Site Review Please...

[scottiecl]

OK- I am taking a DEEP breath and putting my baby up for your criticism.

Please take a look at

www.columbia4kids.com (http://www.columbia4kids.com)

This site has a lot of content with a lot more to come. I need a database but can't set aside 3 weeks to learn MySQL just yet.

My biggest concerns-
1) Site loading time. Do CSS, tables, or SSI slow down page loading or is it just my crappy dial-up connection that makes it seem so slow?

(Note- the home page is HTML and the rest are PHP. I was hesitatant to use PHP on my home page in case it got ignored by the spiders. Maybe illogical... but better safe than sorry!)

2) Subnavs- check The Outdoors Page (http://www.columbia4kids.com/outdoors.php) to see what I mean. I need a more elegant way to display this information than a chunk of blue. I considered DHTML rollover menus but was nervous they would interfere with page load time and spidering. From a usability standpoint, I think some people don't understand floating menus. I have also considered ditching the blue and just putting the links in the body of the page. I did want some text on these pages for indexing purposes though.

Be honest- this is my first real design effort and I want to feel comfortable with it before the site gets any bigger. I spent a year and a half doing web usability studies but I am blind when it comes to my own child.

Thanks in advance for your feedback!

[peter_d]

Well, you asked for it... ;)

1) The copy is dull and dead. Consider hiring a professional copywriter.
2) Those colors are LOUD. I realize the topic is "kids" but I find it jaring.
3) I'm not sure where my attention should go. I find it floats over to the ads on the right.
4) The info is easy to find and it's pretty quick. But then I'm on T1 so everthing is pretty quick. Maybe someone else can judge this aspect.
5) The look and feel (sorry in advance) is highly unprofessional. There are too many elements left floating. Hire a designer - a good one will pull all the elements together. The Moderator Sanity may be able to help you there.
6) Dump the clip-art (see 5)
7) The hierarchy is pretty good and well organised.
8 Numerous rendering errors (http://www.columbia4kids.com/about.php)
9) The link to the designers site is a dead end. Not sure if that's meant to be ironic ;)


Only my opinion, of course :)

[scottiecl]

Thanks for your time! Your conclusions are not unexpected. The link to the "designed by" site is definitely not working yet- should be up soon.

[scottiecl]

If anyone else has a chance to look at the site and give me some specific recommendations on improving the design, I would really appreciate it.

Some background on the colors:

The colors were selected by a focus group of working moms, my target audience. Bright secondaries are not my favorites either! I had a South Carolina navy/white palmetto thing with a bright accent planned but my target audience thought it was boring and picked this palette from a selection of 6 combinations. This was the brightest.

I could have used a lot of sliced up images and rollover buttons but my goals is to focus on the content and frankly, the ads. I went for text links and table cell background colors that would load quickly. I AM aiming for simple, but NOT unprofessional.

I would like any ideas on pulling the elements together better. I did have a header bar and box around the ads but I felt it added to the busy feeling more than it helped.


:confused:

[lots0cash]

Personally, I like the site design and colors. I found it very easy to navigate and fast loading.

The only thing I would suggest is to eliminate the affiliate links (and any other non-essential links) on your main page. It draws attention away from your text.

IMO your main page should be about your site and the services/products you offer so the user will have a reason to cruse your site. Also IMO affiliate links on the main page does look “unprofessional” and there is the issue of PR on your main page.

[scottiecl]

I am taking the 2 affiliate links off the entire site right now. My HTML checker keeps flagging them and more than once they have displayed a broken image. Not worth it.

I am actually going to take all ads off the front page and use that column for features, news and recommendations. I had thought that that was "premium" ad space because more people will hit the home page than any other, but if they don't hang out and look around, they are certainly not going to follow an ad link!

Thanks for your comments! I appreciate your time.

[ihelpyou]

Be honest- this is my first real design effort and I want to feel comfortable with it before the site gets any bigger.
Really? I am impressed! Nice job! :)

[Blue]

I too liked the site! All the kids sites I've been to have glaring blaring BRIGHT colors.

The problem I see with your blue navbar thing on the inner pages is that it doesn't follow through to the inner-inner pages - where the listings are, forcing the user to go back in order to get to the menu again. Address this and site nav would be much easier.

Also, one ad I saw was to a gambling site. Is this site for kids or their mothers?

Good Job ..... you're well on your way! :cheers:

[peter_d]

I realize it can be hard to expose your baby to the big, wide world. But you've already made the biggest step towards better design.

Let me tell you a story...

I've been building web sites since 1995. I have no formal training in design and I'm happy to say I've made EVERY stupid design mistake in the book. Scrolling text (well, it was cool in 1995), clashing colors, splash pages, animations, midi, silly buttons. You name it, I've used it.

Why do I say "happy"?

Because I'm happy to learn through making mistakes. The best thing I ever did was what you are doing now. I went to a design forum and said "please critique my site". I also said "please, please be ruthless. I do not want any platitudes".

Boy, did I get hammered.

People told me, often at great length, how truly attroucious my coding was. They waxed lyrical about failure to unify my look and feel. It was hard to take, but I summarised all the comments and looked for the commonalities. I also considered how good the designs were of the people the critiques came from and weighted their opinion accordingly.

And I got better.

I still do the same thing now. Every time I design something new, I select a bunch of people who's opinions I respect and tell them to let loose. And they do. And I'm ever grateful.

I'm still no design guru. But I'm a million miles from where I started.

(ONE) PHILOSOPHY OF DESIGN

Start with the question "who is my audience and what do I want to tell them?". If you ever have a design problem, ask yourself the question again. The answer will tell you what to omit and what to keep.

Secondly, read www.useit.com. You're probably we'll aware of usability issues. Adhere to Jakob for navigation ideas, however usability is only one aspect of design. Mr Nielsen needs to be taken with a grain of salt. A Ferrari is both beautiful and easy to use. So too should your website be. (Yoda grammar intended ;)

Third, head over to www.coolhomepages.com for inspiration. Ask yourself why you like the designs you like and emmulate their qualities. Picasso said "bad artists borrow, great artists steal". "Steal" from the best.

Fourth, read www.zeldman.com, who, in my personal opinion, is one of the worlds best web designers. Not flashy, but he knows what works and, more importantly, what doesn't. www.37signals.com are also personal favourites.

If you absorb that lot, you'll know what's wrong with any design.

SPECIFICS

Hanging graphics/elements - look to unify a page. This forum uses both colour and rectangular objects to unify the design. This area is a hard one to explain briefly, but the best idea is to emulate styles you favour. Copy the proportions that work. Use photographs as templates for colors. Mother nature has an uncanny knack of unifying complex color schemes. Use a photo of a parrot as a color template. It works.

Writing: make the words jump. Use short sentences then longer ones. Mix it up. Use active verbs. Make it "snap".

Colors - they need to be bright for kids, but be careful of too many primary colors. Is your audience kids, or the parents of kids?

Clip-art - It never looks good. Reason? The context the graphics appear in is just as important as the graphics themselves.

I hope this is useful to you :)

[scottiecl]

Uhh- gambling site? I am guessing that it must have popped up on my rotten free forum or classifieds- at least I hope so!! I don't think I put one in but, hey, I've been working late, you never know.

As soon as I get a little $$ I plan to purchase classifieds and forum packages but until there are visitors, I am making do.

Thanks for the resources Peter_D. Very useful! While I find Mr Nielsen an interesting read, I think his site is pretty awful. Function is great, but you gotta have form too. The coolhomepages site is a great resource!

Blue- I went back and forth on keeping the subnav on the detail pages. I think I need to bite the bullet and ditch the ads on detail pages so I can keep the nav without squeezing the content too much. Many of the "review" type detail pages include photos that I just don't want to shrink anymore that 300 px.

Again, everyone, thanks for looking and taking the time to send me your very detailed comments. THIS FORUM IS A GREAT RESOURCE!! Everything I ever wanted to know and more...

[Web Witch]

Scott, I liked it and thought the colors were GREAT but then this is a long time after you first posted asking for opinions :hi:

Cathee

[scottiecl]

I'm still in development mode so thanks for your thoughts!

I see you are in Atlanta- I started the site after being able to find events and stuff to do easily on the Net while living in Atlanta but could find nothing here.

On the one hand, I think the newspaper/local media actually ought to handle or sponsor a site like this since they have SO much of the information already (like AccessAtlanta) but our media here don't really seem to "get" the Internet.

On the other hand, it may work to my advantage! I am planning to use it to promote other small family-oriented businesses in the area who are Internet-shy. A true community site, I hope. My take a while but I think we will get there!

Thanks for your comments.

[Web Witch]

Scott, in a lot of respects I agree with you. I'm holding on to a domain called OnlineAtlanta.net because I feel that there is no comprehensive site to network people, places with like interests in Atlanta.

Cathee

PS
I'm a paddler :)