Website redesign: feedback needed - to be on Dragons Den

jamesn

Hi All,

I recently re-designed our website, going for a more simple flat design using Wordpress and Woo-commerce. We are due to be on Dragons Den on Sunday (11th may) and would love any feedback or advice?

URL: urability.com

Thanks.

tricky D

White text in pics is illegible in parts.

Making Education Inclusive strapline is out of context, it should be below the logo.

Search should be towards or at the top right corner. It also doesn't work.

Light grey text is poor for readability. You need to do a good bit of work on the readability overall, it's too important in relation to your activities. Contrast is your friend, and even more importantly for your targets

Contact page form is poorly laid out. Stack the label and field groups in a single column. Doesn't matter whether the labels are above or to the left of the input fields.

info"at"urability.com should be a mailto and forget about doing the "at" thing.

Can't see how to sign up for an account.

Products are very pricy considering the alternatives many of which start at free for basic functionalities and still more competitive for the more advanced versions.

Don't see any tie-ins or mentions of the likes of CETC.

Social Media is largely missing and where you do have them they're easily missed due to poor light grey on white contrast.

SEO and accessibility are poor and need a lot of attention.

hope that helps and good luck

jamesn

Hi tricky D,

Thanks for that super feedback, I'm working on a number of the above, I haven't done much with SEO until I had the main issues sorted, also need to add in Social media to the footer and improve in other areas.
defo going to change the font colour too..

thanks again!

tricky D

Your very welcome.

Agreed, SEO is a lower priority issue, but not to be totally neglected. It's not something you can just tag on later.

However accessibility especially wrt readability is crucial.

As somewhat of an aside, back when I did some stuff with the CETC we came across this font: http://opendyslexic.org/ which might interest you. You probably would know more about its merits than I would. Something about the characters not rolling over so easily for the dyslexic reader due to bottom heavy weighting iirc.

jamesn

Cheers tricky D,

I have come across it, might see how the font would work in.

Thanks again.

cormee

The site sells assistive technology, yet seems to have very few accessibility features built in. That strikes me as a bit strange.

Some of the features you seem to be missing:

Alternate (high contrast) style sheets
Font size controls
Skip to Content link.
Insufficient contrast between a lot of content and background
No site map/ToC
Errors (404) with no cause/solution details
No highlighting of focused elements

accessibility is not something they'd likely pull you up on, but it's something you should be aware of, given the nature of your site.

jamesn

Hi cormee,

I only started the re-design in the last week or so, I know I left the accessibility to one side, which needs to be key with our business, so I'm going to get right on it.
Some great feedback there, thanks very much for your time!

Thanks.

cormee

... nice design, by the way, I probably should have mentioned that!

Reedsie

I can't go into design details in any way like the previous posters. Some great help there.

The one little niggle I had was to do with the logo. I think urability is quite a good name, but capitalising the U and the A in the logo does nothing for me. It separates the 'Ur' and the 'Ability' which to me isn't a good idea and looks less professional (possibly because it emphasises the fact that the 'word' 'ur' is a part of your business name).
I think Urability is quite a strong standalone name without trying to separate it.


In short:

UrAbility x

Urability ✓

tricky D

The mixing of caps promotes readability and thus conveys the 'ability' meaning better. The problem is with the 'Ur' which is less than ideal and professional. It's a hard one to get across in speech as it has to be explained ie. 'that's Your Ability with a Ur'. Reminds me of Kube Kitchens' radio ad where they have to explain, 'that's kube with a k' - it's simply awkward. It's a poor substitute for YourAbility.com which is taken but for sale. yourability.ie is available which is what I would have gone for in the absence of a better name keyword/phrase-wise.

jamesn

Hi,

Thanks cormee.

re the name, I agree on the ur vs your and yes I do end you have to explain it to people over the phone etc, I have recently being in touch about buying the domain, looking for over €2000 at moment, might go for it in the future.

also good feedback Paddy_R on the logo, I never really put too much work into creating the logo, it is something I'm going to go back and re-design a bit in the coming weeks.

Thanks gang!

cormee

Paddy_R wrote: »

I can't go into design details in any way like the previous posters. Some great help there.

The one little niggle I had was to do with the logo. I think urability is quite a good name, but capitalising the U and the A in the logo does nothing for me. It separates the 'Ur' and the 'Ability' which to me isn't a good idea and looks less professional (possibly because it emphasises the fact that the 'word' 'ur' is a part of your business name).
I think Urability is quite a strong standalone name without trying to separate it.


In short:

UrAbility x

Urability ✓

Urability does look quite nice alright. CamelCase is everywhere though, I don't think anyone's going to hold it against OP.

cormee

tricky D wrote: »

Reminds me of Kube Kitchens' radio ad where they have to explain, 'that's kube with a k' - it's simply awkward.

Oh dear God, you made me remember, back in the day, the "Quinn HYPHEN Healthcare" ads on the radio.

I died a little every time I heard it.

tricky D

cormee wrote: »

Oh dear God, you made me remember, back in the day, the "Quinn HYPHEN Healthcare" ads on the radio.

I died a little every time I heard it.

That's the one, and now you've put it back in my head, dagnabbit.

Anyway OP's Dragons Den gig should be on in a few minutes.

tricky D

Hooked an investor, very well done.

Still plenty of work ahead of you. Best of luck.

FAILSAFE 00

Well done getting the investment.

jamesn

Cheers gang, as tricky D said - lots of work to do and it just starting now!
Thanks for all the great feedback over the past two weeks!