Would appreciate any feedback on schools website!

Pixie Chief

Hi Guys, have finally pulled my big girl pants on and am taking the plunge! Would really, really appreciate any feedback on my website from any perspective but would most love it in the areas of:

1) First impressions

2) Clarity (am a bit concerned that is a bit too wordy and not visual enough?)

3) Usability (anything from a potential user's perspective that makes it hard to operate?)

4) Anything else?

Big girl pants notwithstanding, please be gentle. I'm not very techie but have learned a lot in the last year - very willing to learn more. The whole project is very important to me and will take anything said on board.

Here goes - Link: http://scoilcloud.com

*braces self*

Skill Magill

Link Scoilcloud.com

I would edit the homepage to include the about us page. The site opens to "Primary History Materials" you need it to open to something more general like the about us page.
Best of luck with it

Pixie Chief

Skill Magill wrote: »

Link Scoilcloud.com

Did I actually not put the link in properly? Oh, the shame! Sorry, sorry, sorry.........

Skill Magill

Just edit it back in

Pixie Chief

Skill Magill wrote: »

Link Scoilcloud.com

I would edit the homepage to include the about us page. The site opens to "Primary History Materials" you need it to open to something more general like the about us page.
Best of luck with it

Will indeed take a look at the home page and change it up. Thank you so much and also for not laughing despite the fact that have now firmly established self as technological moron *blushes*

Skill Magill

I had to read through a fair amount to get to the nub of the site which I think is :
"Our goal is to provide a full suite of curriculum materials for both primary and secondary schools within 3 years that at least match, if not improve on the standard currently available., whilst lowering the book bills all the time."


I would mention this early on and suggest how you propose doing it, within the opening lines of the homepage.

Pixie Chief

Skill Magill wrote: »

I had to read through a fair amount to get to the nub of the site which I think is :
"Our goal is to provide a full suite of curriculum materials for both primary and secondary schools within 3 years that at least match, if not improve on the standard currently available., whilst lowering the book bills all the time."


I would mention this early on and suggest how you propose doing it, within the opening lines of the homepage.

You're absolutely right - could probably cut massive chunks out, looking at it now. Tend to warble on about the project at any given opportunity. Family will pay visitors not to mention school books... Thanks again!

tricky D

Skill Magill wrote: »

I had to read through a fair amount to get to the nub of the site which I think is :
"Our goal is to provide a full suite of curriculum materials for both primary and secondary schools within 3 years that at least match, if not improve on the standard currently available., whilst lowering the book bills all the time."


I would mention this early on and suggest how you propose doing it, within the opening lines of the homepage.

This. Put that in place of the kid wearing a box which has no purpose and occupies the most valuable real estate on the homepage.

Try to move the login function to the top right.

gctest50

Pixie Chief wrote: »

You're absolutely right - could probably cut massive chunks out, looking at it now......

Noes! You have great very readable rants on the site

I think the site opening straight into the material is good
- if they can't find the "about us" part there is no hope

****************************************************

If you look it up on a small mobile yoke,

the "Where to ?" drop down box

Where to? *
About Us
Submissions
Contact Us
Register
Account
Protected Content

has no link back home

- it doesn't matter if you go horizontal with the phone as the blue tabs make a reappearance

*****************************************************

The login right in the middle of the page is good - it will help make them feel alienated if they are not signed up

Much much more than all that though make sure the site is reliable and stays running

you might want Content Delivery stuff - like almost everything on the internet - loads of ways approaching this

https://www.cloudflare.com/overview

http://aws.amazon.com/cloudfront/

Pixie Chief

Thanks so much, you guys! You're so good to take the time to do this, you've no idea how much I appreciate it. Must admit am conflicted about a static landing page/about us versus going straight to what has recently been posted up. I'm a writer by trade and consequently love words (hence my ranting - sorry!) and wanted somewhere to lay out the very real difficulties in tackling the issues. On the other hand, I felt that people at the business end aren't necessarily interested. They may well just want to know what's on here for them. If the first thing they see is a selection of teaching materials that they would like to use, then they will probably explore and find out a bit and consider joining? But maybe that's wrong?

I do agree completely that there should be something on the landing page to indicate mission. Assessing it now, the website could be about anything. Would also like to add a graphic of progress bars maybe to the front page showing how much of the curriculum we have covered? I kinda like the log in oddly. I was going for an almost facebook vibe so it would feel a little familiar. Ditto the kid with the box on his head - he needs enlightenment (as do I!) but maybe that's a little too subtle when something that illustrates what we do would be better.

Couldn't agree more with regards to reliability, I hope that is covered x 100. Death knell of any project right there. Will double check all t's and i's in the morning and have a rather more techie friend hunt for glitches. Will also check out content delivery options and do some reading and thinking.

Again, thanks so so much. Will have a think on all the points and a tinker with it. Will post in a day or two when I've made some changes and if you have time, maybe you will take a look?

Pixie Chief

Ooh, will also look into the mobile issue, works pretty good on my phone....sod all good to others if it doesn't on theirs though!

Mr. G

Perhaps mask the email addresses in JavaScript or something, as spam bots could take abuse of this. Ideally use usernames instead.

Seems mobile friendly which is good.

Perhaps implement categories, i.e. A drop down to select a subject, then subject topic to keep things tidy and neat.

I can't find any privacy policy. Under EU law you must notify users of the use of cookies. Wouldn't be a bad idea to implement a notice at the top. This is important if you intend to utilise Google Analytics, which by the way is a brilliant tool for seeing statistics.

Best of luck with it.

Pixie Chief

Thanks Mr G - never thought of cookie policy at all, will look into implementing that immediately. There are categories but they are only visible to subscribers because of how the membership software works? It's probably not ideal but best for the budget right now.

Have no clue about masking email addresses so will have to pull my research hat on!

Pixie Chief

Incidentally, thank you all so much. Was surfing the forum for weeks plucking up the courage and it's been such a positive experience. Have come away with so much to consider, research and tweak. It's critical to get this kind of feedback and delighted now that we are taking a break over the Christmas that I get time to do it properly.

Merry Christmas!

zituz

one thing that I should say, your site is really smooth. simple and fast loading