Michelle Kirkbride

Website redesign for my own personal website kaplang.com

By Michelle Kirkbride

   on Aug 25, 2009
9 Reviews-2 Votes0 Favorites345 Views

Concept Reviews

  • Ted Goas

    Ted Goas

    Rank: 2 Titan

    554

    • Design: 3
    • Purpose: 3
    • Originality: 2
    • Engagement: 2
    3 Votes
    Simplify and Spread Out

    Posted on Aug 25, 2009 at 2:12 PM

    You have some great content, but to have it all on one page is cluttered and overkill. Consider breaking out your content types into separate pages, especially your services (which will rank individually SEO wise, but will fight each other if on the same page).

    You also have a lot of button and a few main menus on the same page, kinda confusing.

  • Corinne Ducusin

    Corinne Ducusin

    Rank: 1 Elite

    861

    • Design: 3
    • Purpose: 3
    • Originality: 2
    • Engagement: 2
    1 Vote
    Break content into several pages

    Posted on Aug 25, 2009 at 7:43 PM

    I see that you're going for almost a one page website but that is too much content for only one page. If you decide to add more pages, the menu bar with "Home" and "Content" should be placed at the top with the logo. A different color could be chosen as black just does fit well with your chosen colors.

    Your most important contact information like your phone number or email can stay at the top but everything else should be in the contact page.

    Lastly, you're right in feeling that it's cluttered. To remove the clutter, move content to other pages and then add negative space!

    • Corinne Ducusin
      Corinne Ducusin commented:
      Posted: on Aug 25, 2009 at 7:49 PM

      Okay so I should have visited the website before writing a review. It should have been obvious to me that the four boxes linking to each of your service were also navigational elements. I also noticed that you have a summary for each of your services. I think this a little redundant so I think you should just remove the top most service boxes and keep the summarized portions.

  • Josh Nielsen

    Josh Nielsen

    Rank: 2 Titan

    193

    • Design: 1
    • Purpose: 2
    • Originality: 1
    • Engagement: 1
    0 Votes
    the styles are disconnected

    Posted on Aug 25, 2009 at 8:05 PM

    It seems to me that aside from needing to break up your site, your styles are disconnected. You have a smooth creamy header at the top but then a web 2.0 glossy navbar. Your services sections seems a little "clip-art" to me. Then you have a Welcome banner that is an entirely new color and style. I think you should consolidate to a simple few colors and a cohesive style. I am partial to the creamy style that you have in the top with your logo. Your contact info should be in the footer or on another page, not in the header. People are interested in what you do first, then they will worry about contacting you.

  • luke Holderness

    luke Holderness

    Rank: 10 Newbie

    9

    • Design: 3
    • Purpose: 4
    • Originality: 3
    • Engagement: 1
    0 Votes
    Be more concise

    Posted on Aug 26, 2009 at 4:08 AM

    I like the top 25% but there is way too much information. Set a few clear messages and then simplify the homepage. Add some sections and spread the content around

  • Joel Acevedo

    Joel Acevedo

    Rank: 1 Elite

    1574

    • Design: 2
    • Purpose: 3
    • Originality: 2
    • Engagement: 2
    0 Votes
    Services section

    Posted on Aug 29, 2009 at 8:19 PM

    The design is not bad but looks like an old website from the late 1990s/ beginning 2000s.

    The Services section can be better. Try to simplify the design and reorganize all your content.

    Don't forget to use the grid system and whitespace.

  • Mark Ong

    Mark Ong

    Rank: 2 Titan

    702

    • Design: 1
    • Purpose: 2
    • Originality: 3
    • Engagement: 1
    0 Votes
    Overall Usability

    Posted on Sep 02, 2009 at 7:39 AM

    Your header where your contact information is, is very misleading. They will very easily be mistaken for main navigational buttons. This also renders your black navigation bar extremely out of place.

    As with other comments, and contrary to what you believe is needed, you DO NOT NEED all the information on the homepage. Countless user behavioral studies and heat maps have shown that no one bothers with all that content, especially on the homepage. Users want to find something that relates to them, click on it, then find out more.

    you may also have made a mistake on the top half layout: your image banners are: web, pay, graphic, SEO. Your colored boxes below that are web, pay, search, graphic. Both rows of which don't line up with each other.

    Finally for the main content layout, if you're not using the left column for sub navigation, I'd suggest you move your main content to the left, and the additional adds/banners/panels to the right. This was, users can focus on your content FIRST, then look for any other value-add on the right.

  • Tellesman

    Tellesman

    Rank: 6 Apprentice

    181

    • Design: 3
    • Purpose: 3
    • Originality: 3
    • Engagement: 3
    0 Votes
    Reducing clutter will bring more traffic.

    Posted on Sep 03, 2009 at 12:46 PM

    Wow, there is definitely a lot going on there. I like your images and color contrasts. I really like the Web Design, Pay Per Click, etc. column headers. Shortening the lenghty of the page and spreading the information across multiple pages (or using a drop down menu to navigate) would help the flow of the site.

  • Kris Sauquillo

    Kris Sauquillo

    Rank: 3 Superior

    98

    • Design: 3
    • Purpose: 4
    • Originality: 1
    • Engagement: 1
    0 Votes
    KISS: Keep it Simple Stupid

    Posted on Aug 25, 2009 at 2:22 PM

    Make the 4 main points stick out more (web design, ppc, seo, graphic design). When I first looked at this I didn't really get the feeling that they were the main attractions. I thought they were just extra gimmicks. Try and cut down the paragraph descriptions, too. Shorten it all down to a few engaging words in a bigger font size. Put all the other information that is below the fold on separate pages also.

  • Ryan Elliott Turner

    Ryan Elliott Turner

    Rank: 2 Titan

    168

    • Design: 3
    • Purpose: 4
    • Originality: 3
    • Engagement: 2
    0 Votes
    Simplify

    Posted on Aug 25, 2009 at 1:57 PM

    Best maxim: "simplify, simplify"

    I like the top navigation area and the logo. Doesn't really speak for what you do, but it feels good. I thought the top was navigation at first though, you might want to make it looks less "link-y".

    Optimization is misspelled below the header.

    The stock photography in the 4 buttons is too stock. Find pictures that better suit the need, or modify them to do so.

    The search bar feels out of place. For a design that requires only a few pages, why is a search necessary? It also doesn't "flow" with the rest of the design; looks like it's cut and pasted from something else.

    On the "tags" that say web design, pay perclick, etc, the first word looks bad stretched as it is. Find a font that allows Graphic to fit within the boundaries, and then just align the rest to the right so as to be centered in the entire "tag", not just the white area.

    Remove some of the text in each "tag" description, it's too rich.

    Remove some of the content. It's just too much for one page. This is a home page, not a glossary or book synopsis.

    Overall, simplify things.

    • Michelle Kirkbride
      Posted: on Aug 25, 2009 at 2:09 PM

      To be honest the search bar and overall navigation on this site has been my main problem so thanks for the feedback I have taken it on board and will keep working on my design. I have also removed a lot of content and created another page for it but I do really think the site needs to become a little bit more simple looking :)