Seeking advice for site improvement

leom

Folks,
I am not a desinger, I am a developer. Have worked hard (evenings) on this website - could not affored to hire a designer. So if you can advice me how Ican make it a better site, I appreciate any feedback.

http://www.homeez.ie
http://www.homeez.co.uk

Thanks

cormee

Hi

My first impression is the homepage is very cluttered so I'd recommend the following:

* Get rid of the gradients, colour coding different sections like you've done is a good idea but the gradients don't look the best, the colours are too vibrant, try http://colorschemedesigner.com/ to generate palettes (click 'Light Page Example' to see how it will look on a web page) try make them more muted colours.

On the recently entered property boxes have a white background, in the box behind it that contains the property boxes have a solid block of the colour you chose for that section.

*Remove the 'Recent Entries' from under each section heading and move it beside the section heading ie. so 'For Sale \Recent Entries' becomes 'Latest Property for Sale', that will free up some space.

*Change the 'Choose Type' options in your search to a select menu

* lose the 'Search' and binocular in the search box, it's unnecessary as your search button repeats it anyway, and while you're at it it would be no harm replacing your search button with a standard html submit button

*change the Price Min and Price Max text boxes to select menus - less work for your site visitors

Is the keyword search box necessary? Daft don't have one but MyHome do, I bought a house recently and spent months and I never used a keyword search once.

The property boxes on the homepage are far too small, increase the descriptive text size and the line height, it's almost illegible as it is, in fact increase the size on all text except the price within the property box. Maybe reduce the number of entries from 5 to 3.

Your logo looks a bit amateur - the concept itself isn't bad but the blue serif font and the solid black of the house don't really do it any favours. It needs to be executed a little more professionally, maybe give it to a good designer and ask them to spend an hour reworking it in Illustrator.

Make the 'Place a Free Ad' button more prominent.

Get rid of the Contact Us button on the side.

What's the "Absolutely Free, Art of Real Estate on your desktop!" about? If it doesn't serve a purpose get rid of it.

Hopefully some of my suggestions are useful to you. I think your main aim should be to declutter the bejaysus out of your homepage & reduce the amount of colours, that would help it a lot .

leom

I am grateful Cormee, thanks a lot for detailed answer! Thank you

cormee wrote: »

Hi

My first impression is the homepage is very cluttered so I'd recommend the following:

* Get rid of the gradients, colour coding different sections like you've done is a good idea but the gradients don't look the best, the colours are too vibrant, try http://colorschemedesigner.com/ to generate palettes (click 'Light Page Example' to see how it will look on a web page) try make them more muted colours.

On the recently entered property boxes have a white background, in the box behind it that contains the property boxes have a solid block of the colour you chose for that section.

*Remove the 'Recent Entries' from under each section heading and move it beside the section heading ie. so 'For Sale \Recent Entries' becomes 'Latest Property for Sale', that will free up some space.

*Change the 'Choose Type' options in your search to a select menu

* lose the 'Search' and binocular in the search box, it's unnecessary as your search button repeats it anyway, and while you're at it it would be no harm replacing your search button with a standard html submit button

*change the Price Min and Price Max text boxes to select menus - less work for your site visitors

Is the keyword search box necessary? Daft don't have one but MyHome do, I bought a house recently and spent months and I never used a keyword search once.

The property boxes on the homepage are far too small, increase the descriptive text size and the line height, it's almost illegible as it is, in fact increase the size on all text except the price within the property box. Maybe reduce the number of entries from 5 to 3.

Your logo looks a bit amateur - the concept itself isn't bad but the blue serif font and the solid black of the house don't really do it any favours. It needs to be executed a little more professionally, maybe give it to a good designer and ask them to spend an hour reworking it in Illustrator.

Make the 'Place a Free Ad' button more prominent.

Get rid of the Contact Us button on the side.

What's the "Absolutely Free, Art of Real Estate on your desktop!" about? If it doesn't serve a purpose get rid of it.

Hopefully some of my suggestions are useful to you. I think your main aim should be to declutter the bejaysus out of your homepage & reduce the amount of colours, that would help it a lot .

cormee

No worries!

Whats's your site's unique selling point over Daft and MyHome by the way? It's a big challenge taking them on without something special to get visitors to use your site.

Your 'no photo uploaded' icon is a bit naff too for the sake of branding I'd suggest you use your logo (if you get it redone) instead of the current one, or have a look on www.istockphoto.com for one.

leom

cormee wrote: »

No worries!

Whats's your site's unique selling point over Daft and MyHome by the way? It's a big challenge taking them on without something special to get visitors to use your site.

Your 'no photo uploaded' icon is a bit naff too for the sake of branding I'd suggest you use your logo (if you get it redone) instead of the current one, or have a look on www.istockphoto.com for one.

Thanks for wonderful advice.
Price will be unique point --- if this site bear expense of its own in a year time.. i dont care if it earns money or not.. i have not spent a single penny on development anyways.... i will try to revamp it following your advice.... may be i need a designer....
thanks