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14 Comments

Critique, Please! Developer for Designers

Hi, Indiehackers! It's been a while :)

Over the last six months, my indie hacker journey led me somewhere I wasn't expecting: client-work.

While most of us are building scalable products, I've stepped back from my product focus for a bit so that I can generate cashflow before diving into the next project.

I've always worked 9-5 as a hybrid designer/developer, but now as a freelancer I'm trying something a bit different. Now, I'm selling myself as the "Dev for Designers" - a developer that designers can partner with easily for their client-work, so they can take on more website projects and grow their own businesses.

Here's the landing page: https://devfordesigners.com/

Does it hit the mark? Looking for feedback regarding both design and content.

Thanks in advance!

  1. 6

    man... if you just added this one word to the top... i'd immediately know who you're "talking" to:

    DESIGNERS: Quit turning away website projects and grow your design business.

    see?

    maybe even:

    DESIGNERS: I'm a developer—let's make magic and grow our businesses together.

    💥

    lol. just a thought. great stuff! as a developer, i got my start this way... literally finding a friend at my church who was a designer and him doing all the design and i do the markup, etc... this was 15+ years ago... but, same shit, different day.

    love it!

    1. 1

      Thanks for the feedback! You're totally right, I can be more obvious with my audience.

      1. 1

        it's a try! ultimately, you have to like it, so, you do you!

        glad to help!

        💥

        lol

    2. 1

      This comment was deleted a year ago.

  2. 1

    Hej. Just opened your site, here are my thoughts:

    • Nice that your face is directed to the text. This probably helps to get the attention to the text.
    • The page overall feels a bit like a Apple Pages template, not sure why and not sure if that is good or bad.
    • It was quite unclear who your site is build for (while the url is super clear)
    • I dont like the fade at the quote. Doesnt fit in the design.
    • The quotes are distracting from the text or the text is missing headers between the quotes. This makes it difficult to read/grasp the story.
    • I am missing examples of your work, so would recommend to add those.
      Hope this helps!

    I'm also working hard on my landing page, would love to hear your advice! https://www.indiehackers.com/post/landing-page-finally-ready-all-feedback-welcome-ce26e02ab8

    1. 1

      Thank you, Ruben!

      I will reconsider the placement and style of my testimonials. I thought it made sense to have them dispersed, but it seems that the page may be easier to follow if they were more collected.

      I can't say I've ever seen an Apple Pages template...does it evoke a specific feeling for you?

  3. 1

    For me and iam not a native english speaker its a bit confusing to say dev for designers, because it sound like you doing design work. But you doing dev work?

    1. 1

      Thanks for the perspective. Yes, I'm doing development work, but my target audience is freelance designers. I've worked as a design myself, but I'm a full-stack developer also. So I'm a developer who understands design, and makes website projects easier for designers. I hope that makes sense!

      1. 1

        I search a long time for a proper description of a coding Designer oder a designing Coder. I saw some App-Developers here in Germany that are one-person People that code an design and doing a pretty great job. And i studied interaction design and some of my buddys went from design to coding because our studie was much of coding hahaha, they now call them self just interaction designer, but we need to find a right word for a designer with coding focus or a coder with designing focus hahaha its a misson!

  4. 1

    Great design. A little offbeat but very elegant. agree with @8bit on the header change and I'd figure out a way to make the not about yourself a bit more prominent. I'm referring to the text - "My name is Matthew Pierce...".

    1. 1

      this is a good suggestion too. getting that name out in front is great. "hey, this is me!".

      make that connection. sweet.

    2. 1

      Thanks, Mahesh.

      I'll definitely be changing that header text. And I think you're right, I can make myself stand out more -- I'll do that, thanks!

  5. 1

    As a designer myself these are my feedback:

    • Less wording goes straight to the point, what can you bring? How? When?
    • Gather all your testimonials in one place, having them all around disrupt my understanding of your content, and makes me want to leave your website.
    • Show me what you got! Do you have some showcase available? Because developing one single static landing page does not show me how proficient you could be on developing my designs.

    Your wording is quite nice but you should keep it simple, we are visual people.

    1. 1

      Thanks Alessandro, really appreciate it!

      I 'll break things up more visually, and highlight key services.

      This page was a 2-hour draft, and so I tried to keep things simple, but I can see now that I should flex my own design abilities more to make my points easier to digest.

      Regarding testimonials, I'll gather them towards the end and place them in a slider.

      And I'll do something similar for my recent projects, a simple highlight section where each project will have a title, image, and link out to the live website.

      If you're curious, my 'showcase' currently resides here: https://matthewpierce.ca

      Excellent feedback! Thanks again.

  6. 0

    This comment was deleted 4 years ago.

    1. 1

      Nope! I'm a full-stack developer with design career experience. A developer who speaks both languages: design and development.

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