gavin681 — Tue, 12 Mar 2002 00:02:19 +0000

1) Excluding the search feature what is the most important link (to you) found on the main page of a search engine?

The Directory. (Used more than search engine)

2) What are the biggest pitfalls you’ve seen other directories make with their front page?

Too much info and advertising on the front page.

3) Are there any special layouts that you think would make a search directory really stand out?

Keep it simple.

4) Are there any special features that could be added to the front page, which would be of great value and interest to you?

Anything related to the subject I am searching.

5) Should a portion of the front page contain information of something specific? And if so what?

It should be related to the subject I am searching.

6) Excluding search information what links could be provided that would keep you coming back to the directory?

Forum. That's the main one I would use a lot.

7) Do you find scrolling and fading text annoying?

Yes. It also seems to slow page downloads.

Thanks for all the advise!

zag — Mon, 11 Mar 2002 23:22:12 +0000

I think our front page turned out great www.goguides.org and for that I really appreciate all the feedback from here. I also think this forum is a great place for getting advice so we placed a link just off our front page "Public Help Forums" that links to this message board! Hope it sends this site a ton of traffic down the road.

zag

disaster-master — Thu, 07 Mar 2002 18:49:58 +0000

I don't remember this site for some reason but it looks nice.

Thanks

tlpretender — Thu, 07 Mar 2002 18:31:07 +0000

Just wanted to thank everyone for your help on design.
Using suggestions from here we finally decided on the page we have loaded.

TL
GoGuides

tlpretender — Thu, 04 Oct 2001 12:33:57 +0000

I like index9 since it's easier to read. I do like the fact the second one fits on the page, but is too hard to read.

zag — Thu, 04 Oct 2001 12:15:39 +0000

Little more advice please.

GoGuides.Org has two different designs for the front page. Please let us know which design you would like to see us use and what we could do to improve the design you like. All feedback (good or bad) is greatly appreciated.

http://www.goguides.org/repair/test/index9.html

http://www.goguides.org/repair/test/indexpaul.html

Thanks,
zag

Busy - You're not Picky!

gayl — Wed, 26 Sep 2001 23:51:34 +0000

All your comments are very much appreciated.

Say.....have you given any thought to joining us? We can surely use an experienced graphics person!!! [That invitation is open to all who have made these great observations.]

I cannot address the search function, but have sent previous concerns and questions off to our programmer(s).

The colors will (eventually) come together. That's a promise, so it's not a big concern at the moment. As for the five figures in the logo....as I stated above, they're related to the words of the song...."red, brown, yellow, black and white" and that is why there are five of them. The number of members of Team Support have no relevance to the logo. But it was a good question. : )

Thanks for the good wishes and the advice, and I hope you will watch our progress and let us know how we're doing on down the road....and if you decide to join us, the more the merrier!

I like this forum!

: )
gayl

Busy — Wed, 26 Sep 2001 23:14:11 +0000

I know this is going to sound bad, and I dont mean it to but its looking like a pop up site now, well not a site, just a pop up.

try this; have the page showing on your screen, turn your has away for a minute or so then turn back, what do you see, what catchs your eye first?
I got the personal animated banner, so first impression would be uh oh, porn site, wheres that X.

I realise a search site is probably one of the hardest topics to layout but I feel (and this is just my opinion) that it needs to feel more personal, lived in, more user friendly instead of a robot.

The logo isnt related to the rest of the page by shape or color so looks like more advertising, the power ranges (i didnt say telly tubbies ) maybe make the top banner (navy blue, light blue, navy blue) blend around the page, make a skinny side border and bottom with curved inner corners - give it some feel, some life, some oomph, the search result pages have part of a bottom to it already.

Just curious, since there are six of you doing this, shouldnt it show six figures on the name? or maybes it just not related

(I'll get off my soap box in a sec ) A couple of things I always search for is exchange rates and tutorials, searching for exchnage rates gave me 35 results but topics seem to be rates for houses etc, am I meant to use quotes for two words? do I seperate words by commas? Also while on the results page it doesnt show me what i have searched for, except in the title bar.

I also did a search on NZ, got 3 results which all related to NZ in some way or another so is good but did a search for new zealand and got 154 results, on the first page of results there are three with more than one person icon, one being uterine fibroma treatment (2 people), another being the family based vining racing (3 people)(never heard of them before) and the other with 3 people is a new orleans USA street ghost stories site, you have nz rugby on that page but is only person icon, should be 5 if they are meant to show how realvent to the search they are.
The second page has no new zealand related sites, nor the third but has a lot of 2 and 3 people icons

Sorry for being picky, just thought Id bring these things to your attention.

good luck

: ) for TheGizmoid

gayl — Wed, 26 Sep 2001 20:17:23 +0000

Wow! If all our GoGuides put as much thought into our site as you did today........!!!

Thank you for giving me a chance to make it better, and thank you for the great analysis....and with which I agree....except for the logo part and I'm kinda partial to it. : P

I'm very glad you added your favorite sites. I just simply ran out of time this morning, or would have done more. Sad to say, my time is seldom spent adding sites these days, but I can when I really need to do it! LOL

Hopefully, you will keep an eye on us, let us know when we're going astray, and give us a pat on the back or a kick in the pants as needed in the future.

Muchly appreciated!
: )
gayl

TheGizmoid — Wed, 26 Sep 2001 20:02:07 +0000

Well, I went back and see that you did add some Scottish Fold sites. Sadly, not mine, so I went ahead and submitted it, as well as the Korean War site and hubby's computer site. But when I tried to go to page 2, I got "Error 400 Bad Request" and when I use my back button get "Data Missing". This was in NS4.6 (Mac). It seemed to work okay in IE4.0.

My point about relevancy was that I'd rather see "no results matched your search" than to see stuff that is entirely irrelevant or to have to search through the chaff to find the wheat.

As for the design, well, I'm not real crazy about the logo. I think I'd separate out the navigation bar.

One of the first things I noticed on the main page is that the center column appears to be wider than the left one.

In IE the search bar is a lavendar color that doesn't really go with the blues in the logo. It's white in NS.

It took me a minute to realize that the categories *are* alphabetized but that they're horizontal rather than vertical. I think most people are more used to vertical.

Other than that, the layout seems good, navigation is consistent and logical, loads fast on a 33.6.

Good luck with it.