Comments on: Critique my employer’s website, please

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By: Gids

Gids — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

My first reaction, like others, was too busy need some space.

Anyway I tried the menu Products –> free download

Free download of what? Seems like they make many products, why is this the top item in the list?

Could do with some sort of short summary

Product X
Product X is can do this and that…

bit like Mozilla.org!

By: Lemonshiverman

Lemonshiverman — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

On my 1st visit to this site, the only thing that captured my attention is the big graphical advertisement over the top.

As what others have mentioned, its crucially important to have a central focus, probably the main product and a central “mental navigation” start point.

I noticed there is a small uninviting rectangular “I’m new, Tell me more!” button on the left center area. This button can be exploited to guide a new surfer to this site. Potential customer should also be introduced properly. Therefore there should be proper guidance for the new and existing customer.

Do less with flash. Minimise the usage.

Lead new customers to past user feedback and reviews on the products and the awards won by the products. Customer must trust the product especially something they have to buy online. Trust and capability of the product are foremost important.

For existing customer, plug-ins and supports are why they are here for. So develop in that way.

By: Tony BenBrahim

Tony BenBrahim — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Looked at the page for 20 seconds, looks very busy and never quite figured out what is you are selling, something to do with video.
Maybe it is on the page, but I spent the 20 seconds looking at the bold and red text and the picures, and never got the intended message.
Have your employer bite the bullet and hire a professional design firm, at least for the front page.

By: mc

mc — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Flash: Ugh. Otherwise, looks great.

By: hao2lian

hao2lian — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

1) The text-below needs a larger line-height.

2) Get everything left-aligned in the text-below and make sure images don’t disrupt a straight left alignment.

3) Don’t switch between italics and non-italics for the headers.

4) Keep the headers at a consistent font size. No large “NEW!”s

5) Remove images from the Quick Links sidebar. Change the informal sentences to a category-esque, title case style. For example, “Get new styles here!” -> “Get New Styles”

6) Move the “See the muvee commercial) to the Quick Links.

7) Less ellipses.

8) Line break after all headers.

By: rich!

rich! — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Everything above the main graphic is ok, but below that it seems little too busy.

By: Edward

Edward — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

It took a while to load on my crappy connection, but it then had the apple brushed metal look (only the background), and then the web site reminded me of real player.
Too much going on. Fonts are a bit cruddy / difficult to read quickly.

By: Doug

Doug — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

My first reaction was, "Where am I supposed to look?" There were what seemed like hundreds of separate elements all screaming, "Look at me!" (Okay, it might only have been a dozen.) My eyes were dragged all over the page, never settling on any one item long enough to understand what that item was before being distracted by something else.

At the moment, the piece that keeps screaming over and over again to "Look at me!" is the blinking "reviewed in" box, which is about the last thing that a potential customer cares about. The second most insistent piece are the two big graphics at the top, neither of which tells me anything about the company or its product. The third most eye-attracting piece is the big red text about "Get the latest styles", something that is only of interest to existing customers. Finally my eyes settle on the repeated huge "Nokia 7610" graphics, and I decide "Oh, that's what the company does. Something with Nokia 7610 phones. I don't have one of those."

The page desperately needs a single central focus, something that makes a clear and simple statement of what the company does, and why I, as a potential customer, would be interested.

Sorry to be so harsh, but you asked :-)

By: Rory Parle

Rory Parle — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Just on the main page, I found it very visually uneasy. From years on the web I’ve become accustomed to phasing out anything that looks like an advertisement, no matter where it’s placed on the page. Everything on that page looks like an ad. Very little of the text isn’t in some way trying to grab my attention and the result is that none of it succeeds.

Since I’ve never been to the site before it would be advantageous to see something that’s clearly and unambiguously aimed at explaining the site to me. What is the company? What is the product? Why am I here and why should I stay?

The navigation bar isn’t productive. The top level menu items don’t link to anything (like an overall product page for ‘products’ etc.) and some of the menus have unmarked sub-menus (the second and third items in the ‘products’ menu).

The tour should be much more prominent, it should be clearly labeled as Flash (with the file-size listed) and it would benefit from a voice-over. A HTML tour would be a good idea.