Know-How Exchange : Website Critique

Dear s_abitha_mca,

OK, thanks to Jay's link I can now see what I'm supposed to be looking at. And further to jay's great advice, here are a few other things to consider:

Consider switching the columns so that you main story column is on the left. This will help catch readers who scan, left to right.

Consider a three column layout.

Rather than having just one story on the left, have three or four, with just the first paragraph and a "READ more—" link.

Use images and give each image a caption and alt tags that relate to the story the image is connected to. Your story " Qatar Airways flies into Australia" with the airline logo tells me nothing about Australia.

Consider using a headline that asks a question, offers a benefit,
or gives a call to action: "Flying to Melbourne anytime soon?" OR "Non Stop in Luxury to Melbourne" OR "Fly to Melbourne before Dec 31, and save 50%!"

And consider using video to draw people in (a simple Flip, ULTRA HD camera is less than $200). Videos of the interiors of planes, of aircraft in the hangar, of aircraft in flight, and so on—all telling a story and all connecting to something to do with your service and how it helps people.

I hope this helps.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA

Hi, s_abitha_mca

Here are my insights:

- Header graphics is too generic, and too low quality. The image is badly stretched, all proportions are broken. Black logo is hovering a plane wing, that makes is hard to read. Besides, black color of the logo does not go with the header colors. You should seriously consider redesigning the header, cause it's pretty much the most important visual attractor of your site.

- All copy on the page blends in together. There are no visual separators. Headers don't really differ visually from plain text. You can say there are sections on the page, but it's hard to define just when you glance at it. I would suggest increasing headers size and adding some color.

- Small images-thumbnails for each article would really freshen up the look. But don't go big images and don't overpower this page with images. On the main page thumb may be 100x100px. On the article page 200x300 - as most.

- Ideally, the newsletter site should look like a newspaper. Since the frame of the page is pretty hard, and web reads better in narrower columns, I would suggest adding a third column and squeeze existing two a little bit. Believe me, you could use that real estate for advertising, hot news, some related info such as announcements, time, weather, and such. Third column will make the page more readable and add visual interest.

- Light gray for hovering on the copy links is too light. Go at least two steps darker, it's barely readable. color won't hurt here two. Also, it's a good tradition to underline links. I would also suggest change in the arrow color for mouse-over.

- It feels to me that it takes very long to load an article, and I have a pretty good connection. Your site may be still a work in progress, but you should thoroughly test it, and make sure that the load time of your site is small.

- I checked the code, and it looks awfully wrong to me. Meta tags are almost in the end of the page, the site is built on tables - an antique technology. In general, the code is a mess. Needs optimization. This could be of a load time problems. Newsletter should load very fast, otherwise there is a high chance of loosing readers.

Whatever happens

Good luck!

Natasha Chernyavskaya
Artographica
Los Angeles, CA

Natasha has provided a long list of serious problems.

I'd like to add this one.

Nothing is more annoying than reading something like this: "(Please log on to www.aviationmiddleeast.com for details)" when I am already on www.aviationmiddleeast.com

If there are more details, give them to me here on this page (through links, if necessary)!

If there are no more details, then take that sentence out!

And please do everything Jay, Gary and Natasha have suggested, and re-post the modified page link here so we can have another look.

Thank you.

Dear s_abitha_mca,

The third column is for testimonials, highlighted content not connected to your main stories, for ads from preferred vendors,
and for special, reader-only offers.

It can also support a feed from your Twitter account and host
links to other offers, services, and vendors.

I hope this clarifies things for you.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA