Website Critique

stevire

Putting my CMS website up for critique, I've good experience in web dev and programming (its my job!!) but I was vastly inexperienced with CMS so I decided to do one... I took approximately 7-8 hours to get to where its at now.

There's still a bit to do (fill in all the info for each club) but other than that it won't change much hopefully

All suggestions/comments/slaggings permitted!!

http://www.golfingunited.com

TouchingVirus

Personally I'm not a fan of the massive loss of real estate to the left and right - why not try use a background image, something easier on the eyes than all that white which runs into a light-medium yellow. Perhaps something darker, even a solid color would do.

There is also room for a gap between the top of the page and the start of your logo. At the minute it looks like the browser just blends into your website because the top of the logo meets the bottom of the buttons/address bar/tab bar.

I find the bottom of your site ends rather abruptly considering the length of the curves on your logo up above. I'm not sure if what draws my attention to the fact is that the Valid XHTML is sitting out in the middle of nowhere or the fact I believe those PGA things belong a bit closer up the screen than the poll box

I was never a fan of Joomla's login box - try the YOOlogin module, it's one snazzy looking thing

If you're going for uniformity with the headers of your modules on the left and the right, why is there no green header-bit for the search box on the right? Is it because you didn't put in the name for the search box module in Joomla? It's a minor point.

Joomla comes with SEO (using Apache mod_rewrite or not) - I suggest it be used instead of having dynamic links Robots wont follow. Enable it via the Admin Global configuration.

Where are the breadcrumbs gone? I hate the back button

When you click on the Golfing Directories why does the login box, ad's etc disappear leaving a plain looking page?

You've got a log in box running down the side, and at some stage you'll most likely make it visible on all pages - so what do you need a login link in the menu for? Better again, keep the link, but make the left login box invisible on that page - there's no point having two login boxes on the one page

Your forum, I'm very interested in how you managed to display a phpBB3 forum and keep everything in joomla - is it a wrapper or ? The only think about the forum is that (in FF3 at least) the search box is still visible, overlaying part of the forum

dkell

The text in the middle column of the homepage looks a bit lost - there's too big a gap under it - maybe try spacing it out a bit more, and reducing the width of the paragraphs.

I also think if you're going to put "Valid xHTML & CSS" on the homepage, they should both validate...

cgarvey

Presentation is quite poor, but at you've some content up there, and content is king! A little work on presentation and you could have something decent!

• Valid (x)HTML/CSS links are lame (those who care already have tools to quickly check.. vast majority have no idea what they mean, let alone care)
• Valid (x)HTML/CSS links are lamer when they point to a page that clearly shows they are not valid. That's just embarassing.
• I get Flash errors (URL not found), but it seems to be OK after that. Error popups are annoying though
• Lots of blank space on the home page (under paragraph, and above flash boxes)
• The PDF/Print/Email icons on the home page are unlikely to be ever used (whatever about having them on real news content, that may be printed off)
• The Web2.0-esque logo doesn't fit in with the rest of the design (plain backgrounds, plain text menus/nav, border-less, etc.) .. or vice versa
• The lessons directory listing alternative colour thing fails miserably when you sort by another column. The color should NOT be stored in the database!

stevire

TouchingVirus wrote: »

Personally I'm not a fan of the massive loss of real estate to the left and right - why not try use a background image, something easier on the eyes than all that white which runs into a light-medium yellow. Perhaps something darker, even a solid color would do.

Yeah intended on doing it at the start, will have another look into it.

There is also room for a gap between the top of the page and the start of your logo. At the minute it looks like the browser just blends into your website because the top of the logo meets the bottom of the buttons/address bar/tab bar.

Done and done

I find the bottom of your site ends rather abruptly considering the length of the curves on your logo up above. I'm not sure if what draws my attention to the fact is that the Valid XHTML is sitting out in the middle of nowhere or the fact I believe those PGA things belong a bit closer up the screen than the poll box

I personally don't really like the PGA thingys hence why I shoved them down the end of the page. I'll change the footer to have the same curves as the header...

I was never a fan of Joomla's login box - try the YOOlogin module, it's one snazzy looking thing

Downloaded and installed, hopefully get the chance to manipulate it in the next while.

If you're going for uniformity with the headers of your modules on the left and the right, why is there no green header-bit for the search box on the right? Is it because you didn't put in the name for the search box module in Joomla? It's a minor point.

I have the name in, I just have the title disabled... imo I thought it looked better without the header, but im open to suggestions!

Joomla comes with SEO (using Apache mod_rewrite or not) - I suggest it be used instead of having dynamic links Robots wont follow. Enable it via the Admin Global configuration.

I wanted to have the site ready to launch before allowing bots to go through the website. This will be one of the touchup jobs at the end, the meta tags still have the Joomla stuff!!

Where are the breadcrumbs gone? I hate the back button

When you click on the Golfing Directories why does the login box, ad's etc disappear leaving a plain looking page?

You've got a log in box running down the side, and at some stage you'll most likely make it visible on all pages - so what do you need a login link in the menu for? Better again, keep the link, but make the left login box invisible on that page - there's no point having two login boxes on the one page

I tried to make the website all navigational through the top menu. The Golfing Directories is a page in another module, I couldn't link it internally so had to do an external link to the url. Will look into getting the modules to show on this page though, could just use a wrapper although i feel like its cheating or something!!

I originally had a PGA Tour feed on the left of the login page. I used the login box to remind me to replace it with something else
It's gone now eitherway!!

Your forum, I'm very interested in how you managed to display a phpBB3 forum and keep everything in joomla - is it a wrapper or ? The only think about the forum is that (in FF3 at least) the search box is still visible, overlaying part of the forum

It was simple enough. I used JFusion to sync Joomla and PHPBB, then added a module wrapper (not a link wrapper), it was easier to manipulate the module and link to it.

I then just modified the forums theme and html pages to have a fixed width and used similar Joomla colours....

The search box is gone!
Thanks for the comments, great help!

dkell wrote: »

The text in the middle column of the homepage looks a bit lost - there's too big a gap under it - maybe try spacing it out a bit more, and reducing the width of the paragraphs.

I also think if you're going to put "Valid xHTML & CSS" on the homepage, they should both validate...

They validated a few days ago. Forgot to check it since, will get around to it before launching.

Axwell

Most of what I would say is already covered so im sure you will make those changes, one thing i would suggest you change though is the heading on the golf lessons directory which reads "ASS. Golf Club" - i know your just shortening it but you would be better using the full word in this case i think

Also your google ads could go down the side of that page and the club directory to take out the blank space on the right

p

It's a bit all over the place. There doesn't really seem to be a focus to the site. As a random visitor I don't really understand what the site is, other than something to do with golf.

The others have covered many more issues than I could, so I'll just comment on design, as that's my area of expertise. It's quite poor, and isn't doing you any favours. If you can't afford/borrow a designer, then I'd suggest buying a cheap template and using that as a starting point. Overall though, you need to see and explain this site to your visitors. There's no explanation, no context and no understanding. Imagine walking into a golf shop, but not being sure if it the entrance to a retail shop, a golf rental place, an actual golf club, or part of a larger department store. You need to design the site around your visitors, not your CMS.
http://www.entheosweb.com/photoshop_templates/golf.asp
http://www.infragolf.com/golf-templates/

infragolf

You need to design the site around your visitors, not your CMS.

Excellent point. Simply why we build the website, then impose it to the CMS