Site Redesign

[techlinks]

HI All:

I've redesigned my site hosted at POWWEB. Can I have your input on the design and functionality? Feel free to register as well. No fees until January 2008! :)

Thanks

Techlinks
http://www.techlinks.com

[phlembol]

Looks very clean and professional. I did notice an inconsistency in page centering. Home and AboutUs are centered, nothing else is. Pages are fixed width which lower resolution users won't like. Auctions? I don't find anything on that in the FAQ. Is that services or items? What kind of items? This place-holder still shows: Place your custom page here re: Referrals

[YvetteKuhns]

Are you looking for a high-tech proffessional?


http://www.techlinks.com/wm.php has this spelling error! :D There are other errors in punctuation. Proofread your website.

Who we are - I don't know. There isn't any information, just a brief site purpose which is to take a commission for matching freelancers with projects. When I first started web design, I tried one of these websites and got cheated. We didn't get paid by the site owner and the website like yours wanted to get paid the commission anyway. How can you make your audience trust you when you offer no information about yourself?

How do people pay you? When? Any guarantees? For example, if I paid via PayPal, could they handle disputes? Do you follow up with both parties to be sure both were satisfied? What do you do when someone isn't? Can they rate service and see it posted online? Okay, I found ratings in FAQ.

The contact form has NO contact information. It simply has a form to request visitor information. I flee from websites where the website owner cannot share information, yet requests so much from visitors. There are some FAQ and a privacy policy, but there could be more information. I would not feel comfortable using the website as it is now.

The look of the website is bland. The text is small at most places. The color scheme is unusual. It doesn't feel right for this website. Copyright dates only need to show the first and last date or just the last date.

There are so many of these websites for new web designers that get underpaid but need to build a portfolio and cheap clients. People can have better luck with a free classified ad on Craigslist and those people are cheap. You may get a trade of services or something instead of cash for payments. If you can build trust and get better quality visitors, this website could serve reputable businesses.

[Kitchensink108]

The overall layout is, as phlembol said, clean and professional. There's still room for improvement, though.

The biggest thing is padding. All your text sits right up against the edge of its container, especially noticeable on the Service buyers, Freelancers and Sellers boxes. Try adding like 10-15px of padding all around. I'd also add padding to the boxes underneath those (containing the links), and to the No Fees box.

Personally, I'd change the :hover style of the links, but that's just me. Another option is making the site more graphical. This is always one of the balancing points, as you don't want to overdo it and make the user download a million images. Again focusing on the Service Buyers, Freelancers and Sellers boxes, I'd probably do a vertical gradient, using the current BG color and going to white, as opposed to just having a solid color background. If you're interested in doing this, mess around with it a bit. Theoretically you could also Web2.0 it and put a giant glare across the top of those three boxes. Just throwing ideas out there.

The No fees box bothers me. I'm thinking it doesn't fit well with the rest of the layout, but I'm not sure.

I think you should base the content pages more on the homepage. I liked the width and centering, along with other stylistic choices on the homepage more than the other pages.

On About Us, the banner image isn't linkified.

That's all I have to say.

[techlinks]

Hello folks...I just returned and have read all your comments. I can't say thank you enough for all of you...Kitchensink108, YvetteKuhns, keyplyr and phlembol for taking the time to both review and comment. If this is what the true Powweb community is all about, then I'm happy to be a part of it. I'll work on all of these suggestions (i.e. requirements) this week and re-post with an update. Thanks again. Ping me if I can be of assistance as well.

Lester

[ffholy]

I like it. I would probably suggest the copyright thing be like 2002 - 2007, but hey, it's me. Like how it's clean and professional.

[GiorgosK]

Clean, proffesional looking despite all the "afformentioned" validation problems,
but the biggest turnoff for me the pages not being consistenly centered (or not) just be consistent.