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Critique this site :)

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Originally posted by: OulOat
Originally posted by: buyer262000
Originally posted by: MrCodeDude
People in Arkansas don't have the internet. It's a known fact.
Click to expand...

I'm going to try to sell a few of them on the idea. . .
Click to expand...

If you seriously meant this, then there is a few other changes you should make.

1) Get rid of the top links. Clutters the page. Top is not necessary and no professional sites use it.
2) Move all the page jumps under about us to seperate pages, so that your front page remains uncluttered (and you can and should add pics).
3) About us should be a page

Now you should consider your audience
4) If you expect them to know nothing about the web and developing pages, then you should change the "Business Hosting" and "Personal Hosting" to simpler and clearer names, like "Business Websites" and "Personal Websites." Then on those pages try to convince the customer to use your service because you offer great prices and ease-of-use. So instead of the "Are you tired of the frustration and the hassle of so called 'free' webhosting" it should be "Don't be fooled by the so called 'free' webhosting. Those sites limit the content of your site and often force you to show their advertisements. The frustration and hassle of dealing with those sites are not worth it. With ______, we guarantee 99% uptime and we blah blah blah."

In any case, stick in there "time is money" and you would be gravy. Also edit it to be more professional for businesses and down to earth for personal.

5) If you expect your customers to have an idea of what web hosting is, then go check out some of the bigger hosters. Learn from what they wrote.

6) You don't need a conclusion link. Instead you can have a partner's link and put GoDaddy under that (with explanation of course).
Click to expand...

Thank you for your detailed write up. I have addressed all of your concerns. What does everyone think about it now? (make sure to hit refresh cause it has all changed).

Tha only thing I have not done yet was a picture. . .

Thanks for all the critiques so far. Let me know how it looks now. . .

Link again. . .
 
be a little more creative w/ the fonts....try something a little smaller...maybe size=2?

get rid of the table width=100%...(imo)...give it a background to rid of all the white space...you don't have enough info anyways to do a table width=100%...make it 650 or so then center it..

more later...i just glanced at it....
 
umm... I dont know how to respond. it's not too pretty for a site with the word bra in it's url. if it's truly a lingerie site, maybe make it more feminine? and maybe code it yourself... that'd work too.
 
Sorry, it looks really unprofessional to me. I expected a blog when I first looked over the site.

I agree there doesn't need to be a "top" link, but that is the least of the problems. You want the site to look simple and vibrant, not simple and boring. You definitely need to spruce it up with SOME graphics. I also don't think your navigation makes sense.

Suppose I'm visiting your site. Most likely it's because:

a) I'm looking for someone to host my web site
b) I'm an existing customer who needs some information or help

B is not accomplished in any form that I can tell.

What is the point of the news thing in the lower left? Will that eventually say something important or is it just "press" releases? If it's important news for customers, it should be in a more prominent place.

Most, if not all, of your content falls is basically "product information".

What is a partner? Is that a customer? Affiliate? Is that testimonials?

Do a search for enterprise web host / web hosting and take some ideas from there. Gray is not a good color. If you don't have a significant budget devoted to designing this site, you want it to LOOK like you do anyway. Especially if your prices are not competitive.
 
Originally posted by: torpid
Sorry, it looks really unprofessional to me. I expected a blog when I first looked over the site.

I agree there doesn't need to be a "top" link, but that is the least of the problems. You want the site to look simple and vibrant, not simple and boring. You definitely need to spruce it up with SOME graphics. I also don't think your navigation makes sense.

Suppose I'm visiting your site. Most likely it's because:

a) I'm looking for someone to host my web site
b) I'm an existing customer who needs some information or help

B is not accomplished in any form that I can tell.

What is the point of the news thing in the lower left? Will that eventually say something important or is it just "press" releases? If it's important news for customers, it should be in a more prominent place.

Most, if not all, of your content falls is basically "product information".

What is a partner? Is that a customer? Affiliate? Is that testimonials?

Do a search for enterprise web host / web hosting and take some ideas from there. Gray is not a good color. If you don't have a significant budget devoted to designing this site, you want it to LOOK like you do anyway. Especially if your prices are not competitive.
Click to expand...

My plan was to have support information on the respective page (for business or personal). Of course the content is all missing now. The news in the lower left was going to be to report any known problems or announcements. Point taken about it's prominence - I'll work on making it more visible. "Partners" was going to be links to godaddy and some different web authoring material that I was going to use amazon's referral program for. My pricing will be very competative for the area, btw.

Point taken about gray, I'll work on it. Should it be vibrant or muted? What is everyones thoughts?

Thanks for a good appraisal!
 
Originally posted by: buyer262000
Originally posted by: Modeps
and maybe code it yourself... that'd work too.
Click to expand...

It was opensourced - you can modify it and do what you like with it.
Click to expand...

Just because it's opensource doesn't mean you should use it for designing a website. Because it's opensouce is a great reason for NOT using it; everyone else is already doing so.
 
Hi,

I'm a web developer myself, I'll try to give you a few ideas for you own site.

First, as someone told before, I wouldn't use 100% width tables ... after all it's a web site, so we never know our target specifications, so you may think of going for a 800x600 design. In that resolution, and with a normal Internet Explorer maximized, you'll get 780 pixels width (visible area), so create the general width of your page by this resolution.

I once made a project for a 1024x768, and latter I had to convert it to 800x600, because users couldn't see all of the page, since their resolutions were setup to 800x600.

In my country (Portugal), many people have ADSL and Cable, yet many people still sticks with 800x600 resolution. Because they work with other applications, it helps them to read text clear.

I believe 800x600 is/should be the "standard", as 320x200 were in back days of vga computer games with 256 colors 😀.

Next, if you plan on keeping those left and right columns, think about giving it some limitation, so people can have a better feeling where start/end. BUT ... if you go to a 800x600 resolution, you may end up with little space in the middle ... but that would be solved by moving the right column contents to the left one ... keeping just one column to the left side. Your choice ...

One thing missing: Logo on title. And if you plan on keeping light colors, a background is a must. Think about a derivation of the logo, in a bigger resolution, and in light-gray style. (don't know how to explain it better on english lol)

For font sizes, in the pass I used size 1, size 2, ... but often they were too big or too quick. Now I prefer to use the scale we see on word, and I stick with size="9pt". Some a bit bigger for titles (10pt) or even using bold text. The top title is the only exception, so people can see it immediatly. But if you make a logo, you probably will include the title text in the pic, with some cool painshot effect. 😉


Hope you get something out of the mess I wrote eheh.
 
Originally posted by: Modeps
Originally posted by: buyer262000
Originally posted by: Modeps
and maybe code it yourself... that'd work too.
Click to expand...

It was opensourced - you can modify it and do what you like with it.
Click to expand...

Just because it's opensource doesn't mean you should use it for designing a website. Because it's opensouce is a great reason for NOT using it; everyone else is already doing so.
Click to expand...

By the time I get done with it, it will no resemble the original. I am not a web designer, I needed a base. Lots of ppl here in this thread are helping me to transform it. It already is very different from the original. I don't plan on using the site until later into the summer.
 
Originally posted by: b4u
Hi,

I'm a web developer myself, I'll try to give you a few ideas for you own site.

First, as someone told before, I wouldn't use 100% width tables ... after all it's a web site, so we never know our target specifications, so you may think of going for a 800x600 design. In that resolution, and with a normal Internet Explorer maximized, you'll get 780 pixels width (visible area), so create the general width of your page by this resolution.

I once made a project for a 1024x768, and latter I had to convert it to 800x600, because users couldn't see all of the page, since their resolutions were setup to 800x600.

In my country (Portugal), many people have ADSL and Cable, yet many people still sticks with 800x600 resolution. Because they work with other applications, it helps them to read text clear.

I believe 800x600 is/should be the "standard", as 320x200 were in back days of vga computer games with 256 colors 😀.

Next, if you plan on keeping those left and right columns, think about giving it some limitation, so people can have a better feeling where start/end. BUT ... if you go to a 800x600 resolution, you may end up with little space in the middle ... but that would be solved by moving the right column contents to the left one ... keeping just one column to the left side. Your choice ...

One thing missing: Logo on title. And if you plan on keeping light colors, a background is a must. Think about a derivation of the logo, in a bigger resolution, and in light-gray style. (don't know how to explain it better on english lol)

For font sizes, in the pass I used size 1, size 2, ... but often they were too big or too quick. Now I prefer to use the scale we see on word, and I stick with size="9pt". Some a bit bigger for titles (10pt) or even using bold text. The top title is the only exception, so people can see it immediatly. But if you make a logo, you probably will include the title text in the pic, with some cool painshot effect. 😉


Hope you get something out of the mess I wrote eheh.
Click to expand...



Thank you 🙂
 
Oh, one more thing ... as it being an INTERNET site, you sould try it browsing with Internet Explorer AND Netscape.

Believe me ... there is nothing more frustrating then putting your effords on some great feature, just to see it at the end not working with all browsers, and so do some remake (and loose some time doing so) just to make it work cross-browser. <--- personal experience for life here!

I never made another piece of code without checking with IE, NS, Mozilla (although NS and MZ I believe they have the same parser core).
 
Originally posted by: b4u
Oh, one more thing ... as it being an INTERNET site, you sould try it browsing with Internet Explorer AND Netscape.

Believe me ... there is nothing more frustrating then putting your effords on some great feature, just to see it at the end not working with all browsers, and so do some remake (and loose some time doing so) just to make it work cross-browser. <--- personal experience for life here!

I never made another piece of code without checking with IE, NS, Mozilla (although NS and MZ I believe they have the same parser core).
Click to expand...

I've been checking it with IE 6 and Firefox .8 - I need to download Opera. Thanks for reminding me.
 
torpid mentions something very important, as in how does existing customers login. Instead of having the "why totallibra" link to the front page, it should be a seperate page. The welcome log should be short and simple with the option for existing customers to login (you don't want you customers to have to click on business websites each time they have to login do you?). There should also be a support page with a faq and email addresses to reach you.
 
buyer262000,
Hey man, I own and did http://www.central-servers.com and http://www.claninabox.net . I think most people like the website, but if you use a large resolution you may notice a few things that may come in handy with your own website.

1) Limit Table Width - I think if you want to keep your design the way it is, you may want to limit it as someone else has already said. This would leave some space out on the edges, so i may change the background color if you decide to keep it in it's current state.

2) Pictures - The banner is somewhat plain and boring. It will be the first thing your customers look at and if it is nothing but a big gray block with a couple of things written in it, it may not appease them very much. If nothing else, you may want to whip out Photoshop and at minimum give your 'Welcome to Totallibra!' a face lift. Although i'd suggest if you know someone or if you have the skills, add some server images, you can look at some other popular hosts and see what they have on their website that gives it character.

3) Menu's - Your menu's design looks pretty nice. But i'd possibly use css to change the font, make things a specific size for everyone. Something that can be read, but use different font sizes/styles to differinciate between headers, general content, and other things.

If you would like some personal help, Give me a Anandtech PM or email me at ttracy@email.usps.gov. I don't mind giving a helping hand. 🙂 I can also do custom designs for you and show you how to update/edit your site if that is needed.
 
Total Libra? It sounds like an astrology site, not a webhosting site. also, it looks like a half-assed copy of moveable type, and the text on the main page sounds like it was written by a high school student.
 
It doesn't matter if a site's name describes its purporse. If it's catchy and people remember the name, that's the most important thing. e.g. amazon.com

The 3 sites mentioned above (4 were mentioned but 1 is not a host of any sort) are better, but when I look at them, I am not sure if I would want to use them. There's still a noticeable gap between them and a site that truly looks like an enterprise site with a big budget and lots of customers. If I'm comparing them to something like imhosted.com or ipowerweb.com, which came up on a google search I just did, I'm going to prefer imhosted or ipowerweb at first. Maybe once the prices and features come into play it will be a different story.

Still, as I said, they are better. TotalLibra would be an immediate no as it is now. The others mentioned above would be more like, worth considering if they have something really great to offer that the "upscale" sites don't.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not a huge snob about websites. Just for web hosts and other high importance services. It is a VERY competitive market, and you have to really struggle to compete with some of those huge companies who offer services for low prices with incredible reliability and good customer service.
 
Is this an improvement?

I've added some photos. . .

I'm trying hard to make this presentable. . . Thanks for suggestions so far.

Don't look at the links, just the index page - I have not adapted the photos and new style on the subpages yet. . .

Don't critique content, I'll get that right - just trying to get a style down. . .

Thanks for everyone's comments so far.

Link Here

:beer:
 
everything it too spread out at 100%, makes it difficult to focus on anything

try making it contained within a table 700px wide or so
 
Originally posted by: jntdesign
everything it too spread out at 100%, makes it difficult to focus on anything

try making it contained within a table 700px wide or so
Click to expand...

Other ppl have kept recommending this, I just don't have a clue how to modify it. I was trying to read up on it, and tried a few things - sometimes they'd work in IE - but not Mozilla - sometimes they'd work in Mozilla, but not in IE. I gave up 🙁

Anyone with a good example?
 
Tip #1: Don't use XHTML Strict DOCTYPE IF YOUR FVCKING ML DOESN'T VALIDATE TO STRICT

😀

Edit: Switch Strict to 'Transitional' 😉
 
<body>
<div align="center">
<table width="700" border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td>

YOUR STUFF GOES HERE

</td></tr></table></div>
</body>
 
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