Posted 3 years ago #
This is my first blog and I'm looking for some creative feedback on the design, functionality and content, if this was your blog what would you change?
The Blog is about buying a ruin and building a house in Portugal for people who are into food, architecture, design, travel and animals.
I'd appreciate it if you could take time to have a look
http://www.emmashouseinportugal.com
Thank you
Emma
Posted 3 years ago #
floating menu is kinda nice, but i run ff w noscript so by default, a lot of ff users do also, its at the top left corner of the page, and with the floating menu you might want to consider not having any content on the left sidebar, so the menu doesn't hide anything, maybe make the header image a bit smaller too, kind of dominates the page, detracting form the content, abut all in all a nice looking page
Posted 3 years ago #
Hi, Thanks for the feedback, I'm new to this so could you tell me why is it that you run ff with no script? What's the advantage? I thought my floating menu was a good idea because of my long pages - it meant that users didn't have to go to the top to go somewhere else.
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Posted 3 years ago #
Hi Emma!
I just visited your site, and tried to leave a comment on
One comment I would have is a short description like you did in this post, "The Blog is about buying a ruin and building a house in Portugal for people who are into food, architecture, design, travel and animals." When I went to your page I started reading, but would have had no clue what the writing was about unless I had read your post first, and it is a very interesting subject you are writing about! Might help if visitors saw that right away.
The site looks very clean and sharp, nice job!
Good luck with your blog!
Carol Culver De Leo
Posted 3 years ago #
HI Carol
Thanks for your feedback, you're idea of the short description is a good one :) I'll do that!
I'll see what's up with the comment box.
Cheers
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Posted 3 years ago #
Hi Carol
I've fixed the comments box, feel free to leave a comment
Thanks
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Posted 3 years ago #
Great!
I will go back and leave a comment!
Carol
you should call your blog emmasvomitingwookie ... sheesh, even in the delicious pastry-post did you manage to tell a barf-story.
Posted 3 years ago #
I am in a heinously foul mood so I'm gonna go on ahead and tell mores to shut up. This forum isn't about content -- it's about design, functionality, etc. So hesh it.
@Emma
I think your site looks great. Clean, neat, easy to read and navigate. And to counter Mr. Grumpys comment, even though as I said above this isn't about content, I'd like to add that I read pretty much every word you've written thus far and then bookmarked you. Very interesting and well written -- barf stories and all ;)
Posted 3 years ago #
mr mores,
- in my opinion a bit of spew can never get in the way of a good story.
could tell you plenty of stories with a good barf ending or some other "relieving" twist.
looking at your avatar I am sure you got some stories to?
- bring them on....or just relax.
- just not here ; )
- emma, loved your site and looking forward to your next post with or without barf!
Posted 3 years ago #
Hi, Thanks for the feedback, I'm new to this so could you tell me why is it that you run ff with no script?
sorry it to so long to get back to you
i spend a lot of time on the net and prefer to know what code sites are running before i let them run it, has some drawbacks but safer surfing beats fancy code, just my opinion
@ Emma. Great site enjoyed everything about it, I guess I'm biased because I'm hoping to do something myself in Spain, so good luck and well done for your efforts, if you ever get a chance look out for a great book by Chris Stewart called "Driving over Lemons" Its a good read and quite inspiring.
All the best.
Mike.
Posted 3 years ago #
Carol - I've added the RSS feeds but couldn't decide where to put a description, do you think it is obvious there in the left column? It's also in the title tag.
Thanks mikey1, thisisedie (hope it cheered you up) and Opinionated for your nice comments.
Mores - I did take your comment lightly :)
jrogers - I'll see if i can get the left nav to sit in a better position with no script,
Cheers
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:)
My comment actually sounded harsh since I forgot the important part ... getting back to topic and posting creative feedback :)
I like the way it's laid out, the one-column feel and the neat little text-bits on the side. You could make more of those and have them change at random or depending on the content. I also like your content, it's fun to read (despite all the puking :D ) and even more interesting to read up on what brought you there.
Criticism: the scrolling navigation is cool, but it does, in effect, always cover the text bits you have on the left side. At least on my 15" laptop. I guess you have a big screen and open your browser window full-screen so that's probably not an issue for you ... not sure how i'd solve that, maybe make the menu sticky and not have it scroll around.
The ads are nicely placed, not obtrusive.
Oh, and I like the header, or rather the typography. The pastry is not really identifiable at first glance.
Regarding the vomit-stories in my life ... I took an oath of never ever telling those, nor poop stories. I just hated it when friends and family felt the need to explain their sibling's excretions - it was even worse when strangers chimed in. So, I refuse to tell. My kid does not excrete :D
Posted 3 years ago #
mr mores,
making sure that you are telling the truth I visited your site
I must say I really like your site design!
compact with easy overview with an explorative feel and to me innovative!
now I just wish I had paid more attention at the language classes in school so I can understand the text that goes with your images
until you introduce an english translate button I will have to take your word for it, that your site is screened from excretions
unfortunately I am not so lucky with one part of the family often finds these stories every time there is food on the table
there must be a treatment for this or at least a content filter as a plug in ; )
best regards
fred
Posted 3 years ago #
I like the pictures and the layout! Overall it's creative and well put together. Great job on your first blog!
Criticism: the scrolling navigation is cool, but it does, in effect, always cover the text bits you have on the left side. At least on my 15" laptop.
The scrolling navigation looks fine on my 19" monitor.
Posted 3 years ago #
thanks alrosenquist, I'm glad not everyone dislikes the scrolling nav :D
mores - thanks for your added comments. I liked your site too, how you split it into categories is neat! You're kids look too cute to do anything nasty anyway.
Em
Hehe ... so far it's just ONE kid ... and that's okay since I couldn't handle another one like him. Not that he's tedious ... but children just are a handful.
Here's what google thinks my german text could mean :)
I didn't say I dislike your navigation, I just mentioned that on a "regular" monitor there will be text coverups.
Oh, and thanks for saying he's cute.
Posted 3 years ago #
It's not a bad layout actually. I like it. I like the concept, and its friendly to the eyes.
Good Job. :)
Posted 3 years ago #
I think the design is quite nice, it's got breathing room, and serves your purpose well. I like the colors you chose as well. The whole site is very inviting.
Re Floating menu -- personally I don't like it. I am usually annoying by stuff that moves when I scroll through a website. And there's kind of a lag as it moves along, so I get distracted by it. It's a matter of taste, I guess, but I never like any moving objects when I'm reading (hate flash ads like the devil).
Why NoScript you asked above... I also use NoScript, but like most users who do, I am aware that a site might not be functioning right, so I usually temporarily enable scripting if I am planning to spend some time on the site. Main reason: gives me more control over what a website does, and prevents malicious websites from doing me harm. It's a security feature. I also run AdBlock.
Posted 3 years ago #
how do we create a poll on the floating menu thing opinions?
personally I like it but it seems like the more geek-y you are the less you like it?
I do strive to become a geek one day but at the moment I settle for being opinionated ; )
Best Regards,
Fred
Posted 3 years ago #
Hi Emma,
I like your blog. Good information and beautifull pictures. I think you did a great job.
Posted 3 years ago #
nice content and an easy simple interface... the content is nyway the most imnportant.. the design is also quirky enough to fit in with the way you post.. great blog.
Posted 3 years ago #
I like it so much I bookmarked it, Emma. oh yes, and I wish I had a house in Portugal ^^
Posted 3 years ago #
Thanks Barriss, sakyant, vid1 and echodust your positive feedback is so encouraging ! :)
Thanks too StrangeAttractor it's good to know how and why others work.
Opinionated - sounds like a good idea I might put a poll on the site, I didn't realize that the floating menu would be such a talked about item...
Cheers, Emma
Posted 3 years ago #
I think it might need a beautiful picture somewhere in the back, to entice the readers.
Posted 3 years ago #
Hi Emma
Like the general design of the site, quite simple and clean. I would however suggest that you could look at making your images lower quality to reduce bandwidth. On a slightly slower connection the site takes a while longer to load than might be ideal. You should be able to do so without really seeing any visible loss in quality.
the pics are around 80k, which is okay for their size and quality.
Not much you can optimize there.
Posted 3 years ago #
Maybe it's because the home page has so many blogs, therefore pictures. I found a plugin where you can set how many posts are on the home page, mores - do you think it would be necessary to do this?
Em
your entire site is called a "blog". You're talking about posts.
Yes, it would help the user if you only show the latest post.
Another thing you could do is use thumbnails and the user then needs to click on the thumbnail to "see the big picture" :)
but that would reduce your post to a long, dull block of text. I think the way it is now is perfect, so just reduce the number of posts, which will reduce the number of images that need to be loaded which will speed things up.
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