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Post by lesrosbifs on Jan 12, 2011 0:09:09 GMT
As an idea, and as we're in good company, I wondered if critiquing each others' sites would be a useful idea? You know, rather than being super-supportive as we tend to be of each other on Twitter, it would be nice to actually get some constructive thought and comment on our own sites from each other. At least, through this excellent forum set up by Ian, we can stretch comments beyond 140 words, as well as relate our own experiences and thoughts, with the aim of helping us all improve our own sites. What I propose is something along the lines of passing judgement on the site in the subject (mine in this case!) under the following criteria: Homepage -
Overall design -
Content -
Menus, Categories and Tags -
Navigation around site -
Ease of finding things -
Any glaring errors/hitches/crap -
Any others you can think of!lesrosbifs.netAt the end of the day, a lot of you are a d**n sight better at putting together a website than I am, so it would be really useful to garner opinions from experts such as you all. I hope this doesn't die on its arse! Do, if you think it's a good plan, start a thread so we can critique your site too! |
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Post by Ian on Jan 12, 2011 1:08:08 GMT
Well, you're very brave!
I'm sure I can rely on everybody to keep this sort of thing constructive, though. I have one hint, though - it might be an idea to put a link to the site in the post!
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Post by unprofessionalfoul on Jan 12, 2011 1:16:20 GMT
Great idea, Gav. Wonderful, even. It'd be good to get ourselves worked out and help each other!
I'll be trying to relaunch my site soon, and this will be a fun playground for testing and feedback!
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Post by lesrosbifs on Jan 12, 2011 7:55:02 GMT
Well, you're very brave! I'm sure I can rely on everybody to keep this sort of thing constructive, though. I have one hint, though - it might be an idea to put a link to the site in the post! What do you mean?! I DID link to it  |
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Post by rokerreport on Jan 12, 2011 10:09:15 GMT
Having been a follower of LesRosbifs on Twitter, and clicking on the occasional article, I actually had my first proper browse around the website yesterday (without seeing this article).
I think it goes without saying the articles are top-drawer. I found myself reading pretty much everything I clicked on, nothing was 'skimmed' or deemed uninteresting, and was there for a good 45 minutes.
As for your questions, the site's nice and crisp and clean, very easy to get around. The only thing I'd be critical of, and this is incredibly pernickety and hardly even a criticism, some of the images used are slightly low-resolution and blurry/pixelated. But I guess that happens when the players in question are not well known names. So I wouldn't worry about that!
Top stuff, and it's been bookmarked.
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Post by footballhobo on Jan 12, 2011 11:01:45 GMT
Personally I'd got for something of a 'less is more' approach on the homepage. It seems a bit too long for my liking with the 9 news boxes below the rotating front page news story thing (which wasn't working when I clicked on it just now, although I don't know if that's a problem at my end or at yours?)
Assuming that the main rotating image thing covers the most recent/relevant stories I think you could probably do with dropping at least one of the lines of 3 below it. This would mean there's less scrolling on the homepage, and that you wouldn't have some of the 'dead space' on the right hand column under the twitter sidebox.
There's also something of a replication of content issue - the sidebox at the top right of the homepage (latest news stories) repeats what's in the 9 boxes underneath the rotating news banner thing. While different people will navigate the site in different ways, some being drawn to the headlines in the sidebar and others scrolling, perhaps there's an argument to have the default setting of this to 'most recent comments' or 'most read from the archives' or some other setting to offer up different stories to people who visit your site. They may scroll through the recent articles and find nothing they like but find their eyes drawn if a player/club they like has been mentioned in the sidebar they're more likely to stop on the site and read what you've got to say.
I'd echo the comment about the quality of the pictures, but then you're probably dealing with a paucity of available images for some of your subjects so that's understandable. I'd look to see if there was a way to incorporate more of the picture into the design lay-out, too; some of the faces are chopped off to fit in a box, so whether it's a case of allowing more room for the images to be displayed at their proper size/resolution or getting to grips with more re-sizing and scaling of available images to show the whole player's face in the available space I don't know.
I'd echo rokerreport's point that the site is pretty crisp, clean and easy to navigate, which is a good thing. It certainly isn't hard on the eyes and you don't have to go hunting around for information which is the case with some others I've seen.
Hopefully all that comes across as more constructive than critical (at least I hope it does). Keep up the good work.
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Post by lesrosbifs on Jan 12, 2011 13:11:24 GMT
You see, this is the sort of comment I had hoped would come from such a thing; thanks to you all.
Images - like you said it can be tricky to find images first of all. Then it is a case of using Microsoft Office Picture Manager to shrink them down to 'thumbnail' size, which then don't fit in the relevant boxes as they should. If anyone wishes to start a thread on image optimization, that would be teriffic, as I am first to admit it is not a strong point of mine.
I have started to agree about the quantity of content on the home page too. I need to strike the balance between introducing new/old readers to content they may not have seen, and plugging specials (such as the Hall of Fame). Something to think about. It's a lot better than it was on the old site though (wordpress.com/lesrosbifs or something similar - I need to close that slag heap down!)
Slideshow thing at the top of the page has been working fine. What browser do you use?
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Post by richard on Jan 12, 2011 13:17:24 GMT
I've just had a quick look at your site (which is excellent by the way!) and agree with the comment about the 'replication of content'. Having clubs or areas on that sidebar would be a better idea in my opinion.
Also, whenever I click on your Hall of Fame link all of the writing goes down the right hand side of the page... Not sure if that's me or you, but I did click refresh a few times...
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Post by footballhobo on Jan 12, 2011 13:51:13 GMT
Slideshow thing at the top of the page has been working fine. What browser do you use? Works fine in IE, gives a blank space in Firefox. And having seen it working in IE I'd definitely reiterate my point about duplication of content. There's three links to the same stories on the home page, now, which is at least one too many for my money. If the slideshow was the newest five with the ones beneath it being older ones then that'd remove some of the duplication, perhaps. Or maybe keep the slideshow and the items on the main body of the page but change the sidebar to older posts. |
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Post by Ian on Jan 12, 2011 14:07:41 GMT
I would always recommend downloading all browsers to test a site (not that I have tried Les Rosbifs in all different browsers) - Chrome, IE, Safari and Opera should cover it, and you can always use Browsershots (can't remember the link) to check the look whilst testing. It can be surprising how differently they render in different browsers.
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Post by unprofessionalfoul on Jan 12, 2011 14:23:08 GMT
I also feel like the sheer volume of content on that front page is overwhelming—something I'll be fixing about my own site soon. It's a little daunting, and part of the editorial magic is paring it down to the things you really want people to read first, whether it's a feature like the Hall of Fame (which was great) or a particularly eye-grabbing interview.
This isn't to say it's not ALL readable, of course; but by using some control on that front page and really presenting the creme de la creme, it draws a reader in and eventually they'll explore the rest of the site under their own steam.
It's up to all of us in some degree to streamline a little and highlight those brand-new articles or features worthy of added front page time. If you deliver on those fronts, we'll soon dive into the rest. Sites that have an awful lot on the front page often become too hard to figure out. Where do I start? Where should I go next? What am I doing? Where are my pants? etc
- UFJamesT
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Post by rokerreport on Jan 12, 2011 14:26:38 GMT
It's working fine in Safari on my awfully old Mac, which runs slower than Sol Campbell on ketamine.
Dear Sol's lawyers, I'm not suggesting Sol is on anything, but if he was, my Mac at work would be slower.
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Post by theyallcount on Jan 12, 2011 15:51:01 GMT
I also feel like the sheer volume of content on that front page is overwhelming After a quick look (am at work, so cant delve to far in) I would certainly agree with this /\. To the point that I personally might be so overwhelmed with the amount of links/content etc. that I might not click on anything and move on. Thats just me though, short attention span and all. Other than that, great writing and more importantly, great concept. |
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9men
New Member
Posts: 27
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Post by 9men on Jan 12, 2011 17:09:14 GMT
Got a few quick points.
Firstly, using bold fonts throughout the site is a bit harsh on the eyes. IMO, body text of articles should be standard font weight.
As somebody else mentioned, the homepage top story box isn't working for me. (Firefox 3.6).
Would agree that its worth cutting the homepage down a touch, perhaps 6 top stories and slightly less "hot topics".
The actual design is nice and clean but if I'm being picky the actual HTML is a bit ropey in places. I work at a web-dev company by trade so I'm a bit more conscious of this than the average guy, but any blogger can only benefit from learning a bit of HTML and CSS.
As a couple of quick examples, at the bottom of the page the little footnote pushes outside of its container into the border, the text fields in "leave a reply" are a bit misaligned. I'd also look at fitting your 2 image links on the RHS (Hall of fame and Awards) into the design slightly more - they look a bit lost in their current state.
This is all quite minor stuff tho, I really enjoy reading the site.
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Post by lesrosbifs on Jan 13, 2011 21:03:17 GMT
Thanks for ALL of this. When/If I get some time this weekend, I am going to revamp the homepage, and make it a lot more 'minimalist'. Under that I might make a few tweaks as well.
I will respond in more depth to these posts, and I really appreciate your support. However, at this precise second, I need to ensure I have plumbed the ruddy new dishwasher in correctly and it isn't leaking (again)...
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