hosting365
New Member
It's still a bit rough round the edges and wet behind the ears, but would love feedback re: Register365
TIA!
Stephen
TIA!
Stephen
Site Review
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EdenWeb
Member
To be brutally honest, I'm not mad on it and I thought the previous iteration was much better for you.
I'll try post some useful and constructive ideas for you below...
Fonts
There are at least 4 different fonts going on between the logo, promo graphics and main body text. Rein these fonts in and choose 2 max excluding, perhaps, the logo. Also - loved the last logo by Alan. This one looks like a free font that one of the techies mocked up.
Promo graphics
Several different colours. Inconsistent spacing, alignment and styling going on here. Choose a master-style and work all the promos around this treatment so they look like a 'set'
Layout
It's obvious that there were either no proper wireframes developed for this at the planning stage or that the design didn't survive the overall planning and design process. The homepage in particular is 'all over the shop' and I think you shoudl revisit the grid structure there too.
Internal pages
Very plain at the moment. Maybe it was a question of budget but they really need to be developed.
Overall brand
I think it's a step backwards. If I was a new visitor and didn't know register365, my confidence in your company based on this design would be quite low.
I hope that helps in some way. I don't want to be too harsh on the designer but i'd say it needs some serious attention before you do a full launch.
I'll try post some useful and constructive ideas for you below...
Fonts
There are at least 4 different fonts going on between the logo, promo graphics and main body text. Rein these fonts in and choose 2 max excluding, perhaps, the logo. Also - loved the last logo by Alan. This one looks like a free font that one of the techies mocked up.
Promo graphics
Several different colours. Inconsistent spacing, alignment and styling going on here. Choose a master-style and work all the promos around this treatment so they look like a 'set'
Layout
It's obvious that there were either no proper wireframes developed for this at the planning stage or that the design didn't survive the overall planning and design process. The homepage in particular is 'all over the shop' and I think you shoudl revisit the grid structure there too.
Internal pages
Very plain at the moment. Maybe it was a question of budget but they really need to be developed.
Overall brand
I think it's a step backwards. If I was a new visitor and didn't know register365, my confidence in your company based on this design would be quite low.
I hope that helps in some way. I don't want to be too harsh on the designer but i'd say it needs some serious attention before you do a full launch.
Cormac
New Member
I'm not sure if some customers will be able to get their heads around your domain search.
It looks half done tbh. Font issues as Peter mentioned, the mixed colours. The leaf for the navigational background, not sure what that's for. There isn't enough text for my liking on the homepage either.
It looks half done tbh. Font issues as Peter mentioned, the mixed colours. The leaf for the navigational background, not sure what that's for. There isn't enough text for my liking on the homepage either.
RedCardinal
New Member
Where's the submit button for the domain search?
Not so sure about that big piece of prime real estate that has 'www' written in near illegible whote font on grey background (I know I shouldn't, but did Continuum do this site for you?)
The main thing I see is the call to hosting or email. If they are the primary revenue generators then this is nice. If you want people to buy domains then I wouldn't put the primary call in such a low contrast area while right below you have 2 calls in extremely high-contrast areas. Eye is pulled to the email and hosting at the expense of the domain registration.
Very poor contrast levels in the primary navigation - people will have to llok around to find what they're looking for - a very good way to increase abandonment rates. Alongside this you give vey high prominance to the utility links in the header.
Oh I see now what that area is with the 'www' background is for - breaks terribly in Firefox.
Not sure why requests are being fired off without any update to the form? I think you could fire the request with an onkeyup event so that updates only pass to backend when someone actually types something in the form.
Coding is pretty atrocious - you cant put a H1 inside a anchor element...
H1 is a block level element - the anchor shoull be witiin the header element. Oh FFS... you dont put list element inside a div without and oredered or unordered list container. Whoever coded that must be looking for a GS.
Nice idea with the AJAX call - pretty poor implementation.
Sorry if sounds critical or otherwise - all the above is my own hoenst opinion.
Not so sure about that big piece of prime real estate that has 'www' written in near illegible whote font on grey background (I know I shouldn't, but did Continuum do this site for you?)
The main thing I see is the call to hosting or email. If they are the primary revenue generators then this is nice. If you want people to buy domains then I wouldn't put the primary call in such a low contrast area while right below you have 2 calls in extremely high-contrast areas. Eye is pulled to the email and hosting at the expense of the domain registration.
Very poor contrast levels in the primary navigation - people will have to llok around to find what they're looking for - a very good way to increase abandonment rates. Alongside this you give vey high prominance to the utility links in the header.
Oh I see now what that area is with the 'www' background is for - breaks terribly in Firefox.
Not sure why requests are being fired off without any update to the form? I think you could fire the request with an onkeyup event so that updates only pass to backend when someone actually types something in the form.
Coding is pretty atrocious - you cant put a H1 inside a anchor element...
H1 is a block level element - the anchor shoull be witiin the header element. Oh FFS... you dont put list element inside a div without and oredered or unordered list container. Whoever coded that must be looking for a GS.
Nice idea with the AJAX call - pretty poor implementation.
Sorry if sounds critical or otherwise - all the above is my own hoenst opinion.
daviddoran
New Member
I don't have too many complaints but the domain search should definitely have a submit button and the domain search should show the loading spinners _BEFORE_ the AJAX request is sent (i.e immediately) so the user doesn't lose hope and think it's stalled after 1/2 seconds.
Also, I think there's a few too many CSS/Javascript files there, just seems like too many requests to make, maybe amalgamate some. (You could store them separately and run a script to put them together when you change something if needs be)
Also, I think there's a few too many CSS/Javascript files there, just seems like too many requests to make, maybe amalgamate some. (You could store them separately and run a script to put them together when you change something if needs be)
hosting365
New Member
Thanks guys, really appreciate the feedback. We've spent a lot of time building a super backend system, need to get the frontend right now!
Fintan
New Member
focusing just on the domain name searching
The formatting of domain search results can be a little messed up for some of the searches. - they seemed to get a double line spacing (im using firefox 1.5)
As a first time user of the new interface it was not obvious how to generate results and how to select an available domain name.
Any chance of an advanced search where you can bulk add a lot of names? Can be a real pain searching one name at a time.
Cheers
Fintan
The formatting of domain search results can be a little messed up for some of the searches. - they seemed to get a double line spacing (im using firefox 1.5)
As a first time user of the new interface it was not obvious how to generate results and how to select an available domain name.
Any chance of an advanced search where you can bulk add a lot of names? Can be a real pain searching one name at a time.
Cheers
Fintan
hosting365
New Member
Hi Fintan,
Yes, thanks for that, we're adding a more traditional search page, with bulk search and other features at the moment.
Yes, thanks for that, we're adding a more traditional search page, with bulk search and other features at the moment.
The colour contrast is awful. Nothing matches, there is no consistency down along the page. The WWW image with the white on grey is an complete waste of space and adds nothing on the homepage.
The padding and symmetry is pretty good which makes it all the more surprising the colour is so far off. I don't think I've ever see a site that is so neat and tidy (good) but have such poor choice of fonts and colour. Its very strange.
The black footer makes no sense at all with regards to the rest of the site.
I think you need to start from scratch and completely scrap the theme.. layout is fine but the theme needs a compete overhaul. The green bar in itself is nice but the rest of the site doesn't work.
The padding and symmetry is pretty good which makes it all the more surprising the colour is so far off. I don't think I've ever see a site that is so neat and tidy (good) but have such poor choice of fonts and colour. Its very strange.
The black footer makes no sense at all with regards to the rest of the site.
I think you need to start from scratch and completely scrap the theme.. layout is fine but the theme needs a compete overhaul. The green bar in itself is nice but the rest of the site doesn't work.
I agree, looks like its designed by coders, but i guess its ok and it will do the job fine. I wonder tho stephen, have you looked at usuability studies on the sites audience or specifically an interaction designer....
May be no harm even to just get an consultation + assessment done, or if you have a big budget hire interaction engineers to build the front end. Most interaction designers would have seperate graphic designers on team anyway.
It will do, but for a company that is so promiment in the web sector in Ireland I don't think its at a high enough quality.
Why not hire one of the good designers out there to do up a PSD for yea and you can then take that and split it up.
E.g. Dublin Web Design, Dublin Website Designer | Eoghan McCabe, Spoiltchild Design - Home or Web Design by EdenWeb > Design for Digital Marketing, etc.. I don't think it would cost to much just to get a PSD for the home page. I'm sure you could then take it from there.
Why not hire one of the good designers out there to do up a PSD for yea and you can then take that and split it up.
E.g. Dublin Web Design, Dublin Website Designer | Eoghan McCabe, Spoiltchild Design - Home or Web Design by EdenWeb > Design for Digital Marketing, etc.. I don't think it would cost to much just to get a PSD for the home page. I'm sure you could then take it from there.
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