First Ever Site Review

[ftball22]

Hi guys,
My first ever site has been created!!

Its a place for people to go for problems with their technology and for a general chatter about it (although i have many more ideas for the future)

The URL is: www.techno-helpsolutions.com

Any feedback appreciated and obviously you're all welcome to sign up as well

[jalarie]

Not bad. And only a couple of coding errors: http://validator.w3.org/check?charse...solutions.com/

[oracleguy]

On the home page at the bottom there is a large chuck of white space below the gray box. It kind of makes it look like the page hasn't finished loading.

I don't like that the sign in link causes a pop up window. Why not just have a div that slides out with the login form? And when clicking the sign up link, it brings me to the same pop up and then I have to click "Sign Up" again. That is awkward and too many clicks. On your sign up page you aren't setting the background color so if the user's default background color isn't white (mine is black), the page is very hard to read.

The link for "problem pages" is confusing, it is just the forum rules and the same with the discussion forum. If your site is going to be just a big discussion forum you should have the forums accessible even to people that aren't signed up. If the forum is only viewable to logged in users then that means none of the posts will be indexed by search engines.

The rules pages should be separate links from the links the discussion forum.

Your report a user form probably should only be accessible to people who have logged into help cut down on spam.

[ftball22]

I don't like that the sign in link causes a pop up window. Why not just have a div that slides out with the login form? And when clicking the sign up link, it brings me to the same pop up and then I have to click "Sign Up" again. That is awkward and too many clicks. On your sign up page you aren't setting the background color so if the user's default background color isn't white (mine is black), the page is very hard to read.

Hi,

Can you explain the problem about the sign-up issue a little clearer please because that could be putting users off from signing up.

Also, i don't quite understand the background issue. I have set the background to be the same colour as the main website.

The link for "problem pages" is confusing, it is just the forum rules and the same with the discussion forum. If your site is going to be just a big discussion forum you should have the forums accessible even to people that aren't signed up. If the forum is only viewable to logged in users then that means none of the posts will be indexed by search engines.

Yes, it was just a way of gaining users if i'm honest. I didn't know that the posts won't be visible in search engines because of this.

Like the idea though of password protected report a user page.

Thanks for the sugggestions.

[oracleguy]

Hi,

Can you explain the problem about the sign-up issue a little clearer please because that could be putting users off from signing up.

Well it is just weird having the login and the sign up in a pop up. And for a new user to sign up they click on sign up yet get the login page and then have to click another link to get to the real sign up page.

Get rid of the pop up and make the login page and the sign up page pages on the main site instead. You could even have the login form always visible up in the right hand corner for users that haven't logged in. (This website does something like that when you aren't logged in.)

Also, i don't quite understand the background issue. I have set the background to be the same colour as the main website.

I'm not on my other computer right now, I'll have to take a look at that again later.

Yes, it was just a way of gaining users if i'm honest. I didn't know that the posts won't be visible in search engines because of this.

Yeah, you probably want the posts indexed by search engines. And in fact requiring users to register to even look at the forums would probably hurt more than it would help. Someone would be less inclined to go through the effort of registering without seeing what all is available.

[Kevin Richards]

I agree about the large amount of white space at the bottom of the page. It definitely threw me off.. It gives the sense that the homepage doesn't isn't finished. Also the question mark logo at the top left of the page isn't as defined as it could be.. It drew my eye in a negative way.. Otherwise everything looks nice, especially for a first site..

[PTacoma]

The front page is simple and easy to read, however I also agree that the large white space at the bottom of the page makes it appear unfinished. For a first site it's very well done though.

[ILISacramento]

I like your site, it is well laid out and shows clearly what you are offering. Great work for a first site!