RE: please critique dHTML site

Hi,
The white box appears correctly, I think, on mine, WinXP, IE 6.0.

I was mislead by the 'industrial strength' part, thinking the design was
for an industrial site (you know surfers only skim read!) but was
surprised by the look for a web design company: the colors are not
complementary at all and the typography (serif on screen is hard to
read) does not stand out in a way I would expect for someone advertising
typography skills! 

It looks like a first mockup to me, a bit sparse on content, and needs
to be populated with, if not images, then some more high impact text or
color.  You are right in thinking a site does not have to have complex
graphics to look good.  For an example of a simple no image, colorful
design, look at fontshop.com.  In using color, they opted for contrast,
which has impact.

Content wise the copy is good, although the text on Anna Marie needs
more clarity;
"9 years at the Chicago Reader taught her how to produce, and a year as
Art Director of NewCity put her in charge. As a partner in HarmCo and an
independent freelancer, she's done advertising through Web site design."

The part on put her in charge sort of ends abruptly, and then the
advertising through web site design just doesn't say anything to me,
perhaps it is just me.

Otherwise the copy is really good and I like the clear concept of who,
what, where, when, and why.  I think 'why' should be backed up with some
examples of your work and I agree with a previous post that the 'how'
link is lost at the edge.

It is a nice liquid design, but I think the average user will not notice
this AS MUCH as a nice looking, clear, color-conscious design.  Don't
get me wrong, it is important, but so is concentrating on how people
'perceive' your design.  As a client, I look at your site as an example
of your approach to my site.  Would I want those fonts and colors?
However, the design style on the Marc PoKempnor site is very attractive
and is more in line with what I expect on a web designers site.

Finally, if you are going to use color as a design feature instead of
images, be careful in your use, because to some people color can gain
the opposite effect you are intending.

Good concept and technical base, I would let your design enhance, rather
than override these features.

Cheers
Lori Leugers
Web and Multimedia Designer
http://www.lolamediadesign.com

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-hwg-critique(at)hwg.org [mailto:owner-hwg-critique(at)hwg.org] On
Behalf Of Burt Maass
Sent: Monday, 21 October 2002 06:27 PM
To: hwg-critique
Subject: please critique dHTML site

Hi, I'd love to get some feedback on:

http://harmco.home.netcom.com/

Bugs? Comments? Tips?

  TIA -b

=====
Burt Maass
Freelance Web Developer/Designer
http://pweb.netcom.com/~burtmaass/
burtmaass(at)ix.netcom.com

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