Re: Be critical or be nice?
Good post.
I try not to upset people these days as much as I have done on occasion. I think I have a bad reputation as a critic on TG!
I think your differentiation of hobby and business sites is important. I rarely criticise hobby sites these days.
Re: Be critical or be nice?
If you can be honest in a positive way then you can be helpful. It is much harder to say, your site is really terrific, but please consider using fewer colors and fewer fonts, than it is to say, your site really shows how pathetic you are as a designer and how appallingly little you know about website design.
If you look at early examples of a cartoonist's work and then look at their later work, you can see exactly the learning process you are describing sketch.
Many of the members of TG who post links to their websites have had no formal training and are learning as they go. Others have had some training and are developing quicker.
My basic rule of thumb, is if I can't find something positive to say about a person's work, is I generally don't say anything at all.
And that is probably not right either.
Re: Be critical or be nice?
When giving a critique of someone's work whether a website, or DTP design I will try to start on a positive note. For example I might say the colours in the layout look nice and the basic design is good however there are two many fonts in your design... Then I might go on and explain why too many fonts isn't good.
I agree it is important to help others by offering a good critique and be honest, but it is also important to be supportive and encouraging.
Re: Be critical or be nice?
Yes, giving good criticism with honesty will drive a person to improve more and encourage people to be better in their work.
Re: Be critical or be nice?
Thank you for your replies, the general consensus seems to be that critique is good as long as it is positive, I would like to add that we should be be able to be critical without having to be positive first. As I said if it is a personal site that all encouragement should be given, on the other hand I have seen sites from people who wish to do this for a living which are frankly terrible and if we are not critical to them then they will at best be deluded into thinking they can do this for a living and at worse will invest much time and money into their new business without having any real talent for it, if we can let them know that then we are doing them a much needed service. As the above poster says it will encourage people to better their work without having to go through the many years of mistakes we made.
Re: Be critical or be nice?
I don't think it's up to us to decide whether someone can make it as a web designer, but I know what you mean.
There are several people on TG whose journey has been quite amazing with Xara software.
The important thing about this community is that people needn't fear asking for help and that what makes the TG forums rather special. Nobody gets laughed at and everyone gets help, encouragement and constructive criticism to varying degrees.
In general, it works.
Re: Be critical or be nice?
I understand that paul, I am not saying that we act as some sort of judging panel, but the right push in a certain direction can do a world of good. As can be seen on all these terrible talent shows on tv; our friends and family telling us we are good at something can be our worst enemies. Any critique I give will be constructive and from the point of view mainly as a visitor to a site.
Re: Be critical or be nice?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
angelize
...Then I might go on and explain why too many fonts isn't good.
I would be curious to know why this is?
Re: Be critical or be nice?
I think the more fonts you have then there is a danger of the page just looking messy. I think the perceived wisdom is that after three fonts on a page, things go downhill.
I've seen quite a few awful pages with mixed fonts, sizes and weights and it makes the page look like a jumble.
Naturally, people who know what they're doing can be the exception to the rule!