Some Constructive Opinions...?

[Jay Adra]

After a few intense weeks of design and development, I have finished my personal website.

Now when I say 'finished', I of course don't mean really finished, but developed to a point of preparedness to be launched and reviewed.

I set out to make this a project I would design and develop myself, all from scratch (I finally have a site with super-clean code!). I knew what look I wanted (yes, it's a black website; don't hate on me, I like black) and I'm quite pleased with my progress.

What I'm really looking for at the moment is comments and constructive criticisms and/or technical glitches you notice on the site.

Some things I am still developing include:

• Custom Error Pages
• Secret Hidden Easter Eggs
• And of course, content

Please leave any feedback you may have; be critical, be honest. Thank you in advance

URL: http://www.inveigled.net​

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

What is the goal of this web site?

 

[Jay Adra]

Well it says it on the front page, but to re-iterate:

It is my personal website where I'll be posting photos, performances, tutorials and discussions. Tutorials will either be unlisted YouTube videos on the Password-Protected 'Magician's-Only' page or links to the effects on my Wire account.

 

[Aaron.Williams]

Try to make it a little brighter, or use brighter colors. I'm kind of straining my eyes to see this in direct light.

 

[Jay Adra]

Try to make it a little brighter, or use brighter colors. I'm kind of straining my eyes to see this in direct light.

Unfortunately that's the price of the black design...

But I'll add colour where I can.

 

[ReservoirRed]

I honestly dont think it needs brighter colours. I just woke up so my eyes are hazey and i can still read it without trouble. I also like the homepage layout. Obviously your goal with the website is to get your effects recognised in the magic community, if that were my goal too i would be very happy with that website.

Bare in mind im not a graphic designer, but i do have taste. And that is no where near a bad start. Well done.

 

[Jay Adra]

I honestly dont think it needs brighter colours. I just woke up so my eyes are hazey and i can still read it without trouble. I also like the homepage layout. Obviously your goal with the website is to get your effects recognised in the magic community, if that were my goal too i would be very happy with that website.

Bare in mind im not a graphic designer, but i do have taste. And that is no where near a bad start. Well done.

Thanks for your comments.

I got sick of seeing messy, busy websites with thousands of words scrunched up all over the place and really wanted to come up with something simple, clean and spaced out.

And yes while that is one of the goals of the website, it is also about providing entertainment to people and hopefully helpful tutorials and tips to other Magicians.

 

[Jacob L]

I know nothing about creating websites haha, but I think it looks good. As for the "Lost and Found" video: I could barely hear you over the music, so I was a tad confused. Also, the cards when out of the frame which is a big no no in magic for the camera. I liked "Stolen" though, very nice.

Jacob

 

[praetoritevong]

I'm fine with the colours personally. However, I think that having a few more lines/borders would give it a more structured feel. The menu bar near the top looks very strange without some sort of border around each button (e.g. the borders around the videos are nice). I also question your choice of domain name (I haven't a clue how to pronounce it, let alone remember the link on the off chance I would need to), but I guess that's a personal decision.

 

[ZachMueller]

Very nice! Pretty impressive if you created it from scratch, I have a difficult enough time with iWeb. The only note I would have, is that personally for me, I didn't know, or rather understand what inveigled is or means. Is it your last name? Is it one word? What does it mean? These are the questions that spring to my mind when I see it. With that said, I'm digging your logo, and also the motion graphic of the logo in your videos. It's lookin' good!

~Zach

 

[Jay Adra]

Thanks for all the comments guys. To answer a few queries:

@Jacob - Yes I realised with "Lost and Found" my camera angle was off but by that time there was little light left and I couldn't reshoot it. I wanted to upload both effects at the same time though. I might find time later to reshoot though.

@praetoritevong - As for the name, I'm quite suprised that a lot of people haven't heard of it before, because it is a word. It means to fool, to deceive and it's pronounced "In-vee-guhl". And yeah the site does float a little bit, especially the navigation. I didn't want to have navigation buttons though; I liked the clean and simple text (also makes the site nice and fast to load).

@Zach - As above for the name, and thanks for your comments. Graphic design of logos etc is usually a weak spot for me but I was happy with how this one turned out

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

I had to look it up.

Persuade (someone) to do something by means of deception or flattery
- we cannot inveigle him into putting pen to paper

Gain entrance to (a place) by using such methods

People are going to have a hard time remembering that one. It's obscured and spelled oddly.

I guess I still don't entirely understand the point. Is this is a discussion page? If so, there's already a lot of forums out there, why would someone choose yours over, say, Theory11, Ellusionist or the Magic Cafe?

If it's meant for potential clients then I would avoid anything like discussion boards unless you're going to make it focus on your shows. Basically doing reviews by the masses.

Anyway. The site layout is nice. I like the clean, uncluttered look. Easy enough to navigate. As a personal note, I find your 'About' page to be highly annoying. No, I haven't clicked all the links. I can't make it past the first few paragraphs where you say your name four times in different ways. You come across as someone that just likes to hear themselves talk.

So, I guess, design-wise, good job. Content wise, it's not for me.

 

[Jay Adra]

I had to look it up.



People are going to have a hard time remembering that one. It's obscured and spelled oddly.

I guess I still don't entirely understand the point. Is this is a discussion page? If so, there's already a lot of forums out there, why would someone choose yours over, say, Theory11, Ellusionist or the Magic Cafe?

If it's meant for potential clients then I would avoid anything like discussion boards unless you're going to make it focus on your shows. Basically doing reviews by the masses.

Anyway. The site layout is nice. I like the clean, uncluttered look. Easy enough to navigate. As a personal note, I find your 'About' page to be highly annoying. No, I haven't clicked all the links. I can't make it past the first few paragraphs where you say your name four times in different ways. You come across as someone that just likes to hear themselves talk.

So, I guess, design-wise, good job. Content wise, it's not for me.

True, the name is obscure, but I quite like obscurity. If people can't remember the name, when they go to type in the URL the browser will suggest it anyway. And otherwise they're following a link or bookmark so that's fine there.

I think I explained this in a previous post, but the point of this site is mainly to satisfy my personal needs. It's my personal source for development, discussion and to offer performances/tutorials to those seeking those things. I'm not trying to 'get booked' (I don't work as a Magician; it's more of a hobby) and I'm not trying to make it a forum, in fact, the only place visitors can currently post any kind of message is the Contact page. It's just my personal space, specifically relating to Magic.

Yes, I imagine the About page will be found irksome/boring/annoying to some, but I designed the expanding content quite specifically due to one reason: Whenever I have to write something, especially about myself, I usually go overboard. I write a lot more than most people care to read, I digress and go off-topic or if I get bored myself, I write random things that come to mind. So I thought this idea of having a small paragraph (because who is going to see a huge page of text and start reading it?) which people would most likely spend 30 seconds reading and it would give basic 'About' information. Then if they wanted, they could read the next little bit, learning more 'About' me. So on and so forth, until they end up reading it all anyway, just bit by bit. And if they decided they had read enough, then good, I saved them some time and allowed them to read only what amount they wanted.

And I actually don't like to hear myself talk, but I guess through the Internet I talk more (well, write) and to fill my time I write more and more until there is an absurd amount of writing.

Thanks for your comments, I appreciate the feedback.