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Please review my design for a self cert mortgage company

Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 7:42 pm
by wenczmastah
Hey everyone, I just recently finished a new design for the company am working with, i am still learning webdesign and I would love to get some feedback from fellow web designers
the website is : http://www.self-cert-mortgage-centre.co.uk (self cert mortgage company)


thanks a lot

Re: Please review my design for a self cert mortgage company

Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 10:01 am
by pickle
Document:
  • I'd recommend using a more recent, XHTML DOCTYPE. Certainly not required though. There's no harm in picking an old DOCTYPE, as long as you validate...
  • However, I see 26 validation errors on your homepage. You should fix that.
Header:
  • Don't use JPG for everything. Your logo will look much better (and probably be a smaller filesize) if you use a PNG or a GIF
  • Not sure you need to have "Self Cert Mortgage Centre" in the top right corner. Kind of seems like beating a dead horse.
  • I'd use text instead of the phone number image. Anywhere you have words, you should have text - better for SEO & smaller download size.
Tabs:
  • I like the look - very clear
  • Don't use <b> tags. Use <strong> instead.
  • I'm not sure if you are, but sprites are always a good idea for tab background images
Homepage:
  • The top graphics are mis-aligned.
  • The shadow looks cut-off
  • Body text & headers are very clear - well thought out colour choice
  • However, the link colour is too similar. I'd recommend making orange your link colour.
  • The images on the left can easily be turned into <div>s and text, rather than full images. My first, gut reaction to them is that the designer was just a Photoshop junkie that doesn't know how to code properly. Convert them to text & background images (for example, for the shadow) and they'll be more flexible for the future, quicker to download, and parsable by search engines.
  • If you're using orange for a link colour, make only links that orange colour. Don't use it as a highlight colour as well
Image on the bottom
  • Again, don't make it an image. Make it text & photos. Especially don't use an image map - horribly inaccessible.
  • Again, make only links orange.
Not bad for a first go. There are some things to clean/tighten up, but I've seen waaaay worse. Well done.