Reviews

[Dev]

Hello everybody

I thought I would ask for some reviews regarding a website I have recently designed.

Good or bad , too much colour, not enough colours , easy navigation, complicated navigation etc.

Thank you all in advance and I really appreciate all your comments.

bellydancesc.com.au

 

[Darshiva]

Using firefox 3.6.28. Have to really squint to see the writing on the site's logo. Very hard to read. (I know that's not your fault as the web designer, but if you mention it to the client they can take it up with their graphic artist) All the links seemed to go where they were meant to.

 

[Shanazel]

I like the brown, yellow, and orange color scheme. Though I am generally not a fan of light writing on dark ground, this was easy enough to read due to the large size of the print. Guess I had the exact opposite of Dar's experience.

 

[Kashmir]

Look is nice - but it is far too slow to load. Very heavy on scripts - you need that home page to come up fast and grab you. Pick one photo and put that on the home page and create a separate gallery to show them all.

Navigation is clear and obvious.

The page is missing a title!

 

[Darshiva]

Kashmir, the page has a title. It's the tiny little image up the top left that I was saying was so hard to read in my broswer.

 

[Shanazel]

Oh, now I understand, Dar. I didn't notice the small print on the title at all. :doh: I thought you meant the print in the body of the site.

 

[gisela]

I agree it does take long to load. I have pretty fast internet connection and first I had to wait for the page itself to load, then I waited for the slideshow to load.

I like the colour scheme and the layout.

There's no title in the browser tab other that "Home" etc. I thought that was what Kashmir meant.

 

[Dev]

I am going to fix the title tag asap.

Regarding the logo, I really don't know what I can do, I built the site first then added the logo. I have an appointment with the owner of the site and I will discuss this matter, probably I will have to make a change on the banner and then fit the logo in a bigger size so it can be read easily.

I like Kashmir's idea of having just one image and then make a page for the image slide show , so it can load faster.

Thank you, Darshiva, Shanazel , Kashmir and Gisela.
I really appreciate all your valuable input.

 

[Daimona]

I would also suggest adding "Bellydance Sunshine Coast" to the page title-tags.


Viewed on a small screen, my first impression is too many colours (particularly on the top of the about us-page) and too strong contrast in the graphical elements.
For me, a lot of colours in strong contrasts means that I would actually try to avoid the website unless there was some information I really needed. (Yes, I admit being a web-minimalist, but too many graphical elements in strong contrasts make me easily loose my concentration when I'm trying to read the content, which is why I usually enter a web page in the first place.)

Viewing it on a larger screen gives it a better balance because of the black sides, but there are still too many strong colours grabbing my attention.



I agree with Darshiva that the text on the logo to the upper left corner is too small; as is the text on the about us-banner (though, I would prefer that page without that banner).



Is there a reason why the bdsc-logo are smaller than the f-logo to the right?
To get a better balance between these two logos, make the bdsc-logo a bit bigger and align them.
And why is the f-logo floating up and down as well as sideways? With the current floating f-logo, the f-page seems to be more important than the webpage.

The paths under the menu where it says "Home > Class Time Table" etc. (same place on all pages, appears when the screen is wider as the main area of the webpage) usually needs a darker background as the bright text disappears on the background image.

In general, it is very easy to read the grey text on black-grey background, but why is the main text suddenly <strong> on the Class Time Table (and in the book-a-performance-pages)?


The yellow colour at the Class Time Table page needs to be softened a bit (perhaps a bit darker?) to make it more comfortable to read and match the rest of the colour scheme.


And you need to decide whether you really want frames on the pictures or not. As it is now, the pictures on the links-page don't, the pictures on the bottom of the class-time-table do, and the About us do, but in a completely different style than on the other pages.


It may be difficult for colour-blind people to read the text on the images to the right of the About-us-page. How about keeping them in grey scale, with a coloured text on top?

Just some $0.xts from me..

Edit: Whoops.. Didn't see your post before I posted, Dev!

 

[Amulya]

I like the colours, but the galleries right in the middle of the first page and the home page are distracting, I'd rather see those on their own pages. It also makes those two pages different from the others, it's better to keep uniformity.

Did anyone mention the Joomla favicon is still there? Better to replace it with a special favicon for this particular site

The Facebook button is distracting, I think it's better to take it away and put a Facebook link on either the 'about us' page, the 'contact' page or under links.

I also agree that the logo is too small.

The colum you got on the 'about us' page on the right, where the calendar shows, maybe that can go to the home page? And the things like 'hen's nights', 'workshops' etc can be moved under 'class time tables' and 'performers'. Maybe the page called 'class time table' can become 'classes and workshops', it's easier for people to find that way. And maybe 'performers' can become 'shows' or 'booking' and you can list the dancers and the performance options (types of shows, prices etc.) there? In that case people don't have to search around for these things

I always believe in 'simple is better' A lot of people who browse the net want to find things quickly, if they don't they go to the next site and you don't want that!

 

[Kashmir]

Kashmir, the page has a title. It's the tiny little image up the top left that I was saying was so hard to read in my broswer.

I meant a metatag title - which appears on the browser tab and is displayed by Google.

 

[Dev]

Thank you Daimona and Amulya.

I have added the title tags, which will show up next hopefully when google update their searches. Favicon has been changed.

I haven't started doing the SEO so metatag keywords etc may be missing.

Amulya Regarding some of the changes , I can only do it after my meeting with the owner, as I have placed everything the way she wanted them, but I will definitely recommend all the things that you have said.

Daimona I am also very minimalistic when it comes to webdesigning , and most of the sites I have created which are not dance related are simple and pretty straight forward. But sometimes I have to follow my customers direction and do as they want.

 

[Shakti]

I looked at the site on my iPhone
While it is not a mobile site ,which are kinda bland, the title would not enlarge to see the title.
I like the color scheme overall.

 

[Amulya]

Yay favicon is showing

 

[Daimona]

Daimona I am also very minimalistic when it comes to webdesigning , and most of the sites I have created which are not dance related are simple and pretty straight forward. But sometimes I have to follow my customers direction and do as they want.

Customer is always right, huh?

Edit:
I just tried it on a slower internet connection (mobile broadband) than I usually use. The text and logo appeared after app. 1,5 minutes. The background image after 2 minutes and the picture show after 2.5-3 minutes.

 

[Dev]

Thank you everybody, Can you please have a look and let me know if the site is downloading any faster than before.

 

[Daimona]

Thank you everybody, Can you please have a look and let me know if the site is downloading any faster than before.

Yay! MUCH MUCH faster!
I'm still on the slow internet connection, and now the front page loaded within 20 secs (everything except the main picture was ready after app. 10 s).