Know-How Exchange : Website Critique

I like your approach - get 10 different answers and then do them all. :)

Seriously though - Change the flow. Lead with the benefit and not your logo. Something like, "get better grades in less time..." Isn't that really what you give people. On another note, I have never liked copy reversed out of black; most studies show it is harder to read. Also, get a low-price but highly-talented freelance designer to clean it up a bit and give you that large company look even if you are just a few people.

Don't use all caps. Upper and lowercase headings and navigation choices would be easier to read.

My first reaction is the letterspacing and linespacing are too tight making it hard to read.

Dear donli,

Ditch the black background and pay more attention to your typesetting: text that's set solid is harder on the eye than text
that's left justified.

And white text on a dark background might look hip and urban
but it adds extra visual information that the eye has to decode
in order to make sense of the message.

I hope this helps.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA

What people say they like and what works are often very different.

The reverse type is hard to read, no matter what they say about "liking" the site.

The benefit needs to be front and center -- not "in your face" necessarily, but the most important element on the page. That's what you want them to remember, isn't it?

And the call-to-action button is not obvious. You need to show the monkeys where the banana is.

Donli - As others have mentioned before, people aren't looking for "a revolutionary way to take notes, improve study habits" but ARE looking for "get better grades more easily". That's the only reason someone would be willing to spend money on your product. Can you prove that key benefit? If not, spend time/money on this research project and focus your entire message on this point.

Hi, donli

I see you did some work.

Good job! There are however some big issues remaining and some little ones.

Big mistakes:
- Your “Call To Action” (Download your free trial today) is still placed in the area which you have to scroll to get to. That’s a big mistake – the biggest mistake you can make.
- The general impression your site makes is – too contrast. Fluorescent Green, bright white on black – that almost hurts the eyes.
- The site is not tested in different browsers: In IE6 video on the home page is under the text block.
- Description and keywords meta tags are too small.

Small mistakes:
- No alt text appears to be in any image tags (in the menu it’s a must!)
- Justified text is harder readable than left aligned text.
- You should not replace text with images unless you absolutely have to. In your case all text that is presented with images on your site can be easily done as plain text.
- Besides, kerning in the menu is outrageously small, some words are hardly readable.

Advise:
- Place Call To Action block on every page it appears on top. You have a pretty much useless motto and a computer image, instead you could place there your “Download demo” block – that will be logical.
- Think of inverting the colors: black to white and white to black. You will immediately get a much better impression.

Whatever Happens
Good Luck!

Natasha Chernyavskaya
Artographica
Los Angeles, CA