I have had numerous requests for review of sites in order to give suggestions for improvement. Thus I decided to create a page specific for it.
If you have a specific question about your blog or site involving the design and/or traffic/ranking of it, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment here and I will try to do my best to answer it, time permitted that is.
Only requirement is that I get to publicize the comments here for everyone to see and benefit from later on.
11 responses so far ↓
1 Alex // Apr 3, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Hello!
I’m a reader of your blog and I’m really fond of one.
I understand that you know much about webdesign and usability. I have created a
service which makes it possible to produce your own flash menu: http://flash-menu.net .
Of course there’re planty of desktop application but my service works online.
I’ve spent about one year on programming of this service and not so many people used it:(, although I have never advertised one.
Probobly you could advise if design of this site looks fine?
If speaking about usability, is everything in order or not?
How do you think, will this service be in use and do I need to continue developing it?
Thank you for your attention,
Alex
2 GiorgosK // Apr 4, 2008 at 4:45 am
Alex thanks for the contact.
Its an interesting project you have started there.
A few things about usability:
1. It would be nice to have sub-tabs inside
“component inspector” such as: color, font, shadow etc. this way the user does not have to use the vertical scroll
2. component inspector is better to be named “visual editor”
3. what do you do with the XML
I mean how do you get that menu runninc on your site.
Its not explained anywhere ???
4. Overall site design is nice but its too dark. I would make it a little more PLAYFUL (bright colors)
5. “know more” link does not go anywhere
6. “upgrade” link is misleading
better use “support” or “contact us”
7. site menu has very small font
8. The actual “flash menu creator” one needs to scroll to see it (not very pleasant)
Take a look at the screen shot to see what I mean
Take a look at another builder/creator similar to yours that is VERY WELL PRESENTED
http://quickribbon.com/
Notice also the simplicity and colors
9. I still did not figure out how one could use you menu on their own site ?? make it very clear.
Number the steps almost like this 1. visual designer - 2. item editor - 3. grab XML - 4. install
10. the help on the right column is counterintuitive. I would suggest to actual get rid of it or put help next to EACH ITEM (hover help maybe)
11. should you continue to develop it ? I don’t know what you are trying to accomplish with this ? Is there a demand for something like this ? Find a flash developers community and ask them what they think about the tool. (I am not a flash developer) Lets talk more about this on email …
3 Karen // Apr 7, 2008 at 2:49 am
Hi GiorgosK,
It is very kind of you to offer this. I have a website at http://wcfm.info which is mostly of local interest. Visitors I have spoken to from time to time have mentioned having trouble finding what they need, but have been unable to offer specific feedback. I will not discount the possibility that the info they want is not yet on the site, and I intend to make my blog more findable and hopefully deal with some of that. It would be great if you could take a look and let me know if anything could be improved. Thanks so much!
4 GiorgosK // Apr 7, 2008 at 4:21 am
I don’t understand why you are asking for my advice since you already have an SEO COnsultant linked from your “lists/views/produce” page but anyway …
There is some things that I don’t approve of on the design - like the 200px border-left of the main in order to achieve a spacing from the sidebar !!!! it kind of shows a rather amatur approach to web design … but since its works why change it
But that was only to mention that the design speaks a little on its own without digging in the coding of it.
Left side does not have an equal border (green) like the right side has ?? and in the end it does not achieve a distinction between background color and content color.
The right hand menu is kind of unorthodox and “hostile” if you ask me, I would use a horizontal menu instead and put it on the bottom of the header section.
you can find lots of examples at listmatic
http://css.maxdesign.com.au/listamatic/
I see you are using drupal as the underlying CMS you could use this module and make your menu very convinient for the user
http://drupal.org/project/nice_menus
I would also create boxes around the left hand sections in order to group them and make the easier to understand.
Hope this helps
5 Karen // Apr 7, 2008 at 4:30 am
Wow thanks!
Surely you understand that SEO!=usability.
I will study your recommendations and work on making things better. Not sure about the nice menus as I browse without JS and am sensitive to that, but a horizontal menu could work anyway.
Thanks for looking at it so quickly!
6 GiorgosK // Apr 7, 2008 at 10:36 am
Well,
SEO is a term loosely used to mean improving visitors experience and conversion. Even with the strict meaning of SEO (Search engine optimisation) bounce rates need to improve in order to achieve better rankings
http://geoland.org/2008/02/content-is-king-after-all/
thus layout, structure and a little usability need to be taken into consideration when giving SEO suggestions, at least in my mind.
Of course you can argue against it but I am only trying to justify my original claim.
7 Nick // Apr 11, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Hi!
I like many others have been reading your blog for a while and am very interested to hear what you think of a site I have been developing for a few months now. It has all been written from the ground up so no CMS limitations etc. But anyway take a look and see what you think!
8 GiorgosK // Apr 11, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Nick, thanks for stopping by,
I don’t really know who reading my articles but I am glad to have met some of you.
You site looks professional enough but,
to be take it a step further I would blend the google ads to make it even more professional looking.
and I would seperate the site’s mission (top 2 lines) from the update/newsletter section
with the means of different background color probably.
and I would also give the submit some more spacing from “request a brochure”
On the tours by destination the search is refined as you pick things from the drop down menus therefore the “refine search” button is not only unecessary it actually leads to a blank page if pressed. I think you should make sure if javascript is enabled not to show it …
Sitemap link leads to blank page
General comment: get even more deals on the search and then you can reconsider your layout and site functionality.
9 name // May 1, 2008 at 1:15 am
Hey man,
I just want to say that this post is perhaps the most content laden one on your site right now. I appreciate not the length of your post but the honest help and opinion you provide. I hope you do not tire in giving advice to those who need it.
Google mentioned value to visitors as one of the things bloggers should consider when writing posts on their blogs. What you have in this post is just that. Value.
Keep it up man. I know a lot of people appreciate it.
10 Asoka // May 11, 2008 at 8:24 am
Hello. I actually has a several questions that I couldn’t really find it from googling.
1. How does alexa work? I know the rank is implemented for the whole root, sub, folder, page, all at one. It determined the score from the Hit right? But is it only the hit to the root domain that counts? What if a visitor hit my rootdomain.com/page1
11 fshjh // May 15, 2008 at 1:09 am
I think alexa mainly focuses on your main home page. They seem to update a bit slowly tho
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