Koza Web

Koza Web

****- (Rated by 5 people, viewed by 160 people)

Koza Web is a showcase of (mostly WordPress) websites designed and developed by Louise K. Based in Melbourne, Australia.

Added by Louise in Portfolio

Koza Web has 5 Reviews

Below are the reviews left by other members on Koza Web. Jump to review form?

  1. sp1990 gave it ***-- on 1st Apr 2013 and said:

    Hi,

    This is my first review so hopefully it will be ok!!

    First impressions are that it is a very clean and well structured design but needs a couple of tweaks (I am a designer so I apologise but I am obsessed with spacing and small features that give an edge! ha)

    General
    I love how you have separated it with the sections in 3 different shades of grey and used patterns to give it a little finishing feel.
    I have noticed 3 colours for text, the green I understand as it is presented at the top and in the footer but the blue in the centre I don't understand? Nothing else on the homepage is blue so it doesn't quite match. There is also 3 fonts here as well, the logo font, the general text font and the header fonts, for consistency and to give it a more professional feel I would look at using maybe just 1 or 2 fonts max (maybe change the current headings font to be the same as the logo font?)

    Also I would look at increasing the line height for paragraphs slightly, it will give it a slightly more spaced out and clearer feel.

    A last little thing I noticed generally was that there is no links back to home apart from the Logo. I would maybe suggest adding one for anyone that isn't web savvy, you and I know the logo will link back to the homepage but some people might not (trust me, I know someone who googled 'google' on google!)

    Header
    Logo brilliantly spaced, equal at the top and bottom and inline with everything on the left hand side.

    The navigation however I think needs a bit of work, its just too simple, it needs a little bit of something to give it an edge instead of just been plain text links. Also, the green looks slightly out of place for some reason up there.

    Main Section
    Apart from the things I mentioned above about the text, I like the general 'shape' of this area. The 2 columns, well spaced and neatly presented, my only thing about this section is that the spacing at the top is not equal to that at the bottom (which is my pet hate - spacing has to be equal!)

    Footer
    Really like this area, well spaced and the little icons (stars and butterflies etc) are cool but I would look at making some in the same style that are relevant to the text it is next to. Also, it would be good to have this on every page.

    About me
    I'm sorry, but personally to me, this page looks a little unstructured :(

    The content itself is good, it just needs a bit of stucture. Maybe use the 'Logos' for the different tools and skills you have so its less words?

    Projects
    Again, I'm sorry, but it's set out well but for some reason looks unstructured maybe try using just the images of the website slightly larger than what you have now then the user can click into the projects to see what you did? Or if you want less clicking for the user having again larger images that fill the whole width of the column and then the information below it (So you still have the 2 columns) then maybe a partition line between each row?

    I'm not sure but thought I'd give some quick suggestions then if you want you can play about with them and come up with something better than what I said!

    Contact
    hmmm...needs to be more exciting than a plain form...do some personal styling with the form elements so that the button and inputs for example fit the look of the website.

    Responsive
    This looks good as I scale it down, the only thing I would look at is the navigation again, it needs modifying to look unique instead of just a drop down. Try looking at some well known websites that are responsive to get an idea of what I mean.

    Hope what I have said is helpful :)

    Using Chrome on Windows | Report This?

    Louise's Response:

    Thank you for your thorough review, it's extremely helpful and thoughtful. It means a lot to me.

    I have already made some minor changes to margins/padding and line-height based on your suggestions. I think there's a lot more I need to do to improve.

  2. [img: avatar]
    Alis gave it ***-- on 26th Aug 2012 and said:

    THE LAYOUT: Really a lovely minimal design. I like very much the colour scheme, but maybe you should work better on the logo design, inside the header. The font is too bold and the logo itself needs to be more defined, but it's only my opinion.
    Maybe you can change the colour of the titles, they are a bit dark and merge too much with the background.

    PROJECTS: I like how you list your works inside your portfolio, can I suggest you to use a script like lightbox to show a jpg of the final layout? So that, when the sites will change layout you will always have an image of your work.

    BLOG: it's not so easy to read. Maybe you can evidence blog posts with the same background colour of your portfolio items. Same for the sidebar. Also, links are not so visible inside the text, the colours are too similar.

    Using Firefox on Windows | Report This?

  3. synetc gave it ****- on 17th Jul 2012 and said:

    I love the design, it is super clean, bold, with a creative color palette that works (for the most part!). This is a wise design choice for a portfolio design. Portfolios should be clean, and show just enough flair to make potential clients want to hire you.

    When it gets into the page elements I have some design concerns:

    - The color chosen for the heading text, and for links do NOT go together. Either choosing a lighter bolder color for the heading, or a darker color for the links would look great. Since these two colors show up a lot, unfortunately they clash a lot and that is taking away from the design for me.

    - I am not a fan of the large sticky join twitter icon.

    - I am not a fan of the white boxes on the portfolio page. This is the page you want to have look the best. The rounded corner white boxes don't flow with the rest of the layout. I'd either use nothing or pick something creative that matches w/ the layout images.

    - A small error is that no sub heading style is defined on the about page.

    - The spacing of the content and sidebar on the blog page feels slightly off. Try expanding the margin between the two slightly, and aligning the sidebar headers to the right. This might throw the page into better balance.

    All these things are simple css fixes, goes to show how good the design is overall.

    Things I really love!

    - I'm absolutely in love with your footer, the graphic used as the footer background is just perfect!

    - I love the page header and nav bar, I think they are extremely creative and work really well.

    - Overall I am impressed with how well your layout works with very different types of content. This is very difficult to do.

    Using Firefox on Mac | Report This?

  4. [img: avatar]
    reeshas gave it ***** on 6th May 2012 and said:

    pages
    wow, first off i really love the colors you used for this design, they are so calm and peaceful, yet youthful and creative. the home page gives me confidence in your abilities as a web developer. looking forward to exploring the rest of this adorable website.
    first is the about page. the page is well spaced and structured nicely. your skills and knowledge on the side is just want businesses or employers want to see. to the point list of all your accomplishments. when you say you know your way around some things, i was surprised to see cPanel, anyone who has a website knows the full extent of their cPanel. you don't have to be so modest. same goes for installing and customizing WordPress, anyone who visits your site can see your potential. i don't think you have to say those but since you are you come across as a modest person. the little frame with a gray scale picture, i don't know, looks cute.
    the Projects page, seems like your everywhere with these different projects. koza craft looks like a video game. i like the little doggy so cute! not much to say about this page except that you show your ability to take on different specific projects. well designed.
    the Blog page, filled with a lot of information, i was thinking this would be more about the thoughts of a web developer, but it is more about web knowledge and questions like "what does it mean to be a web professional?" i really liked this new thought process, instead of blogging and venting about your projects and such, you take the time to explain things that most people don't know. for instance, i didn't know google doesn't know how to read flash applets. i mean who knew?! the blog is more for readers and not so much the twisted ideas or problems of the writer. everything is so well organized.
    the contact page just has a contact form, i think you should also add your email at the top, but that's just an opinion, not saying you have to. i actually judge people on how their email addresses are, i know that's strange but if an email address is immature or offensive, i ignore it and the person it belongs to. online, i think an email address defines you before anything else does. i especially like the popular network links on the side that we can find you on if an employer wants to know you better.

    overall
    i'm very happy with how comfortable and simple the design is yet very thought out and well organized. i'm in love with the color scheme you have used and i hope to see more incredible things from your site. well done. the site is very professional, i believe you have what it takes to be a web professional!

    errors and other things
    i read though most of the website and i didn't come across any errors, i know some web designers and my friends have this stack list that collapses, but i'm not a fan of it. it's not annoying or anything, i find it strange and out of place on almost every website i've seen it on, including yours. thank you for letting me view your site. =)

    Using Firefox on Windows | Report This?

    Louise's Response:

    Thank you for your pleasant and thoughtful review. :)

  5. [img: avatar]
    karenboswell gave it ***-- on 19th Apr 2012 and said:

    Hi, I am Karen. :) I've gone a long way since I stopped reviewing and might/will seem a little harsh. (Design student here)
    I am anal about colors, font and readability. Please don't judge me, I can't code. Heh!

    First Impression 1/3
    Ooo, portfolio! I like looking at portfolios. From what I can see, you can do a lot more on your portfolio to make it look outstanding. Google "top text effect tutorial". You could try letterpress as well. This is a really quick fuzz free action you could use. http://freephotoshopdownload.net/text-effects/letterpress-text-effect or if you are adventurous, try css http://www.handycss.com/tutorials/3-ways-to-create-letterpress-effect-with-css/

    I'm not really digging the color scheme, it looks a bit dull. But I think if you play around with colors a bit more, it'll look pretty nice. Have you tried http://colourlovers.com/ ?

    I think there are too many textures on your site. What would make it more modern and stand out is to use subtle textures. Google "subtle texture in web design". But on a second look, I saw that your main body is not textured.. So scrap that. (Decided to not to edit my impression because that is my impression)

    The purple color in "Continue reading" is really bright. And there is this random unlinkable ... at the end of your blog post.

    Content 3/4
    About me was alright. Maybe you could add in the programs that you know how to use? Like Adobe Photoshop, CSS, HTML, JAVA, etc.. all those fanciful stuffs to look more professional. A link to your online CV and stuffs.

    Projects.. Maybe if you could all make it to these white square boxes (sorry i dont know the terms for it!) and it'll look more "fuller". So it'll be like

    Projects
    Websites that I have ...

    Square Box | Square Box | Square Box

    Collaborations
    Projects undertaken ...

    Square Box | Square Box | Square Box

    You're not doing the design but potential clients can see the complex coding you can do. :D

    Blog. I think you can increase the design by using fanciful fonts. Google "great font combinations". This seems like a good place to start http://tympanus.net/codrops/2011/11/12/25-fresh-examples-of-beautiful-typeface-combinations-in-web-design/

    Contact
    I think you can replace text links with icons instead. That would make it more visually appealing. You can try find some here http://365psd.com/

    Others 2/3
    I think your site is can do much more! With great portfolio, comes great/rich clients.

    Using Chrome on Mac | Report This?

    Louise's Response:

    "About me was alright. Maybe you could add in the programs that you know how to use? Like Adobe Photoshop, CSS, HTML, JAVA, etc.. all those fanciful stuffs to look more professional."
    They are there! Hmm... Maybe they're not noticable.

    " think you can replace text links with icons instead. That would make it more visually appealing. "
    Yes, I'll probably do this.

    "Projects.. Maybe if you could all make it to these white square boxes"
    Done. But I think I need to re-jig their size and positioning.

    My colour scheme probably isn't the best choice, but I do intend to re-develop this site within the next couple of months.

Write Your Own Review

Leave your feedback for Koza Web below, and remember - the longer your review, the more points you receive. Don't forget to look at things like style/design, content, coding and originality as they will all help to improve the quality of your review.

You have to be logged in to write a review.