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muskoka
Posts: 6
Joined: 2/2/2008
Status: offline
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the benefit of your expertise, please... - 2/4/2008 20:02:52
criticism would be greatly appreciated...
www.intuitiveportraiture.com
thank-you
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Tailslide
Posts: 5775
Joined: 5/10/2005
From: Out here on the raggedy edge
Status: online
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RE: the benefit of your expertise, please... - 2/5/2008 2:35:11
Weeelll... honestly?
I don't like the background colour at all. I think you need a calmer more contemplative colour - that mustardy orange just seems to flatten everything.
You've got 3 different page layout - the Splash page, the About us page single column and the frames page. I don't like frames - they're not user-friendly for people but that aside you've got an ugly black line separating the different frames - maybe you can change that.
The single column page layout is fine in itself BUT you've got a thin central column that looks like it would fit on a 800px wide screen without scrollbars except it doesn't. You need to get rid of all those blockquotes. The central area should be around 760px wide and then you centralise that table/div whatever you're using.
Also with that layout your navigation is hard to read as you've got white lettering against a pale grey background - I'd go with the simpler look that you're using on the frames pages.
Finally - were you hoping to get reasonable results with search engines or is that not an issue?
If it is an issue then you'll find that you'll get better results using H1 tags for the main heading on the page (e.g. your name) rather than all those font and styling tags. Search engines like H1 tags - they recognise that their content is important. Also, although you obviously want a simple splash page - it would probably benefit from maybe a bit more text explaining exactly what you do partly for the search engines and partly for the people!
That looks like a horrible long list but actually it's all fairly fixable.
_____________________________
"My strategy is so simple an idiot could have devised it"
Little Blue Plane Web Design | Blood, Sweat & Rust - A Land Rover restoration project
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muskoka
Posts: 6
Joined: 2/2/2008
Status: offline
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RE: the benefit of your expertise, please... - 2/6/2008 9:37:04
Great feedback, thank-you.
I don't understand why the scrollbars come up, as those pages are only 600px's wide. By "blockquotes", is that a consideration for space somehow, or for grammar?
I will eventually redesign the gallery page without frames, but it does make it easy to add new portraits. For now, I've redesigned my nav bars so that all pages after index are more consistent and gotten rid of the black line on the gallery page.
Also... are meta-tags and H1 tags the same thing? Could I have made that question sound any more newbie?
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muskoka
Posts: 6
Joined: 2/2/2008
Status: offline
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RE: the benefit of your expertise, please... - 2/6/2008 9:46:34
Unfortunately the work I do doesn't photograph well (I should say that I can't photograph them well). I spent a week in photoshop trying out compromises between contrast/graininess. However, the portraits I'm working on now are higher contrast to begin with.
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Tailslide
Posts: 5775
Joined: 5/10/2005
From: Out here on the raggedy edge
Status: online
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RE: the benefit of your expertise, please... - 2/6/2008 9:47:12
quote:
ORIGINAL: muskoka
Also... are meta-tags and H1 tags the same thing? Could I have made that question sound any more newbie?
 Don't worry - we've all been there! No Meta tags exist in the document head rather than the actual page whereas H1 tags are HTML tags that exist in the page body itself in the same way that you get paragraphs, lists, divs, tables etc. What you do is instead of having a paragraph with your heading text in it plus a load of styling - you have h1 tags around the heading text and then you can style the H1 tag to look exactly how you want (it's big and ugly by default).
The central part of the page might be 600px wide but it's sitting within a div and a table that are 100% width - plus there are a load of blockquote tags (which should only be used to indent quotes) indenting the navigation and they stick out quite a bit on either side of the navigation giving the scrollbar.
Your best bet is to get rid of all those blockquotes. Then make the outer table the width you want (say 600px wide) and centre it by adding
style="margin:0 auto;
to the table tag itself as you don't appear to have a stylesheet.
Like this:
<body bgcolor="#FFCC66"><!--msnavigation--><table align="center" dir="ltr" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="600" ><tr><!--msnavigation--><td valign="top">
<div align="center">
<center>
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" bordercolor="#999999" width="600" id="AutoNumber2" bgcolor="#999999">
<tr>
<td width="16%" bgcolor="#999999">
<p align="center"><font color="#808080">
<a href="index.htm" style="text-decoration: none"><font color="#FFFFFF">HOME</font></a></font></td>
<td width="16%" bgcolor="#999999">
<p align="center"><font color="#808080">
<a style="text-decoration: none" href="intuitive_portraiture.htm">
<font color="#FFFFFF">ABOUT</font></a></font></td>
<td width="17%" bgcolor="#999999">
<p align="center"><font color="#808080">
<a style="text-decoration: none" href="gallery.htm">
<font color="#FFFFFF">GALLERY</font></a></font></td>
<td width="17%" bgcolor="#999999">
<p align="center"><font color="#808080">
<a style="text-decoration: none" href="artist.htm"><font color="#FFFFFF">ARTIST</font></a></font></td>
<td width="17%" bgcolor="#999999">
<p align="center"><font color="#808080">
<a style="text-decoration: none" href="contact.htm">
<font color="#FFFFFF">CONTACT</font></a></font></td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
</div>
<div align="center">
<center>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="1" style="border-collapse: collapse" bordercolor="#111111" width="600" id="AutoNumber3">
<tr>
<td>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="punctuation-wrap: simple; text-autospace: none" align="center" dir="ltr">
INTUITIVE PORTRAITURE</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="punctuation-wrap: simple; text-autospace: none" align="justify" dir="ltr">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.0pt">A portrait “sitting” consists of
either an in-person 1-hour consultation in a location chosen by the portrait
subject, or as a guided
<a title="Digital Diary Instructions" href="digital_diary_instructions.htm">
digital diary</a> made by the subject (if geography is a consideration). The
best location for this is one in which you feel most like yourself, be it a work
location, a garden/outdoor location, a certain room of your home, </span>
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt">or </span>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.0pt">a neutral
public meeting space. During the in-person sitting, I will prepare the
portrait surface/background. I might ask you to answer some basic
questions </span>
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt">(see <a href="sitting_questionnaire.htm">sitting
questionnaire</a>) </span>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.0pt">designed to help me identify with my subject.<br>
<br>
The portraits are <i>not</i> done in typical representational style simply
reproducing the subject as they are seen from day-to-day, but more like a series
of characters embodying influential and motivational forces or persons in the
subject’s life. Some may symbolize times of happiness while others may describe
challenges or adversity. These characters could be described as totems or
emblems and often emerge as animals. The process is intuitive in the sense that
I know very little about the subject and trust my artistic sensitivity to guide
the development of the portrait. I advise participants against providing
information about specific names or relationship to the subject. The characters
emerge from intuitive impressions resulting from the short time the subject and
I spend together, or from the subject’s digital diary, as the case may be.<br>
<br>
The portraits I produce are intended as a personal illustration of</span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt">
-</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.0pt"> and for</span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt">
-</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.0pt"> the
subject. I work on ranger board in an oval format, drawing mostly. They are not
intended as idealized “trophies,” although visual references of triumph or
accomplishment may appear in portraits. I see my role in the process as that of
an objective reporter in portraying the subject, but as an artist, there will be
evidence of my own stylistic expression in the final product.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="punctuation-wrap: simple; text-autospace: none">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.0pt">I include a literal
interpretation of the portrait content with the finished piece.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="punctuation-wrap: simple; text-autospace: none">
<span style="font-size: 11pt" lang="en-us"><i>For ordering information, please
see the </i><a href="contact.htm">CONTACT</a><i> page</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="punctuation-wrap: simple; text-autospace: none">
<b>N.B.</b><br>
I do not do portraits of children or pets, and...<br>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.0pt">I make no claims to psychic ability, nor do I claim that these portraits
are tools for healing or spiritual guidance.</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
</div>
<!--msnavigation--></td></tr><!--msnavigation--></table><!--msnavigation--><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td>
<p>
</p>
</td></tr><!--msnavigation--></table></body>
</html>
< Message edited by Tailslide -- 2/6/2008 9:54:30 >
_____________________________
"My strategy is so simple an idiot could have devised it"
Little Blue Plane Web Design | Blood, Sweat & Rust - A Land Rover restoration project
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nhe101
Posts: 4
Joined: 4/8/2008
Status: offline
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RE: the benefit of your expertise, please... - 4/8/2008 20:47:49
Maybe it is just me, but the yellow color background is little bit too much to me. Take a while for my eyes to adjust it. May think about dividing the page into areas instead of using only a yellow background.
The About page looks bit dull to me. How about adding some pictures in the middle of text descriptions?
And the Gallery page is inconsistent with all the rest pages, because of the scrolling bar on the left.
PS. Comments are based on the knowledge learned from my study of E-commerce course as an Internet Applications Programmer student.
nhe101
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