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Website Critique     
 
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Please Critique Our New Website
Posted By: dhansman on 9/17/2006 11:27 AM (CST) 250 Points
Hello,

Just this past Monday, we launched a new site. I'd appreciate any feedback, particularly suggestions on content and ease of use.

Thank you,

Dale Hansman
Language Line Services

http://www.languageline.com

Posted by: KathySmithFilms* Member Response
9/17/2006 6:19 PM (CST)
Hi Dale,

You bring the world home to everyone. Thank you for making the complexities of the world simple. Very clean site!! Good positioning.
Your logo on opening shot could be larger. I had to squint to read the tag line.

The only thing my attention went to while navigating all pages was that I had to scroll down until I got to the valuable data you offer.

I use Spanish translation in all of my videos and will be happy to refer my interpreters to be on call for you.

All the best,
Kathy Smith
 
Posted by: dhansman Member Response
9/17/2006 6:26 PM (CST)
Hi Kathy,

Yes, I wrote most of the copy over three years ago when we launched the previous web site.

I'm going over all pages now, using the inverted pyramid method that journalists do... packing the most important info in the headline, subheads, and the first two paragraphs.

For those highly qualified telephone interpreters you know, please do refer them to www.languageline.com.

Thanks for the suggestion of getting to the point quickly. Always good advice, especially for the Web.

Dale Hansman
Language Line Services
 
Posted by: ACI* Accepted Answer
9/17/2006 6:31 PM (CST)
Very neat and clean! Nice design!

I'd say, however, that the home page causes me a bit of frustration. First, the font is quite small, and smaller there than on any other page. Secondly, I like your unique arrangement of the home page, but since it is nonstandard, I'm not really sure where to go first. Should I use the navigation at the top, the navigation down the center or are you trying to draw my attention to the graphic on the far left side? Uniqueness in design is always good, but you want to make sure not to go to far, so your users will feel comfortable on your site. Users may not be able to get around easily on your site if the basics of navigation, which are standard in the industry, are not present on your site. Just something to think about.

Also, You need to get some contrast on the home page. Their needs to be a hierarchy of some type to tell my eyes where to go first. With everything the same size, it's very confusing. Your 3 columns are the same width and your fonts all look the same.

Click on the links below to see what I mean about hierarchy and emphasis. Your eyes know immediately where to go in them, which is to the areas that are given the more sizable chunk of real estate and the larger fonts.

http://www2.oprah.com/index.jhtml
http://www.transunion.com/
http://www.bankofamerica.com/index.cfm
 
Posted by: Frank Hurtte Member Response
9/18/2006 9:10 AM (CST)
I would say you have a winner....

My only two minor suggestions are..

one make the colors just a bit more vivid. I think bold color schemes get more customer action.

two.. make it easier to see that your company is based in the United States. Many people will see this as a major advantage.
 
Posted by: jpoyer Accepted Answer
9/18/2006 11:29 AM (CST)
Dale!
Wow! What a change from the old site. This is wonderful! I think you really addressed most of the items mentioned in the previous critique. This front page really does a great job of showing what you do and for which groups without overpowering the user with too much info. The highlighted items are great, and it's easy to get around... now THIS site has some credibility built in. Just a really superb job here.

My suggestions:
1. Make sure your FAQs page is HTML not PDF. I always think of PDF as a supplement to the online info, not the sole source. It appears that the content would lend itself well to being a web page instead of a PDF. The exception to this would be like how you have the e-bills as PDFs. That is totally appropriate and more expected for that use.

2. The "in the News" stuff could be highlighted better - the "Announcing" on the front page doesn't really do it for me. I actually didn't see that until I went to company, saw the news there, and then went back to the front page to see if I could find an appropriate placement to suggest. I think the placement of "Announcing" is great, but just not clear that it is news.

And, although these are not content/usability related, a couple of design suggestions for you:
1. I do think you should choose a different color other than the brown to complement the color of your logo/links. Something brighter or more vivid. You could also use this color as the hover color as well to enhance the look.

2. The look of the "how it works" page needs to match the other pages. I think it just may be the ALL CAPS in the headers. And use the font size/color like you did for the headers on the other pages to match. If you change that, I believe it will be more consistent with the look of the other pages. There are also all caps in some of the subheads on other pages (specifically Support Tools, but I didn't check all the pages, so it might be elsewhere as well), and from a design perspective ALL CAPS is harder to read anyway, so I highly recommend that you ditch them altogether.

All in all ... if I had to sum it up in one word, it would just be "WOW!" (yes, that is all caps!) Nice, nice work. Kudos.

Best,

Jennifer
XPRT Creative
 
Posted by: dhansman Author Response
9/18/2006 5:37 PM (CST)
Frank and Acom,

Thanks to you both for your suggestions.

Acom, your input regarding navigation is very well thought out. Our previous site was product-oriented. All about us. This one is designed to be customer-oriented. Thus the four images on the homepage. Because we already have 20,000 clients, we needed to help them get to their own section. The "Manage Your Account" page is new, as is the "How it Works" page. We'll take another look at what we want people to see first. Thanks for you suggestions.

Frank, we'll take another look at the color scheme.
 
Posted by: dhansman Author Response
9/18/2006 6:27 PM (CST)
Jennifer,

Thanks so much for your enthusiastic response to our makeover, and excellent feedback and remembering us from past critiques.

Regarding: "Make sure your FAQs page is HTML"... yes, we've already turned most of our Word and some PDF's into HTML, but thanks for the reminder. In some cases, our visitors might prefer to have the PDF to pass it on, hopefully up the corporate food chain.

Regarding "in the News" stuff could be highlighted better - the "Announcing" on the front page doesn't really do it for me... Very good point. I'll change that. Actually, we had "In the News" there, and then at the last moment changed it.

Regarding: "...a couple of design suggestions for you:
1. I do think you should choose a different color other than the brown to complement the color of your logo/links." I've run this by our webmaster and we're playing around with colors. I still think the site could be more colorful, but get a bit of push back from others. This IS a team effort afterall.

Regarding "the look of the 'how it works' page"... excellent observation. We'll change that too. And change the ALL CAPS on the other pages. Thanks so much.

Thanks again for the WOW and kudos. You've provided us much to think about.

Dale
 
Posted by: sergiu_yy Member Response
9/20/2006 3:59 AM (CST)
Hi there.
I think, the site is fine. It's very informative, clean (as was mentioned above).

One question - do you provide services for people who speak other languages then English? If yes - then maybe you should translate your site in other 2-3-4-5 languages. I think it would look cool - something like - see our web-site in Urdu :) or just French :).

Anyway - it would do a great promotion. That's what I think.

Good luck!
Sergio
 
Posted by: MANSING Member Response
9/20/2006 7:56 AM (CST)
Hi Dhansman,


Nice website!! Every thing looks where it should be! I have given 10/10 but the colour is bright for the link. If you could mild then will be OK

I hope this will help!!!

Regards,

M Bhor
 
Posted by: dhansman Author Response
9/20/2006 11:04 AM (CST)
Sergio,

Thanks for the suggestion. Our primary service over the past nearly 25 years has been to help English speaking organizations communicate with their limited English speaking customers, citizens and patients in over 170 languages.

I suspect we will in the future translate our website, but because our service is directed to English speaking clientele, we'll keep in English only for the time being. Thanks again,

Dale Hansman
Language Line Services
 
Posted by: dhansman Author Response
9/20/2006 11:07 AM (CST)
M Bhor,

Thank you for the 10/10 rating. Coming from a member of this forum, that's a high compliment.

I would be interested in knowing what link you are referring to when you say "the colour is bright for the link".

Thanks again,

Dale Hansman
Language Line Services
 
Posted by: Jesse Member Response
9/20/2006 11:54 AM (CST)
Decent html work, the use of CSS and xHTML helps usability (increase font size - layout doesn't break, etc) and search engine friendly, easy to maintain, etc.

The "next steps" column on the second level pages is good guide copy / appropriate feature for this site.

Everyone should note the URL's for their pages - this is how you do it for usability, search engines, bookmarking, etc. It's good copy wise... and for a language site - just a sweet little touch.

A couple of points on the home page.

What you do isn't 100% clear right away. The right column ("Need an interpreter right now", etc) should be in the large font (maybe switch with middle column) - that would make it a clear focal point.

The "handshake" photo... we see this too much. Really promote your brand - the press release graphic on the left has some great attitude and flavour... carry that over on the website.

Website in general:

I see some humor and personality in the copy, but the design makes me think you are too "serious", almost stale.

Drop shadows on the photos... they aren't necessary and outdated. I'd lose them.
 
Posted by: dhansman Author Response
9/20/2006 1:27 PM (CST)
Hi Jesse,

Thank you for the feedback.

I'm particularly happy with the "next steps" column on the second level pages. It provides great flexibility in adding brief text and links to other pages.

Re: "Everyone should note the URL's for their pages - this is how you do it for usability, search engines, bookmarking, etc. It's good copy wise... and for a language site - just a sweet little touch." Thanks!! I'll share with my webmaster.

A couple of points on the home page.

Re: "What you do isn't 100% clear right away. The right column ("Need an interpreter right now", etc) should be in the large font (maybe switch with middle column) - that would make it a clear focal point." Thank you. I realize we still need to have a straightforward and crisp statement of what we offer on the homepage.

Re: "The "handshake" photo... we see this too much. Really promote your brand - the press release graphic on the left has some great attitude and flavour... carry that over on the website." The handshake is going, as is the image below. We're searching for better images.

Re: "I see some humor and personality in the copy, but the design makes me think you are too "serious", almost stale." Thanks for the compliment on the copy. I wrote the site :-) As for the look and feel, we've gotten good feedback so far, but I'll take your suggestion to heart

Again, thanks Jesse
 


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