Website Design Review

getmea · #1 (**permalink**) 03-14-2007, 12:30 AM

This is V.2 of my website...I am roughly 90% complete in the rewrite.

Before viewing it, imagine you are a 8- to 16-year old looking for skateboard products, not an adult searching for scented candles (sorry, only comparison I could make).

I've added "tabs" for scroll-less navigation. Because this version is a lot more pictorial, I was concerned over the download speed. To "mask" the issue, I set the default tab to be text-based and the other tab option to be full of pics related to a brand's logo. Problem is the "deck" category can stock over 30 brands! I had a friend with 386K dsl test out the site to report timings and at worse was 15 seconds. I can't replicate this because I have 6MB cable.

Please comment on design, functionality, SEO, etc.

I know I have 50+ errors on the home page, you should have seen my last posting (bj knows...).

Thanks...

www.getmea-skateboard.com

hbonline · #2 (**permalink**) 03-19-2007, 01:36 AM

Coming from someone in the surf industry, I know that your going after a younger crowd, Your site is functional but not real graphiclly pleasing. The first thing I would do is lose the product watermarks, it makes the text hard to read on some of them, I would also get rid of the red text on black. I would also make your links maybe more of a button or graphic as opposed to text.

And this is one type of site that could use some flash, may be a header or dare I say an intro, which usually I would never reccomend, however the younger crowd likes those things.

I would even add some video clips, and even allow viewers to post their own skate clips. That would do wonders for traffic.

Nick
HBonline.com
surfinglive.com
itv360

ps. our company ITV360 and Surfinglive.com does webcasts of most all the major surf contests and events for Van's Pro, Lost, O'neill, No Fear and Etnies GVR Skate contest. and provide wireless jetski cams for Maverick's, Pipeline, Waimea and Sunset. Check out our surf spotlight's to see some examples.

In fact we are doing two events this week! The Van's Pier Classic and the National Pro Paintball League webcast both here in Huntington Beach!

http://www.surfinglive.com

sorry for the long resume, but I thought you might be interested in knowing something about who is giving your site a critique.

getmea · #3 (**permalink**) 03-19-2007, 11:37 AM

Thanks for the feedback, Nick...I was beginning to believe no one cared 8-)

RE: Watermarks. I tried the product watermark cuz the kids know brand logos (instead of plastering the brand names everywhere). My initial thought was to make the watermarks as dark as possible, but to maintain a readable silhouette. I realize some may not have come out as dark as possible. But then again, it may save in page load if I remove them.

RE: Colors. I tried the plain black on white on the entire site but my site looked just like all the other top 100 skateboard sites. Would you suggest a dark on light combo on the main body (only) and leave the left and right columns as-is?

RE: Video clips. Great idea! Is there a certain size I should reject (bandwidth)?

RE: Flash. I struggled enough on the little flash I installed...I'd probably have to hire a "cheap" flash coder...

I'll check out your site...thanks again for the feedback.

John

hbonline · #4 (**permalink**) 03-19-2007, 05:44 PM

John:

I would use some type of button or make a photo of each catagory a button. like a picture of a truck then have it clickable, in other words maybe use pictures instead of text.

Video stay with 320 X 240 size your viewer won't really need to know that, as they are just going to send you a video clip maybe a meg or two. You are going to be the one to set the size. I doubt that many people are going to film in HI Def 16 X 9 format so don't worry about that.

As Far as flash don't go nuts on it like I said stay with maybe a header.

check the surf spotlights on my site and you will see how the video is arranged, eventhough we do all the videos you can set yours up the same way, the only difference is that you will be getting the video from other sources.

the video is good cause when a skater puts one up he will tell his friends and then you have more skaters checking out your site, and doing the same, kind of like that shampoo commercial they tell two friends, and those two friends tell two friends and so on.

later

Nick,

ps I live accross the street from Dave Duncan (world cup of skateboarding) I am sure you know who he is!

getmea · #5 (**permalink**) 03-20-2007, 12:23 AM

I'll play around with images to use instead of text. I'll also play around with the colors.

streetster · #6 (**permalink**) 03-20-2007, 02:01 AM

I think that the text is the biggest issue as it is realy hard to read you need more contrast light/dark to make it stand out.

The other thing would be to fade the background picture towards black or white then choose a text colour to complement it.

topboy · #7 (**permalink**) 03-24-2007, 08:03 PM

Maybe a strong header image, take a look at this skateboard shop http://www.wreckless.ie

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