Critiquing Critiques

[riskynil]

You know, before I mention my website, I'd just like to say these forums are so wonderful--so many people helping each other out with questions, critiques, advice, and suggestions. It's great! Though I have to admit, reading the critiques on this board, I was rather disappointed with the relatively poor critiquing I thought was going on. Many are half-finished websites ("just ignore the clutter, I'm still working on it!"--what's left to critique?!)

Anyhow, for those up to the challenge, I'd love some cold, harsh truths about my website thrown in my face like a pitcher of ice water. =) Be brutal, if necessary. ;o)

My site is at http://www.atlasquest.com/

It's about letterboxing--a hobby most of you probably haven't heard of before (though you'll find a one-page article about it in the latest issue of Time magazine--including a quote by me! My fifteen minutes of fame. It was very exciting. *smile*). In a nutshell, you print out clues to letterboxes and go out to hunt them down. They are thousands of them around the world, hidden in parks, forests, pubs, libraries, and well, just about anywhere.

I'm very happy with the look and feel of the website, but I'd like to know if anyone finds particular features 'clunky' or 'non-intuitive'.

Also, I'd like to make sure that the website is as secure from problems as much as possible. I'm not really an expert on security matters, but for those of you who are and can find any weaknesses you might be able to exploit, please let me know about them! (Don't actually exploit them, though, just let me know about any obvious holes I might have overlooked.)

Thanks so much for your help! I want to create THE best, meanest, leanest letterboxing website in the world! It's a big order, but I think it's off to a good start. But I need some brutally honest critiques to make it even better! Thanks! =)

-- Ryan

Hi
well still not sure exactly what letterboxing is - bit like treasure hunting ? I couldnt search as the search seemed geared up to the USa & I am in the Uk. However I like the site. Love the little chick & thought the content was very interesting. Colours are nice. Do the fonts switch ? I wasnt sure if they were same always & it was simply size that threw me. Youve worked hard though - good luck with it & congrats on your fame !

[riskynil]

Yeah, letterboxing is a bit like a treasure hunt. Started in England even. There's supposedly tens of thousands of them hidden at Dartmoor. =)

The search actually works regardless of the country you use. England is considered a 'state' and you can specify it with ENG as the initials. The original dataset I used had a list of cities in the United Kingdom, and I kind of estimated where which part the cities were based on their longitude and latitude coordinates, so the border towns *might* show up in the wrong place. =)

When in doubt, you can just type in the city name with no state or country listed at all. If there's more than one town with that name, it'll ask which country or state you're referring to. It's very robust that way! There are 8,844 listed 'populated places' for England on the site. I describe the details of how to search for non-US locations in more detail in the help section, but that's mostly it in a nutshell.

-- Ryan

[YvetteKuhns]

Since you asked for it, I will say that the topic is interesting. I see that people have letterboxes in the Allentown Rose Garden where I had wedding photos taken. That is news to me, though I remember the radio station contest were there was money hidden at the covered bridge near my home. We watched through the window as people searched for it.

You probably want alot of people to find your website. To do that, you will have to improve your keywords and descriptions in your meta tags. If the keyword phrase you want does not appear in your text, you cannot use it in the meta tags. So you should find a way to include related phrases in your text. For example, compare the quest of finding a letterbox to a treasure hunt and the phrase "treasure hunt" can appear in your keywords.

As for the appearance of the website, the blue text on a blue background is difficult to read since there is not enough contrast. I am not a fan of generic clip art, but the icons next to member names are not a big deal. Still, you can consider replacing them if you find or make better ones. Long pages such as your TOS should have a "back to top" link.

There isn't much to change unless you want to get fancy. As long as the website is easy to read and navigate and your topic is interesting, people should visit the website. Your contents change so people will revisit. Interesting.

[riskynil]

> You probably want alot of people to find your website. To do that, you will > have to improve your keywords and descriptions in your meta tags.

Yep, that's still on my to-do list! It's a lot of effort putting in good keywords and descriptions for EVERY page, though, so it might take me some time. My focus was first just getting the website up so people can use it--I figured I'd work on the getting people TO the website second. =)

> As for the appearance of the website, the blue text on a blue background
> is difficult to read since there is not enough contrast.

Are you referring to the bottom of the pages where it has the 'contact us' links and such? I suppose I can make those stand out more.

> I am not a fan of generic clip art, but the icons next to member names are
> not a big deal. Still, you can consider replacing them if you find or make
> better ones.

Generic clip art?! *gasp!* You insult my artististic ability! Just kidding. =) I'm not really happy with all the icons myself, but I lack someone that can make better. (Graphics are not one of my strengths, but I still try to fake it the best I can.) I shall take note of this suggestion, though, and try to do something about it when the opportunity comes along.

> Long pages such as your TOS should have a "back to top" link.

I can do that....

Thanks for your suggestions! I'll definitely implement the ones I can, but I fear the icons will have to suffer until someone can make up some better ones for myself. I consider them 'usable', even if they don't reach the 'good' level.

-- Ryan

[YvetteKuhns]

Sorry about the "generic" clip art comment. But those graphics are really common looking even if you did create them yourself. I am referring to the little icons that look like sunglasses, a trophy or a ribbon next to the members. Having unique images help make your site look more unique. Of course, your chick holding a globe is unique.

[riskynil]

Originally Posted by YvetteKuhns

Sorry about the "generic" clip art comment. But those graphics are really common looking even if you did create them yourself. I am referring to the little icons that look like sunglasses, a trophy or a ribbon next to the members. Having unique images help make your site look more unique. Of course, your chick holding a globe is unique.

I really hate the sunglasses, but I'm not sure what to use to let people know that someone has updated their profile lately. I'd love any suggestions you might have! Hmm.... Maybe to continue the chick train of thought, I can make up a chick coming from a just hatched egg. *thinking* I kind of like that idea. An egg. So simple to make! =) Actually, I could use an egg to represent new users (I've been trying to think of a good icon for a new user for the last two weeks but came up empty), and then a chicken coming out of the egg if they've recently updated their profile. Yeah, that might work.... =)

The trophy and ribbon are kind of generic, I suppose, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. I wanted to encourage people to list more letterboxes they've planted and found, and I figured an 'award' (such as a trophy or ribbon) was a good way to do that. But I also wanted to distinguish between planted boxes and found boxes--two very different things! So I needed two types of awards. Thus, trophies for planted boxes and ribbons for found boxes. (Trophies seem more flashy than a ribbon, so I let it represent the planted boxes since planted boxes generally take more effort than to find a box.)

I also wanted the trophy and ribbons to indicate how many boxes the user had planted or found. I'm not really happy with using the numbers on the ribbons, but it gave me more flexibility that way.

As a side note, I also have to make a key so people know what the icons mean.

Glad you liked the chick with a globe on its shoulders as my logo. =) My girlfriend and I were taking 'joke pictures' using chicks pretending to letterbox, and the whole concept kind of got out of control. It seemed like a fun, irrelevent-but-not-really way to give the website a personality. When we thought up the name of Atlas Quest for the website, well.... Then we HAD to make a chick Atlas. It would have been criminal not to! =) I plastered that picture on every page that didn't have at least ONE picture or icon on it to make the page visually more interesting. And by putting it in the same spot on each of those pages, I figured most people would get used to it being there and not really notice it much--so it wouldn't annoy them. Makes the pages more visually nicer looking (I thought), without getting in the way or distracting the user from what they are doing.

Thanks again for the suggestions!

-- Ryan

[YvetteKuhns]

Yes, I like the idea of continuing the chick idea. Ha ha. Chick Atlas. I didn't think that people still remembered that. Okay, people will appreciate the personal touches that make your site unique.

Awards could be different color chicks or chicks with numbers on them. Any way to make them different yet similar. Or a golden or silver box instead of a ribbon. Or letters of different colors. So many ideas.

[riskynil]

Originally Posted by YvetteKuhns

Awards could be different color chicks or chicks with numbers on them. Any way to make them different yet similar. Or a golden or silver box instead of a ribbon. Or letters of different colors. So many ideas.

Well, I created a couple of egg icons--one for new members and one for those with updated profiles. I used eggs rather than chicken pictures only because I can draw an egg better. So I've got one egg with cracks in it to represent a 'new' member. Then for those who have updated their profiles recently, it has an egg wearing sunglasses. (Why not? *shrug*) I'd prefer a chicken wearing sunglasses, but that's a bit harder to draw, as I said before.

I like the idea of colored boxes with numbers in them. I'll have to see what I can do with that. It also occurred to me that I might be able to use colored eggs with numbers to represent 'laid' letterboxes. *hehe* Oh, this if fun....

-- Ryan

[YvetteKuhns]

The eggs are cute and unique. And finding letterboxes are like going on an Easter egg hunt! I like the idea. And colored eggs are like Easter. Oh, this IS fun!