I think Web Designers have become a dime-a-dozen nowadays too. As long as you can turn something into HTML, you can call yourself a web designer. It’s sad.
Im kind of growing to his criticism, if one of my sites ever gets shown on here i think i poss could learn from what he has to say, at least he is honest .
I do like sites too y’know. I’m pleased that you had a good experience with them. To quote andrei from the above thread:
(quote)
Good website design takes a bit more strategy, planning, and testing than simply creating repeating texture patterns for your backgrounds.
A great example of good website design is Apple’s own website – it’s representative of the company’s identity, you don’t get lost, you can easily find what you’re looking for, content is presented with near-perfect clarity, and it looks excellent graphically.
(unquote)
I’m not criticizing them as professionals. Just the design. You as a contractor should know that sometimes some things just aren’t what you would have liked – I was merely expressing my opinion, as you have just expressed yours. =)
I work full time with this studio, and am a huge fan of bestwebgallery.com (As is everyone here)
I can say for sure that we totally welcome any point of view, and that in my experience constructive criticism is gold.
It is very hard to get honest feedback from anyone these days, so thank you to everyone who pointed out things that they thought do not work on the site.
We actually agree totally with everyone here, and we have been working on updating the site in many ways. One of them is to have a unique background header on each section of our site that showcases what we are about, which is nature, and the environment. The current header and parts of the portfolio section will be replaced with some really great interactive ajax style galleries, as static pages (though great for google rank) are just to cumbersome for most users.
So thanks again And keep your eyes out for some nature based updates coming soon.
It’s great that you guys responded. It’s even better that you guys have such a healthy outlook.
My gripes about the site (as I seemed pretty vague):
1) Graphically, it looks too heavily inspired by Apple. The grays, subtle gloss, and fading details are all great, but they’ve been done by one of the most famous tech companies in the world.
2) On the index page, there is a TON of stuff that would fall into the focus point category. While the menu is clear and concise, the content on the page is pretty… well… there’s no “story” or pyramid.
It’s like that old saying “when everybody is talking, you can’t hear anything.”
3) The background – waaaay too eye catching. While it’s pretty, it takes away from your logo, and your company name. If I look at your site and click another tab, I remember the OSX-inspired background, instead of the name next to the polar bear (I remember the bear… just not the name, because of the background).
4) This one is more of a personal comment: over the years, one of the things I learned is that when you have an extremely prominent phone number display, it can come off as a bit on the cheap side, and I think it attracts the type of client that is more concerned with cost that output.
I have no data to back it up – that’s just my own opinion (based on my own experience).
Nice, but I am not a fan of the navigation. I personally think it’s too plain. Or maybe it’s just coz the background buries it.
@dudedudeydude: yea, background is way too eye catching. Although, I think it’s what brings personality to the site, It buries the logo and navigation and almost in fact everything else. And I do not like those glossy things in different sizes beside the avocado.
Well I guess we are all a little bit different. I actually like the menu alot and the slight reflectiveness, granted apple have a site with this effect but I don’t believe that should deter someone from styling around this theme, they use it clearly because it looks good, and so can you. Secondly I actually remember the bear very well, well designed simple elegant, its actually your name imho that lets you do “studio 7 designs” just seems so….run of the mill, its for me at least just isn’t at all unique. Don’t feel i am being harsh here, just merely offering you my 2 cents so to speak of.
hmm i re-read the above and it sounds like I am being harsh. Once again, I think the bear itself looks great, naming wise I think you should re-brand, but grants 10-100 of thousands of dollars may have already gone into this name when it comes to advertising so you may be a touch hesistant, but remember companies do this sort of thing a fair amount, so its not completely uncommon!
its actually your name imho that lets you do “studio 7 designs” just seems so….run of the mill, its for me at least just isn’t at all unique. Don’t feel i am being harsh here, just merely offering you my 2 cents so to speak of. —-?????
so you may be a touch hesistant, but remember companies do this sort of thing a fair amount, so its not completely uncommon—-??????
17 Comments
I thought gloss was dead?
Oh… I see… nice Photoshop background…
Yes. Excellent example of web design.
These web design firms and studios really are a dime a dozen these days…
@Royalol – yes, but that’s the way it is in every industry. That’s like saying:
“Doctors are really a dime-a-dozen these days.”
The trick here is to find the best ones.
I think Web Designers have become a dime-a-dozen nowadays too. As long as you can turn something into HTML, you can call yourself a web designer. It’s sad.
dudedudeydude posts negative reviews on all the submissions on this site.
I like this site because it is more then just a few pages, its gotta have over 50 pages of unique functional layout design.
Also their environmental work is fantastic (I worked with them locally as a contractor, and was a fantastic experience with the full time team)
Ye but dudedudeydude does make some good points
Im kind of growing to his criticism, if one of my sites ever gets shown on here i think i poss could learn from what he has to say, at least he is honest .
Not too keen on the backdrop eva.
@Sara – so untrue.
I like a lot of sites on this gallery, I just dislike some sites that look like other sites that look like some other sites.
0_o
^^^ Above post: Ah crap. Dudey here. I was going to quote that guy (Andrei) from another thread on this gallery.
@Sara:
Thread in question:
http://bestwebgallery.com/2008/08/12/made-in-england/#comment-21381
I do like sites too y’know. I’m pleased that you had a good experience with them. To quote andrei from the above thread:
(quote)
Good website design takes a bit more strategy, planning, and testing than simply creating repeating texture patterns for your backgrounds.
A great example of good website design is Apple’s own website – it’s representative of the company’s identity, you don’t get lost, you can easily find what you’re looking for, content is presented with near-perfect clarity, and it looks excellent graphically.
(unquote)
I’m not criticizing them as professionals. Just the design. You as a contractor should know that sometimes some things just aren’t what you would have liked – I was merely expressing my opinion, as you have just expressed yours. =)
@dudedudeydude: lol yeah, good point. I noticed that they are especially prevalent in web gallery websites, such as this one.
Hi everyone.
I work full time with this studio, and am a huge fan of bestwebgallery.com (As is everyone here)
I can say for sure that we totally welcome any point of view, and that in my experience constructive criticism is gold.
It is very hard to get honest feedback from anyone these days, so thank you to everyone who pointed out things that they thought do not work on the site.
We actually agree totally with everyone here, and we have been working on updating the site in many ways. One of them is to have a unique background header on each section of our site that showcases what we are about, which is nature, and the environment. The current header and parts of the portfolio section will be replaced with some really great interactive ajax style galleries, as static pages (though great for google rank) are just to cumbersome for most users.
So thanks again
And keep your eyes out for some nature based updates coming soon.
Cheers
Chris
@Chris
It’s great that you guys responded. It’s even better that you guys have such a healthy outlook.
My gripes about the site (as I seemed pretty vague):
1) Graphically, it looks too heavily inspired by Apple. The grays, subtle gloss, and fading details are all great, but they’ve been done by one of the most famous tech companies in the world.
2) On the index page, there is a TON of stuff that would fall into the focus point category. While the menu is clear and concise, the content on the page is pretty… well… there’s no “story” or pyramid.
It’s like that old saying “when everybody is talking, you can’t hear anything.”
3) The background – waaaay too eye catching. While it’s pretty, it takes away from your logo, and your company name. If I look at your site and click another tab, I remember the OSX-inspired background, instead of the name next to the polar bear (I remember the bear… just not the name, because of the background).
4) This one is more of a personal comment: over the years, one of the things I learned is that when you have an extremely prominent phone number display, it can come off as a bit on the cheap side, and I think it attracts the type of client that is more concerned with cost that output.
I have no data to back it up – that’s just my own opinion (based on my own experience).
=)
Nice, but I am not a fan of the navigation. I personally think it’s too plain. Or maybe it’s just coz the background buries it.
@dudedudeydude: yea, background is way too eye catching. Although, I think it’s what brings personality to the site, It buries the logo and navigation and almost in fact everything else. And I do not like those glossy things in different sizes beside the avocado.
Well I guess we are all a little bit different. I actually like the menu alot and the slight reflectiveness, granted apple have a site with this effect but I don’t believe that should deter someone from styling around this theme, they use it clearly because it looks good, and so can you. Secondly I actually remember the bear very well, well designed simple elegant, its actually your name imho that lets you do “studio 7 designs” just seems so….run of the mill, its for me at least just isn’t at all unique. Don’t feel i am being harsh here, just merely offering you my 2 cents so to speak of.
hmm i re-read the above and it sounds like I am being harsh. Once again, I think the bear itself looks great, naming wise I think you should re-brand, but grants 10-100 of thousands of dollars may have already gone into this name when it comes to advertising so you may be a touch hesistant, but remember companies do this sort of thing a fair amount, so its not completely uncommon!
its actually your name imho that lets you do “studio 7 designs” just seems so….run of the mill, its for me at least just isn’t at all unique. Don’t feel i am being harsh here, just merely offering you my 2 cents so to speak of. —-?????
so you may be a touch hesistant, but remember companies do this sort of thing a fair amount, so its not completely uncommon—-??????