My Project (Finally!)

Your site is pretty well done and has a really good niche.

The colors choice is good but the layout just doesn't do it for me. Is there anyway you can get the scroll bar to be on the browser instead of being on the page. A logo with some "special" GFX would keep your site in my mind.
And one last thing, put the header in a lighter color. You have the header text black and the background black/dark gray; kinda hard to see. Try to go after a web 2.0 design. I think it would go well with your site.
Everything else looks good.

I like the simplicity, but I do think the design needs a step-up in a few places. For example, the banner looks very 90's. The serif font combined with the drop shadow make it seem very retro (odd to think that could be applied to web design; it's so new). Orange and black, in my opinion, is not the best color combinations because of the main connotation it has in most visitors', at least Americans (not sure of all other continental traditions), minds, Halloween. However, I love the use of orange against blue. Because they are complementary colors, they really stand out against each other

I agree the black and dark-gray combination is unpleasing to the eye. In fact, I couldn't read the 'Why Sign-up?' or 'How many members?' headers until I really focused my eyes. The light(er) gray on dark gray isn't great either, but it's better than the black on gray.

Besides these points, there isn't much else to say about what's going on here. I don't want to sign up because you have a limited number of user spaces available and I'm not sure exactly how interested I would be in actually doing anything at this point, not to mention I really don't want to provide an address, city, and zip code (not that I don't trust your website, I just don't see the need, honestly).

Good luck with your website and I look forward to signing up once it's completely open.

Hey everyone

Thanks for the feedback. I appreciate it.

I've got plans for some UI changes on the 31st, and I'll take a look at the "Halloween colors" and things like that.

As a response to mscreashuns, we require certain data because of the intent of the site... what value is a complaint to a company if they don't know (at least partially) what the demographic and/or geolocation of that person is? It's a matter of privacy vs. usefulness... which is why we don't require ethnicity and a few other things. I understand your concern, however.

As for the logo... I thought it looked pretty 'slick'! I don't understand how you would make it look "more Web 2.0" without it looking cheesy. I'm already using two bright colors on a white background, with a drop shadow...

Thanks again!

You have a great idea there. With the right promotion you could have a great site.

I'm really not keen on the design i'm afraid. It already looks about 10 years old. This is by no means a new idea so you have to consider what is your USP? I know it's the beta site but the homepage is my first impression... what actual useful information is there? There's not even an incentive to help you out by testing the system.

I've done a quick search on Google for competition, maybe it's worth giving them a look.

http://www.which.co.uk/
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/index.htm
http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/
http://www0.epinions.com/
http://www.planetfeedback.com/

Thanks, but I'd have to say that while it isn't a new idea in it's entirety, it is a new idea in the sense that the systems in place trying to do this are broken, don't work, or people don't use/know about them.

As for the design... 10 years old? I would argue that the sites YOU linked to look 10 years old to me. Boring. Bland. Cookie-cutter.

Like I mentioned, this is "Web 2.0" and the design is along those lines. On purpose.

I really hate that phrase but i see where you're coming from: clear design, big text and general 'simplicity.' I think you've taken this a bit literally though.

If we're going down the road of 'Web 2.0' style then maybe you want to look at the CSS sites which have a whole library of practically identicale stuff.

For example, one i like is arty papers. It hasn't got loads of text, but the layout is intuitive and the text that is there is carefully chosen useful. The basic imagery/icons really brighton it up too.

Take a look:
http://artypapers.com/

1) nice idea and would expect great things from a site like this
2) bottom text is hard to read. too small
3) colors work and seems to be a nice layout

Thanks, Rob.

We're actually going to push a new UI design live hopefully within the next week... same base colors, but things are moved around to be a little brighter and easier to read. Once that's done, we're going to have a huge PR/marketing push to hopefully get this going...

Thanks for the comments... I expect great things too!

New design...

It's not done yet (and that 'radio' thing is definitely going away), but any thoughts? Comments?

http://test.myshoutoutloud.com

Still like the colors, but hate the gradients. They are severely overused here and make my eyes jump all over. I think you could stand to use a gradient on the large menu buttons (Main, Login, FAQ, etc) and the background of the entire content section (the light to dark orange), but everywhere else is probably better off as a solid color. Definitely where there will be a lot of text I believe should be a solid color to allow for easy reading, and the navigation (blue to black) is a bit harsh.

Just my two cents.

Yeah I actually agree with you on a few of those points, and that's why this is a "work in progress"... we'll see what comes out next...

Ok, we made a few changes from when I last showed you guys, and made it live:

http://www.myshoutoutloud.com

The only thing that I'm thinking of changing is the logo: remove the background, and change the shadow from black to white...

Thoughts appreciated. And feel free to signup for the site if you're interested... it's live!