Please Review This Unique Site

[Lazaru5]

Hi guys,

Trade a Favour is a brand new and unique site that needs some serious critique's only.

The main thing is the homepage, it definitely needs something, but what?

Be gentle but be constructive, please

Laz

[DJAd]

The main thing is the homepage, it definitely needs something, but what?

Different colours would be a good start maybe. That brown is horrible with that text!
Also having another look, maybe make the main box the same width as the tabs above it.

[Lazaru5]

i have no say over the color scheme so, unless someone comes up with something the boss'll go for, (and believe me we've tried), the color scheme will stay

as for the main window being the same width as the tabs, yeah, maybe that can be changed. Originally it was done in an iframe so everything was uniform, but search engine bots arent impressed with iframes, apparantly..

I was kinda hoping for more on the content of the homepage, how do we make it convert visitors into members?

[-AMO-]

I don't like the colour scheme, it reminds me of a crunchie when you've bitten into it. Have you considered asking your boss to have a browse around the web and then pick out a colour scheme from a site he likes?

For a site of this nature, I would definately consider going for more neutral colours. Try Multiple shades of a single colour such as blue for example.

There isnt really anything unique about your sites concept either. I don't think its a viable business.

[/dev/null]

Maybe consider making your tabs text-based and styled with CSS to look the same as the images. Will make it much easier to update/extend the site and for visually impaired surfers.

[neo2810]

"Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '<' in /home/tractor/public_html/index.php on line 314" on a blank white screen doesnt really do it for me

Scratch that... working now...

I dont really have much to offer other than what's been said about the colour scheme, but in terms of functionality, I reckon it gets the right message across. I don't think it needs to be much more exciting.

[AspectUK]

Your right it does need something, a complete redesign I think.

As a browser of the site, it just doesn't interest me at all, nothing strikes me as good about it.

The colour scheme isn't the best, but the way you've gone about using it is completely wrong. My eyes start hurting after a while trying to read yellow on brown.

If you made the site background the brown colour, with maybe a subtle pattern in the nasty urine style yellow colour.
Then placed a big white square in the middle and over the top of it, and hey presto, you still have your colour scheme that looks like a students matress, but then you have lots of lovely white space to use for your text and images.



I know it's not exactly the same brown but that can be altered in photoshop/illustrator easily enough.

You might hate it, but that's the first thing that popped into my head, and I have quite a small head so just think of what could be possible!

[Lazaru5]

I love the DF humour...

actually, it has made the boss take notice, check out the site now, (there are still a couple of 'minor' issues)..

so can i have a proper critique now please guys

[headsortails]

I'd wrap the text around the images rather than just having then 'dotted' around the text, they look a little out of place at the moment in my opinion.

[Spennyboy]

the buttons look fuzzy, like low res orange/black on my comp... may just be me.

Also, the logo...

The company is Trade A Favour... however with the @ symbol reads "Trade AT Favour"...

[Lazaru5]

@headsortails - you mean the pics of the paperclip and the house yeah? I'm not sure that they are actually needed at all, to be perfectly honest. As it is, i think they are where they are because they probably wouldnt look particularly good with wrapped text in a minimised window, ( i am guessing here)

@Spennyboy - the buttons look fuzzy? they look ok to me using IE6 with 1024/768 resolution i *hope* its just you as for the logo, that was professionally designed and has been run past several business advisors who all liked the logo immensely. The @ symbolises the fact that its an internet only service which is why it was used instead of an A. I might have been able to convince the boss we needed a new design/colorscheme but i doubt 1000% that the logo is gonna change, (besides, i quite like the logo myself )

anybody else?

[headsortails]

This remind me of Property Ladder when Sarah 'Boobs' Beeney is giving the fledgling developers excellent advice and they get too personal with it and ignore her. Normally to the detriment of the project.

[chrismaher2007]

the buttons look fuzzy, like low res orange/black on my comp... may just be me.

Also, the logo...

The company is Trade A Favour... however with the @ symbol reads "Trade AT Favour"...

looks very fuzzy to me aswell. doesnt quite have a nice gloss to it.

good point about the @ symbol aswell.it just doesnt make sense
might look fancy but still

[Lazaru5]

I wasnt ignoring your advice, I agree they would probably look better with wrapped text, in a full window at least. I want your opinion on whether the images are needed at all, thats what i meant by my last comment.

[Lazaru5]

looks very fuzzy to me aswell. doesnt quite have a nice gloss to it.

do you mean that they would probably look better if they were more like this?

[Ganty]

Not to be a pain in the arse, but what's the point in asking for comments and critisisms if you are just going to debunk what everyone is saying?

I typed this, then read headsortails latest comment, and couldn't be arsed to delete it

[chrismaher2007]

1 other thing is the amount of writing.

why not just have a few offers on the front page?

i.e

red carpet needed in hackney- will offer ( and then the skills of the person)

obviously dressed up a bit but you know what i mean

[Lazaru5]

Not to be a pain in the arse, but what's the point in asking for comments and critisisms if you are just going to debunk what everyone is saying?

I typed this, then read headsortails latest comment, and couldn't be arsed to delete it

I'm not debunking anything... The images issue is one of: a) are they needed, and b) should they be in wrapped text if a) = yes.. ?

the buttons apparantly look "fuzzy", they look ok to me but how they look to me and how they look to others are two different things, if they need changing (and it looks like they do) then suggestions as to what they need are welcome.

as for the logo, thats almost certainly going to remain with the @ purely because:
1. the boss likes it
2. i like it
3. every "offline" business professional that has seen and commented on it, like it

no offence intended, I suppose the logo is one of personal taste, i agree it reads wrong, but its a logo, a brand name if you like, and, to quote one business professional that i spoke to back in april, "it's clean, describes the service, and its memorable" which is all a logo should be, imo.

ignoring the logo, seeing as its unlikely we are going to agree on it, are there any issues with the site overall that need fixing/changing/improvements?

@chrismaher2007: yeah it would be good to do that and I thats the plan eventually, but until there are adverts to display on the frontpage, we need something else. the copy on there isnt the best, (to put it mildly), and is obviously a problem. we're also in the process of changing the ad formats, to try and make them more 'attractive'.

[big man]

A few thoughts from a quick browse:

It doesn't look good on a widescreen monitor. The (unneeded) house image sits in acres of white space all on it's own

I'd suggest putting the left hand nav above the login area due to the size of the boxes you're using

Sort out the gradient's on your images, the darker orange looks 'stuck on' at the top

'Sorry you must login to view this page.' should be 'Sorry, you must login to view this page.' and i'd suggest hiding all the links that are only available to logged in users.

When you go to 'browse ads', the secondary left hand nav floats in random space on the left. I'd suggest make this a proper left hand nav instead of what is currently the navigation panel

All the links in the navigation panel should really be text links in your footer, apart from the register link, which should live on the top nav

For what it's worth, i've got to agree with the logo. That smacks of 'early internet' to me and doesn't look very professional

The actual ads themselves need styling. There's no difference in the text between the title or the description. I'd also look at your spacing, and paragraphing as it's just a mass of text on the screen

If this is being run as a business, lose the google ads - looks like someone's hobby site

I'd start by losing all the images that are used for navigation. Use an unordered list containing text and then use css to style it up. Look at http://www.alistapart.com for some ways to do it

From a technical point of view - lose all the tables. Using css to style AND layout gives you much more freedom, and much leaner, faster pages. Take a look here http://www.glish.com/css/ for some help

I'd read up on keywords and descriptions. I'm not an SEO expert, but looking at your's you might run the risk of it being classed as spamming, so double check it

[chrismaher2007]

one other thing. the 1st thing that came into my head was tradesmen.

i think it gives off the wrong impression having two people in suits shaking hands

im not sure how to phrase it

maybe make it a bit more american
if that makes sense


the criticisms getting vey x-factor anyway