ZoomConcept Reviews
Summary:
Design not good. Loads in time.
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Eric Mayfield commented:Yeah Chris that is kind of crazy. The guy is obviously just trying to meet his minimum so he can start posting concepts. I'm amazed people voted for this seeing as it absolutely doesn't help at all. It also amazingly jacked up his reputation. He had like 30 rep when he first started. I wouldn't be amazed if he didn't create multiple accounts just to vote for his own reviews. You'll also notice I think his account got deleted. http://www.conceptfeedback.com/user/10535/rajat-kumar-biswal/
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Penn Folio commented:I've seeing a lot of this lately, seeing some fake accounts and this is becoming an issue in CF...
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Eric Mayfield commented:
Yeah it sucks
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Minor Problem on http://www.visiblycreative.com 1 Remove Get Started from the nav bar. It's the same page as Contact Us -
Eric Mayfield commented:
Well my idea here was to make this more or less be a page that has some information about getting started with the services. It will essentially be a contact us page with more leverage than the simpler Contact Us page. I may do away with this concept altogether though.
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Maite Picado commented:I understand your point. My advice is use the info you wanted to put on the get started page on the home page.
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Eric Mayfield commented:
What do you think of having a short request form on the homepage? Name, email, phone or maybe even just name & email?
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Maite Picado commented:
That is a good idea but make sure the user knows exactly why he should provide his contact info (name + email is enough). In other words, the services you provide need to be clear and concise and your call to action very strong.
2 I would remove it from the bottom of the page. -
Eric Mayfield commented:
Do you mean move it or completely remove it?
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Maite Picado commented:
I meant remove it completely.
3 the bottom arrow on your site looks awkward. Add more news or reduce the box size. -
Eric Mayfield commented:
Yeah well for starters adding more news will help. Also I think I'm going to remove completely the auto scrolling function.
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Maite Picado commented:
As a start, you can put the news on the home page. After a while, if you have a lot of news, have a special page for it.
Minor Problem on http://www.visiblycreative.com/page/what_we_do 1 All the icons are great. The Sale graphic could use brighter colors. The look and feel doesn’t match the rest of the icons and doesn’t look as good. Minor Problem on http://www.visiblycreative.com/category/blog 1 Treat the nav bar as links (underline). 2 Align with Copyright line. Serious Problem on http://www.visiblycreative.com/page/what_we_do 1 Use lower case. Critical Problem on http://www.visiblycreative.com 1 Slider should be activated by user. It’s a bit annoying to have images changing constantly. 2 Avoid justified text, it gives the page a Newspaper feel and creates too much white space between words. -
Eric Mayfield commented:
The only problem is it looked horrible when it was normal justification.
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Maite Picado commented:
I would align the text to the frame of the pictures. Would a sans-serif font work better?
Critical Problem on http://www.visiblycreative.com/page/what_we_do 1 Make it look like a link. 2 Too much white space 3 These tabs link to the same portfolio. They should link to corresponding category. 4 These buttons should not have the same treatment as the left nav bar tabs (color, box). The Get Started button is not explicit enough. It gives the impression that the user is going to start designing. Would be better to say Contact Us Now or something similar. Your call to action has to be clear and straightforward. -
Eric Mayfield commented:
Agreed
Critical Problem on http://www.visiblycreative.com/portfolio 1 Technology Used / Link to Site: user won’t see the information unless they mouse hover the area. Provide clear indication. -
Eric Mayfield commented:
Actually I'm wanting to completely scrap the portfolio and come up with a new system. Any advice?
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Maite Picado commented:
What about a slider with smaller snapshots of your work? When users click on a slide, a bigger snapshot displays on the screen, below the slider with some explanations. Here is an example: http://www.fathom.net/our-website-graphic-design-work.php?projectID=74&categoryID=Web
Positive Feature on http://www.visiblycreative.com 1 Beautiful logo, nice, clean and simple New Idea on http://www.visiblycreative.com 1 Should be darker for better contrast/readability 2 Use lower case. Separate words by using more space or vertical line. And yes, I would definitely use drop down menus. You want users to have access to the information from all pages. There is no “Home” tab!!! 3 Because of the treatment of your buttons, I would align them all. -
Eric Mayfield commented:
Agreed!
Summary:
Hi Eric, This is a good start. The design is great: logo, colors, icons, graphics and overall the look and feel is clean. However, there are some improvements that need to be made regarding the copy and the layout. You need to have a clear call to action on the home page and a brief explanation of what type of service you can offer. Avoid the use of capital letters throughout the site!
Regarding the portfolio, my suggestion is to use a slider with thumbnails of your samples on top of the page and have a larger picture of the thumbnail that the user selects showing underneath the slider.
I went to your site so here are additional comments:
Who we are page: Don’t scream at the users! Dream, visualize & create: gives the impression that the user will dream, visualize and create.
Get Started page: alignment. Type on top of flags: readability issue. Reduce the flag width and have the contact info to the right.
Form: When placing the cursor on the text fields, the label disappear. It’s better usability to place the label on top of the text field. Fill out form text: place it on top of the form and contact information.
I hope this help.
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Eric Mayfield commented:
Great points thanks so much for the advice!
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Eric Mayfield commented:
I forgot to add I asked a few questions throughout your comments, not sure if CF sends emails for those or not anymore I know there are some weird issues with CF's email system.
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Maite Picado commented:
Eric, I saw your comments and provided answers to some of them so CF is still sending emails.
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Minor Problem on http://www.visiblycreative.com 1 Because this page has good alignment I would make these buttons line up. At the moment it looks like an accident. -
Eric Mayfield commented:
Good call!
2 Do you really need this? You do a good job of introducing yourself at the top with the tag line. Having this section here is superfluous. -
Eric Mayfield commented:
Any ideas or suggestions to replace this?
Minor Problem on http://www.visiblycreative.com/portfolio 1 This page is too long to navigate. I agree with Maite Picado's suggestion - a set of thumbnails and sliders would improve things considerably. -
Eric Mayfield commented:
I think I agree. Going to do some research and redo this completely.
Minor Problem on http://www.visiblycreative.com/category/blog 1 Because you have a strong navigation at the top, I wouldn't repeat the links here. It's redundant and just makes the site feel like it has been built from a template. Serious Problem on http://www.visiblycreative.com/category/blog 1 If the Blog is coming soon, I wouldn't link to it. Nothing is more frustrating then clicking on a link and being presented with a coming soon page. Critical Problem on http://www.visiblycreative.com/page/what_we_do 1 "Get started" is a terrible choice of words for this link. As an end user, I would not click on it, as it makes think I will have to fill out a long form or set something up. Having a "Get Started" page is redundant, as it's just a quote page. If the end user wants a quote, then they would click on "Contact Us". Therefore, I would merge the "Get Started" and "Contact Us" into on page. This would reduce page clutter and be a much more logical approach. Positive Feature on http://www.visiblycreative.com 1 Love the use of colour. It stands out and catches my attention without being overpowering. Great! -
Eric Mayfield commented:
Thanks!
Positive Feature on http://www.visiblycreative.com/page/what_we_do 1 Excellent Icons: They are very eye-catching. I think if you place them in 3 columns then the user will be captivated by them and will make the effort to read the text. -
Eric Mayfield commented:
Not sure what you mean place them in 3 columns?
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Eric Mayfield commented:
Ignore that question above, I see what you mean now.
New Idea on http://www.visiblycreative.com 1 This page has strong alignment, but this box doesn't match up. It looks very accidental and like a mistake. -
Eric Mayfield commented:
No that box is the full width of the screen always. These screen shots are not very wide Also since I use a white background it blends with CF's white background and makes it look like the slideshow background has a set width.
2 These paragraphs don't work for two reasons. Firstly, they are too long. They need to be short and snappy and get to the point. Secondly, the typography is weak. The use of Times looks very amateurish and the line spacing is too much, which makes them look like a chore to read. If you are going to use a serif font, trying using the CSS3 @font-face techniques, so you can use a font that is not Times. -
Chris Wieckowski commented:
except it's palatino
3 Again this section seems redundant as you are showing your work in the pink box at the top. Having these redundant sections spoil the design as they make it feel like it has come from a template. New Idea on http://www.visiblycreative.com/page/what_we_do 1 The icons are great but this page is far too long. The text is also too wordy, you need to make it more snappy and to the point. I would consider displaying this in a 3 column grid. That way, the user can see what you have to offer at a glance. New Idea on http://www.visiblycreative.com/category/blog 1 I'd drop the "(s)". It looks odd. Plus, "imagination" should be singular. Summary:
The clean layout has been used countless times before, but I really like this design, as it stands out with the use of colour. The bright bold colours are inviting and they make me stop and take notice.
I agree with Maite Picado about the lack of a call to action. I have also put other minor areas to improve in my notes.
I think you need to concentrate on improving your text. You need to make it short, snappy and to the point.
But overall this is a good design with lots of potential. A bit of tweaking and it should be superb.
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Eric Mayfield commented:
What do you think about me making all the pages have drop down menus and taking away the sub navigation, like on What We Do to allow for more space. This way I might have room to do a 3 column layout such as I have done on the homepage?
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Eric Mayfield commented:
Thanks so much for your advice and kind words. If you don't mind I have a few questions from some of your comments. Thanks!! :)
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Minor Problem on http://www.visiblycreative.com 1 you should polish the logo, if you feel you can't get it better, maybe take out something and make it simple? -
Eric Mayfield commented:
Can you make any suggestions on this? To be honest you are the first person to ever comment negatively about the logo. I'd love to hear what ideas you have because at this point I have total "designers block" on this.
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Chris Wieckowski commented:
It has sort of hand-drawn look, but the 'rays' from the bulb are triangles, so there's a bit of dichotomy. IMO you should have 2 colors max. Besides the outline of the logo shows you much of empty space (above text). Maybe positioning text underneath and breaking it into two lines would be better. I'm talking out of experience here. A 'deformed' (couldn't find the right word) logo will cripple every design in the future no matter if it's business card, leaflet, poster etc.
2 This font stack doesn't work. Maybe you should choose one family serif and sans-serif font -
Eric Mayfield commented:
I agree I have been feeling for a while that the site needs a Font makeover.
3 Serves the same purpose as the slider. I think you should place something else here -
Eric Mayfield commented:
Well yes and no. The point of the slider is more to highlight specific projects I want to push at the top of the page. Problem is I haven't updated the content on the site in a while so it doesn't exactly make sense at the moment. When I push out round 2 I'd love your feedback on this area again.
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Chris Wieckowski commented:
IMO this area would be better developed if it contained social proof (testimonials) or list keywords for seo purposes. An interested customer will click portfolio in menu, not slide down to the bottom of the page to see small thumbnails.
Minor Problem on http://www.visiblycreative.com/page/what_we_do 1 These icons look like a clip art. Replace them. -
Eric Mayfield commented:
Yes one day in the near future I'm going to work directly with an awesome illustrator to come up with much better graphics.
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Chris Wieckowski commented:
There are dozens of free, high quality icons, you should pick them and not waste time ;)
2 In my opinion there's too much copy. SMB's are people who need react rather fast and you should keep the copy to a necessary minimum. -
Eric Mayfield commented:
I'll consider this for sure when rewriting the content.
3 Replication of menu functionality just underneath it. I has no right to be here -
Eric Mayfield commented:
This was a poor attempt at providing call to actions. ooopss..
Minor Problem on http://www.visiblycreative.com/portfolio 1 Displaying portfolio image after image is terrible. It serves nobody. Nor is it good for usability, nor does it help your designs to shine when they are next to each other. The colors and elements mix and it's mesmerizing. -
Eric Mayfield commented:
Yes! Agreed, in fact if you read my description I state "horrid portfolio". One of my goals with this listing was to get advice on how to best make the portfolio better. I've received overall bad reviews on this.
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Eric Mayfield commented:
Any advice?
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Chris Wieckowski commented:
You should check out codrops tutorials. They have some wicked fullscreen galleries made with jquery http://tympanus.net/codrops/
Serious Problem Who we are page
The column should be 60 chars max. Work on the font stacks and typography.-
Eric Mayfield commented:
Agreed
Serious Problem on http://www.visiblycreative.com 1 Look at alignment here, everything is out of order Critical Problem Color palette
It looks like sort of eye-candy, a bit worn out. I thing you should tweak it at least to appeal to your audience a bit more. Google 'muller formula'. Besides you have other colors in slider which completely destroy the layout. Remember that the color needs to perform a function.Critical Problem on http://www.visiblycreative.com 1 This is the same thing or is it just me? -
Eric Mayfield commented:
Get Started has plans to be reworked into a completely different page.
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Chris Wieckowski commented:
Think if you're not overcomplicating the thing ;)
New Idea on http://www.visiblycreative.com 1 Don't use caps in slogan, also make it bigger, maybe work on a better copy 2 bg: make it simple or make it totally shine. You're stuck somewhere in between and it doesn't look good. Either drop the gradients and patterns or make it stand out. Right now it looks quite common. menu: don't use caps, it's easier to read when it's regular text. Bigger spaces between elements might help too. -
Eric Mayfield commented:
What do you mean by "or make it shine"? So you are saying there is a way to still implement gradients, etc... while improving the readability?
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Chris Wieckowski commented:
I know that if you develop the gradients, patterns differently you can get better result. But the big question was stated in the summary - what style you want to pursue, because mixing them up will end with a disaster
New Idea on http://www.visiblycreative.com/portfolio 1 Hover panel: why is the title and tags aligned to right when the text is aligned to left? The panel should stand out more, cause it kind of mixes with the actual design. -
Eric Mayfield commented:
Yeah as I said before I want to redo the portfolio completely.
Summary:
You might be onto something. In my opinion you are stuck between different styles. If you want it to look like doodles and hand-crafted, go for it. If you want it to be shine or look like template - do so, but don't mix them because it looks bad.
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Eric Mayfield commented:
Chris thanks so much for the in-depth review. I've made comments to your various suggestions on the left, if you wouldn't mind reading through those and clearing up a few points you made that would be awesome.
Also wondering do you have any suggestions for navigation usability. I'm wanting to start adding more pages to all of the major categories and not sure if I should use drop down menus or else using a sub navigation technique like I did on What We Do section.
http://www.visiblycreative.com/page/whatwedo
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Chris Wieckowski commented:
Always a pleasure Eric. Actually I'm in the process of designing my business site. The information architecture is a headache, because you can't overcomplicate it. People will get freaked out. My solution is that I create drop down menus. The main link - say 'Print design" has sublinks "logo" and "posters". The print page about whole "print design" is actually one page, but the links point to a specific location on that page. This way people get specifics, but also have a way of discovering more of my services.
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Chris Wieckowski commented:
You could leave the secondary nav, but you should drop the colors. That's because they are all subcategories of your portfolio and their style suggests that these are completely other things. The colors are very strong and they seperate the elements instead of grouping them together.
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Serious Problem on http://www.visiblycreative.com 1 this is barely readable - why is it here? 2 Alignment is out by 2-3 pixels 3 really hard to read 4 kinda looks out of place on this deaign 5 Alignment issues - keep it to the grid 6 is this the footer? How many colors did you want on the homepage? 7 padding issues 8 justified text looks and reads funny on the web, stray away from it 9 wasted space 10 this ISN'T creative, just bland and a bit amateurish 11 wasted space Serious Problem on http://www.visiblycreative.com/page/what_we_do 1 Did a three year old design these? or was it microsoft? 2 White space is good, when used effectively - this is not 3 space and padding - it's needed here 4 consistency - it's needed here Critical Problem on http://www.visiblycreative.com 1 button sizes are incosistent 2 I went to live site and saw this in action and it's just so massive - so I would suggest make it a little smaller and changing the rollover state (a little bit, make the arrow less harsh and give the text and inner shadow of #000 0.5px all round) Critical Problem on http://www.visiblycreative.com/page/what_we_do 1 Lost in SPACE Critical Problem on http://www.visiblycreative.com/category/blog 1 EVERYTHING on the site is square and these are round - WTF? Critical Problem on http://www.visiblycreative.com/page/who_we_are 1 DON'T - this looks stupid Summary:
Eric
I trust that this finds you well, and that you don't take any of my critique personally, it's exactly what you asked for which is a review of my thoughts.
Things that I like: • Layout Things that I don't like: • Logo - it says "visibly creative" and portraits amateurish creativity, I believe someone else said make it either drawn or professional, that's irrelevant you can have both - but it needs to be done right, otherwise it looks like a cat's breakfast (which is what you have here) • Colors - yeah bright colors can be good, and they work on certain sites, but if you aren't going to step out of the square in the design, then don't be quite so brash with the color treatment... Try not to get colors that clash. • Typography - although I generally like the idea of using different types to break up the text, I believe fully that the nav and heading font should never be arial / or helvetica black (any other style - will add some class) I would use Georgia / chunkfive for heading with a textshadow of 1px and #000 on light colored headings and on black heading or even body text use trebuchetMS and a text shadow of 1px in #fff which will give it the effect of crisp in the page look, it will also increase readability.
See my notes.
Good Luck!
Serious Problem on http://www.visiblycreative.com/page/what_we_do 1 I like the sticker style, but the icon it self is too generic. You can also just see this style (sticker) here. Serious Problem on http://www.visiblycreative.com/page/who_we_are 1 not looking pretty. the serif font is looking out of place with all your san-serif fonts. Positive Feature on http://www.visiblycreative.com 1 I kinda like this how it behaves. Summary:
Hi Eric,
Most of what I'm gonna be saying has already been covered by Chris, Maite and Aaran. I think Chris review is really helpful... I'll just throw some of my ideas left.
To start with I agree with Chris that this style doesn't have consistency. You should at least pick one style and stick with. The logo isn't also working for me, colors are nice but it reminds me of kids that doodle.
The typography is too generic, you need to put some personality with your type. Pick a good font that can reflect creativity or your personality. Helvetica can be nice if executed right. Apparently it isn't looking nice here.
Colors, are nice its playful and vibrant and kinda reflects creativity. but you need to balance it properly. IMO, The black navigation bar is kinda out of place with all the colors.
Slider, I like what you did on your header/slider that the "View Portfolio" and "Get started" has a fixed position, while other elements are sliding. I also think "Get Started" isnt appropriate for it. Like Madhu said you can replace it with a contuct button.
Just see my notes for the areas i haven't covered above.
I would suggest to try to create a new mockup with new style. Take your time and wait till you get inspired, then let your creative juice flow in your work. IMO, the current design doesn't evoke creativity. Regarding structure, its pretty safe and functional but is also dull.
Goodluck Eric!
Minor Problem on http://www.visiblycreative.com 1 font doesnt work imho - probably not a web font too - 2 pl change this make it stand out New Idea on http://www.visiblycreative.com 1 doesnt fit in
12 votes?