7 ms·

Ask HN: What do you think about my agency's new website and how can I improve it

8 points by kiraken 8y ago

We had to retire our old website, and move to something more modern and simplistic. However i feel that i spent a lot of time over thinking this project, so i wanted to show it to you guys at its current form to get your opinion on whether or not its ready to be used, and if there are any issues that i need to take a look at! This is the link: https://www.eliteware.co/testing https://www.eliteware.co/testing

pwg 8y ago
With no javascript allowed, I get a large red dot in the center of my browser window. If I turn off stylesheets, I can see that there was html text delivered to my browser, so that text should have appeared, instead of just a single red spot.
jonah 8y ago
Pretty broken on mobile. (Android 7.1.1, Chrome) Menu animation is too slow on mobile.
- kiraken 8y ago
  Thanks for going over the site bud. The mobile version is not uploaded yet!
Aeolun 8y ago
You've got a lovely `"; } } ?> ` right at the bottom of you page ;) I mostly noticed it because somehow the page was scrolling when it shouldn't be.
- kiraken 8y ago
  Thanks for that! Fixed!
matthberg 8y ago
With js allowed there's a page which displays that looks browser window sized, yet if you scroll down slightly there's "";}}?>" at the bottom of the page. I was expecting more content below, so was confused a little. Also I mistook your logo on the left red column as the menu icon, and took a little time to find the actual burger menu at top right(ish). I love the font, colors, and floaty dots to far right though!
- kiraken 8y ago
  Thanks for the feedback! And i fixed the small text on the bottom. I'll definitely keep in mind making the menu icon bigger, and maybe the logo would also open the menu!
haser_au 8y ago
- Load times for the case studies are loooong. - Took a bit of getting used to the scroll thing. Didn't know if I was at the top/bottom, so just had to guess - Text is small. Can't zoom/enlarge text on https://www.eliteware.co/testing/projects.html https://www.eliteware.co/testing/projects.html - You have some weird characters at the bottom of the page ("; } } ?>). - Does the left menu work? I can't get it to. Overall, seems like a professionally designed site, but you need to be clear on who you are trying to appeal to. Are you showing what you guys can do, or are you trying to give them information about your services/past clients? It seems like you're trying to do both, and expecting the user to click through quite a few times. I'd love to see it all on one page, but that's just me.
- kiraken 8y ago
  Thanks a lot for taking the time to go over the website! -I agree about the loading time, working on a fix right now -I'll make sure i change the font size -Fixed the weird characters thingy -What left menu? Didn't get this point, there's a menu on the top right
- Freeboots 8y ago
  > Does the left menu work? I can't get it to. Me too, then I realized it's their logo.
clusmore 8y ago
When I noticed that you linked to a subdirectory, I immediately went to the root and noticed you're serving a raw directory listing at https://www.eliteware.co https://www.eliteware.co . I don't expect I'll be the only person to check this.
- kiraken 8y ago
  Thanks for that! Completely skipped my mind
MrLeap 8y ago
Hijacking the scrollbar is a big pet peeve of mine. Designers keep trying to bring this fad back. I wish they'd not. I get the allure, but I've never seen it be a value add. Browsers handle that for you, don't get in its way!
Freeboots 8y ago
Not ready. Have you looked at it on mobile? It barely functions, not just slow but not mobile responsive. "; } } ?> At the bottom of home page. Text is often covered by images, particularly on the projects page. I also question some design decisions: Why a wall of text popup for About instead of a page? Why is the Close button sometimes on the top-left, sometimes top-middle, but never top-right where everyone expects it to be? Because of the visiual similarity to a hamburger menu, it took me long time to realise your logo was a logo and not a menu icon. Edit: I see a couple other comments also made this mistake. Why is there a non-scrolling bar telling me to scroll? Edit: I figured it out, it's scroll buttons. Why? Is this an accessibility thing? Anyway I don't mean to be an ass, but you badly need to sort out the mobile experience. It's not encouraging that a web agency has failed to do so on their own website.
- kiraken 8y ago
  Thank you for taking the time to go over the website! And i forgot to mention this in the OP, but the mobile version is not uploaded yet. But i'll keep everything else you mentioned in mind
  - Freeboots 8y ago
    Ohh haha ok
alphabettsy 8y ago
Why am I stuck looking at a red ring type animation on iOS? Very fast connection on very fast hardware.
acconrad 8y ago
Fellow consultant here. These are the top 3 things you should fix: 1. The site loads very slowly. This is largely static content, it should not take this long to load. Adding in all of the whiz-bang animations and transitions detracts from your overall message. 2. It's not very accessible. Small fonts, poor contrast, it's very difficult to read. If you have a 50-year old CEO with money to burn, do you really want him/her to pass on your firm because they can't read your case studies? 3. It's a bit confusing. The logo kind of looks like a hamburger menu. The hamburger menu dropdown is really in your face, and you take over scrolling when going through the list of projects. So many things that make me cringe, please don't take over my scrolling! Make the information intuitive and easy to access.
rambojazz 8y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_least_astonishment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_least_astonishmen...
kjullien 8y ago
I'll give UX feedback: Don't use a burger menu, especially for a desktop version where you only have 4-5 pages that could easily fit horizontally. Disable the link of your logo on the homepage as it is redundant and can lead to confusion. The subtitle font is so thin I cannot read it. (I have bad eyes and a reading problem) You don't keep any navigation consistency between your pages. "About" simply opens an overlay while "Projects" is a separate page. You serve mixed content (my browser warned me I haven't checked what the content is) And lastly, if your point is to make people discover who and what you are, this design is pretty useless. A quick google search returns 20K results for "we Create digital experiences". I, for example, haven't got a clue about what kind of work you do.
moltar 8y ago
Doesn’t work on iPhone SE. Get horizontal scrolling and layout is all out of whack.
markbernard 8y ago
Do not break the user expectations. When I use the scroll wheel on my mouse the page screws up. As soon as I get close to the bottom it automatically flips back to the top. You may want the user to use your scroll buttons but most people won't because scrolling has been around from the beginning and people already do it a certain way. Expecting them to change for your site will make them leave. You can add your own little nuances like you have but always make sure it meshes with the current way of doing things.

8 points by kiraken 8y ago

pwg 8y ago

With no javascript allowed, I get a large red dot in the center of my browser window. If I turn off stylesheets, I can see that there was html text delivered to my browser, so that text should have appeared, instead of just a single red spot.

jonah 8y ago

Pretty broken on mobile. (Android 7.1.1, Chrome) Menu animation is too slow on mobile.

kiraken 8y ago
Thanks for going over the site bud. The mobile version is not uploaded yet!

Aeolun 8y ago

You've got a lovely `"; } } ?> ` right at the bottom of you page ;) I mostly noticed it because somehow the page was scrolling when it shouldn't be.

kiraken 8y ago
Thanks for that! Fixed!

matthberg 8y ago

With js allowed there's a page which displays that looks browser window sized, yet if you scroll down slightly there's "";}}?>" at the bottom of the page. I was expecting more content below, so was confused a little. Also I mistook your logo on the left red column as the menu icon, and took a little time to find the actual burger menu at top right(ish). I love the font, colors, and floaty dots to far right though!

kiraken 8y ago
Thanks for the feedback! And i fixed the small text on the bottom. I'll definitely keep in mind making the menu icon bigger, and maybe the logo would also open the menu!

haser_au 8y ago

- Load times for the case studies are loooong. - Took a bit of getting used to the scroll thing. Didn't know if I was at the top/bottom, so just had to guess - Text is small. Can't zoom/enlarge text on https://www.eliteware.co/testing/projects.html https://www.eliteware.co/testing/projects.html - You have some weird characters at the bottom of the page ("; } } ?>). - Does the left menu work? I can't get it to. Overall, seems like a professionally designed site, but you need to be clear on who you are trying to appeal to. Are you showing what you guys can do, or are you trying to give them information about your services/past clients? It seems like you're trying to do both, and expecting the user to click through quite a few times. I'd love to see it all on one page, but that's just me.

kiraken 8y ago
Thanks a lot for taking the time to go over the website! -I agree about the loading time, working on a fix right now -I'll make sure i change the font size -Fixed the weird characters thingy -What left menu? Didn't get this point, there's a menu on the top right
Freeboots 8y ago
> Does the left menu work? I can't get it to. Me too, then I realized it's their logo.

clusmore 8y ago

When I noticed that you linked to a subdirectory, I immediately went to the root and noticed you're serving a raw directory listing at https://www.eliteware.co https://www.eliteware.co . I don't expect I'll be the only person to check this.

kiraken 8y ago
Thanks for that! Completely skipped my mind

MrLeap 8y ago

Hijacking the scrollbar is a big pet peeve of mine. Designers keep trying to bring this fad back. I wish they'd not. I get the allure, but I've never seen it be a value add. Browsers handle that for you, don't get in its way!

Freeboots 8y ago

Not ready. Have you looked at it on mobile? It barely functions, not just slow but not mobile responsive. "; } } ?> At the bottom of home page. Text is often covered by images, particularly on the projects page. I also question some design decisions: Why a wall of text popup for About instead of a page? Why is the Close button sometimes on the top-left, sometimes top-middle, but never top-right where everyone expects it to be? Because of the visiual similarity to a hamburger menu, it took me long time to realise your logo was a logo and not a menu icon. Edit: I see a couple other comments also made this mistake. Why is there a non-scrolling bar telling me to scroll? Edit: I figured it out, it's scroll buttons. Why? Is this an accessibility thing? Anyway I don't mean to be an ass, but you badly need to sort out the mobile experience. It's not encouraging that a web agency has failed to do so on their own website.

kiraken 8y ago
Thank you for taking the time to go over the website! And i forgot to mention this in the OP, but the mobile version is not uploaded yet. But i'll keep everything else you mentioned in mind
- Freeboots 8y ago
  Ohh haha ok

alphabettsy 8y ago

Why am I stuck looking at a red ring type animation on iOS? Very fast connection on very fast hardware.

acconrad 8y ago

Fellow consultant here. These are the top 3 things you should fix: 1. The site loads very slowly. This is largely static content, it should not take this long to load. Adding in all of the whiz-bang animations and transitions detracts from your overall message. 2. It's not very accessible. Small fonts, poor contrast, it's very difficult to read. If you have a 50-year old CEO with money to burn, do you really want him/her to pass on your firm because they can't read your case studies? 3. It's a bit confusing. The logo kind of looks like a hamburger menu. The hamburger menu dropdown is really in your face, and you take over scrolling when going through the list of projects. So many things that make me cringe, please don't take over my scrolling! Make the information intuitive and easy to access.

rambojazz 8y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_least_astonishment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_least_astonishmen...

kjullien 8y ago

I'll give UX feedback: Don't use a burger menu, especially for a desktop version where you only have 4-5 pages that could easily fit horizontally. Disable the link of your logo on the homepage as it is redundant and can lead to confusion. The subtitle font is so thin I cannot read it. (I have bad eyes and a reading problem) You don't keep any navigation consistency between your pages. "About" simply opens an overlay while "Projects" is a separate page. You serve mixed content (my browser warned me I haven't checked what the content is) And lastly, if your point is to make people discover who and what you are, this design is pretty useless. A quick google search returns 20K results for "we Create digital experiences". I, for example, haven't got a clue about what kind of work you do.

moltar 8y ago

Doesn’t work on iPhone SE. Get horizontal scrolling and layout is all out of whack.

markbernard 8y ago

Do not break the user expectations. When I use the scroll wheel on my mouse the page screws up. As soon as I get close to the bottom it automatically flips back to the top. You may want the user to use your scroll buttons but most people won't because scrolling has been around from the beginning and people already do it a certain way. Expecting them to change for your site will make them leave. You can add your own little nuances like you have but always make sure it meshes with the current way of doing things.