http://www.integrait.net

Hi,

I would like you to take a look at design and layout. i got enc type validator error in w3c, haven't fixed yet.

i am just-out-of-school web developer looking for job and freelancing in meantime thru this site. the forum link takes you to a canned phpBB forum that i am using right now, i have been working on a CF forum for a while now, but think that all the work may be for no reason when you can just DL one for free (or does this look bad on a developer's site?).

anyway...here's the site.http://www.integrait.net

all comments/criticisms welcome.

Thanks!

I think the site looks quite good, it works well in Mozilla, you provide image links and text links for the navigation, the colours are bold and easy on the eye (no clashing of colours).

Why did you choose to go with phpBB for the forums? There are better (as in more secure and more features) packages available. You should have a look at this thread from the Devshed Lounge.

glad to hear you like the look of the site. i chose phpBB without any research into the best board, actually. i may end up finishing my ColdFusion forum that i have been working on.

The site loads slowly for me. I'm using Mozilla Firebird v0.6; I have cable @ home, and multiple T1's at work. This might be an issue for other users as well - I would be concerned enough about this to investigate it further, esp. for users w/ dialup.

While the mouseover images coordinated w/ the right-hand navigation menu are attractive, they are also distracting. It is counter-intuitive to have to look at one place on the page to navigate the menu, while looking at another place on the page to read the section descriptions. This isn't critical a make-or-break kind of issue, more of a 'beginner's' design flaw. I would think of a way to bring the section descriptions closer to the menu (perhaps in a popup <div> over the menu, slightly to the right) or drop the idea altogether.

Conversely, when I mouseover the images themselves, I fully expect the images to change and a description to appear.

I would change the name of the 'our rates' section. I think you've done the right thing by not pricing your services online - however, the section name is misleading, as I would expect your prices to be published (since thats what the section name implies) and got a little annoyed when they weren't.

Your contact page should not have email addresses listed - it should be a form, as well as a phone number.

Why? Two reasons. 1.) Using a form prevents email harvesting spiders from collecting your email addresses and sending them to spam lists; 2.) Posting an email as your contact page is *very* low tech. As a potential customer, this is another area to show us your whiz-bang coding/design skills; posting an email address is a cop-out.

I would put the sections in a different order, as well:
Portfolio
Our Rates (renamed, of course- probably to "Services" or something discriptive of what you do)
About Us
Forum (I would rethink having a forum on your site as well...)
Contact Us

Drop the 'home' button. Clicking on the logo should bring me 'home' - otherwise, use a breadcrumb trail.

awesome. thanks for all of the advice, very good. i have thought of some of the changes myself, and to have them reinforced will prompt me to go thru with them.

i will look into the loading time, i don't think that the page is too heavy, it may be that my host is slow...it has been in the past at times.

anyway, i appreciate the time that you took, and the advice you offered.

Well the images weigh in at just under 140kb... thats a lot to download for the homepage. That would take about 20 seconds to download on a normal 56K modem, well past the general 8 second rule. Generally you want to aim for a total of about half that.

ok, i will take a look at this. shouldn't be too hard to make the images smaller file sizes. thanks for the heads up.

You're welcome.

It was slow loading at first and I am on broadband. It looks clean. I like it.

well, i got the loading time under control, and took care of some of the other changes that were mentioned.

still thinking about whether or not to take the forum off.

If the forum is something you developed, leave it up there to show off your skillz (I haven't looked at it, so I don't know).

Forums can be a double-edged sword - the last thing in the world you want is some troll getting on there saying that your services suck eggs or something, and then to have that read by a prospective client. You could always moderate each post, but who has time for that?

very good point about the possibility of negative posts. and in fact the forum began as something to showoff (i was developing one in CF), but then i got busy, and just got kinda sick of working on it ALL of the time, so i threw in a canned one.