Feedback, please, on new site

Cut as much of the text on the front page as possible. Get your visitor to where they need to be as quickly as possible. Don’t make them read! In my view simplifying this will look more confident and businesslike as well as bring the design in.

I think it’s great! Very striking.

However, I’d get rid of your navigation instructions on the front page completely.

In my opinion these instructions just clutters your page up, plus most people today are web-savvy and understand how to navigate a site. Plus, if I were a normal user of your site I’d feel quite irritated by someone telling me how to click on a link and get round what is actually a pretty basic (in a good sense!) site.

Just my thoughts! ??

At first I didn’t have any instructions, and someone went there and didn’t know how to get anywhere. It is actually currently displaying the error page on the front since I don’t have any blog entries, but it seems like you think i shouldn’t have any blog entries. So I guess I’ll remove the instructions.

If I were to add another page to my site, how could i have the navigation?

How about just a “please be welcome, take a look through my portfolio and resume” post? And be sure to use links to those pages within the post body.

As far as the design goes – I’ve always hated that theme because it’s so bor-r-r-innnnng. And “old” looking. I don’t know any other way to describe it – Maybe to say that it looks like a site that was built in 1995? Yes, that’s it.

I really just don’t like the theme you used to play with things…

Have you tried going to https://themes.wordpress.net and taken a look through there for something more, as you put it, “lively”?

Yes, I have looked through all of the themes. That’s where I found the one I’m using. Other themes did not fit the purpose of the site, which is to provide a clear representation of what I have done.

I disagree that it is 1995-looking. Web design these days is moving towards simplicity in design in navigation. I think it is old-looking to have drop-shadows, as in your logo, or bunches of links together, or bunches of boxes of links.

How did google become popular? With design that is easy to use and isn’t busy with links or other unneeded information.

Okay folks…. let’s not get into that sort of back and forth stuff, okay? mindfeck, if you ask for opinions, you’ll likely get those you don’t want as well as those you do. Try to just roll with it, okay? Everyone’s ideal of “looks great!” is different….

testy testy, you DID ask for feedback…

You explain three times how to navigate..

if you have to work that hard to get ppl to click, you need to rethink what youre doing. Change the standard color of the links in the top menu (rather than having them be the same color as the text) so that they stand out. Remove the Navigation hints. Links _ought_ to stand out enough that you dont need to tell ppl what to click.

and while i guess its “nice” i dont see the purpose of the linked header.. you have nothing on your index.php to go back to, other than 2 links and 3 things explaining where they are.

also, whats the search for?

the portfolio page doesnt validate. the link in the footer says that it does.

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honestly, i think its sort of boring too, but for what you are using it for, it prolly works just fine. It just seems like the front page is full of useless filler, and well, it is.

Actually I just had a few choices up on my site on which to use and I was looking for feedback. Most of my questions were not answered which are: Should I not have any blog? Considering I want to use this theme, is there a way I can add to the navigation while keeping it clean?

I responded to your original question.

“…I’m not sure about the design… Do you have any suggestions about how to make it look livelier…”

I was trying to be helpful by providing a link to where you could find a design that “looked livelier”. I personally happen to not like that theme. I don’t like the fonts used in it. Those are what make it look “old” in my eyes.

As far as your “attack” on my site – I didn’t ask you. You asked us. No one says you have to listen to me, my personal investment in you or your site is nil. I don’t care, since it’s your site. I do care about helping people who ask for it though, so that’s what I did.

You don’t want ALL opinions, don’t ask here.

To answer your latest questions (which were not your original questions, because this latest post of yours was the first time you asked them):

“Should I not have any blog?”
That’s up to you. What would you blog about? If you’re trying to get hired in a specific industry, maybe blog about that industry to share your opinions on things so that those who may look there to hire you can see if you’d “fit in” with their style of thinking.

For the sake of having content, which would help your site in the search engines if that’s a concern, then yes, you should find a topic to blog about and do it. Again, the choice is yours. However without a blog, what’s the point of using WordPress for just two pages anyway?

“Considering I want to use this theme, is there a way I can add to the navigation while keeping it clean?”
I’d take the line out of the footer: “You have two choices:” Sounds snobbish to me. And if you’re NOT going to use the blog, take out the subscribe links. There’d be nothing for them to subscribe to.

If you’re not using sidebars, the only way to add navigation is at the header or footer. I actually like the wording you used in the header, but in the footer I’d just put them “Resume” “Portfolio” and be done with it.

Again, it’s my opinion, but that would be “clean” which again appears to be the advice you’re looking for. Clean = minimal. (Which is not what I was critiquing before – it was the layout and the font I’m not fond of. Of course Google’s home page is nice. But it’s not the reason people use Google. (And it does have color, a drop shadow in the logo, and a much more simple font.)

Anyway, I said enough, and given the way you reacted before, none of it will probably matter. But you need to know that the main reason people are here are to either get help or give it. Not to insult others, so don’t take things so personally.

Yeah, look up, I did ask those questions before. And I didn’t attack your site, I was saying that your idea of a new looking site does not match my idea. I could also easily change the font in the theme without using a different theme. In addition, I know that not everything on the page is exact. Taking out the rss feed if I don’t have a blog is obvious to me. I made a few changes, and I’ll make a few more.

mindfeck, you should learn one basic lesson:
when you ask people to give their opinion about your site – just shut up and don’t argue with every poster.
Read them, say thank you, and apply whatever you find useful.

Don’t ask for opinions if you are decided to stubbornly “defend” your postition.

I did incorporate people’s opinions. I replied why I disagreed with some opinions, especially when they gave vague and unsubstantiated arguments.

For my portfolio page, wordpress puts the p and /p tags in places that I don’t want it to. I fix it in the html editor, and then it changes back anyway. I have tried turning off the rich visual editor, and that hasn’t helped. There are no p tags when I check the plain editor (with rich visual editing turned off). What can I do to make it validate?

There isn’t much to say about it, sorry to say. It’s basically just “naked” and boring.. =/

I’ll have to agree with the above posters though, if ya can’t handle the suggestions, opinions and so forth.. don’t ask for them then.. ??

Good luck with it..

spencerp

There isn’t much at all to look at, or look for.. my as well just scrap it then.. =P