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Old 04-25-2004, 10:47 AM   #1 (permalink)
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Is this site professional-looking?

I've recently set up a new site, http://www.innotara.com

My main concern is whether the site is professional-looking and the ease of navigation.

My target market is busy entrepreneurs, investors, and executives, so I'm trying to make the site as professional and easy to navigate as possible.

Does the site load fast, even on a dial-up? Is it easy to find your way around without having to scroll around the pages? Feel free to give me any comments or critique about it.


Cheerio,
Luc.
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Old 04-25-2004, 12:33 PM   #2 (permalink)
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It loaded quickly. The site design reminds me of more asian company websites. I think it would cleaner if the body text was smaller. The menu items could be bigger and maybe in a different place. It's kind of hard to spot it since it's not in the usual position of along the bottom/top of the header or along the left-hand side and plus the the text is really small.
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Old 04-25-2004, 04:06 PM   #3 (permalink)
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Hi Luc.

Busy professionals are very fussy customers. Time is money to them and they don't like things to be different!

The site looks okay. Green is a very conservative colour and is usually associated with finance etc., so the choice of colour is good. I don't have a problem with the font size as there's not a huge amount of text and many people - especially the older generation - keep complaining that text on the web is too small!

There's *way* too much dead space though! Your top section is huge and the only thing in there is a logo, which is quite small. I'd make the logo bigger and reduce the size of the top area to the absolute minimum to hold it. The left section is pretty much the same thing, except there's nothing in there that is useful! I'm not saying ditch it though, as it helps to balance the site. What I'd recommend is that you move it to the right-hand side so that your navigation is on the left, where you'd expect it, and the graphical bit is out of the way, but still adding to the overall look of the site. Finally, where you've wrote 'Business & social networking', it really doesn't stand out. It will help if you drop the 'Welcome' message and move the other wording to the left along with the navigation etc., but you'll also want to make it bolder so that it stands out more.

The title of your homepage is 'Welcome!' too. When someone bookmarks your site is will appear in their list as just that, 'Welcome!'. Not very memorable! Change the page title to 'Innotara - Business and Social Networking'. That way it will bookmark under 'I' for Innotara, again where you'd expect it, and it includes a reminder of what the site is about.

With a few changes I think your good site will be a great site

Last edited by Onyx; 04-25-2004 at 04:12 PM.
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Old 04-28-2004, 10:06 AM   #4 (permalink)
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Hi,

Thanks for the responses. I'll be working on the site to add some of the changes this weekend. I'll definitely be moving the graphic to the right, and a lot of people are also saying the menu is too small, so I'll expand the size too.

By the way thanks for the reminder about the bookmark title Onyx, I forgot that little yet extremely important aspect.
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Old 04-28-2004, 11:19 AM   #5 (permalink)
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website

Lucas,
I would also spend some time adjusting phpbb so it looks more like you home page, it looks TOTALLY different and to me it seems that it is a totally different site, the goal is for to make them remember you, and sometimes color can make that happen.

just my 2-cents.
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Old 04-29-2004, 04:12 PM   #6 (permalink)
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The best thing to do if you really want some feedback is to do several iterations and layouts (preferably on Photoshop or Illustrator), then have us give you input on each of the prototypes. You might find that there could be several elements in each prototype you could combine. Ultimately, you'll have all that you need once you've had them reviewed by your target user/customer.
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Old 05-12-2004, 06:40 PM   #7 (permalink)
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Site Down?

Hi,

I just tried to go to your site: http://www.innotara.com/ as I am interested in looking at it. when I go to it there is no site there? The site seems to be down.

Will you be putting it back up soon?
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Old 05-12-2004, 07:13 PM   #8 (permalink)
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I can't reach the site either.

Please let us know when it is back up.

Karen
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Old 05-13-2004, 12:14 AM   #9 (permalink)
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Hi,

The site is down at the moment, I'm currently working on it, plus I've changed the business focus slightly. Should be up within two months or so, when all the financials have been worked out.
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Old 05-13-2004, 11:10 AM   #10 (permalink)
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Page 404 - very professional
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Old 05-22-2004, 02:08 PM   #11 (permalink)
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Quote:
Originally posted by ericesquire
Page 404 - very professional
Sheesh! You got that right...

Could have at least made a custom 404 that:
  • Told you the daily fortune cookie phrase.
  • Directed you to Disney.com if you're not old enough for the standard 404.
  • Installed SearchBar, Kdnxx, and 4 other Spyware programs.
  • Or my favorite... A custom 404 with digital bubble wrap!

Have you seen that? It's here:
http://www.virtual-bubblewrap.com/popnow.shtml

<~~~~~ bubbling patiently until the site's up again so that I can recklessly criticize it to no end
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Old 05-22-2004, 09:04 PM   #12 (permalink)
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Hmm custom 404, I like that (you see the same stuff on Angelfire pages). How do you design custom 404 pages? I can't seem to find any buttons for that in my web host.
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