Staga.net

This is one of the better website I have seen. The colors are all very simple but complementary and pleasing to the eyes. All the CSS seems to be in perfect order and it looks great. The only thing I don't quite get is the "Get Firefox" button. It's obviously not necessary, as I can view your site without it, so there really isn't any reason to be advertising it.

So, basically, this is another freecycle. I used that site for awhile but for me it's just easier to leave stuff out on a table at the back of my building People will almost always take it.

The layout generally looks nice. My first impressions were good. I like the colour scheme and the overall design. I do find that the centre area is a little too big. On smaller screen resolutions the actual explaination at the bottom is going to get cut off completely. That could also be improved by making the four points smaller, and with bullets. Look up ways to contrast text. The "do you..." should contrast with the four points. So it should be significantly larger and maybe in a different colour.

Another problem I see here is that there is no logo to speak of. It's just plain text. You've done an admirable job with the colours but a more unique font choice and/or some sort of symbol is needed. Logos are so important for branding, it might be worth it to hire a professional to do one for you.

Now that I'm ready to join, I had ot look around a bit for the join point. that should be included in the top block there with the four points. Make the registration point obvious and easy to find. It should also be visible above the fold at 800 x 600 (now that I've actually checked, there is a horizontal scrollbar at 800 x 600). Oh, right, now I see that little link in the corner. Those are cut off at 800 x 600 too.

So, I think I might want to sign up, but I wanted to check to see if there's a community in my area first. So I found the communities link and the form there which asks for a zip code. I don't have a zip code, I have a postal code. So, now I find out that this is a US only site. I used to have this problem more often a few years ago but now I'm finding that most sites work for an international audience. Actually, the Freecycle search won't work for me either now it just gives me a weird error message. I have to use a different menu to find the Canadian groups.

Well, now I can't get any further on your site so I can't comment on any of the other functionality.

Awesome website. I like the color font coordination, user friendly page layout, visually friendly to read. I agree with taking out the firefox link.

Thanks for the input everyone!

I do in fact need a logo, but im not a designer so ive had trouble with it. I dont have the money at the moment to pay for one, so for the time being i'll leave it as it is, but that surely has been one of my gripes with the design.

Looks like i should probably cut the site down to 760px rather than 800px so thats something that i will be taking care of in the future.

At the moment, your right this is geared towards US. I used a Zipcode database to provide me with longitudes and latitudes for each zipcode. This helps me locate nearby members and communities. If anyone knows of such a database for other countries, please let me know. This is something that has bothered me quite a bit. i would love to make this more international, but im stuck at that part.

I hate internet explorer. i love firefox. I put a firefox icon on every site i make becuase i just want people to have another option. i just think that too many people are microsoft zombies. Actually, the first design I made wouldnt work correctly in internet explorer, as IE has some quirks in its CSS display. After alot of research, i found that IE simply didnt do what I needed, so i redesigned those areas of the site to make them friendly to all browsers.

the difference between my site and freecycle is that freecycle is completely through email, giving you a VERY cluttered inbox. i suppose my site and freecycle both have the same goals, but we are going about it in a different way, and from what research ive read, the majority of people would rather not have the cluttered inbox.

The main image on the homepage was the first one i made. I actually did it yesterday. It will surely not be the final one, but I needed something more of a place holder. Ive jotted down a couple of different designs for it and I am going to need to actually build them and put them on the site to see which works the best.

Thanks for everyones opinions and whatnot... I look forward to hearing some more. Thank you.

Bryan

it is well designed and attractive.
better to center the navigation.
i dont understand your tagline :where free feels better.

Your site design is very simple but nice and clean. The color selection is awesiome. On a side note, I like your idea about distributing old stuff. I have seen that but not on Internet-base.
Good luck to your site.

Excellent website. There is very little that I could comment on in the way of improvements. Browsing for a minute, I practially knew all about the objective and ideas behind it.

As a few have suggested, I do think a nice logo would be of great benefit to the website.

Other than that, colours are excellent as is layout. Concept is also a brilliant idea.

Cheers

This site looks familiar to me... as if I've seen it before, perhaps that good design does? either way it looks really good.

I would like to see a little more content for visitors who don't want to register straight away rather than hitting them with a brick wall “you must register to continue”. When I see that message I’m outa there never to return.

The thing is I don’t want to tell you my email address I don’t want to do the confirm email thing I don’t want to remember another password. I’m just looking around you should provide something for me.

You cannot say to people “you must register” on the second page and expect them to hang around.

Another Orange and blue one…last week it was martial arts …J

Nice, very nice. Good job.