Website redesign - opinions

[TheIcebreaker]

Hi All,
About 5 months ago i launch a website called theicebreaker.co.uk, it was very exciting setting up my own company. After the site was launched i asked for an opinion on this forum, and got some really good feedback.

Well 5 months later and things are going well but i have also learnt alot and have just had a major redesign of the website with lots of improvements.

I would really be interested in what everyone thinks from a design, coding and customer point of view. i can then compare these comments to the comments 5 months ago.

the website is theicebreaker.co.uk

Many thanks
Taz

[fisicx]

Very quick first opinion - I don't like it. It is a very busy homepage and your information chunks are not well delineated.

The font is way too small on my big screen, and if you increase the size the page collapses (blame strawberry soup for this major design flaw).

[TheIcebreaker]

ok thanks for your opinion. What about everyone else?
Taz

[www.infoebookstore.co.uk]

Hi

Looks OK. I have a personal problem with the heading text though, text on an image looks fuzzy to me, on whatever site. I also think it is better for your SEO to have h1, h2 and h3 tags so think about that.

In my personal opinion, showing images of good looking people in couples on dating websites is a bit strange. Most people who use dating sites are not good looking movie stars, this might put people off!

How is it working out by the way, how many people have signed up?

Jim

[lakedaemon]

In my personal opinion, showing images of good looking people in couples on dating websites is a bit strange. Most people who use dating sites are not good looking movie stars, this might put people off!

Agree with the principle, but putting less than attractive people on advertising can be counter productive as well. I'd love to be able to see the face of a marketing exec. who goes to Coco Chanelle and says, "hey, you know what I don't think we need Kate Moss for this one, why not use Vanessa feltz?".

Unfortunately, advertising works by inspiring need or want, and when you see top celebrities and beautiful people endorsing products you are made to want to be them, however unrealistic that possiblity is. How many adverts on television have you seen using ordinary unattractive people?

[jonny74]

i think it is a bit naive to suggust all most people using a date service are less attractive to begin with, many are just focused on their businesses and do not have the time to go out and meet others, many do not like the single bars atmosphere, or have out grown them

[www.infoebookstore.co.uk]

Originally Posted by jonny74

i think it is a bit naive to suggust all most people using a date service are less attractive to begin with, many are just focused on their businesses and do not have the time to go out and meet others, many do not like the single bars atmosphere, or have out grown them

OK, firstly I am not naive, I am not ashamed to say I can speak with experience on this matter and I can confirm my previous statement is 100% true!

Most people who use dating sites are not good looking movie stars

But then again I did find my current girlfriend of 18 months via the web! Don't tell her what I said :-)

I would suggest using some "real" examples not just some pictures of models cuddling, thats all.

Jim

[marksteadman]

First off, I think the idea's great, so best of British with it.

From a design perspective, I'd try and steer clear of such garish gradients: subtlety is the key when it comes to gradients - look at the header of this page for example. Fading from black or red to white is a little bit mid-90s, if you know what I mean

I'd disagree with flicx on one point: your text size is fine; you can't possibly hope to cater for every screen resolution, but as long as you're supporting 800x600 upwards, you're fine. However, it should be defined using a scalable dimension, so that users can increase/decrease the font size in their browsers (essential for accessibility). This is very easy, so your web devs should be able to do it without any probs.

Jim's right about the use of H1, H2 etc tags. Using CSS, you can make sure that the search engine can read the text in those images, whilst also making the site accessible to screen readers. At the very least the images should have ALT tags.

Also, teensy snag: when I click the "FAQs" or "Contact Us" links, the "Home" link is highlighted in the menu. Easily fixed

In the future I'd definitely look at upgrading from ASP to ASP.NET, as "classic" ASP is starting to show bags under its eyes. (I had a couple of timeout errors on the site whilst looking through)