hey. it says all new site

geoff.magnus — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 18:47:00 +0000

hey.

it says all new site under construction but i will provide some comments anyways.

things i liked...
the colors and design of your site make it look very clean and fresh. there is not too much content which makes it easy to navigate and find things.

Functionality - all links work, images load quickly
Informational - pages contain just enough information. all the information that i would look for was there.
Ease of use - navigation is easy, pretty straight forward
Simple graphics - graphics work, load quickly, fit the design of the site
Legible text - good contrast, perhaps some larger fonts would increase readability

things i didnt like...
overall layout is small, fonts are small...like i mentioned, it seems you are working on a new site so i guess these will be corrected. perhaps include some links to partnering sites.

Brooke — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 16:05:03 +0000

Hello there,

Just some quick observations:

1. The layout is good
2. I love the nav on the left - the bright orange adds something
3. The white text on that glowing background - and text that has a glow around it is really hard on my eyes and hard to read.

That is all for now!

worthyashes — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 15:26:31 +0000

Sorry that you aren't keen. We've had some great feedback so far and I think that that's the problem with these style of sites - its horses for courses. If you have a look at some of the apps you'll see what Flash should really be used for.

Thanks for your time anyway, and we have taken you comments on board

Tim

Megan — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 15:09:52 +0000

First off, like most people I dont' really love flash sites. The only time I think they really make sense is if you're going to go all out and really make the most of the medium. That means high levels of interactivity, good animation, and a creative layout. And that kind of a design doesn't make sense for most types of sites. It's great for band or movie sites, or maybe some niche products, but not general interest sites, and not IT business sites.

This site is not making the most of the medium. It's really a text based site with some sliding boxes here and there. Your target audience is going to want to get here and find information quickly. Sliding boxes would probably just be annoying.

I also think the writing here could be improved a lot. There is a lot of vague business-speak on here that isn't directly saying what the site is offering. There are also a lot of gramatically errors and sentence fragments. "From simple websites to advanced, integrated eBusiness colutions" is not a complete sentence. The second bit is an actual sentence, but it doesn't say what the company actually does. "interactive technologies" is way too vague. I also find the header format with the lower case and period at the end to be rather strange, and it's not applied consistently. Some headers are upper case or mixed case.

Actually, all of the text on the front page is not in the form of actual sentences. It's either fragments or incomplete (...). The project "Hermes" one has actual sentences but they're very brief and unfriendly. I've also noticed mistakes like extra spaces and spelling errors (rang instead of range on the "expertise" page for example).

The "solutions" page is much better. It's clear on what you're offering and the sentences are properly structured (although I have no idea what FTSE 100 is...). Again, though, it's hard to tell what's click-able without actually mousing over everything. Oh, wait, the mouse changed to a hand over those headers but they don't actually link anywhere. The page is still a little bit vague about what exactly you're offering.

This sort of vague writing with short phrases and lots of business speak used to be popular a few years ago but I think people have realized that it doesn't work very well. A more straightforward and specific style is becoming more popular now.

Another problem I'm noticing is that it's hard to tell what is click-able. The orange text is actually just used for emphasis, but since no other text is formatted differently you'd think those were links. The actual links are the same as plain text so they don't stand out. You're expecting people to actually read everything (which they don't) and not skim around looking for where to click.

Design-wise, it's generally okay. I find the glow to be a little distracting, especially when it's behind text.