Feedback

[bigkid]

Tweet

Hi, my names Andrew and I'm a thirty something, part-time (and very amature) website builder doing his best to create something out of an idea that came about several years ago. I then missed the boat as the dot-com bubble burst. As a result, I have taught myself some basic html and launched 'bigkid', a lifestyle and leisure site. For those of you who are curious enough to want to visit the site you can find the link on my profile page (as I understand from the forum rules that I am not permitted to add my URL on any of the forums).

Ever since I started building bigkid I've found the process of building and running a website to be a very lonely, and often frustrating experience. Cooped up, as I am, in the nerve centre of my dot com enterprise I can more often be found pouring over questions on Ken Bruce's Popmaster Quiz on Radio Two, and drinking copious amounts of tea than getting on with the task of running my website. I seem to spend hours pondering over the tiniest design details or the simplest of problems. And I'm not even very good at Popmaster! So, in order to make my job as webmaster (I use the term loosely) more interesting and to avoid becoming a complete hermit I've joined the Affiliates4u Affiliate Marketing Forum.

Now, there's an awful lot I don't know and a lot I need to learn about running a website. I've been looking at some of the members sites and I must say that I'm pretty darn impressed with the wealth of tallent you guys posess. I'm even a little embarrassed to be sharing the same forum as you. But what the hell, I'm not going to become a better webmaster (again, a use the term loosely) by listening to Radio Two.

So, here's the deal, and the other reason for joining the Affiliates4u Forum. I want feedback. I need feedback. I want to know what you guys think of my site. I don't care if it's good , bad or indifferent , just tell me what you think. Having seen what you guys are capable of I'll respect what you have to say. And as this is the first of what could be many messages from me, I would hope to put your feedback to good effect. Anyway, that's enough from me for now, I'm off to make a nice cup of tea!

I'm looking forward to hearing from some of you soon.

bigkid (Andrew)

[Edwin]

It's an impressive site. Clean, polished and professional-looking. There are a few "buts" coming, though

But it's incredibly "busy", and the colour scheme is a bit harsh on the eye. By busy, I mean that there are dozens of things clamouring for attention, but all at exactly the same volume. So I imagine many users think "what the heck should I do now?" and hit the back button, since generally people aren't willing to study a site before using it.

I think you should make the purpose of the site more clear and more prominent, i.e. emphasize what you have in the "welcome" message. Hyperlink "activities", "experiences" and "gifts" to the appropriate sections. Consider getting rid of the right-most column on the home page, as well as the "Fun Stuff" links (you could move those links into a specific section of its own)

There is a really great book that I refer to again and again. It's called "Don't Make Me Think", by Steve Krug. It's a really clear analysis of what should go into making a design "usable".

You should also think about changing the colours you're using. Don't use the same colour for linked and unlinked elements, and perhaps go back to the browser default (underlined blue) colour scheme for links. The more guesswork you can eliminate, the happier your visitors will be.

Hope this helps.

[eskimo]

Nice site, clear and clean design.

I was slighty suprised with the horizontal nav bar. It seems you are jusk asking for your vistors to visit external sites and not come back. You could get these pages to open up in a frameset with your branding apeearing in one of the frames.

I also think you should consider making the content headings, which are orange, clickable links.

Just my 2 cents worth