Web Site Review - Site Complete 6

[MikeBarone]

First I want to thank everyone for giving their opinions to date, they were very helpful. We used all the advise and I think the site is better for it. We are launching tomorrow and I wanted to get everyones final thoughts.

http://www.cgiscript.net

Please be brutally honest.

There are a coupole Netscape oddities that have to be worked out with table cell colors but what else is new.

Thanks again! Mike Barone

http://www.cgiscript.net

FREE CGI/Perl Scripts & JavaScript Generators
Ace PopUp Generator Software - Totally FREE

 

[coldfused]

nice work mike..followed all links through the site and everything seemed to be working well..liked the layout and the thought envolved..hope to be as good some day..

once again nice work..

carlsatterwhite@endangeredgraphics.com

 

[MikeBarone]

Thanks. You were very helpful the first time around, I appreciate it! Mike Barone

http://www.cgiscript.net

FREE CGI/Perl Scripts & JavaScript Generators
Ace PopUp Generator Software - Totally FREE

 

[JHoarty]

Excellent. Very clean and easy to navigate. Did you outsource the graphics work? If so, I'd love to know who did it.

Big improvement over my first visit.

John Hoarty
jhoarty@quickestore.com

http://www.quickestore.com

 

[MikeBarone]

Actually she is a good friend and a site partner, Windy Web, look at the partner link for her link.

Thanks! Mike Barone

http://www.cgiscript.net

FREE CGI/Perl Scripts & JavaScript Generators
Ace PopUp Generator Software - Totally FREE

 

[shmmeee]

Mike,
can't find a single thing to fault. Nice design, and a good variety of scripts, I think I'll add this to my bookmarks.

Iain

 

[coldfused]

yeh i forgot, it has been added to my favorites..

carlsatterwhite@endangeredgraphics.com

 

[MikeBarone]

You guys are being too nice, there has to be SOMETHING 'wrong' Mike Barone

http://www.cgiscript.net

FREE CGI/Perl Scripts & JavaScript Generators
Ace PopUp Generator Software - Totally FREE

 

[funkymonk]

Well, you may want something to be wrong but I'm afraid there is nothing wrong. Very nice site. I also love the graphics and as I'm sooo lazy when it comes to learning scripting it's good to have another free source. Again, very nice! Well done! Bookmarked! roda B-)
rod@sameplanet.co.uk

 

[Bananas]

Mike,
When I click on FAQ or Help on the top navigation graphic I am getting the home page again. ???
I am experiencing severe slow down accessing the site so I will check back later as I am sure it isn't the fault of your site.
I have downloaded the free pop-up generator to try so I will let your know later how what I think of it. Joe Bananas

http://www.therealperth.com

An independent guide to Perth, Scotland

 

[MikeBarone]

Yes, the FAQ is not developed yet. Do you think I should have a message saying 'coming soon'? Mike Barone

http://www.cgiscript.net

FREE CGI/Perl Scripts & JavaScript Generators
Ace PopUp Generator Software - Totally FREE

 

[Bananas]

If you haven't tried to get a listing in Yahoo! yet I would finish any unfinished parts of the site first. They will reject your submission if they find things like that and you will have wasted your money.
You could put a "coming soon" message meantime though. Joe Bananas

http://www.therealperth.com

An independent guide to Perth, Scotland

 

[simmerdown]

Pardon me, MikeBarone, but I'm going to be the "one that's not like the others."

The site is pretty good. Lots of good stuff available, etc. Nice subdued color choices. But (this is the designer side of me speaking now) the graphic look, um, doesn't really have it all together. Little details that I noticed:
1) The "go" button for your search box seems disconnected, invisible, non-obvious.
2) Why the big, uh, thing across the top of the page? It seems to be there more for the sake of the graphic than the links it contains. The links aren't very prominent at all. Not that they need to be huge, but in comparison to the text links immediately below, they're sort of indistinguishable. If it weren't for them being above the text links, there'd be little clue that those were the primary navigation. Hmm.
3) The logo seems to read "CGIS cripts" on first glance ... that capital "S" really throws the mind. Try dropping the case to "CGIscripts.net", or even go all lowercase. It'd be much sharper.
4) You pop open a new window for the privacy statement, but the page that loads has all the navigation and other stuff still. To the viewer, this is a unnecessary mental duplication ... I'd recommend something like popping up a small window with only the privacy statment and a "close this window" link. Otherwise there's really no need for the new window.
5) The search results page needs serious text-layout help. Bright red text over that teal background is almost painful to read, and the font sizes are getting screwed up somehow.

There's the summary from my quick look-see. You're doing a lot of things right, but please keep working on the interface stuff. Oh, and not to vilify your graphics person, but the abundance of drop shadow and bevel on many of your graphics is, shall we say, very 1996 ... Here, take a look at your css-modified scrollbar. Clean and crisp. Now take that feel to the rest of your graphics. Non-3d is OK, really!

Here's honestly hoping this helps.
David

 

[MikeBarone]

Yes, very helpful. I agree and disagree with a few points. Let me absorb them a bit and get back to you. Thanks for the reminder of the search, I forgot to format the results page - DOOOH. Mike Barone

http://www.cgiscript.net

FREE CGI/Perl Scripts & JavaScript Generators
Ace PopUp Generator Software - Totally FREE

 

[Wullie]

Hi mate,

I just read the previous post from Simmerdown and though I would add a few comments.

I agree about the GO button, could be moved over slightly to make it nearer the search box.

I definatly have to disagree about the navigation layout on the top of the site. I am running a 56K modem at home so it takes a little longer to load. The first thing I see is the navigation menu at the top, to me it stands out fine, I really cannot see a problem with it. The people using your site are going to be site owners so the chances of someone not knowing that it is used for navigation are virtually zero!!

Simmerdown mentions that the links are not prominent, what does he want, big huge buttons that say CLICK HERE.

Morale of the story, I think you should follow the opinions of every other post and leave the navigation the way it is!!

I`ve not got time to check the rest of the items mentioned as it`s now nearly 1am here in Scotland and I need sleep!!

Will have a good look tommorrow.

I`m not a designer but I thought you would be better having both sides of the story..

Sorry Simmerdown but I felt it had to be said!!

Hope this helps mate, keep up the great work.
Wullie

http://www.survivorhelp.co.uk

 

[MikeBarone]

Thanks Wullie. I will listen to what everyone has to say and make my decisions based on what is best for the typical user.

If the menu is based on 1996 technology, as I have heard mentioned here. Then it seems to me that they will know their way around quite easily, they have had enough years to get used to it

The reason hehind the search GO button appearing to be so far away is actually a Netscape issue. Because NS dopes not allow me to change the size of the text field I need to leave a lot of room for it. If anyone knows a way around that I am all ears.

This is not the only forum I have site reviews posted, the comments are basically the same. The look is good but the odds and ends things that are being mentioned here are definately things I am interested in.

Please keep the comments coming and know that I appreciate them. Mike Barone

http://www.cgiscript.net

FREE CGI/Perl Scripts & JavaScript Generators
Ace PopUp Generator Software - Totally FREE

 

[Wullie]

Hi mate,

Typical, got to bed and could not get to sleep LOL so I decided to check out your site again..

I use netscape for testing so I tried it out in that as well.

Here are the things I noticed. All the following things are small but I thought I would tell you anyway.

1) I am not sure if you have missed this or if I have stumbled across a page that I shouldn`t have but after entering "test" and doing a search I was greeted by a page with mumbled text on it. LOL Trust me to find that!!

2)In netscape on the javascripts page, the link Scrollbar, Title& Statusbar seems to show as two links, Scrollbar, Title& is one then the Statusbar is another link, but explorer shows the whole link as one.

3)On the perl scripts page at the top, the text says "We offer a comprehensive array of free JavaScript code". Maybe you could change that to perl just for that page, as the way it looks to me is that you only want people to submit javascript and not perl codes.

4)On the contact page, the following text appears: "Please fill out the form as completely as possible. Supplying as many details as you can, we will get back with you soon."
Should that not be
"as completely as possible, supplying as many details as you can. We will get back with you soon."

I don`t have any solution for the GO button except maybe to make it a little brighter so it stands out...

There are a few things I can`t comment on as i`m Scottish so you spell a lot of words different from how I would.

Well thats all I can see mate, as I said before, they are all small things and I had a very good look at the site and could only come up with these tiny things!!

It`s a thousand times better than I could do.. Maybe one day... LOL

Hope this helps mate
Wullie

http://www.survivorhelp.co.uk

 

[simmerdown]

Never let it be said that I'd want "Click Here" used! My issues with the navigation bar at the top were coming from a graphic designer's point of view [I am one]. The look of it seemed a little overdone to me, the links so proportionately small in a big grey beveled ... thing. It's not bad, just not a very modern/hip/purposeful/professional look on the web anymore.

Also, possible that I've been reading a bit too much Jakob Nielsen recently, but usability is not only about fast download times. It's also about not visually messing with your viewers' minds. Sometimes the little details like a Go button being not quite obvious enough are enough to cause irritation.