With this sponsored post, I was asked to Review LTY , a graphic design web site. One thing that I've discussed multiple times on this web site, along with various forum posts, to create a successful application you need to have a combination of ingredients. A site that is beautiful, but not function will fail. A site that is incredibly functional, yet unattractive will fail. The goal for any programmer and graphic designer is to merge these two areas where both fields are strong for the user experience.
This particular site has some great points, but also has some flaws. Now before, I go too into detail with my criticisms, I must first say that these are my own opinions. My opinion is not the rule, just what I feel that is correct. When you develop your own sites, you'll have your own set of personal rules that you feel are important. We may share a few of these, and we could differ drastically.
I believe the starting point for all applications, either with functionality, purpose or sole graphic design start with two things. Header/Title and Navigation. This site shows three images of woman, that appears professional and gives a 'vibe' of friendliness and overall youthfulness. The title of the site is overlayed on top of the segmented images. My main concern, is what is the message of the site. This is a graphic design site, but it almost has too much of a personal feel. Is this for business or pleasure? It almost feels like a photography site over a graphic design site. On the functionality note, I noticed that the image gradually loaded up (easy sign of large file). Looking at the image property, the header image is 314k. This could definitely be further optimized.
The navigation took me a second to locate, due to the fact that it does not stand out clearly. It closely matches the headers and text. My advice here is to pull a 3rd color from the color palette to designate link color or navigation bar.
Since this is a graphic design site, I jumped right to the Portfolio areas, and enjoyed the cropped sample images (I'm a fan of this technique -- some are not).
One thing that bothered me most over everything was the center justification on all content within all areas. I remember when I first started web development; this was the first way to separate amateurs vs. professionals. Center justification is hard to read since it's an unnatural pattern for reading. Are books centered justified? Are magazines centered justified? Are newspapers centered justified? I would definitely left justify everything, or go with text-align: justify spreading things out (like the newspaper for nice columns).
Overall the site has great content, and an enthusiasm that made it fun to visit. I think some tweaks here and there, and this site could be a stand out site in the field of graphic design!
Letters-to-you.com
http://www.letters-to-you.com
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