Design Review needed - Cash Prizes Involved :)

[dkr]

Hi,

I have just purchased a new template for my to-be-released site, and have modified it quite a bit. It came with a matching forum design, but I'll have to up and running in a bit since I'm still modifying it. Please give me some suggestions.

For the best review that I choose, I'll reward $5 . Maybe more for more people.

I am also looking for a x/10 rating.

Thank you,
Donny

sorry, the link is w3tutors.com

 

[Corky]

I'll give that design an 8/10 simply because it's nice and clean. Looks professional enough. The CSS is perfectly fit and I think it all flows well. The thing that could use work is the logo. It's a very very boring logo. Add some excitement to it . It's not very eye catching. Overall it's very nice and the only thing I know needs work is the logo.

 

[antman]

Website Design Review
Site: W3Tutors
Domain: http://w3tutors.com/

All Ratings are out of 10...

Appearance and Design - 8
Navigation and Accessibility - 7
Activity, Popularity and Marketing - N/A
Originality - 8
Loading Times - 8
Quality of Content - 7
Features and Interactivity - 9
Visitor Rating - 7

Overall Rating - 8

Detailed Analysis

With a bright and colourful appearance mixed with clearly viewable links - the concept of online classrooms is superb with this website. There are a few things to fix up though before it is released into the public, but you've got the general concept all correct.

As I saw your banner in the top left, I was not too sure about what you were really teaching. Classroom that teaches what? HTML? Cooking? Poker? Everything? Aiming for a targeted audience is better than broadening it because you can't specialise in everything. Maybe even something as simple as "Experts in x" will be good enough. You will need to list your curriculum.

Your website has no links yet, so I can not comment on other parts of the site, but if you keep it this layout, it should be good. Your main content (hopefully) will not have that much text, or I will fall asleep.

One big concern that I had was your register link. Huh? Where is it? Good question. It is in the top right hand corner of your website. I can't see it because it's the same colour as your background. I'm sure you planned on making the link a bit more obvious. Your advertising section is excellently placed. Out of the way but not concealed either. Make sure that you don't place them anywhere else.

Graphically speaking, your top banner is not top notch. I assume that you are going to change it to a more professional feel soon. Your quick search idea on the menu is great - easy navigation for those who want to get straight into the business.

Are you going to have documentations for people/visitors to read? I'm sure further into this idea later on you are going to have articles that many people have questions on. You should have maybe a library of quick search content for easy reference. This may also be used as an marketing tool and get your more visitors. Maybe you should also log your classroom lessons and have them placed into an archive with labels such as 'Lesson 1 - How to use chopsticks' so people who missed out on a lesson can look for easy reference. Visitors may also use this as a demo to see what you offer. Maybe a FAQ as well?

Your pricing is something that visitors don't see at the start, and that could be a good thing. But as they click the tutor link, a pop-up saying "PAY!" won't be too good. Maybe a pricing page or a small promotional offer on the front page shows that you are not offering a free service, but rather, an affordable one.

You've got a wonderful concept to flow with and the foundation blocks of the site are cemented in well. Just need to fix some minor parts and then get your advertising team ready. Good luck - I hope to see sucess in this site.

Review by Anthony Lieu. Your site was accessed on a ADSL T1 connection, on Mozilla Firefox with a screen resolution of 1280x1024. Thank you for allowing me to review your website design - I hope it was useful.

 

[monaco]

I like the design and layout...a bit colorful for my tastes, but professional. The blue text on white background is a little annoying, tho most ppl won't think too much about it.

 

[AskDanna]

I love the idea more than anything! I like the graphic with the child and adult, great visual! The FONT is very small, hard to read and is TOO MUCH information. Too much info can turn people away and/or make them bored .. I rate it an 8 and a Hug for the Concept!

 

[dkr]

Thank you everyone. As some of you probably know, the text is definitely not staying . I am thinking of 3 images at the top of that content box with a small description for the top 3 teachers, and then a small description of the site on the bottom left plus a signup now image/info on the bottom right .

 

[fmauniverse]

Site review

Hi. First of all, the template looks really nice. I like the banners, the colours and the borders. Second, the content is well-based. Third, you might want to colour the white background.

Good luck with your site!

Overall Rating: 9/10

Regards.

 

[LeetPCUser]

The Bad

• No favicon - For bookmarking purposes it is good to have this so users can identify your site easily by an image. Although not seen in Internet Explorer unless the site is actually bookmarked (unlike other browsers where it appears when you visit the site), it is very nice for other browsers and is fairly simple to make.
• Text color is hard to read - The blue is very hard to read on my computer and it makes me strain my eyes to try and read it. I would suggest a color like black because it does not distract the reader.
• The banner needs work - The top banner neeeds some kind of logo or design. It feels as if your site has too much text and not enough pictures.
• The second banner shouldn't be in that place - I think you should take the second banner and possibly stretch it into your top banner. It has images and looks quite nice, but doesn't fit in its current position because it makes the text go down too far which makes the user scroll to read your intro statement.
• Background color too light - I think that the background color is a bit too light and it seems as if the whole page almost is the same color, even though it is not. I would recommend a slightly darker color to grab the users attention towards the middle, the content.
• Put a description in the title - Part of the listing on Google looks for descriptions in the title tag. Yours just says the name of your site (Artistic Curve). It will help to get your site indexed better and help users know exactly what your site provides if you have a short description in the title tag.

The Good

• The site is quite clean - The site is a very clean style. It doesn't look intrusive and it isn't filled with ads. In most cases it is very hard to get a nice balance of advertisements without being intrusive to the reader. You have done a great job of this.
• Great icons - The icons you use in the bottom left are really nice. Although your site does lack images, the images you have are of quality and look very nice with the design.
• Looks easily navigateable - The site looks quite easy to navigate. In some cases it is very hard to find your way around a site. In this case the menu is at the top and very easy to find.

Overall
Overall, I think this site could be quite good. If the background was darker, and the text was darker it would be better quite quickly. I still have a problem with the banner and the second image. Other than that this template looks great.

 

[dkr]

Thank you for your reviews. I will have the updated version of the design asap for further suggestions . I have a winner in mind, but I'll have to see some more reviews before deciding.

Thank you,
Donny

 

[dkr]

bump

 

[dkr]

ok, and the winner is.... antman.ws! . Paid.

 

[adam_uk]

you need to darken the font
shorten the text, put the text on other pages, you main page makes or breaks a website. for me it breaks it
text is to small