Review : Free IT Helpdesk

This looks pretty good. The logo and header area are very nice. I like the subtle gradient there a lot.

The body area does need some work. It's a little bit not clear what the site is offering and what I should do next. The three paragraphs of intro text are too much - the first one by itself would be fine. Nobody is going to read the rest, they're going to start looking for the content.

The latest common problems is a good thing to include on the front page. The problem is that it doesn't stand out enough and at first glance it's a little confusing as to what it is. The header is too easy to miss, and with the underline it looks like a link. Now that I've figured out what that is, I click on a link and am confused again. The main heading seems to be a section header which I didn't click through so I don't understand that. Then there's a big section of ads. The main title of the article is smaller and in blue text which makes it look like it's supposed to be a link (but it's not). Then there's the windows vista logo which looks like an ad. It's placed in the middle of the article so I'm not sure where the article actually starts.

My point? Don't make people think. You should check out a book called Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability - it would help you solve a lot of problems on this site. One of the main points of the book is that a home page needs to answer four basic questions: Where am I? What do they have here? What can I do here? What should I do next?

You should also read this: "Great Homepages Really Suck"

There aren't enough pulls on the home page to get people deeper into the site. There are tons of other sites that offer the same type of content so you have to be good if you want to succeed.

I'm also finding that the content tends to get burired amongst ads and other headers. Take the "common problems" index, for example. the actual links are way down the page where many people won't see them without scrolling. They're also styled like plain text so they don't look like links (seeing a theme here? Make links look like links and non-links look like non-links). There's also a complicated looking search box and a boring pararaph of text that nobody is going to read.

Back to the design for just a minute - I don't love that beige colour for the navigation area. It looks a little too pinky on my computer. The navigation menu should be a little more interesitng. I'm a big fan of changing the background colour on hover.

That's all for now - good luck with the site!

The first site is clean and nice. The second one is neat. Overall, good job!

I quite like the design, its kind of arty while remaining grounded.

I have an issue with your links. I'm probably not the type of person who would use your site but find your links very confusing, so someone with less knowledge may give up. The issue is the colour and underlines. The index page for example, apart from the google ads, there is one heading that is underlined - actually looks like a link so I have to quickly learn how your page has to be used, I figure the bold text are links, but then the 'welcome' is bold too. Ok have to mouse over everything to find whats what. I go to the 'about us' page, hmm underlined keywords, links? nope ... see where I'm going.

I'd move the ads on the content section either below the content or beside it, having them on top just gives the impression you just want money, dont really want to help.

It is interesting you ask for country on the contact form yet the ads (yellow pages) is UK based I believe although with a .com. I would of guessed you were US based

I personally dislike underlines on links too, but you have to think of your target crowd - newbies.

You're right about the .co.uk vs .com, I'd rather go to a .com as most country related types are country related only

You'll have to change every page, use and the css to suit a.sidelinks:active ....

We use the underlined links in this forum and top links have none, your site will get away with this too

I read some articles and found them useful. However, almost every article is too short from my point of view. For example: Why my PC slow... - you should also (probably) mention deleting temp files in MS Internet Explorer and so on.

However, it is a great idea and a very good start. Good luck, I will visit your site periodically.

AndrewP;207087 wrote: I have recently completely re-designed my website and would like to know what you all think of it. I have tried to go for a cleaner and more professional look with the updated design.

Let me know what you think and thanks for the review. Link is in the signature

The logo and colors are good.

Improve your menu by selecting some other font.
Organize your adsense ads in one area. Sprinkling it all over your pages makes it hard to follow the content
on your pages. For example keep all ads at the top of each page or below top banner. Rotate them for
each visited page.

Overall the site looks ok but a bit spammy.