Website Critique Please!

[BrianKE]

I have started a redesign on my website and would appreciate any CONSTRUCTIVE criticism as to the layout, flow, navigability, etc.

www.plussignsonline.com/php

Some points to be aware of:

- The '/php' portion of the address is only for development and will be removed once I go live. I don't care for customers to see it until ready.
- There is no content on any of the sub-pages, just place holders. Right now I am interested mostly in the Look and Feel and navigation of the site.
- The Promo page is intentionally meant to show a Page Not Found image and is there for my testing.

I appreciate any and all comments and if you do have issues with the site please note the browser used to view the site (I have not yet been able to test on all browsers).

TIA
Brian Enderle

 

[Replicator]

The navigability or Navigation as we in the business like to call it looks OK !

Layout and colors are OK . . . It's a little boring, but that may be do to lack of content.

 

[Rick]

Kinda feel the same way as Rep does...

One thing is I would design pictograms for your buttons that are consistent an simple. They are all over the place making the "look" a little disconnected.

If you go here, (http://www.vonglitschka.com/) click on the iconography at the quicklink portfolio area in the upper right hand corner, it will give you inspiration and the idea of what I am talking about.

 

[BrianKE]

Kinda feel the same way as Rep does...

One thing is I would design pictograms for your buttons that are consistent an simple. They are all over the place making the "look" a little disconnected.

Thanks Rick. Do you think it is the color within the icons that is making it disconnected or the icons themselves. I am trying to use icons that a typical customer would recognize and find it difficult to keep a good simple theme going with all the buttons.

I originally had designed them without any color (just white icon on the button) but thought that was a bit stale.

 

[Rick]

I would try to look at icons as enhancing the copy. Pictograms are added to signs to help enhance the message, then for people who can't read or can't read english to navigate through a system. They are the lowest form of sign communication.

Same with print and website iconography. You want to treat your icons the same way, don't read into the icons too much, they should communicate, but you should not rely on them to do all the work.

 

[Wes Phifer]

What did you use to create this? It looks good.

 

[Mosh]

OK, but need to see more....not "under construction".

 

[BrianKE]

What did you use to create this? It looks good.

Hand coded this. I have a degree in programming. Used CSS, PHP and some JavaScript.

 

[gamerxr72]

The page looks good. Minimalism is a style as good as any other I say.

The only nit picks I have are:

1. the amount of space at the bottom of the page blow the "© Copyright Plus Signs, LLC. All rights reserved." line is too much.

2. I think "Plus Signs signs" should just be "Plus Signs"

 

[Jim Doggett]

Hi Brian,

I like it in many ways, but would suggest a few things:

Decide on a typeface for headline and body text. Less line-spacing on paragraph text. Pictures! Maybe stuff ghosting/blending into the background on your logo/header. That's nice, clean space, but kinda bordering on vast wasteland (and that's uber precious real estate).

I really like the links along the top. More of those to product pages would be great shortcuts ad really help with SEO, since it's at the top. But it's a balancing act, since too many would deminish its elegance.

FWIW,

Jim

 

[Jim Doggett]

One more thought:

I think all this can go:

"Welcome to Plus Signs!
Plus Signs signs offers a wide variety of signage solutions. Please select your signage needs to get more information."

You have the big Signs Plus logo, plus menu and graphic devices that show variety. No need to describe textually what is visually apparent. (very) In fact, I think I'd whack the headline element on all pages -- that brings the graphics up so folks see what they want in an immediate, bold and uncluttered fashion, IMO.

Do you agree?

Best,

Jim

 

[astro8]

Hi Brian..don't like the black, don't like the icons, don't like the red cross blood bank thing either...ughh. Use pictures, more pleasing (less harsh) colours that are easy on the eye, larger text and plenty of it for easy reading, more page view count, time on site and searchability.

You can do so much more to please the eye and the search engines.

I'll post a link to my site as it's a similiar layout to show you what I have done.
http://www.signkiosk.com

It's a work in progress, a bit jumbled at the moment because I'm constantly tweaking and changing with a long way to go.

My Alexa ranking is around 550,000, it was 450,000 before I targeted only Australia and currently I'm getting 4,500 pageviews per month, 97% from Australia and it's created it's own position for someone answering emails, phone calls and working out quotes from the enquiries we get from the site.

I'm telling you this as most people think of their site as an 'add on' to their marketing whereas it should really be the main focus.

Make your site look more modern and fresh, you'll have a far more pleasing site and most importantly job enquiries from it.

 

[Jim Doggett]

"You can do so much more to please the eye and the search engines."

Hi Astro,

I think you're search engine-friendly, but a smidge hard on the eyes. Whew, more text elements above the fold than I can count, with one streaking across the screen.

Your logo bar is too big (pushes high-appeal stuff below the fold) -- and has four elements!!! You're a sign guy. You know better than that!!!!

Sorry if that sounds scolding. But I think (know) you can have something that pleases the eye and the search engines. But I think you're doing great in one of those areas, not both :^)

Best,

Jim

 

[RandyS]

I like it but I'm an AMATURE so what the heck do I know

 

[Todd-sta]

It's alright, but seems very generic and cold to me for a sign site. It's lacking the imagery on the main page that might make the viewer intrigued enough to delve deeper into the site.

I'd suggest checking out the Diaz Sign site... Joe has done a great job designing their site, it's fun, very professional... and has the right amount of eye candy and navigation layout that makes you want to check out everything they have - and isn't that the point?

Just an opinion... hope that provides some food for thought.

Edited to say: This coming from someone without a web-site..... but I do know what I like

 

[particleman]

Brian, design looks pretty good to me although here are some things to consider.

I see you're using an AJAX get request pulling from separate files. Although the experience you get from this is pretty smooth (almost flash like) it isn't very search engine friendly. To the engines your site will basically appear as one single page. Although the files are crawable they aren't valid html so I doubt they will be indexed. It would be much better to take a more traditional approach and remove the ajax insertion. Something to consider.

Also if you insist on taking this approach you should add some JS to handle the back button, if you click back it does nothing in IE8.