My first website for a business

[Matt T]

A few months ago, I approached a local business in my area because they were looking for someone to design a website for them. They are a Holden Dealership, and are one of the only dealerships in our area. Because I'm still in school, it took me a few months to whip this up because I have 6-7 hours of school every Monday-to-Friday, and homework/assignments on top of that, so as you can imagine, I'm glad to finally get this off my back.

I'm happy with the result, and more importantly, so is the boss. It's not "officially" online yet - I'm waiting until they pay me and they still haven't got themselves a domain name yet - so I've uploaded it onto my web space for the time being. I'm looking for some comments and critique - please let me know what you honestly think.

http://www.cubiz.org/surfair/index.htm

Before you start giving me your opinion, let me give you a few details. I'm 16, so I haven't been doing this for as long as everyone else here - I'm still a bit of a web design virgin. My PC isn't anything top-of-the-market, so it can't handle anything like Photoshop or Flash. I used Fireworks for all the graphics and photo editing, and for the coding, I mostly used Dreamweaver but I also used a bit of Notepad every here and there.

I know I'm going to get criticized for the Javascript slideshow on the index, but like I said, I wasn't able to use Flash and this business wanted a rotating slideshow to advertise certain vehicles and offers. They said they were very happy with it, so that's the most important thing to me.

Some of the photos of the dealership itself aren't fantastic because it's in a location that makes it very hard to get a decent shot of. For some shots, I needed to stand in the middle of the road to get it to fit just right. Thank god I live in a quite town! And also, I don't have an expensive camera - it's a Canon Powershot A400; it gets the job done.

So again, I would appreciate your comments and critique. If you notice any hiccups (spelling errors, broken links, ect) please let me know. :)

[Chad.C]

Loads ok, in IE but Firefox seems to have a couple of hiccups..

Mate I think you did a brillant job on the website and you deserve all the money you made from it...

Keep it up man..

[wicker_man]

I think it looks awesome and very professional. Two things I would like to add straign off the bat:

1. Consider making a contact form so that the visitor doesn't use an e-mail program. If someone is at a public library or cafe or not at their home computer they might not be able to contact them by e-mail.

2. Some images could be compressed a little more - experiment with different formats and compression ratios.

On the dealership note, here's my little work in progress for a local QPOD dealer: Cunninghams Auto. It's nothing special and a has a lot less info in it than your web site (although that was the point due to the nature of the cars they sell). Again, I like your web site. The colour scheme is attractive as always (red and black on white) due to the official company colours, I think.

[Nashy]

hmmm. As a long time Holden fan, and visiter of Holden's website for years, I must say, I am displeased.

[samg]

sites great.

Some images load slow, but i will assume thats your host.

One thing, where it links to your email address, i would get a domain, setup a fancie homepage for your designs and link to your homepage.

Your very talented, you might get some more busines.s But linking to a hotmail account is a nono, i wouldnt bother emailing you....

[wicker_man]

hmmm. As a long time Holden fan, and visiter of Holden's website for years, I must say, I am displeased.

Care to share why?

[phoe*nix]

design wise it's really good. As wicker_man said, you might want to play around with getting those images a bit smaller. The only thing which i find annoying is the photo of the dealership on the first page where you put your mouse over it and you see a description of the dealership. It's a bit hard to read the text with that font. and the fact that you have to put your mouse over it is a little anoying. maybe you could make it so you don't have to put your mouse over it to read the text.

It work fine for me in firefox and IE but because of the Windows visual style i'm using, the background is a light grey rather than white. that's because you haven't specified a background colour for the page. you just need to add

background: #fff;

to body in your stylesheet.

It's a really good site.

[Matt T]

Chast, what hiccups are you noticing in Firefox? I use Firefox myself and I haven't noticed anything.

Nashy, care to share why? Bear in mind it's just for a local dealer - it's not meant to be anything over-the-top.

Sam, if I earn enough money and have enough left over one I buy myself a new (desperately needed) computer, I definitely plan to make a website for myself. And maybe you're right - I think I'll swap my Hotmail address for my Gmail one.

Wicker_man, thanks a lot for your feedback. I personally hate seeing any pixels in images (I think it gives the site a unprofessional, unclean look), and obviously the higher the image compression the higher the amount of pixelation, but since most of you seem to think it loads a bit too slow, I think I will experiment with the images a bit more.

Thanks for your comments everyone. :)

Edit: thanks for that Phoe*nix - I decided on the mouse-over effect because the text and dark background behind the text hid the image too much, and the boss wanted a clear photo of the dealership on the index. My idea was to have a clear photo but also have a way of quickly viewing some information about the dealership without any navigation. And I'll get that background tag fixed soon - thanks for pointing it out.

[Nashy]

1. This site looks far far far far far too like the Holden website of 2002ish

2. It looks like the current holden site with a nice facelift

[Coy0te]

Looks profesional mate, give yourself a pat on the back.

[Matt T]

1. This site looks far far far far far too like the Holden website of 2002ish

I haven't seen to Holden site from 2002 - this was a design I created myself. Any similarities are purely coincidental.

2. It looks like the current holden site with a nice facelift

Isn't that a good thing? :huh:

[wicker_man]

1. This site looks far far far far far too like the Holden website of 2002ish

2. It looks like the current holden site with a nice facelift

If that all that displeases you, I think that's irrelevant. After all, you have just contradicted yourself slightly...

Oh, and another thing (might not matter much as you have mentioned you live in a small town): add a picture map (a map image of the area) and a link to, say, MSN maps with the dealer location underneath.

[Nashy]

If that all that displeases you, I think that's irrelevant. After all, you have just contradicted yourself slightly...

Oh, and another thing (might not matter much as you have mentioned you live in a small town): add a picture map (a map image of the area) and a link to, say, MSN maps with the dealer location underneath.

MSN maps in Australia suck ass. whereis.com.au is far better.

[wicker_man]

MSN maps in Australia suck ass. whereis.com.au is far better.

Geez, I have no idea what suck ass in Australia and what doesn't!

Matt T, use whereis.com.au instead of MSN maps to make Nashy happy for god's sake! :rolleyes:

[Long]

It looks like you cross-bred Holden's site with Toyota's site.

http://www.holden.com.au/www-holden/

http://toyota.com.au/toyota/main/HomePage/...354_402,00.html

You stole a big portion of the central content layout for the front page from Toyota's site.

Your product page is almost identical (http://www.cubiz.org/surfair/vehicles/index.htm) with Toyota's (http://toyota.com.au/toyota/main/Vehicles/...363_402,00.html)

I'm very dissapointed.

Edited February 21, 2006 by Long

[Nashy]

Geez, I have no idea what suck ass in Australia and what doesn't!

Matt T, use whereis.com.au instead of MSN maps to make Nashy happy for god's sake! :rolleyes:

:pinch: Uneducated posts are great right?

I think the design looks far too borrowed. I also don't think the site would need a map reference, there are that many Holden dealerships. if you don't know where your closest one is, cahnces are, you won't be on their website here in Australia.

[CoolerUK]

It does look alot like the toyota one the previous poster mentioned. I dont know how much u copied but either way its ebtter what i could ever do and im 3 years older than you.

[Matt T]

Looks profesional mate, give yourself a pat on the back.

Cheers :)

Oh, and another thing (might not matter much as you have mentioned you live in a small town): add a picture map (a map image of the area) and a link to, say, MSN maps with the dealer location underneath.

MSN maps in Australia suck ass. whereis.com.au is far better.

Thanks for the idea.

It looks like you cross-bred Holden's site with Toyota's site.

http://www.holden.com.au/www-holden/

http://toyota.com.au/toyota/main/HomePage/...354_402,00.html

You stole a big portion of the central content layout for the front page from Toyota's site.

Your product page is almost identical (http://www.cubiz.org/surfair/vehicles/index.htm) with Toyota's (http://toyota.com.au/toyota/main/Vehicles/...363_402,00.html)

I'm very dissapointed.

I've never visited the Toyota site before. Like I said, the design for my website was something I thought of myself. I'm sure it's a common design. I certainly didn't copy anyone's design.

[pmh]

I've never visited the Toyota site before. Like I said, the design for my website was something I thought of myself. I'm sure it's a common design. I certainly didn't copy anyone's design.

I call BS. The chances of you just happening to have exactly the same idea are close to nill.

[Long]

I've never visited the Toyota site before. Like I said, the design for my website was something I thought of myself. I'm sure it's a common design. I certainly didn't copy anyone's design.

Really.

[KayMan2K]

I've never visited the Toyota site before. Like I said, the design for my website was something I thought of myself. I'm sure it's a common design. I certainly didn't copy anyone's design.

The similarities are too obvious. It is very clear that portions of your website are 100% copying Toyota.com.

Although... when I visit Toyota.com, the website I see looks NOTHING like the screen shots posted. What is the URL for the Toyota website used in the comparisons?

[ChArMzZ]

Yeah, Its too obvious i guess. It seems that you just changed the colours of the design.

[Von_Beard]

i like it i think it looks pro , :wacko:

[alsheron]

For freaks sake, guys, or pehaps girls :rolleyes: , give the guy a flippin break.

So what if the site looks a lot like Toyota's? Most websites mimic others anyway, he's not a Flash/Web 2 developer so (as with most people) his site looks "suspiciously" like someone elses site - namely half the car websites on the internet.

Long: saying things like "I'm very disappointed" is utterly absurd and frankly, without any good reason (his site being similar to other websites is NOT good reason)

I'm actually pretty annoyed that this guy has come on here looking for help, tips and encouragement, and quite a few replies have been shockingly negative and derisive.

Don't mollycoddle, but at the same time, don't "bitch"........ Mods don't like that either.... so take friendly advice.....

As for my comments relating to the site, perhaps expectedly, I think it's great. I think it looks professional, The layout and design are clear and the colours and fonts used are appropriate.

I'm not even going to go down the route of "for a 16 year old kid"..... which I'm amazed hasn't been suggested yet...... I'm just going to say that the site is something to be very proud of and puts many more experienced web designers in the shade......

It can obviously always be improved, but nothing stands out to me......

:D

Peace!

[samg]

For freaks sake, guys, or pehaps girls :rolleyes: , give the guy a flippin break.

So what if the site looks a lot like Toyota's? Most websites mimic others anyway, he's not a Flash/Web 2 developer so (as with most people) his site looks "suspiciously" like someone elses site - namely half the car websites on the internet.

(snip)

I totally agree. Maybe he was asked to make it similar to there site? he still had to recreate it, and hes 16, so cant of gone through much training etc.

I think the sites great, i proberly could do any better.

:yes: for the guy :)

[jimbo12141]

i like it , looks good!!!