Re: Event Matchmaker updated

On 2006-01-10, EventMatchmaker <postmaster@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> You have a right to your opinion, but it is rather unprofessional of you to
> critique without giving constructive feedback.

OK, I'm as guilty of this as Jay. My objections (in no particular
order) You're not going to like this list, and it is quite long, but
you *did* ask.

- Why does the page need to tell me what time it is? I've got a clock
in the corner of my screen that does that perfectly well.

- The colours are anything other than bright and vibrant

- The layout is cluttered, presenting too many options on each page.
This is confusing and does not draw the eye to any given part of the
page, least of all the important bits (the content)

- The "log in" section has a padlock by it, giving the impression that
logging in to the site is a secure procedure yet from perusing the
source it would appear to submit the form to a plain http site. This
is misleading. The only https link I can find in the page is the
"contact us" one for some reason.

- "Send Password" should *NEVER* be possible. There is NO REASON AT ALL
why you should EVER store passwords in plain text on the server. I
can't stress this enough! Passwords should ALWAYS be stored encrypted.

- Text against a zero width left margin is hard to read - even a small
margin of 5px would help readability immensely.

- The black border on the right hand column does not contain the google
adwords banners. Infact, I've only just noticed that the adwords
actually cover your logo to the point that the logo isn't visible.
Clearly this is poor branding.

- Why is the page all crammed over on the left of the screen? This
gives the page a lopsided feel, which is compounded by the lack of lhs
margin. This makes it harder to read than it should be.

- The front page is too long, and contains too much text. After three
paragraphs people will give up and wander elsewhere. Ideally the
first page people see on visiting the site should fit in the browser
window, or if that can't be managed - the important information should
be at the top.

- You're innappropriately duplicating elements of the horizontal
navigation with buttons within the content area. This is confusing.
It's not immediately obvious that the "VIEW LISTINGS" button is the
same as the "Listings" link almost directly above it

- You're use of capitals makes it look liek you learnt your html design
skills from studying ebay adverts

- It's not clear what the XML button gives you an XML feed of, a single
line of explanitory text would go a long way.

That's just the front page.

- On the "Listings" page, all the thumbnail images are full size images
being resized by the browser. This not only looks poor (browsers are
much worse at resizing algorithms than image manipulation software
is) but it's also *very* wasteful of bandwidth, resulting in slow
loading pages for your customers, and higher bandwidth bills from
your hosts.

- What's with the paragraph of definitions at the bottom of the page?
I can't think of any reason that it's there other than as a
transparent attempt to manipulate search engine rankings. It adds no
value to the page.

- The FAQ pages don't look anything like any FAQ I've ever seen, it's
not at all clear at a glance what constitutes a question and what
constitutes an answer.

- On the FAQ pages, there's an eventmatchmaker.com logo that doesn't
appear anywhere else on the site! Why's it there? What purpose does
it serve? Why is it only on the FAQ pages?

- You say it's optimised for print. If that's so, why doesn't the page
horizontally resize to fit the page? I've just checked in IE's print
preview pane, and half the right hand column is missing.

I could probably go on, but I can't be bothered and I doubt you wanted
to hear the problems I've picked with it so far.

Your aim is noble, but for me - if it was a CV site for my chosen
career, I wouldn't want a recruiter to find me on it. It just has too
many layout problems and it's too hard to navigate.

Please. If you're serious about the project, or if (heaven forbid) you
have a business plan that relies on the site - *Please* spend some money
on a good quality web design. You can do a lot of damage with a bad
one.

> YOU have a choice to be a part of it or not.

I'm chosing "NOT"

> Site colors were selected to relate the upbeat site and not a stuffy
> corporate image.

if mustard yellow is "upbeat" I'd hate to see depressing.

> The site has been created for viewing in IE

Why? According to the webstats for the sites I run at work, and my
personal websites IE now only accounts for a little over 65% of the
browser market. You're setting your sites on a needlessly narrow
portion of the market.

No matter what anyone tells you, it *is* possible to design sites that
work in more than IE and no, it's not a great deal harder. Especially
for a site with such basic layout requirements as yours.

> All your vases are!

What's that skippy? The sound of a joke cruising at 30,000 feet?

-Paul
.