KerryPages New Design

Webmonkey

Hey there guys

Almost finished doing the re design of KerryPages.com with a bit of scripting re-design.

http://v2.kerrypages.com/index.php

Just wondering what others think, do you think its a easy site to navigate, search for a business. Do you think that businesses get a fair chance of being seen by 1. the business of the moment and 2. the featured ad on the categories which are both random ads. Also the search and category results are ranked by what option they baught, Gold, Silver or Bronze.

Just wondering if its easy to navigate and appealing to look at.

JustHalf

I'd like to preface this by saying I'm incredibly bitchy.

When I visit the site, I am confused; and this confusion comes from being assaulted with so many different options to choose from.

My first suspicion is that you haven't thought about the structure of the site. You certainly haven't considered the usability aspect of it very much. It's far too easy to get lost.

You have a "News" page, which claims to be a child of the "Home" page, but it's not part of your primary navigation. Why not? It also seems that the only way of getting to the news page is from the front page.

This book is a good introduction to the process of web site development:

http://www.jjg.net/elements/

You should use visual cues to guide people's eyes to the content you wish them to see. You don't do this very well. Some of the text is very small, doesn't contrast very well with the green backing plate and will be ignored.

You use multiple navigation metaphors in the design. Tabs are used in that green box, but the search tab just brings your browser window to the search box. People don't expect tabs to do this.

That's about all I have time for.

Webmonkey

Thanks for the feedback.

yeah i know what you mean you can get lost easily, i agree with that. The navigation is very limited. when i was starting i didn't expect to have more nav links but i did, i'm going to sort this out later...need to get this site up fast.

Everythings going to be a child of home, as home is going to be the parent at all times so i still think i'm right in what i done there, but yeah i know what u mean it should be on as a primary link then. Well i'll sort that out at a later stage.

One thing i don't understand though , is what do you mean that People don't expect tabs to do this?. All it does it focuses on the search part then. It doesn't load up a new page or anything. As far as i know thats the purpose of tabs and its what i used its purpose for. Its just an alternative search box, you can search other ways too.

Cheers

JustHalf

What tabs are used for:

The tab view provides a convenient way to present information in a multipane format... The content area below the control is called a pane. In a window with a tab view, you can use other controls, such as push buttons and text entry fields.The controls can be global—affecting the settings of all panes—or specific to an individual pane; make it clear through labeling and placement (within or outside of a pane’s boundary) whether a control affects one pane or all panes.

http://developer.apple.com/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/OSXHIGuidelines/XHIGControls/chapter_18_section_7.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP30000359/TPXREF105

Webmonkey

that just proves what i'm doing is correct. Displaying multiple information, push buttons search fields. God life is getting hard

JustHalf

No.

The number of tabs should be equal to the number of panes you have.

Two tabs means two panes. You have one pane. Clicking on the second tab (the search tab) does not open the "Search" pane. There is no switching of panes. Instead, you are brought somewhere else on the page.

Using Windows? Right-click on your desktop. Choose "Properties". Look at the top of that window. You see those tabs? See what they do?

joePC

Looks alot like: Hummm maybe a different design......

The same as yours??

Thanks JoePC

Oriel

Originally posted by JustHalf
When I visit the site, I am confused

You're a Christian, and therefore easy confused, yet rely on blind faith to take you where you want. When you find you're not actually where you wanted to be, you make an excuse for being there anyway.

S.

Nice site, by the way Webmonkey.

Oriel

Originally posted by joePC
Looks alot like: Hummm maybe a different design......

The same as yours??

Thanks JoePC

Ahh!! My eyes, my eyes!!
What is this w...w...warez of which you speak?

jmcc

Logo is rather badly defined. (Admittedly I've been playing DoD for the last few hours and my eyes may be tired.)

Text on menu bar is small and hard to read.

The green table and search box makes it look like some kind of Post Box. Also the white text on that color green is difficult to read.

The light grey text on the section headings is a bad choice but the font size is right. You need to use a darker text to emphasise the text or use a different color for the dotted horizontal lines above and below the text.

Try and get over the temptation to put as much stuff on the front page as possible. The front page should be for navigation like some kind of safe haven that the user can always return to.

Apart from those few things, it is coming along nicely.

The rivers of white are dangerous though. It kind of gives the impression that there is very little content. If you could experiment with a dark background with a white centre piece - like ENN's site. The blue/grey/white colour scheme may be ok for a techno site but people need to be reassured with portals - that is why a lot of them tend for less threatening colour/design themes.

Regards...jmcc

Philbert

Originally posted by JustHalf
No.

The number of tabs should be equal to the number of panes you have.

Two tabs means two panes. You have one pane. Clicking on the second tab (the search tab) does not open the "Search" pane. There is no switching of panes. Instead, you are brought somewhere else on the page.

You have one pane.

No he doesnt he has two!

Clicking on the second tab (the search tab) does not open the "Search" pane.

Yes it does!

There is no switching of panes.

Yes there is!

Instead, you are brought somewhere else on the page.

No youre not!


Am I missing something??

hostyle

Your search "box" wastes a load of page real estate. Your tabs are pointless. Why not dump the tabs, and move the search into the top of teh categories area. Why is there an inch of white space at the bottom? The main logo is very hard to make out.

Home, Search, Signup graphics - text is too small. In fact the majority of text on the entire site is too small by default IMO.

Maybe its just me but the green and blue dont go very well together

hostyle

Originally posted by Philbert
Am I missing something??

Standards compliance. I'm using the Firebird browser. I don't see any tab changes.

<script language="javascript">
function showsearch() {
document.all.categorybox.style.visibility="hidden";
}
</script>
<script language="javascript">
function showcategories() {
document.all.categorybox.style.visibility="visible";
}
</script>

Whats that meant to be? No error checking? N oobject detection? Its pretty useless.

In IE, the tabs work but now there are two search boxes on one page? Whats the point in that?

JustHalf

Ah, I see. I'm sorry, this is half my mistake. I checked it in Firefox. Your code doesn't work in Firefox, and therefore is poorly written.

You should check your site out in Firefox. And Safari.

Compare these two screenshots (both taken on Windows XP):

Firefox 0.8:
http://dave.antidisinformation.com/webboard/kerrypages-ffx.gif

IE6:
http://dave.antidisinformation.com/webboard/kerrypages-ie6.gif

ConsultClifford

go to http://v2.kerrypages.com/detail.php?id=222 then click on terms at the bottom... where does it bring you??? (or is it just me?)

hostyle

Also theres something up with the thumbnails for "Business of the month". They all have weird colours overlayed.

zAbbo

Originally posted by joePC
Looks alot like: Hummm maybe a different design......

The same as yours??

Thanks JoePC

Says it all really

Webmonkey

Thanks for the replys, yep warezz.com, got inspired by it... its a pretty neat design. Came across it on downloads.com , yep it is a P2P sharing site now, but thought it was nice, so well made my own version. Anywayz thanks for replys. By the way i not one of those guys that keep going round re making other design ideas by sites, this was my first. Just thought it was nice. But well i did just recreate a few elements of that design.

Hey JustHalf no prob, miss understanding but yes i know I must re write that javascript with a bit more effort put in. I'm doing this site in a rush need it done for next week, i'll admit i'm taking quite a few shortcuts. But just for now, later i'll fix them. Thanks for that

As for going to http://v2.kerrypages.com/detail.php?id=222 and clicking terms, i dunno i confused what u mean here cause the terms page just appears.

As for the colors of the thumbnails, I dunno PHP GD library isn't able to handle the colors very well with some images. I've tried all i could with this, I need fast loading so I don't want to put full quality there or even close to it. They big images

Thanks once again

zAbbo

You copyed the website ffs, any other designs of yours that youve pimped have the same 1337 photoshop template look.

Webmonkey

like what?

Figment

Looks like a teenagers 'tech' site and is at odds with the content. Does not address the target audience at all.

Looks cack.

Webmonkey

I didn't ask u to comment on the design. Read my post

zAbbo

Originally posted by Webmonkey

Just wondering what others think, do you think its a easy site to navigate

Originally posted by Webmonkey
Just wondering if its easy to navigate and appealing to look at.

Originally posted by Webmonkey
I didn't ask u to comment on the design. Read my post

You in particular have frequently thrown up some design in this forum for people to evaluate, and when you don`t get positive feedback you usually whine, I`m surprised you havent played the "I`m only 16" card yet. If you dont want peoples opinions, dont post here asking for it

Webmonkey

How am I whining??

damnyanks

In all fairness warez and your site do look like a rip off. You've also asked for reviews before and once you got a negative remark got bitchy.

You did ask for a review originaly. I think that link someone provided would of went back to warez or something like that. Its not terribly hard to create your own template these days, if you are going to rip off another site at least try and make it less obvious.

Webmonkey

But i did not 'rip' it, i designed a similer nav. I know its not that hard to create your own template, god i've created 10s of them. Lads i'm not whining or anything, i just want to know some of you have a bad attitude and have it in for me or something.

Anywayz enough, i'm changing the design later on anywayz.

Can't we just get on and stop flaming eachother and give a negative opinion in a mature way rather than acting bitchy.....

damnyanks

Well no...

No one has it in for you. I have seen your sites before... they do look like templates off the net. Thtas not a good or bad thing. Lots of people use them. Your whole site there has the same nav bar, same search box and uses the same dotted line to seperate headers.

Its also all inside a giant table. The site is clearly ripped off when you compare it to warez.com

You've posted before asking for reviews, they have been critical of your work and you have gone to the "I'm only 16" story.

No one seems to be bitching here but rahter telling you how it is. You just dont like it. We are not flaming each other... we are flaming you and rightly so. Create your own designs.

tom-thebox

I rather like it, even if it is inspired. The load time could do with a little tweaking.

Criticism on this forum is not irregular. However the lads gave a good bit of feedback that you could use, there was the odd comment from the regular muppets... take that as a crabs in a jar reaction I guess.

I think its a decent design the logo could do with a bit of work.... jmcc made some decent comments.

This board can be handy to get views from many sorts of people from many sorts of levels and areas, but dont aspect praise.

Michele is normally good at giving a bit of constructive criticism.

Webmonkey

Thanks, hey i have no problem with criticism. Maybe i did in the past, i'll admit it , but i wish people would leave the past go. God i only mentioned that i'm 16 in one post months ago and people still remember it. I'm getting worried