Author's site baked

[mysticcowboy]

http://www.driveyourselfhappy.com/

This was a very quick copy of an old site that got lost when the server crashed. WebsiteBaker is great for fast and easy.

[i2Paq]

Simple and efficiënt!

Again a nice job.

[deeve007]

A quick job? The you won't mind the constructive criticism I'm sure...

Homepage doesn't work at all. It looks like a site's inner page. A homepage should convey to me in a moment's glance what the site is about. Yours does not. I have to ready a paragraph or two of text to know what it's about.

The logo is placed on the wrong side. This can work when done correctly, In this case it does not, more so with the liquid design that keeps it at the far right. On your design, it HAS to be top left to communicate itself as your logo.

The left hand nav panel, what was the idea behind this? The "pole" or whatever it is doesn't work at all. Has no connection at all with any other element withing the design. Move the logo to the top left, and style a simple navigation panel below the logo with each link a rectangle "button" that changes background colour on rollover.

Nice and simple and most effective for your layout.

Fix these things and your site will be fine.

Cheers,
Dave

[kickarse]

It's not suppose to be a total redesign just a conversion...   

[mysticcowboy]

A quick job? The you won't mind the constructive criticism I'm sure...

Homepage doesn't work at all. It looks like a site's inner page. A homepage should convey to me in a moment's glance what the site is about. Yours does not. I have to ready a paragraph or two of text to know what it's about.

The logo is placed on the wrong side. This can work when done correctly, In this case it does not, more so with the liquid design that keeps it at the far right. On your design, it HAS to be top left to communicate itself as your logo.

The left hand nav panel, what was the idea behind this? The "pole" or whatever it is doesn't work at all. Has no connection at all with any other element withing the design. Move the logo to the top left, and style a simple navigation panel below the logo with each link a rectangle "button" that changes background colour on rollover.

Nice and simple and most effective for your layout.

Fix these things and your site will be fine.

Cheers,
Dave

You make some pretty categorical statements Dave. I wonder what your source of information is? 

The interesting thing is that when I first designed this site a few years ago I actually hired a usability testing company to run various iterations of the site through testing groups. This is the design that tested most usable. Not the one you described. Hmm. Also, the sign pole tested well. I guess a logo doesn't have to live in the upper left hand corner.

I agree with you about the front page not giving a good enough overview. I don't like it either. But the client hired a marketing expert to write the copy. Apparently, this kind of sales letter text does something or other for search engine ranking and click through rate. Both her book sales and newsletter subscription rate have gone up since I replaced the front page text, changing it from the more standard front page directory.

Don't you just hate it when your pet theories don't stand up in the marketplace? I know I was surprised when her sales took a quick upturn.

best wishes,
michael

[deeve007]

You make some pretty categorical statements Dave. I wonder what your source of information is?

10 year's experience, dozens and dozens of usability testing sessions for some fairly major clients, semiotics studies and reports.

No harm having strong opinions if they're conveyed logically and with experience behind them. Which doesn't automatically mean they're the only answer, just that they have some validity.

I'm glad the results have been positive, kudos to you. I still stand by my comments, even if I would preferred to have written them a little differently and not quite so harshly.   Still believe that with a liquid design and a very dense page logo does not work as well on the far right as it would top left (where the eye first travels). A semiotic breakdown of the page would illustrate this well. There are also other just as effective ways for good search engine listing than a text-dense front page. "Marketing expert" can often be an oxymoron I've found (and this is coming from someone with a marketing degree!). The client's improved results could have been even better perhaps... though we'll never know of course.

But as with anything, there are always exceptions to the "rules", I just prefer to bank on the rules when there's no definitive answer. That way, when things don't quite work as planned (which will always happen sometime) at least I can justify to the client why it was done in the first place, thereby justifying their investment.