Browsersite.com site needs your feedback

6-22-04, 07:52 PM

Hello,

www.browsersite.com is a new site, and my 6th site hosted with POWWEB.

As this is a commercial site, I hope to get your impression of the site as a customer. Just note that the site is not complete yet - but almost. I'm working on it everyday (handcoding it) because my content management software which I initially used to lay out the site had the content file totally overwritten when I upgraded the software.

Well, I hope that you'll provide some constructive feedback - and thanks for your time.

Best regards,
Shen

YvetteKuhns · 6-22-04, 09:43 PM

First impression, why that color scheme? The horizontal text links menu has tiny fonts. The site counter does not add any value to the website. Use webstats to track visitors.

The site has a consistent layout and is easy to navigate. There is plenty of info including policies, FAQ and contact info. But why is the site focusing on the web browsers and mention additional services as an afterthought? The services are more practical.

The most popular article on my website is how to remove ISP branding from the IE title bar followed by how to remove ISP branding from Outlook Express. This tells me that people DO NOT want branding, so why would someone want a custom branded browser? And SO MANY people already offer this.

I guess that one of your other websites offers the other services as the main focus and also includes these products. That is the only sensible explanation. Or maybe I am out of touch with the current trends. Anyone really interested in ANOTHER browser?

You include screenshots and testimonials. But why would a business pay for a custom made browser? Try to answer this question to make money on this.

The website really is okay except that I don't like the color scheme. And I wasn't motivated to make a purchase. I am being honest so you can decide how to improve your site.

6-22-04, 10:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by YvetteKuhns

First impression, why that color scheme? The horizontal text links menu has tiny fonts. The site counter does not add any value to the website. Use webstats to track visitors.

I have sites of many different colored schemes (teal & white my favorite), so I want to try something different. The site counter provides real time tracking - in addition to webstats ... and webstats is excellent too but sometimes it "forgets" to update for a few days. Has happened many times.

Quote:

The site has a consistent layout and is easy to navigate. There is plenty of info including policies, FAQ and contact info. But why is the site focusing on the web browsers and mention additional services as an afterthought? The services are more practical.

Thanks. We provide all these services ... and should a customer not be interested in any of the browser services, they may still be interested in the additional services.

Quote:

The most popular article on my website is how to remove ISP branding from the IE title bar followed by how to remove ISP branding from Outlook Express. This tells me that people DO NOT want branding, so why would someone want a custom branded browser? And SO MANY people already offer this.

Hmmm...ISP branding on my IE title bar and my OE, I don't like that as well - so I want to have my own customized browser with no branding - so that's when customization comes in. We build a new browser from scratch. It will in no way look anything like IE, and we don't skin IE. This is more like practical art ... can be of any sensible shape, size, and can have the starting page opens up to your company homepage. It can wrap your whole web site onto the application ... and many more. It need not just be a browser.

Quote:

I guess that one of your other websites offers the other services as the main focus and also includes these products. That is the only sensible explanation. Or maybe I am out of touch with the current trends. Anyone really interested in ANOTHER browser?

Actually, I started off customizing browsers for myself and find it immensely convenient to have all the services I want on a click of the button. My favorite folder is full and so were my links folder. There were however, some places like my 6 websites, my banks, my university homepage, my kids' school web sites, my favorite shops, Powweb OPS etc. that I want to access everyday without having to type any address or to search through any links. So I reckoned there might be others who might be similarly annoyed and would just love to have a customized browser for their needs!

Quote:

You include screenshots and testimonials. But why would a business pay for a custom made browser? Try to answer this question to make money on this.

Marketing .... marketing. You make it convenient for others to access your site, and they visit you all the time. Customers can access privilege content, you can have your catalogue sit on customer's desktop and when they are ready to order, all they need to do is just to click and go straight to your site. Build better customer relationship + easy to gain access to technical support (remember, just a click of the button

... and many more creative ideas.

Quote:

The website really is okay except that I don't like the color scheme. And I wasn't motivated to make a purchase. I am being honest so you can decide how to improve your site.

What is your suggestion on color scheme? I know that blue/red/gray/black is popular but I was trying to experiment with something wacky.

Yvette, thanks for your time.

Shen

YvetteKuhns · 6-23-04, 01:18 PM

As common as blue, black and white may be, they are still very professional, business-like colors for websites. Bold contrasting colors and not pastels. Or black, white and silver/grey accents are good for tech appeal. The color scheme just didn't work with the site topic.

You can choose unusual colors if you use two basic colors and one funky color as an accent. Too much of a weird color can turn away visitors. Maybe you can simply use a tan and brown scheme instead of pastel yellow and pumpkin.

But I don't know how your logo will look with that since you used black and red. You want your logo to stand out and not blend into the background. And the colors should complement each other.

6-23-04, 07:38 PM

Thanks for sharing! I've started thinking of a new color scheme - but I'm trying to solve the logo problem as well because it is designed with the background as the background. I did look at the page on a different screen and it DID look awful because it wasn't the color that I see on my screen.

I also visited many sites (and yours as well) to see what colors others use and how effective they are. When I finish changing the color scheme, I'll invite you to have a look again.

Shen

6-26-04, 12:35 AM

Here's the site, after a change of color scheme and some make-over. I prefer it better to my previous design - thanks Yvette for your advice!

Shenz

YvetteKuhns · 6-26-04, 08:42 AM

The new colors scheme is more attractive and the logo looks better, too. Nice job!

(jj) · 6-26-04, 09:00 AM

I do like the new color scheme, much better.

You do need to look at your site with something other than IE though. In Netscape and Mozilla FireFox, your menu is about 1/2 way down the page and the menu items are seperated. Looks rather funky and disfunctional.

6-26-04, 10:35 AM

Really! This is why I distrust using a content management software or even a Web building software to build my sites. I also try to use as little Javascripts as possible. In many of my previous sites, I always use Netscape composer for layout and then hand code. I find that that's one of the way to ensure that the site look proper on Netscape (because I was using Netscape previously). This particular site was build using a content management software (halfway) and then was handcoded after that because the file was corrupted on upgrading.

Can you please also help me to preview this site (on Mozilla & Netscape)? I built using the same content management software. Only the directory http://www.ebook88.com/freebooks/A1.htm is -- the rest of the site was old design laid out using Netscape.

Thanks

Shenz

(jj) · 6-26-04, 10:49 AM

About the only difference between Mozilla and IE with that page, is that the fonts are much smaller in IE and IE shows the first letter of each paragraph as being larger and bold where Mozilla does not. To be honest, that page looks better in Mozilla than it does in IE (in my opinion).

You might want to consider downloading Mozilla FireFox to use for checking websites with. It's not that large of a download and does not have the email program embedded in it like Netscape does.

7-6-04, 08:10 AM

Many thanks to reviewers who had given comments.

I did indeed installed a copy of FIREFOX and was shocked at how the site was displayed - so I re-coded the whole site again - and got it HTML & CSS validated. In the process, I managed to chop off at least 4kb to 6kb of file size of each page. Now the menu no longer "floats" around.

Since there are more and more people using MOZILLA, I must make sure that the site displays well for them too. While getting it validated, I had to sacrifice quite a lot of features - but chose to do so so as not to compromise for usability.

I discarded the gold and brown theme because it looked different on different screens. I now opt for the color safe palette instead. The challenge now is how to make it look a little more interesting in terms of design, to keep readers coming back - and work on keeping it listed high on the search engines for my selected keywords. While the site will always be work in progress - my browsers are doing well (especially the one for KIDS).

Looking forward to a lot of fun with the site.

Shenz
www.browsersite.com

7-16-04, 08:25 PM

Had been really busy as I concentrate on fine-tuning the site www.browsersite.com .

1) Some comments from people - they say they see browns. But the general theme should be light ash green. (I'd redone the whole tan & gold theme) because I want to use use browser safe colors. Do you see green or brown?

2) If you're using a Mozilla FireFox browser, are you able to see the favicon? It stubbornly wouldn't appear on mine. The favicon can be seen on my IE browser.

So Q1. Do you see green or brown?
Q2. Are you able to see the favicon on your Mozilla browser?

Thanks you!

Shenz
www.browsersite.com

YvetteKuhns · 7-17-04, 09:19 AM

I see the green color on your website in IE and Mozilla. I can see your red circle with a "b" in it for your icon in Mozilla. If I bookmark your site, I would see your icon in IE as well.

7-17-04, 11:01 AM

Thank you so much Yvette! That's a big relief.

Shenz

6-22-04, 07:52 PM	#1
shenz Posts: n/a	Browsersite.com site needs your feedback Hello, www.browsersite.com is a new site, and my 6th site hosted with POWWEB. As this is a commercial site, I hope to get your impression of the site as a customer. Just note that the site is not complete yet - but almost. I'm working on it everyday (handcoding it) because my content management software which I initially used to lay out the site had the content file totally overwritten when I upgraded the software. Well, I hope that you'll provide some constructive feedback - and thanks for your time. Best regards, Shen

6-22-04, 09:43 PM	#2
YvetteKuhns Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Allentown, PA USA Posts: 14,885 Reputation: 447	First impression, why that color scheme? The horizontal text links menu has tiny fonts. The site counter does not add any value to the website. Use webstats to track visitors. The site has a consistent layout and is easy to navigate. There is plenty of info including policies, FAQ and contact info. But why is the site focusing on the web browsers and mention additional services as an afterthought? The services are more practical. The most popular article on my website is how to remove ISP branding from the IE title bar followed by how to remove ISP branding from Outlook Express. This tells me that people DO NOT want branding, so why would someone want a custom branded browser? And SO MANY people already offer this. I guess that one of your other websites offers the other services as the main focus and also includes these products. That is the only sensible explanation. Or maybe I am out of touch with the current trends. Anyone really interested in ANOTHER browser? You include screenshots and testimonials. But why would a business pay for a custom made browser? Try to answer this question to make money on this. The website really is okay except that I don't like the color scheme. And I wasn't motivated to make a purchase. I am being honest so you can decide how to improve your site. __________________ Yvette Kuhns Power Pages Web Design Customized Internet Advertising Solutions

6-23-04, 01:18 PM	#4
YvetteKuhns Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Allentown, PA USA Posts: 14,885 Reputation: 447	As common as blue, black and white may be, they are still very professional, business-like colors for websites. Bold contrasting colors and not pastels. Or black, white and silver/grey accents are good for tech appeal. The color scheme just didn't work with the site topic. You can choose unusual colors if you use two basic colors and one funky color as an accent. Too much of a weird color can turn away visitors. Maybe you can simply use a tan and brown scheme instead of pastel yellow and pumpkin. But I don't know how your logo will look with that since you used black and red. You want your logo to stand out and not blend into the background. And the colors should complement each other. __________________ Yvette Kuhns Power Pages Web Design Customized Internet Advertising Solutions

6-26-04, 08:42 AM	#7
YvetteKuhns Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Allentown, PA USA Posts: 14,885 Reputation: 447	The new colors scheme is more attractive and the logo looks better, too. Nice job! __________________ Yvette Kuhns Power Pages Web Design Customized Internet Advertising Solutions

6-26-04, 09:00 AM	#8
(jj) Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: n/a Posts: 7,279 Reputation: 202	I do like the new color scheme, much better. You do need to look at your site with something other than IE though. In Netscape and Mozilla FireFox, your menu is about 1/2 way down the page and the menu items are seperated. Looks rather funky and disfunctional. __________________ If silence is golden, then I must be worth million$ (jj) Jack (jj)'s Playground

6-23-04, 07:38 PM	#5
shenz Posts: n/a	Thanks for sharing! I've started thinking of a new color scheme - but I'm trying to solve the logo problem as well because it is designed with the background as the background. I did look at the page on a different screen and it DID look awful because it wasn't the color that I see on my screen. I also visited many sites (and yours as well) to see what colors others use and how effective they are. When I finish changing the color scheme, I'll invite you to have a look again. Shen

6-26-04, 12:35 AM	#6
shenz Posts: n/a	Here's the site, after a change of color scheme and some make-over. I prefer it better to my previous design - thanks Yvette for your advice! Shenz

6-26-04, 10:35 AM	#9
shenz Posts: n/a	Really! This is why I distrust using a content management software or even a Web building software to build my sites. I also try to use as little Javascripts as possible. In many of my previous sites, I always use Netscape composer for layout and then hand code. I find that that's one of the way to ensure that the site look proper on Netscape (because I was using Netscape previously). This particular site was build using a content management software (halfway) and then was handcoded after that because the file was corrupted on upgrading. Can you please also help me to preview this site (on Mozilla & Netscape)? I built using the same content management software. Only the directory http://www.ebook88.com/freebooks/A1.htm is -- the rest of the site was old design laid out using Netscape. Thanks Shenz

6-26-04, 10:49 AM	#10
(jj) Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: n/a Posts: 7,279 Reputation: 202	About the only difference between Mozilla and IE with that page, is that the fonts are much smaller in IE and IE shows the first letter of each paragraph as being larger and bold where Mozilla does not. To be honest, that page looks better in Mozilla than it does in IE (in my opinion). You might want to consider downloading Mozilla FireFox to use for checking websites with. It's not that large of a download and does not have the email program embedded in it like Netscape does. __________________ If silence is golden, then I must be worth million$ (jj) Jack (jj)'s Playground

7-6-04, 08:10 AM	#11
shenz Posts: n/a	Thanks to my reviewers !! Many thanks to reviewers who had given comments. I did indeed installed a copy of FIREFOX and was shocked at how the site was displayed - so I re-coded the whole site again - and got it HTML & CSS validated. In the process, I managed to chop off at least 4kb to 6kb of file size of each page. Now the menu no longer "floats" around. Since there are more and more people using MOZILLA, I must make sure that the site displays well for them too. While getting it validated, I had to sacrifice quite a lot of features - but chose to do so so as not to compromise for usability. I discarded the gold and brown theme because it looked different on different screens. I now opt for the color safe palette instead. The challenge now is how to make it look a little more interesting in terms of design, to keep readers coming back - and work on keeping it listed high on the search engines for my selected keywords. While the site will always be work in progress - my browsers are doing well (especially the one for KIDS). Looking forward to a lot of fun with the site. Shenz www.browsersite.com

7-16-04, 08:25 PM	#12
shenz Posts: n/a	Had been really busy as I concentrate on fine-tuning the site www.browsersite.com . 1) Some comments from people - they say they see browns. But the general theme should be light ash green. (I'd redone the whole tan & gold theme) because I want to use use browser safe colors. Do you see green or brown? 2) If you're using a Mozilla FireFox browser, are you able to see the favicon? It stubbornly wouldn't appear on mine. The favicon can be seen on my IE browser. So Q1. Do you see green or brown? Q2. Are you able to see the favicon on your Mozilla browser? Thanks you! Shenz www.browsersite.com

7-17-04, 09:19 AM	#13
YvetteKuhns Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Allentown, PA USA Posts: 14,885 Reputation: 447	I see the green color on your website in IE and Mozilla. I can see your red circle with a "b" in it for your icon in Mozilla. If I bookmark your site, I would see your icon in IE as well. __________________ Yvette Kuhns Power Pages Web Design Customized Internet Advertising Solutions

7-17-04, 11:01 AM	#14
shenz Posts: n/a	Thank you so much Yvette! That's a big relief. Shenz

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