myvideoby.com Please Critique [Archive]

daveallen333

4-23-07, 09:52 PM

Please critique myvideoby.com.

This site is in BETA TEST. Tentative long range plan is to offer different looks for each gallery a member publishes by link, to provide different button styles, colors, and player skins. This depends on what BETA members suggest.

Thank you in advance for any feedback.

Dave Allen

My responses:
Alexandrox (http://www.myvideoby.com?g_userid=11&g_gallery_search=40&gpass=590htyye)

Ms. Kuhns (http://www.myvideoby.com?g_userid=11&g_gallery_search=41&gpass=h5rt4w57)

Thanks again to responders. After reading your responses, I think I have a lot of thinking to do about this site. I am not offering a free month anymore. I am sorry if I offended anyone with that. Based on responses I really do need to resize the page. I also need to check all the browsers to make certain that video plays. I need to design some method of making it clear what the page does, and why it is worth money and extra time to condense your own videos, and put them here, instead of embedding from youtube.com. The whole idea behind this was to make it embeddable without having to learn an API. I don't think I have yet even gotten close to making this seem any easier than any other video site. I like using the site myself, and perhaps some inspiration will come that will help me to come up with a better design, to communicate why I think it is better. I also, though, need to make sure first, that it works. So far, I am not liking what I am hearing about how the player and the page renders video. If someone is not able to see video, I need some sort of error response. I am also hearing that it is not clear that the box to the far left is a collection of videos by topic. If users are confused, that is not going to work. I will use it myself, and walk it around, and see what else I learn.

I will resubmit later. I have got to get a grip on some major things.

Thanks again. I think my face is too red to post another video response. I admit I did not consider a lot.

Alejandrox

4-24-07, 09:42 AM

The design looks to plain. You want to have the video a little to the bottom, Having it all the way at the top looks weird. Also, you really don't want to use Window Media Player. You want to use video format as youtube, myspace, vidiac around that line...

You mention about a refund, but why not make one that allows them to view it. Test it before they decide to be part of your community.

It's really distrubing to register without knowing what feature it has.

But, I give it 2+ months before you pimp it like never before.

YvetteKuhns

4-24-07, 10:06 AM

Viewing in Firefox, I see the "click to download plugin" where I click and the bugger wants me to install Windows Media Player 11. No, thanks. The domain name appears in the upper left corner, but it is easily overlooked. I had to horizontally scroll quite a bit in 800x600 screen resolution.

Lock in your lifetime rate now, at 15.00 USD per month.

All new features will be added to your membership free, as they come on line.

Click Register, then follow instructions to build an account.

Then you will have the option to subscribe.

Are you reselling your web hosting?! That is not allowed on PowWeb. Or are you calling it a membership as a loophole? Hmmm.....

The links are weird, since I never leave the home page, but the changing text appears below the web page where the copyright info is expected to appear. The copyright info actually appears on the left side.

The design is very plain. A nice logo could add color and style. I just don't know why someone would use THIS website when they could use another for FREE. Think about it. You have to convince people to use YOUR website. It couldn't get high ranking to justify the cost.

My comments are my thoughts and are meant to help you to improve your website. They are not meant to be insults, just constructive criticism.

entrecon

4-24-07, 04:52 PM

I can't play video at my current location (firewall blocks the streaming stuff) but the rest of the site looks like a train wreck using IE6.

-I have to scroll left and right to see the whole page.
-The lack of a top margin bothers me...I keep trying to scroll up
-The video box looks like it barely fits in the framed area and is off balance
-"Page ready for click..." - not sure what this means
-Links on left with the picture on it don't make sense
-You have a Prices page...but only one price
-No real description of what you are getting for the price
-The browser's Back button doesn't go to the previouse page on your website...it goes to the previous website I was on. ( I noticed this when I clicked on the Help Gallery and there are no links on that page. I hit the back button and was on another website.)
-Clicking on a Menu option twice seems to break the site too. (hard to tell since I don't see video here, but it does clear the text out)

Just a quick list. The other item of note, If I am going to send someone $15, it sure won't be someone with a Hotmail adress. I know PowWeb has it's e-mail issues but an e-mail to something@myvideoboy.com still makes me feel a little better than a Hotmail address. Just doesn't have that professional look to me.

YvetteKuhns

4-24-07, 05:04 PM

So proceed as if it is free, as it is for the first month for you. If you assist me in this way, you will need to cancel before you are charged in a month. Go to your paypal account, click on details of your subscription, at the bottom of a long page, click cancel, and it will be done. If anyone is charged money, email me at daveallen333@hotmail.com, and I will fix that. I threw in a new form with a free month, but I have not gone through the paypal myself yet. my phone is 206-852-3734.

I am sorry, but that doesn't sound like a good idea to me even if I did know you. You should have a business account with PayPal with a verified address using your email address associated with your domain name. I still think you better contact PowWeb to see if you are not in violation of the Terms of Service. Better safe than sorry.

What are you offering? I am still confused. You can't resell hosting and why would someone pay to host videos here when they can host for free on Google or YouTube?

Alejandrox

4-24-07, 10:19 PM

I am sorry, but that doesn't sound like a good idea to me even if I did know you. You should have a business account with PayPal with a verified address using your email address associated with your domain name. I still think you better contact PowWeb to see if you are not in violation of the Terms of Service. Better safe than sorry.

What are you offering? I am still confused. You can't resell hosting and why would someone pay to host videos here when they can host for free on Google or YouTube?

He's offering users to upload videos without losing quality.

Also, thanks for the offer. However, I'm a powweb customer and I have my space to upload my own video.However, I'm also connected to vidiac.com with their video provider.

Just a little note: You need to think about other browser because there are other customers that use mac and they don't have internet explorer...

You want to get ur hand on all browers. AOL, IE, Firefox, Opera, Safari or whatever browsers exist, you need to test them to see if they're working.

PS: Love how you pronounce my name, however it's incorrect. :p

To make it say it correct, it's A-le-jan-dro-x

Thanks for the video respond...You'll get there, takes time and patient.

YvetteKuhns

4-25-07, 09:22 AM

He's offering users to upload videos without losing quality.

Oh. I really didn't notice that. Thanks for the clarification.

The website really needs to explain the benefits in clear detail. Make comparisons with other websites to convince people to stay here. I had to scroll to see the Notes to learn more. I clicked the link and saw the notes about the stepchildren. That info, if used, should be on a personal/about page.

Personally, I like to see FAQ that would say what requirements I would need. I don't like/use Windows Media Player and that is currently the ONLY option. This website really does cater to the common users that may not have a web host or video programs and use a Windows OS. I don't fit that category, but many people do.

I had to switch from Firefox to Internet Explorer just to get the darn video to play! (The plugin for Firefox wasn't installed and would not install.) Finally, I understand the site purpose! I didn't have access to the information UNTIL I used Internet Explorer to view the video. You should want to include information in text for people to troubleshoot and search engines to find your website.

Where are the terms of service and privacy information? I didn't see anything about copyrighted videos or how you use/protect files or member information.

You could have smiled at the end of your video. ;) You don't have to be as energetic as Steve Ballmer (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1274983729713522403&q=steve+ballmer&hl=en), but don't be Ben Stein, either. :D While attending college, one of my teachers was very animated and excited as he taught databases. Another teacher spoke softly as he taught Visual Basic. I was taking classes at night after watching a toddler during the day. I loved the quiet teacher, but his "easy listening DJ voice" was not keeping the students attentive. He later added humor and music and tried to "kick it up a notch".

I am not asking you to honk horns or wear flashy clothes. Just sound more enthusiastic about the topic you are discussing. Almost like the announcer at a monster truck rally or the movie trailer announcer. :cool:

dmacminn

4-25-07, 10:35 AM

hmmm... you may be on to something there Yvette ... you can certainly use your website to gain clients and/or participate in the Affliate Program to generate revenue by signing up additional accounts .... you can certainly market products and/or services and/or run a store/ecommerce site ...

But, the AUP Section E. 1 doesn't allow you to charge for/resell hosting or allied services (email system access, newsletter broadcasting...) or make these available other than as needed for your use of the account.

We have Terms of Service that make note of the concept of "Reseller Services" -- where you would presumably purchase an account and be able to offer sub-accounts --- but, this would presumably involve a payment to Powweb for each additional customer. Currently such a plan system is not offered on Powweb.

I guess you could use an external streaming server service to deliver the content and use your own site as a gateway I suppose.... I think anything with video should have a streaming server in place (Powweb currently doesn't have a media server available)...

Autoload

4-25-07, 12:07 PM

I've got a design question related to a comment that Yvette made:

.....I had to horizontally scroll quite a bit in 800x600 screen resolution.

At what point to we decide to let go of this resolution and move the new base resolution up to 1024x768? I mean... in appears to me that the "industry" has let go of 640x480 resolution some time ago.

Doc C

4-25-07, 12:16 PM

As long as people with bad eyesight have small monitors there will be a call for that resolution.

Dave, I like the way your site looks. I prefer a more plain site than one all fancied up just to impress. But that's just me.

daveallen333

4-25-07, 03:13 PM

Thanks to all who have responded. I have more issues.

Make comparisons to other sites. I could make a tab with a video comparing each other site with myvideoby.com
each site competitor would get its own video, links, content on the whiteboard to explain.

For now, I think I must bite the bullet, and serve a stop page if someone is going to access a gallery link and does not have javascript enabled, or is not using IE

Explain the benefit of having an ajax site with a broken back button. Once the customer clicks the member's link, and clicks all kinds of buttons to access different tabs, vids, whiteboard stuff, one click of the back button returns the member's visitor back to the members page. They will not have to click back 200 times, through all their previous clicks to get back when they click back.

Put in a ticket at POWWEB to see if any rules being violated here.

Terms of service.

Privacy information.

Make it extremely clear what the site does.

Turn on robots when the site is ready, which is not now.

smile...

YvetteKuhns

4-25-07, 09:44 PM

As long as people with bad eyesight have small monitors there will be a call for that resolution.

I have 17 inch, 19 inch and even 21 inch monitors that are only one foot away from my face. My husband is over 50 and wears bifocals. My son has excellent eyesight and doesn't even wear eyeglasses. I wore eyeglasses since I was 5 years old, had lazy eye and finally eye surgery at age 9.

I still have eyestrain from staring at the screen all day. I know many people who use different size monitors and have various problems reading text on a monitor. I think that 800x600 is a fair resolution for design.

I tried a higher resolution for a while, but I just had too much trouble reading Flash websites where I could not increase the font size! ;)

hmmm... you may be on to something there Yvette

I wouldn't want to be responsible for contents uploaded by other people anyway.

For now, I think I must bite the bullet, and serve a stop page if someone is going to access a gallery link and does not have javascript enabled, or is not using IE

You should have a simple HTML page that tells your (new) visitors what the requirements are to use your website. If your website requires JavaScript enabled, Windows Media Player installed and the use of Internet Explorer, that should appear on the home page and/or a FAQ. Your target audience would probably use them anyway, but you should not assume anything.

Your butt must be sore from the beating I gave you! :D I am just trying to help. If I was a jerk, I could have simply reported you. I don't think you were trying to pull one over on PowWeb. You may need to reword what you are selling/providing. There are paid memberships to forums, so I suppose you can promote a video editing service that just happens to be on your web server. Just be sure this is okay with PowWeb first. Good luck!

daveallen333

4-25-07, 10:27 PM

I agree. I have put in a ticket at powweb. I think all the items I now have on my list will put me in a different place. I am grateful for the feedback. I am organizing an effort to get things very clear.

ffholy

4-26-07, 12:31 AM

To be honest, I judge websites the first 3 seconds I look at them. The layout and structure of the site didn't appeal to me. It makes sense in what your doing, but I would go get a template from templatemonster.com or something. I'm no scientist, but I read an old cnn news article that says that people judge sites in the first few seconds before fully reviewing it. Like... let me find some example site.

http://www.couponcraze.com/
-- This site just hurts my eyes and I would normally close this regardless of the content.

http://coupons.smarter.com/
-- The site layout is clean and simple and even though they have less content, I would surf this site.

I hope I just give you a different perspective on things.

Have a good one,
Eric

http://ffholy.com -- Still gotta work on my layout :)

Alejandrox

4-26-07, 05:02 AM

YvetteKuhns

4-26-07, 09:04 AM

smile...

:) Like being in person, if someone sees an image of someone smiling, he/she will just feel better.

Now remember to make your information detailed and accessible. And put more pizzazz in your web design and your videos. But please, no Ballmer antics. You may scare people. :D

daveallen333

4-26-07, 04:36 PM

To all responders, again, thank you so much.

I have many things on the list, but the first thing I will do is try to handle a lot of issues (as many as possible, with some new videos)

The powweb ticket came back positive, so I am jazzed about that.

I will be implementing some of the suggestions that are more involved later than right now, but I do plan to use many of the ideas suggested.

One comment about site design. I have very little experience with it. I can only speak as an internet user. I have VERY SEVERE ADD. As a person with ADD, even with medication I can become frustrated, even exasperated when I visit sites much more busy than Google.com. I know that most people do not go to a site, click a shiny button and get lost for 2 hours, but I have. I would have a hard time creating a very busy site, because I would get lost just working on it. I also have a hard time violating my sense of empathy for others like me who want to play on the net and do fun things, but, given too many choices, begin to feel their thoughts cleave into many parts. I don't think that people without ADD really mind google.com, but people with ADD really do appreciate google.com, and all that google has done to tone down advertising on the net. My personal perspective is skewed. But AJAX really seems to provide me with some tools to keep things simple. Maybe for me, it is like Yvette and screen resolution. The smaller version of my site happens to work better for me too, when I test in the smaller resolution. I am not as tempted to cyclically scroll just to be certain I am not missing something. Gotta go. Making vids. Thanks again all so much.

YvetteKuhns

4-26-07, 04:46 PM

I would have a hard time creating a very busy site, because I would get lost just working on it.

I also hate busy sites. They are overwhelming. Perhaps my vision problems are not my only problems. I have not been diagnosed with ADD, but the school is currently testing my son for it. I can appreciate your feelings about this.

Our design issues are with the plain look. You can place a nice logo at the top of the page that has a nice font style and color, just as Google places a nice logo on an otherwise simple page. We don't need the entire rainbow of colors. We just need something to stand out from the page.

Simple is okay. Plain can be boring or uninviting. Think of a house with little or no landscaping. Then picture a house with a few flowers, bushes and a nice path. Then there is too much like those with the tacky ornaments like gnomes, pink flamingos and plastic animals. That makes me want to escape. Treat your website like a place to visit, because that is what it is. It just happens to be in cyberspace.

Doc C

4-26-07, 06:28 PM

I like Dave's site. And I like garden gnomes. Maybe it needs gnomes but no flamingos as they are tacky.

Dave, I've never thought about how a busy website would affect someone with ADD or another disorder. I don't have one but I do like to keep things simple.

progravix

5-3-07, 08:40 PM

Just a little note: You need to think about other browser because there are other customers that use mac and they don't have internet explorer...

You want to get ur hand on all browers. AOL, IE, Firefox, Opera, Safari or whatever browsers exist, you need to test them to see if they're working.

You need to allow more file formats as well. Do you only accept WMV? I've hate YouTube, Google and other video sharing/hosting solutions. Their quality is horrible.

Although I speak as a minority, being a Mac user, we are often overlooked as a growing part of the customer base. While most providers allow uploads of Mac native formats, they always convert them to Flash or some other proprietary format.

Being in the video industry myself, I offer high quality samples of my work on my website, using mpeg4 and other high quality compressors. Although they require additional software to play, I find it necessary to show the full quality of my work (at least the best quality available for online).

As for the design of your site, it seems clunky. When I clicked on some links (while a video was playing) it would begin to play a new video, while I could still hear the previous video. Don't know what was going on there.

Overall it just needs to be cleaned up a bit. The colors are nice, it just needs to be more organized. Better navigation.

YvetteKuhns

5-3-07, 08:58 PM

progravix

5-3-07, 09:11 PM

I agree with what you say, but maybe not for this website. One of my clients has a Mac. Several of my graphics designers have a Mac. I can't imagine Mac users using this video website, because they use their own software. Maybe he should include a poll to see if any visitors would have used the website if there was another file format available. Hmm....

That's probably true, but there is a big difference between Pros and those that use Macs because they are cute. I know several video developers that use Macs to edit their video, and create a finished DVD project, but lack the skill in properly sharing their expertise via their website. A lot of them use Google to host their video files, resulting in low quality and a bad impression.

I was lucky enough to be a designer and web developer long before I was a videographer/editor. Having the design skills greatly enhances my end video product.

Anyways... I have not done a lot of research about it, but I personally know quite a few people that would be interest in a pay-for-service way to host high quality video files easily with little to no web experience necessary.

YvetteKuhns

5-3-07, 09:17 PM

I know several video developers that use Macs to edit their video, and create a finished DVD project, but lack the skill in properly sharing their expertise via their website. A lot of them use Google to host their video files, resulting in low quality and a bad impression.

I personally know quite a few people that would be interest in a pay-for-service way to host high quality video files easily with little to no web experience necessary.

Well, then... Maybe this will motivate Dave to try other formats. Be kind. He doesn't have a Mac for testing. He may need you to test it. ;)

Those Google videos are such low quality and I have been whining about that from the start. What do you want for free anyway? :D

Doc C

5-3-07, 09:42 PM

I know where I work they use Macs for the graphics work used for sales items and one for doing the voiceovers for the customer product. There are only 6 Macs in use in the building as opposed to over 300 PCs. If one goes on the fritz, the users have their own Mac team that fixes them. Won't let us touch them!

Alejandrox

5-4-07, 01:18 PM

You need to allow more file formats as well. Do you only accept WMV? I've hate YouTube, Google and other video sharing/hosting solutions. Their quality is horrible.

Although I speak as a minority, being a Mac user, we are often overlooked as a growing part of the customer base. While most providers allow uploads of Mac native formats, they always convert them to Flash or some other proprietary format.

Being in the video industry myself, I offer high quality samples of my work on my website, using mpeg4 and other high quality compressors. Although they require additional software to play, I find it necessary to show the full quality of my work (at least the best quality available for online).

As for the design of your site, it seems clunky. When I clicked on some links (while a video was playing) it would begin to play a new video, while I could still hear the previous video. Don't know what was going on there.

Overall it just needs to be cleaned up a bit. The colors are nice, it just needs to be more organized. Better navigation.

I agree with you..I hate using WMP as a video provider on website ^_^...It doesn't give a taste, since I'm not a Mac users (never will be one).

What program do you guys have instead of WMP?

progravix

5-4-07, 01:30 PM

I can use Quicktime to play WMV files, it's the creating of that format that's the problem. While it's possible, I think there is certainly a loss of quality going from a Mac format to WMV. I use Final Cut Pro, iMovie, or Quicktime Pro to create formats suitable for my needs.

Since you are not re-encoding the wmv files, wouldn't it be possible to accept other formats? Are you not just taking the uploaded file, storing it, then pointing to that stored file?

As I said, I use QuickTime (with the Flip4Mac pluging) to play WMV content. So I don't see why I couldn't have the option of uploading a MP4 file, and sharing that.

Also, do you only offer the 240x320 size, or can anybody upload any size video they want, just as long as the collective size does not exceed 3GB? (Say, if I wanted to upload a 720x480 HD H.264 MP4).