Hellow Prolite! Welcome to TWF! We'd really appreciate it if you could give us your thoughts on some other sites before asking for a critique of your own. I do hope that you enjoy being part of TWF, and stop by the Introductions forum and let us know a little more about yourself.
Here's a friendly URL for those of you who are lazy like me:
Looks good at first glance. I would definitely like to see the logo on the left where most people would be likely to look for it. Either that or redesign it so it stands out more (and I think this should be done anyway).
I like the way the navbar looks, that is until I mouseover it. Is that supposed to be a bevel effect? It looks terrible - try just changing the colour instead.
The tabs across the top.... I would tentatively recommend that you get rid of them altogether and instead create a column of most popular links or something like that.
I'm also thinking that if I can "look anything up" as you say, there seem to be a lot of options missing. What if I want to look for a sports score, for example? Or find out who's in that new movie I saw an ad for? This isn't really "anything"
I personally like the tabs at the top. But I do agree with the moseovers. Your site looks sharp until I mouseover - try something different (like the chage in text color) and have us look again.
A couple of things thou, your advertising IE 5 and Netscape 6.1, IE has released there version 6 havent they (i'm sure its out of beta now)
and napster isnt back on line is it, i have napster but cant log in.
and the counter at the bottom, even thou small should be replaced by an invisible cgi script or something if you want to track hits.
your search results take you to a new window out side of your site, maybe mention this.
when i clicked on "chat" the button under it showed "home" not sure if it didnt finish loading properly or whats going on., a fw other chat programs if you want to add them, microsoft comic chat, msn, vchat ...
I get a scroll bar in IE 5.0 at 800x600 but not on Netscape 4.7
I think the title of your site "lookanythingup" is misleading, as I'm limited to what you have there, unless I do a search which takes me away from your site - might as well just use google.com or someone.
Is the "links" page titled correctly, shouldnt it be "addme" or "submit site" or something, as thats what its doing. I was going to say you shouldnt have a links page if your site is for everything but see its a submit your site page.
I like the link button mouse overs, but maybe change the arrow colour or something, but you do have to do something to speed up load time. they dont work on Netscape 4.7
The automotive section has mostly American cars (or ones avaiable in USA), maybe add a comment about that
Toeng.com posted this at 18:01 — 7th September 2001.
I'm using cable and IE 6.01 so loading heavy page is no problem for me so far. Anyway, couple things I notice about your design;
1. The javascript image rollover is good, but somehow, the button_over pics bevel is too deep. It might be better if you redo the button_over pics and make the bevel a little bit lighter.
2. Everything on your site is too big. It almost seems that you don't have any new information for visitors. Especially with the front page information about IE 5 and Netscape. I don't think ppl will dig deeper into the site if you don't give them anything new and cool in your front page.
But, the site looks okay ... keep it up ... will ya?
I agree with everything that's been said previously but would also add that you need to make it clear that you are aiming most of this stuff to an American audience.
Julia - if life was meant to be easy Michael Angelo would have painted the floor....
Likes
Nice graphics. Balanced layout with good colors.
Dislikes
Essentially this is a collection of links to other sites. The fact that there are only 9 categories means
a) the site is very shallow (for what purports to be a directory); and
b) seems unlikely to accrete a lot of content very fast
This site seems to duplicate functionality available elsewhere and adds extra steps to accomplish the same thing
Also, the chief functional aspect --search-- did a great job of pop-ing up second-tier search sites. BUT, if I tried to return to the 'home' page for another try of the search field, the pop-ups... well, ran out of pop i.e., the 'search' windows, remained underneath the LookAnythingUp.com window.
The look on the site is good but I think spoilt by the top left graphic, in comparison to the rest of the layout it looks very amateur. That's for the look, I have to agree with other posters about the content, it appears to be just links, so in a way it is a very cut down search engine, with limited functionality.
Annette35 posted this at 23:24 — 14th September 2001.
Overall look is good, nice design. I like the way you have designed to fit the 'foldover newspaper' scenario. Fits nicely on 1024x768.
A couple of things - I agree with above comments and ...
1) Homepage needs more info to lure me into the site.
2) Where is the Opera link? Netscape and IE graphics way too big and not necessary. You are not going to convince me to upgrade to all the problems of the 6.0 versions of either just by the graphics on your homepage. I already have a web browser (since I'm at your site) and I'm there because I want to look something up, not to upgrade my browser.
3) Your site logo needs to be at top left for usability purposes. Those who are not as web-savvy know a few things - underlined text is a link, top left logo is a link back to the homepage. Please don't confuse them. From my personal perspective, if I clicked on your current top left image and was sent to a loans site, I would not be returning to the original site unless the site was indispensible.
4) Alt text - where is it? Accessibility is as important as usability (as well as being a legal requirement for most).
5) Any reason every one of your page titles says the same thing? Apart from hoping for higher search engine ranking? Has anyone else found this annoying or not user friendly or am I just having a bad day and being too picky with this one?
Good luck with your site. It will grow with more content.
Annette
Annette35 posted this at 23:27 — 14th September 2001.
Sorry, I was too quick to post and then noticed that all the page titles are not the same. Answered my own question - it is just a bad day thing.
Again, sorry.
Annette
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Megan posted this at 20:30 — 5th September 2001.
She has: 11,421 posts
Joined: Jun 1999
Hellow Prolite! Welcome to TWF! We'd really appreciate it if you could give us your thoughts on some other sites before asking for a critique of your own. I do hope that you enjoy being part of TWF, and stop by the Introductions forum and let us know a little more about yourself.
Here's a friendly URL for those of you who are lazy like me:
http://www.lookanythingup.com
Quick review:
Looks good at first glance. I would definitely like to see the logo on the left where most people would be likely to look for it. Either that or redesign it so it stands out more (and I think this should be done anyway).
I like the way the navbar looks, that is until I mouseover it. Is that supposed to be a bevel effect? It looks terrible - try just changing the colour instead.
The tabs across the top.... I would tentatively recommend that you get rid of them altogether and instead create a column of most popular links or something like that.
I'm also thinking that if I can "look anything up" as you say, there seem to be a lot of options missing. What if I want to look for a sports score, for example? Or find out who's in that new movie I saw an ad for? This isn't really "anything"
Megan
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Brooke posted this at 22:36 — 5th September 2001.
She has: 681 posts
Joined: Feb 1999
I personally like the tabs at the top. But I do agree with the moseovers. Your site looks sharp until I mouseover - try something different (like the chage in text color) and have us look again.
Brooke :snow:
Keegan posted this at 02:49 — 6th September 2001.
They have: 300 posts
Joined: Aug 2001
K
Busy posted this at 03:20 — 6th September 2001.
He has: 6,151 posts
Joined: May 2001
slow loading but looks good at first glance.
A couple of things thou, your advertising IE 5 and Netscape 6.1, IE has released there version 6 havent they (i'm sure its out of beta now)
and napster isnt back on line is it, i have napster but cant log in.
and the counter at the bottom, even thou small should be replaced by an invisible cgi script or something if you want to track hits.
your search results take you to a new window out side of your site, maybe mention this.
when i clicked on "chat" the button under it showed "home" not sure if it didnt finish loading properly or whats going on., a fw other chat programs if you want to add them, microsoft comic chat, msn, vchat ...
I get a scroll bar in IE 5.0 at 800x600 but not on Netscape 4.7
I think the title of your site "lookanythingup" is misleading, as I'm limited to what you have there, unless I do a search which takes me away from your site - might as well just use google.com or someone.
Is the "links" page titled correctly, shouldnt it be "addme" or "submit site" or something, as thats what its doing. I was going to say you shouldnt have a links page if your site is for everything but see its a submit your site page.
I like the link button mouse overs, but maybe change the arrow colour or something, but you do have to do something to speed up load time. they dont work on Netscape 4.7
The automotive section has mostly American cars (or ones avaiable in USA), maybe add a comment about that
Toeng.com posted this at 18:01 — 7th September 2001.
They have: 46 posts
Joined: Sep 2001
I'm using cable and IE 6.01 so loading heavy page is no problem for me so far. Anyway, couple things I notice about your design;
1. The javascript image rollover is good, but somehow, the button_over pics bevel is too deep. It might be better if you redo the button_over pics and make the bevel a little bit lighter.
2. Everything on your site is too big. It almost seems that you don't have any new information for visitors. Especially with the front page information about IE 5 and Netscape. I don't think ppl will dig deeper into the site if you don't give them anything new and cool in your front page.
But, the site looks okay ... keep it up ... will ya?
Toeng.com - Kick @$$ WebSite
The Webmistress posted this at 11:14 — 8th September 2001.
She has: 5,586 posts
Joined: Feb 2001
I agree with everything that's been said previously but would also add that you need to make it clear that you are aiming most of this stuff to an American audience.
Julia - if life was meant to be easy Michael Angelo would have painted the floor....
Her.ph posted this at 21:34 — 8th September 2001.
They have: 4 posts
Joined: Sep 2001
LikesNice graphics. Balanced layout with good colors.
DislikesEssentially this is a collection of links to other sites. The fact that there are only 9 categories means
a) the site is very shallow (for what purports to be a directory); and
b) seems unlikely to accrete a lot of content very fast
This site seems to duplicate functionality available elsewhere and adds extra steps to accomplish the same thing
Also, the chief functional aspect --search-- did a great job of pop-ing up second-tier search sites. BUT, if I tried to return to the 'home' page for another try of the search field, the pop-ups... well, ran out of pop
i.e., the 'search' windows, remained underneath the LookAnythingUp.com window.
Good luck on fine tuning this site.
Her.ph
m1l posted this at 21:20 — 14th September 2001.
They have: 29 posts
Joined: Sep 2001
The look on the site is good but I think spoilt by the top left graphic, in comparison to the rest of the layout it looks very amateur. That's for the look, I have to agree with other posters about the content, it appears to be just links, so in a way it is a very cut down search engine, with limited functionality.
Annette35 posted this at 23:24 — 14th September 2001.
They have: 46 posts
Joined: Aug 2001
Hi Dan,
Overall look is good, nice design. I like the way you have designed to fit the 'foldover newspaper' scenario. Fits nicely on 1024x768.
A couple of things - I agree with above comments and ...
1) Homepage needs more info to lure me into the site.
2) Where is the Opera link? Netscape and IE graphics way too big and not necessary. You are not going to convince me to upgrade to all the problems of the 6.0 versions of either just by the graphics on your homepage. I already have a web browser (since I'm at your site) and I'm there because I want to look something up, not to upgrade my browser.
3) Your site logo needs to be at top left for usability purposes. Those who are not as web-savvy know a few things - underlined text is a link, top left logo is a link back to the homepage. Please don't confuse them. From my personal perspective, if I clicked on your current top left image and was sent to a loans site, I would not be returning to the original site unless the site was indispensible.
4) Alt text - where is it? Accessibility is as important as usability (as well as being a legal requirement for most).
5) Any reason every one of your page titles says the same thing? Apart from hoping for higher search engine ranking? Has anyone else found this annoying or not user friendly or am I just having a bad day and being too picky with this one?
Good luck with your site. It will grow with more content.
Annette
Annette35 posted this at 23:27 — 14th September 2001.
They have: 46 posts
Joined: Aug 2001
Sorry, I was too quick to post and then noticed that all the page titles are not the same. Answered my own question - it is just a bad day thing.
Again, sorry.
Annette
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