Advice on Site Design

[grahamb]

After posting a thread here, earlier this year, asking for advice on my website design I have made major changes. I would now like opinions on the current design. There are some pages where I still need to make changes but with this thread I am more interested in the home page. Be brutal. Tell me what you think.

Thanks everyone
Graham

[stlewis]

Hi Graham

I assume you mean to http://www.bettscomputers.com ...

Perhaps a visitor coming to your site will spot what they want but for the accidental/search engine visitor this page is just too busy with too many competing elements. Which is the important one?

I go on about this too often but, your page must:

Attract
Inform - tell me something of use to me about your business
Desire - make me want it
Action - tell me where to go, what to do next...

And there are too many colours which don't hang together to me. Feeding your greeny-blue into http://kuler.adobe.com/# the pallete below might look more elegant.

[aridzone]

Hi Graham

Like I posted before:

1. About Us usually describes the website not the webmaster.
You could add a separate About the Webmaster page.

2. I would copyright your website if I were you.

[grahamb]

Hi Graham

I assume you mean to http://www.bettscomputers.com ...

Perhaps a visitor coming to your site will spot what they want but for the accidental/search engine visitor this page is just too busy with too many competing elements. Which is the important one?

I go on about this too often but, your page must:

Attract
Inform - tell me something of use to me about your business
Desire - make me want it
Action - tell me where to go, what to do next...

And there are too many colours which don't hang together to me. Feeding your greeny-blue into http://kuler.adobe.com/# the pallete below might look more elegant.

Thanks Simon. Good advice. I was trying to break up the colour scheme and do something a bit different with the colour on the right hand side. I have changed it back to white. The colours now synch.

[grahamb]

Hi Graham

Like I posted before:

1. About Us usually describes the website not the webmaster.
You could add a separate About the Webmaster page.

2. I would copyright your website if I were you.

How do I copyright?

[aridzone]

I'm not too sure about the laws in Australia.
But you can read up on it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright

[grahamb]

OK. I have listened to everyone. I would like to say a big thank you. I have made serious changes to my home page. You will find menus elsewhere still needing change. That is my next project.

The page was very big and very busy. It was hard for any user to focus on one place. The page is now 80% and looking much better. I have removed much of the written babble I had on the page and changed the graphics. I think it is now much better. Would love to hear more feedback. If there are any other suggestions please let me know.

http://www.bettscomputers.com

[remi]

I don't like the Google Ads each and everywhere on your page. Perhaps I'm wrong, but for me it seems a little bit, that you're only searching for visitors, in order to earn more money through Google ads.

Remi

[pauland]

I don't think you've picked up on Simons advice at all:

Attract
Inform - tell me something of use to me about your business
Desire - make me want it
Action - tell me where to go, what to do next...

For the new user (like me) the choices are bewildering and I have no reason to look further. I don't know what your company does and it looks like hard work to find out. Why should I bother when it's probably not relevant to me?

Simons advice is spot on and you need to consider what your users want and need to know rather than just have your own perspective. You need to convince your visitors that your site is relevant to them.

Each page should have a clear focus and perhaps a number of sub topics. Every page on the site should conform to the same style so that it doesn't look as though links are taking the user to some completely different site.

Reduce and organise the immense amount of clutter.

I'm not really sure what your primary business is and despite the huge banner ad animation, I'm still not sure what bettscomputers is about and how your business model works.

Perhaps the first page should say something like:

"Welcome to bettscomputers.

We specialise in helping teachers and students to access the very best training resources, so that quality education is accessible to all.

Our mission is effective education delivered directly to you, either online or in person. Our passion is to help you achieve your learning goals.

Your path to fast and effective learning is right here.

Graham betts"

OK, that's my idea of what your home page should have. I could be way off base. Whatever you do good luck.

Paul

[grahamb]

Thanks for your advice Paul.

I did try to take Simon's advice but I obviously failed. I thought I had significantly reduced clutter but clearly not quite the case either. I will have to try to look more objectively.

I am glad about your refocus on Simons advice about the purpose of the site. I am too close to it. I thought it was clear. I understand now that it is not. The site is purely about information and tutorials on technology. I have tried to describe the site more significantly through a more detailed Flash banner. I did not want to waste precious space but maybe I need to this.

Unfortunately I am not a company just a school teacher doing this in my spare time. I am trying to create a working theme and navigation on my home page first and then modifying the CSS and nav bars on the other pages afterwards. I know this may not be ideal but it is all about time.

have a look and tell me if the site still looks cluttered and whether the new flash banner and graphics clarifies the purpose of the site and draws the attention of the user.


Graham
http://www.bettscomputers.com