But thanks anyway, even for the criticism.