You need a business website

[CardShark]

I think I asked this before but didn't take much from it.

So lets say you're just looking for a website to show off your portfolio or what ever.
So you're looking for a designer and someone to maintain your sites upkeep.

What would you look for in a businesses website?
Is your focus going to be on their portfolio or on their jargon?


So you come in from google and hit my main page, and you would their see a rotating banner showing off my websites directly in your view.

From that point the information is scattered around the site, so you want to see hosting I give you details on my server my opinion on why i chose it etc.
Or you find my development page, this will show all the scripting languages I know (XHTML, CSS, XML, PHP, MySQL, JavaScript & Ajax) too much?
maybe giving details on content management system and what my choice is in terms of what i favor to use for my development of your possible sites.
Then you hit my design page, possibly just showing off my portfolio in more detail.

Is that too much information, should I maybe scrap the idea of having that much detail as it could scare my potential clients off or show I say not have it as a focus but keep it in the background?

Would you want to hear that I would like to design your site using Drupal CMS, integrating plugin's like TinyMCE.
Or if you want a bespoke website it would more or less be built using PHP, MySQL or maybe a flat file database.

Too much?, I'm thinking I should make my portfolio the focus so they can just say hey that looks nice he must be good at his job?


But I don't know what its like from the client point of view I built sites since I was like 11 .

[CardShark]

Another question.

You have two websites in mind one has a black background, and the other has a BRIGHT orange background.
Considering the backgrounds are currently the fashion what would you prefer a dark site that maybe has a lot of small colourful images.
Or a very bright background which is quite eye catching?

[fudger]

XHTML, CSS, XML, PHP, MySQL, JavaScript & Ajax. To anyone who isnt a wed designer this meens absolutely nothing, you should concerntrate on your quality of work and show what you can do not confuse potential clients with jargon that they don't need to know. I find the simple and easy to navigate sites have more of an impact. rather than pages of info which I have no use for.

[fudger]

Oh and I always thought Ajax was a cleaning product.

on the colour scheme question, surely you would show clients a selection of colour schemes and general designs and it would also depend of the type of site and products being advertised. I find some site's have colours and script that for me is really hard to read.

[marshlander]

I agree with fudger. Simple to navigate, easy to read. You can always hide the genius stuff on a page deep within the site. Mostly what I'd want are some ideas to start me thinking about why people would want to use my site and maybe suggest functions I'd never think of by myself.

[72jay]

Personally i prefer sites that are simple, load fast and aren't cluttered with a bunch of 'junk'
* The less JavaScript/etc the better
* Don't even know what 'Ajax' is (other than something to be blocked - which is exactly what i do)
* And NO flash...flash is the worst thing to happen to the web...there's a reason i don't have that plugin

As for color I prefer black/dark backgrounds with white text (easier on the
eyes than the white background/black text nearly everyone uses) ... but i
also started using computers in the days of DOS where everything had black
backgrounds (oops showing my old age there LOL)
I don't like the color orange so not sure what i'd think of a orange background
i night just leave (so i'm not a good one to say on that color LOL)

[72jay]

Continued...

I'd tend to think you'd want to focous more on your portfolio for the main page
and then use sub-page(s) for the various "tech stuff" ... i'd also tend to think
you'd want to include terms like XHTML/CSS/PHP/JavaScript/etc somewhere on
the main page (maybe each as a link to a sample/sub-page) for the technical
people visiting