13 replies to this topic

[Brian Turner]

Hi all -

Okay, as I'm making myself comfortable here for the time being - - I'd be very interested in feedback on http://www.platinax.co.uk

What I'm especially interested in is how the index page looks from a user-experience point of view.

The site was redesigned because frankly it was one big confusing mess of information before.

However, I'm still not convinced I've made the front of site properly useful from a user point of view.

For a start, although I've tried to set up bananas (the forums and directory, for example), I'm concerned that the site doesn't really describe itself properly.

For a start, looking at the homepage alone, does the page really communicate with the user?

Interested in feedback, and any much appreciated.


ADDED:

General
Completed - new design up about 6 weeks

SEO
Not an issue.

Marketing
Target audience is SME's and webmasters, looking for information on improving their online business.


Design
Only where it affects user experience and impression.

Edited by Brian Turner, 28 January 2006 - 01:15 PM.

[lisety]

Brian,
In order to have a web site review you need to fill in the pinned form at the top of the page, here: http://www.highranki...p?showtopic=113. Once you do that then people will review your site.
Lise

[qwerty]

I like the color scheme. It's sharp, and very serious-looking. And the icons for the different sections (the larger ones, that is) are very good, with the exception of the main one, which makes me think of a parking lot.

What I don't understand is why that isn't carried forward, however. If I click through to the News section, I think it would make sense to see the News icon on that page as an identifier. You already have a link to the home page in the logo and the navigation button immediately to its right. When I go to platinax.co.uk/web/reviews/, I think it would make sense to see the Reviews icon immediately below the company name/logo, and if I then click through to platinax.co.uk/38-marketing-for-dummies/ that icon could take me back to the main Reviews page.

(But Lise is right. You need to fill out the questionnaire. Oops)

Edited by qwerty, 28 January 2006 - 12:27 PM.

[maggieto]

Hi Brian,

The bottom navigation field seems smaller than the rest of the content on all pages - you could align them better. On the Directory page the copyright message doesn't look right. Also fix the year - it's 2006 now

The color scheme is too grey - there could be more colorful elements, it look a little bit boring. The most exciting part of the site is the top navigation. You can try to make it with capital letters and smaller font size.

Hope this helps.

Maggie

[torka]

Overall, I like the look. Pleasing color combination and a good overall layout. It looks like a professionally-run site that I could trust for reliable information.

A few comments before I have to dash outta here:

I've seen some eyetracking studies that seem to indicate the space at the upper left of the page body (below the masthead) is probably the most important area in terms of being viewed the most frequently. On the home page, this area is occupied by the block explaining what the page is about.

I'm not sure that should be the most important thing on the page. As a small business person, I'd probably be most interested in the forum, so maybe swap that block with the "welcome to our home page" block -- put the welcome block in the middle? That gives the forum and the directory the same background color for their blocks, and since they're both pointers to interior sections of the site, while the "this is what we're about" block is not, it actually makes sense from a design standpoint as well.

I'm a sucker for symmetry, can you tell?

Dunno what it was like before, but there still seem to be a lot of choices on the page -- a forum, a directory, a "reviews" section, and "articles" section, a "news" section, and direct links to 30 articles and reviews. It's still a little hard for me to decide what to do/read first. Maybe cut the articles/reviews/news lists down to the three or five most recent, and make it more obvious that there's more -- perhaps add "browse all articles", "browse all reviews", and "browse all news" links at the bottom of the sections as well as the "breadcrumb" style links at the top.

Speaking of the breadcrumb links, I found it a little confusing, because it's not necessarily obvious right away (unless you obsessively check the status bar before you click any link the way I do) that it really is breadcrumb-style navigation, and the first bit "Platinex >" is actually a link back to the home page; only the second bit links to the detail page. As a user-in-a-hurry, I'd be a little disconcerted to click on what I thought was a link to detail information and have it simply reload the page I'm already on, simply because I positioned the cursor over the first word in the link instead of the second.

Gotta run to a meeting... hope these few thoughts were helpful.

--Torka

[arlen]

Brian -

I haven't reviewed your site, but glanced at it and was attracted to the business plan section (because I never seem to get back to mine) and noticed one thing ... under mistake #4, the word you were intending is tome, not tomb ... pretty sure, unless you intended to say your readers do not expect a grave Spellcheck will get you every time.

[Leann_Pass]

Hi Brian,

NICE design. Very clean. Nice look and feel.

On usability I will echo Torka in some areas. I was absolutely confused with the "bread crumb trail" - honestly, I had already been to the site and clicked, like Torka, on the first link instead of the second one - in every category and decided you only had your front page out there =).

I would like to see you remove all the homepage links from the homepage.

-------------------------------
You asked if the purpose is obvious enough to a new visitor. I didn't think so. It took me several seconds to figure it out - and you know what several seconds means when one is deciding whether to click away or stick around.

I'm not sure what - but I would like to see something, a short paragraph or maybe just a short to-the-point phrase that presents the purpose right upfront.

I see under your logo it says "for Entrepreneurs" my immediate question was "___ for entrepreneurs" ?

--------------------------------

I know there is alot on the homepage but it is well organized. The blocks and graphics really help differentiate between the options.

--------------------------------
Graphics. I like the graphics on the homepage but I think it would be nice if the ones in the top menu matched up with them.


Leann

[maleman]

Really great looking site! Very easy on the eyes. Simple and straightforward.

Albert Einstein said, "Keep it simple but not too simple". That's a rule I've always tried to follow. Looks like you've got it down. I wish I had some of your talent for page design.

I don't know if you did any validation yet. You have an XHTML DTD, I believe the <meta> tags should be closed with " />" instead of ">".

The "&" character should be written like this in the source, &amp;

Valid code is important.

If it were my page, I'd get rid of all the tabs, unnecessary spaces, and whatever else whitespace I could get rid of.

[MaryKrysia]

I love it -- clean, clear, simple and straight-forward. The home page is almost perfect. The only area I would suggest filling out is the navigation -- adding more of it to the home page as well as clearly showing which page someone is on. I did become confused at one point and had to go back to the home page to start over. This is where page headers can be very helpful.

The graphic design though, is SO GOOD.

Mary

[Karri]

Wow. Nice work. Simple, elegant and so refreshing.

I know not everyone does this but right away I was looking for an "about" or "profile" page. I am always curious to see a real person behind a site like this!

And I am not sure yet how you would do this, but somewhere you need a quirky little splash of color ... perhaps in your logo. Something just a wee bit unexpected but still very elegant. Just to make your name/logo memorable. Just a thought?

But BIG thumbs up overall!

Karri

[Brian Turner]

Thanks for the replies, all, and terribly sorry for the delayed reply - been very busy.

I think the key point raised is that the navigation is not very clear or intuitive - think I'll need to code in some PHP conditionals to help with that, as currently the site is built in Wordpress (main site, news section, and blogs).

Glad to see I haven't entirely faled, though, and thanks again for the feedback.

[ceuyan]

very clean website but a little too clean. what i mean about too clean is the all white is a little too much for me. i get the feeling i am looking at a word document and not a webpage

i really like your choice in text color.

[GLance]

Yeah. I agree with ceuyan. I notice that your website is quite plain. I just see graphical stuff on your logo only. Actually, you have good information there. So, I think you should add the graphical touch to make the articles more readable. Good luck

[madams]

Brian

I like the look of the site but...

I had to look at your first post...

Target audience is SME's and webmasters, looking for information on improving their online business.

...to find out what it is about.

Maybe IMO you should give it a clear title.