Feedback Appreciated

Shanley

Hey guys, looking for some feedback on a website I'm designing and on the logo I made.

The website is at:
www.buyitnow.ie/bindemo

I know there is a lot of images also and would like to know your opinions on download speeds.

Thanks in advance!
Shanley.

Pablod

Only have a handfull of sites under my belt myself,

But two things stand out straight away

1) Page takes way too long load
The images on your page especially in the 'most popular' section are too big in size, one in particular was almost 1mb for a 100px image this is huge. Resize them - have them sized to the size you need before putting them on the webpage, dont resize them on the HTML

2) I assume the list of counties on the left will be a navigation to indvidual page per county
Currently this is made up of a div with a list of images with no text for the navigation (not the best thing to do really)
Set this up as a unordered list navitgation, and give a coloured background

Maybe someone can correct me if i've said something wrong,

Hope this helps,

Tragedy

You're using a 3mb super hi-res image as a thumbnail. More than one!

TheWaterboy

Page is way to slow to load. Your big problem is that your resizing huge images on the fly. Make those large images into thumbnails and use those. It will quicken the page up alot.

The graphics are pretty rough. Dont see the advantage of having the county names as an image. From an SEO point of view they are a disaster. The sold graphics are the same - no consistency in them. The word "sold" is centered in one, aligned bottom left in the other etc. etc.

Personally I think you are developing a site in a very saturated market and will find it hard to make money from it. If your goal is to learn about web development and design then work away - but you arent going to make much money from this site.

Sorry for been harsh.

jebuz

I know you probably spent a bit of time on the counties images, but to be honest it's like stepping back in time - not very pretty to look at. Use a consistent style on the buttons, people don't need to know the county colours to find their county. It's a distraction more than anything.

As you know the market is saturated with classifies sites. As it is, the website doesn't stand a chance. It's not modern enough, looks amateur and simply doesn't offer anything that would make me want to switch from the likes of adverts.ie or buyandsell.ie.

Also as the posters above mentioned, you are using hi-res images as thumbnails. One of the most basic requirements of a web developer is the ability to minimize the page load time, that includes optimizing any images, flash, css, javascript and avoiding code repetition. Resize the images using an external tool, not by specifying the size in the <img> tag.

p

Shanley wrote: »

Hey guys, looking for some feedback on a website I'm designing and on the logo I made.

The website is at:
www.buyitnow.ie/bindemo

When I say this, I mean it with no malice, but only as honest feedback you requested.

Both the logo and the website are extremely awful.

If you are in any way serious about this site as a project or a business, then highly advise you to either a) hire a professional designer and developer or b) spend considerably more time learning how to design & build effective websites.

Shanley

Made some changes there from listening to your comments, as regard to making money off the website I dont plan on more of a hobby really!

In relation to it not being modern enough, once the backend software is added it will be pretty much the same as donedeal.ie/buyandsell.ie

In relation to the sold images & latest ads images they will be automatically updated when the backend software goes on and people place ads (wanted to just see the layout)

Only thing you have upset me by saying so far is that you dont like my logo as its the only part of the website that cost me money so far :P

More feedback on the updates appreciated, dont really like the way the Counties are now so I am open to suggestions on what to put there

Thanks again!
Shanley.

p

You really need to develop a critical eye for design. Right now the design is very very bad. Look at cssbeauty.com to get a look at some good designs.

As quick method of improving the design you could use the 960 grid system and sexy buttons.
http://960.gs/
http://www.oscaralexander.com/tutorials/how-to-make-sexy-buttons-with-css.html