Critique New oddjob/ nixer website

lida

Hi,
We have just launched a new online oddjob/nixer fixing website called nixerfixer.ie. It's objective is to provide a free advertising space for those looking to get the odd job around the house/ office fixed and don't quite know the right person or are looking for it done cheaper than they have been offered already.

I am hoping that some of you might be able to take a look at it and let me know what you think...about it's layout, user friendliness, speed, facilities etc....need some feedback if anyone finds any faults with it....

If you do take a look, thanks for the time!

dulpit

Just had a quick look...

I think it's grand, nothing flashy or anything, but i reckon that's not what you were after was it?

As for the page, 2 things:

1. Should the welcome note be on the left, with the list of forums on right? That would be my preference, dunno what others think.

2. Do you have way to many forums? I understand you have them split up into the various jobs, but at the very least i reckon they need to be sorted by category...

Other than that, i ain't got no complaints... As i said i only glanced at it, those are my first impressions.

Khannie

Looks.....ok. Intuitive to use, but that scrollable list is a bit long. Maybe try grouping into categories or something?

zAbbo

Where to start...

You'll get more advice in the webmaster forum.

The main content of the site is consigned to 30% of the screen ?

AARRRGH

I don't like it, I'm sorry. I really think job websites need to be super simple and uncluttered.

Why don't you follow the model used by other job websites such as jobs.ie etc.?

forbairt

first impressions ... colour scheme is a bit off ...

looks like a vbulletin board only half there ...

The logo doesn't really do much for me either though that could just be its whole relation to the page ...

I'm really against iframes ... I'm assuming thats what the panel on the left is ...

SEO wise .. home isn't a very descriptive title for the page ...

useability wise ... it feels like there are a lot of topics there ... maybe head categories ... or something and sub categories ...

PixelTrawler

A lot of what I thought has been covered above so I wont repeat it.

It did occur to me though that (is this .net 2 or 1.1?) you could wrap the jobs listing bit in a nice big Ajax update panel and get a much nicer experience then the current page refreshing when navigation jobs.

Fairly quick and easy to implement too.

GP

to be brutally honest, you may want to rethink the shole site design.


The logo looks like a Micorsoft Word clip art image and the whole look and feel is all over the place.

Not trying to be rude or anything but it's horrible.

I would suggest that at least, spend $25 or something on one of those templates you can get online.

nellyshark

Just a personal oponion but the forums should be the main content of the page and sorted better, there is a awful lot of scrolling there

lida

Hey guys,
Thanks for all the feedback...I knew it was slightly off for what's it's made to do but I didn't realise just how much off but I see all the points made so thanks...will ask the guy doing it for me to take a look at this forum and if he's prepared to consider your advice.....thanks again

mewso

Tell him to have a look at a thing called Web Standards and another thing called Accessibility. It will get him right on course.

And someone mentioned Microsoft's Ajax stuff. Personally I avoid this like the plaque because I don't particularly like creating inaccessible pages doing things that if I had a little patience I could do myself and ensure good unobtrusive added functionality.

e.g.. if you see a website with a "Back" link and when you hover over it it says "javascript:..." then shoot the developer*.

* or just tell him hes an idiot. Whatever.

axer

musician wrote:

e.g.. if you see a website with a "Back" link and when you hover over it it says "javascript:..." then shoot the developer*.

* or just tell him hes an idiot. Whatever.

Why?

mewso

axer wrote:

Why?

Well it's personal opinion mainly but I prefer to have all my script in an external file. I think most people would disagree with me but then a few years ago folks would have asked why put style declarations in an external file. It's about seperating structure from presentation from behaviour.

As an asp.net developer it's pretty frustrating as it crops up alot. Datagrids/gridviews with automatic paging using inline script to move between pages so no bookmarking is possible. The ability to create "linkbuttons" which will not work unless you have javascript on.

In general most of what you want to acheive with an <a href="javascript:... can be done another more elegant way that degrades well. And with Ajax so popular now I don't think Microsoft are helping in any way with their Ajax toolkit that spews out script all over the place.

Anyway I don't want to deflect this thread so I'll leave it for another discussion.

cousin_borat

http://www.nixers.com/

Presuming you have carried out some basic market research and looked at other sites in your space. I'm surprised you did not run the guy who designed your site comparing the homepage of yours to nixers.com.

alanjgrace

cousin_borat wrote:

http://www.nixers.com/

Presuming you have carried out some basic market research and looked at other sites in your space. I'm surprised you did not run the guy who designed your site comparing the homepage of yours to nixers.com.

The OP's site is farily different in fairness, it deals with nixers such as babysitting, plumbing, and general odd jobs. Nixers.com is a clone of the main job sites which deals with fully paid jobs and graduate programs like monster.ie or jobs.ie not small jobs (or nixers) so i wouldnt think the OP would see it as a competitor.

cousin_borat

alanjgrace wrote:

The OP's site is farily different in fairness, it deals with nixers such as babysitting, plumbing, and general odd jobs. Nixers.com is a clone of the main job sites which deals with fully paid jobs and graduate programs like monster.ie or jobs.ie not small jobs (or nixers) so i wouldnt think the OP would see it as a competitor.

it is and the OP's concept is good. Just the execution of the website part is not good.

lida

Lads, you're right!
The main aim of the site is to attract new comers to cummunities, towns etc to advertise their oddjobs there and for possible fixers to filter out possible jobs for themselves....they can filter through area/town or job......I'm not really looking for the jobs.ie type set up as you get a little bogged down in keyword searches etc...thought the way I have it is closer to what I'm looking to achieve....log on, scroll to your category and on in you go.....however, I have taken everything on board and cousin borat...what do you mean by the execution??? In layman's terms if you could.....

Thanks folks