critique the web site
 

I finally got around to a redesign of my main site. Still a *huge* amount of work to do, and I'm still sorting out the best way to organize 13 years of legacy content.

It also is a bit of an odd duck as it combines professional and personal and that's always a challenge. The purpose is to have a place to put things I create, but also have potential clients/sponsors be able to find me, what I do, and why they should give a crap.

Comments welcome. As are contracts ;)

http://nostatic.com

I like the site. The combination of both professional and personal feels organic. It works.

My only suggestion would be making the default font size larger, and maybe 15% darker. It makes things less compact, but way easier to read. It took me a minute or so before I spotted the font size adjustment control.

What blogging software are you using?

Aesthetically its nice, but I don't know what you are trying to accomplish. I read some of the posts, followed the links and it runs from iPods to viral marketing. Seems to be a stream of consciousness thing, and I am not sure I get it, but that's ok.

"moblie battles"
Is that a typo? should it read "mobile"?
Other than that it looks good.

thanks for the comments. The main site is running drupal, my "blog" is movable type. Fixed the typo (doh!). As for what the site is supposed to accomplish...well, every site is pretty much about selling. In this case, I'm trying to walk a line between selling myself (ie get new projects in the door) as well as be an outlet for creative stuff. The reality these days is that personal and professional often overlap pretty significantly.

You can actually make the font size larger yourself - click on the numbers at the very top of the screen to increase or decrease font size. I'll fiddle with font color and see if that helps as well.

I like it a lot. It's fun, and interesting and provides a very sympathetic glimpse of the complex personality that I think you are. I enjoyed the verse - which is very good and very polished - and the few bits of viral media discussion that I clicked.

One comment: if in fact this is also intended as a business interface, then it's not clear to me what you're selling. Of course the fact that it's not clear to me what you're selling may just reflect my deep ignorance of the digital media business. So take this comment with a pinch of salt.

Nice look. As a color palette, I think the orange/grey is going dated in six months.

I get what you are you doing, and the people that need what you are doing will likely get it too.

What confuses me is your use of third person voice. It's transparent to me that you write this stuff. At times you talk about nostatic as an entity, as an individual, and as you. If you are going to make nostatic your dba, then you'll need to be clearer in how you talk about your firm (which is of course, you), versus how you blog and post what you are thinking about, versus how you describe that intersection. Now, it seems like you are in the middle of a personality disorder. :D

If someone is hiring YOU - then this is your site and should be written from you. If someone is hiring your firm, then it's about the company, and you are one of the principals.

I've run this problem before - one of my consulting companies was "Kambei Consulting, LLC", so the voice was written from the firms pov. Today's company is "Bento Strategy", which is just me.

Or you can change the voice every few days to confuse people.

hmm...interesting take on it. I struggle with that aspect of things. The reality is that what I'm selling depends on who is buying and the project. There are some things that I would bring into my "day job". And in that case, I'm part of a largish organization. Other work would come direct to nostatic (ie me). Some of that work I'd do solo, some with partners and outsourced collaborators.

The main thing I'm selling is me...mememememe. And that you'd want to hire me one way or another.

I'll have to cogitate on this. Including the personal stuff is just part of the "praxis" thing. I firmly believe that if one doesn't participate in digital media (especially social software - "web 2.0"), then they really won't understand it. Part of my differentiation is including the cultural production.

So, you're a serial comma guy. :)

I try to only use a serial comma if there is a "peanut butter and jelly" or other word or phrase in a series that needs clarity and avoid a serial comma in simpler word series.

I know there are differing opinions, but I sometimes enjoy the minutiae of style.

Good luck to you!

Best,

interesting catch. I removed a few of them...I think it comes from writing in a more conversational style as opposed to scientific writing (a backlash thing). Same goes with my use of ellipses... :p

That's exactly my point - it's all about you. So why is your website speaking about you as if there was someone else doing the writing? People want to hire you, interact with you, not with a third person.

And I completely agree with the combination of your art, blogging, etc. as the total nostatic package. I don't think you should take on the personality of "Nostatic" when you write professionally - "Nostatic completed his graduate work studying thongs and bongs..." But it just sounds awkward when you write, "Todd completed his graduate work flattening coyotes..."

Make it more conversational - in the about section, use statements like, "Hi. I'm Todd Richmond and nostatic is my..." "After completing my graduate work...I explored..."

my 0.02 yen

changed it - how's that? I usually eschew first person, but I think you're right that it comes off stilted unless it is a larger organization where there actually could be some pr person writing the crap.

can you change that to RMB please?

I think that's excellent advice.

Haven't checked it out 'cause i'm prolly banned there ;)

naw, I'm a lover, not a hater :p