new web site feedback

fogibear

hi guys ,

looking for some advice new to web develpoment and was looking for some constructive advice on the site i designed and how you think it could be improved to become number one hit the website is www.dublinairportjobs.com


thanks

mewso

Looks great. Some comments:-

Why is the top menu wrapped in a table and the table wrapped in 2 divs? Less is more with a good semantic page and the whole thing should be possible with simply the ul element and nothing more. Consider a hidden skip link too for accessibility.

The search form should be an http get not an http post so visitors can bookmark search result pages. Stick to the idea that a post should be for changing things and a get should be retrieving things.

The header:-

<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="float:right; height: 248px; width:620px;"> 
			<tr> 
				<td style="text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;"> 
					<div id="logo"> 
							
					</div> 
				</td> 
			</tr> 
		</table> 

Another table and nothing in it. Hmmm. Background images using css is great but not for your site badge imo.

Inline javascript. Not my preference. Again I can't lay down the law here but unobtrusive javascript is imo important and worth considering for any site. Separating behaviour from content is just as elegant as separating presentation from content which we all accept these days when we use our external css files.

I assume since it's joomla then there are some constraints here when it comes to a design or a template so maybe you have no choice with some of these things. Fair enough.

Validation - w3c.org 9 errors
Accessibility - WAVE 2 errors

Creamy Goodness

haven't looked at it in detail.

but the text inside the <title>home page</title> should change to something a bit more descriptive of your business.

tricky D

Look and branding
Header is 251px in height is over a third of my viewing area - too much. The dublinairportjobs text doesn't have much contrast against its background. I'm mildly colourblind and barely noticed parts of it.

You kind of have 2ish logos in play: the type in the header and the brown logo. Didn't see the brown logo used on the other pages. What's going on branding-wise? It seems a bit mixed up. The brown and the blue work pretty well together but need to be a bit darker and/or with more saturation - same for the link colours. They're all a bit too light and washed out.

If I was calling the shots on this one, I would look at 'dublinairportjobs offering a first class service' and think that can't be converted to a decent logo. I would dump the 'dublinairportjobs offering a first class service' from the header and put the brown logo in there, probably with some rearranging and retreating. I might consider retaining the 'offering first class service' as a tagline.

URLs
Get the page URLs rewritten to something natural.
http://www.dublinairportjobs.com brings you to http://www.dublinairportjobs.com/dublinairport, can you get it to stay at http://www.dublinairportjobs.com (not a biggy)
The homepage is duplicated at http://www.dublinairportjobs.com/dublinairport and http://www.dublinairportjobs.com/dublinairport/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=50&Itemid=30 with 2 different breadcrumbs, again not a biggy but can you make them the same.

The search thing in the top right. It looks like a nav button with gradient not the input box that it actually is. Make it look more like an input box.

Visitor Focus and Content
Simple question - who are your most common visitors? Job seekers and employers, not people wanting to read about your company. So put them at the top of the queue. Reorder your navigation to have Job Seekers (better text than vacancies imo) as the first link and Employers as the second then About Us and Contact. However, the Employers page has the login stuff which is in the left hand side anyway. Pointless redundancy, dump it. Replace it with the Free Job Posting page and rename Employers to Free Job Posting which is better. Redo (or is it do for the first time) the text and functionality on that page also.

This audience focus also affects the homepage content which currently is you talking about yourself when you should be you addressing visitors' needs and providing solutions. So dump all of the first 3 paragraphs and keep the 'Fulfill your childhood...'. Those first 3 paras just state the obvious and take up space, don't directly engage with the visitor and the space can be put to better use. Replace this with 2 sections: one addressing Job Seekers - 'Looking to fulfill your childhood..., we have the job for you, start searching here' with a search box following after; and then for the employers have something like 'Advertise your airport vacanies for FREE, just create an account (if you don't aleady have one), post a vacancy today and watch them CV's roll in'. Something like that.

Improve the search functions. The version with some options is buried and needs some work. As a matter of princple, I'd always use a submit button for all search form functions. JavaScript might be turned off or as in this case changing the results per screen does nothing for some reason. I expect the page to refresh with the new number of results or if that doesn't happen I can click the submit button to make it so.

Dump the News section.

Put an address on the contact page and preferably a phone no. Important for trust.

Lastly if you like, add http://www.howthlimos.com to your limo list

hth
\r

fogibear

musician wrote: »

Looks great. Some comments:-

Why is the top menu wrapped in a table and the table wrapped in 2 divs? Less is more with a good semantic page and the whole thing should be possible with simply the ul element and nothing more. Consider a hidden skip link too for accessibility.

The search form should be an http get not an http post so visitors can bookmark search result pages. Stick to the idea that a post should be for changing things and a get should be retrieving things.

The header:-

<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="float:right; height: 248px; width:620px;"> 
            <tr> 
                <td style="text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;"> 
                    <div id="logo"> 
 
                    </div> 
                </td> 
            </tr> 
        </table> 

Another table and nothing in it. Hmmm. Background images using css is great but not for your site badge imo.

Inline javascript. Not my preference. Again I can't lay down the law here but unobtrusive javascript is imo important and worth considering for any site. Separating behaviour from content is just as elegant as separating presentation from content which we all accept these days when we use our external css files.

I assume since it's joomla then there are some constraints here when it comes to a design or a template so maybe you have no choice with some of these things. Fair enough.

Validation - w3c.org 9 errors
Accessibility - WAVE 2 errors

thanks for the feedback site is designed by joomla still trying to get my head around it but as you said there is some constraints as i used a template which i think will be hard to amend

fogibear

tricky D wrote: »

Look and branding
Header is 251px in height is over a third of my viewing area - too much. The dublinairportjobs text doesn't have much contrast against its background. I'm mildly colourblind and barely noticed parts of it.

You kind of have 2ish logos in play: the type in the header and the brown logo. Didn't see the brown logo used on the other pages. What's going on branding-wise? It seems a bit mixed up. The brown and the blue work pretty well together but need to be a bit darker and/or with more saturation - same for the link colours. They're all a bit too light and washed out.

If I was calling the shots on this one, I would look at 'dublinairportjobs offering a first class service' and think that can't be converted to a decent logo. I would dump the 'dublinairportjobs offering a first class service' from the header and put the brown logo in there, probably with some rearranging and retreating. I might consider retaining the 'offering first class service' as a tagline.

URLs
Get the page URLs rewritten to something natural.
http://www.dublinairportjobs.com brings you to http://www.dublinairportjobs.com/dublinairport, can you get it to stay at http://www.dublinairportjobs.com (not a biggy)
The homepage is duplicated at http://www.dublinairportjobs.com/dublinairport and http://www.dublinairportjobs.com/dublinairport/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=50&Itemid=30 with 2 different breadcrumbs, again not a biggy but can you make them the same.

The search thing in the top right. It looks like a nav button with gradient not the input box that it actually is. Make it look more like an input box.

Visitor Focus and Content
Simple question - who are your most common visitors? Job seekers and employers, not people wanting to read about your company. So put them at the top of the queue. Reorder your navigation to have Job Seekers (better text than vacancies imo) as the first link and Employers as the second then About Us and Contact. However, the Employers page has the login stuff which is in the left hand side anyway. Pointless redundancy, dump it. Replace it with the Free Job Posting page and rename Employers to Free Job Posting which is better. Redo (or is it do for the first time) the text and functionality on that page also.

This audience focus also affects the homepage content which currently is you talking about yourself when you should be you addressing visitors' needs and providing solutions. So dump all of the first 3 paragraphs and keep the 'Fulfill your childhood...'. Those first 3 paras just state the obvious and take up space, don't directly engage with the visitor and the space can be put to better use. Replace this with 2 sections: one addressing Job Seekers - 'Looking to fulfill your childhood..., we have the job for you, start searching here' with a search box following after; and then for the employers have something like 'Advertise your airport vacanies for FREE, just create an account (if you don't aleady have one), post a vacancy today and watch them CV's roll in'. Something like that.

Improve the search functions. The version with some options is buried and needs some work. As a matter of princple, I'd always use a submit button for all search form functions. JavaScript might be turned off or as in this case changing the results per screen does nothing for some reason. I expect the page to refresh with the new number of results or if that doesn't happen I can click the submit button to make it so.

Dump the News section.

Put an address on the contact page and preferably a phone no. Important for trust.

Lastly if you like, add http://www.howthlimos.com to your limo list

hth
\r

i am working on a logo for branding at the moment and will insert it into the site when completed

the double url was left as to add a a subsection to the company to advoid paying for a second domain but in the short term i cut it down fair comment

the news section was done to try inhance google listings i read if you have feeds on the site it will improve it ..... any ideas how to accomplish this if i remove the section

tricky D

fogibear wrote: »

the double url was left as to add a a subsection to the company to advoid paying for a second domain but in the short term i cut it down fair comment

Huh? I don't quite understand what you're saying. Second domain??? My original advice stands.

fogibear wrote: »

the news section was done to try inhance google listings i read if you have feeds on the site it will improve it ..... any ideas how to accomplish this if i remove the section

You've got this back to front. Google likes when you have changing content which you allow other sites to link to via a feed, not the other way around. Besides you're providing people with a way to leave your site, which you don't want. Original advice stands.

What Google likes very simply is properly keyworded sites, changing content and good quality and relevant links to your site (which is why I asked for a link to Howth Limos).

fogibear

musician wrote: »

Looks great. Some comments:-

Why is the top menu wrapped in a table and the table wrapped in 2 divs? Less is more with a good semantic page and the whole thing should be possible with simply the ul element and nothing more. Consider a hidden skip link too for accessibility.

The search form should be an http get not an http post so visitors can bookmark search result pages. Stick to the idea that a post should be for changing things and a get should be retrieving things.

The header:-

hey since you mentioned joomla do you recommed or advice best wayto add a rss onto my site so people can get feeds from it
<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="float:right; height: 248px; width:620px;"> 
            <tr> 
                <td style="text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;"> 
                    <div id="logo"> 
 
                    </div> 
                </td> 
            </tr> 
        </table> 

Another table and nothing in it. Hmmm. Background images using css is great but not for your site badge imo.

Inline javascript. Not my preference. Again I can't lay down the law here but unobtrusive javascript is imo important and worth considering for any site. Separating behaviour from content is just as elegant as separating presentation from content which we all accept these days when we use our external css files.

I assume since it's joomla then there are some constraints here when it comes to a design or a template so maybe you have no choice with some of these things. Fair enough.

Validation - w3c.org 9 errors
Accessibility - WAVE 2 errors

hey since you mentioned joomla any ideas how to add a rss feed onto my site so people can get feeds from it i know there is some add on but they cost so

mewso

fogibear wrote: »

hey since you mentioned joomla any ideas how to add a rss feed onto my site so people can get feeds from it i know there is some add on but they cost so

I'm afraid I have never used joomla. I only know about the restrictions because we currently use mambo and were looking at switching to something else. We are probably going with drupal. As an asp.net developer neither mambo, joomla or drupal are of particular interest to me so I will stick to developing web apps and let my work mates who are interested in learning php look after it.