Gighalen Posted December 7, 2008 Share Posted December 7, 2008 Hi guys. I posted a thread here a few weeks ago featuring my web hosting site, and I have since then completely revamped it based on the feedback I recieved. The site is completely opperational. Everything works including the signup form, billing processor, domain registration, account creation, invoice generation, knowledge base, support ticket system, contact form, and a client login to edit account info / add packages. Though I still do have a few things to polish: Things to do: -Validate :-X -Add "More Facts" page off of the "About Us" page. -Add "Our Mission" page off of the "About Us" page. -Add "Fantastico" page off of the home page. Your constructive criticism would be appreciated. SitePearl Networks www.sitepearl.com Thanks, Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gighalen Posted December 7, 2008 Author Share Posted December 7, 2008 OH and if anyone by any chance orders a package, you get a free domain name of your choice with the advanced and professional packages. Use coupon code 'freedomain' on signup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gighalen Posted December 7, 2008 Author Share Posted December 7, 2008 I updated some template info & the site now validates as XHTML 1.0 Transitional. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nrg_alpha Posted December 7, 2008 Share Posted December 7, 2008 Well, this is definitely an improvement over the last version to be sure! I think as far as layoout is concerned, the one thing that jumps out at me is the width of the top menu.. it seems like it would look better if it was wide enough that it's edge matched the lefthand side of the red Pearlsite logo / content (stuff starting from '» 24/7 Customer Support'). On the home page, I would add some space between the divider line and 'sign up now' bubbles... seems close for visual comfort. Give your stuff some 'room to breath' so-to-speak. Since you have Home in the top menu, I noticed you have a smaller home and login icon ste at the top right.. Me personally, I am a fan of built-in login fields.. so perhaps removing the redundant home from that top area, and extend the login part to have the complete username/password login fields instead? Within hosting... you are touting PHP 4.x?? I think you would do customers a greater service by listing (and providing) the latest stable PHP release (5.2.7). Seeing version 4 is a turn off as this version is not even supported by the PHP team anymore. Oudated software is a good way to deter customers. Looking at your pricing.. to be honest, it isn't as competitive as what I am seeing out there. I am looking at just the lowest package as a comarison. For $7.95 / Month, I am noticing 500 MB of storage space and 5GB of bandwidth as well as offering only 1 database.. compare by contrast to someone like godaddy.. for their smallest package, you get 10GB of storage space, 300GB of bandwidth and 10 databases..other sites like Bluehost charge simular to your basic package (as their only model), yet offer unlimited storage / bandwidth, 100 databases.. Point being, although I realize your operation is not as big as these guys... I think you might have to be considerably more competitive with your offerings. For the contact page, I'm not sure why (even optionally) asking for an username. I would simply ask for the user's actual name (or only username). Having optional fields is not necessary IMO. Reducing the amount of fields to the bare minimum required makes the page look less cluttered, less of a hassle for the client. And again, I feel you are trying to close too much space here.. Have your form set flush left with the top logo, and extending the width of the 'Question' field to perhaps line up with the server image on the top makes everything line up nice and neat. Not that it's horrible or anything as is.. but nice to see site content, headers and footers and whatnot have some nice equal (or near equal) widths and alignments.. As a comarison, I feel the 'Support' page got is almost right in this regard (I think I would shorten the width of 'Latest Announcements' and 'Latest Articles', etc.. so that their edges line up with the top logo. As it currently stands.. almost every page has varying widths / layouts.. this does tend to break continuity considerably IMO. (this especially includes all the content found within 'Service Level Guarantees | Terms Of Service | Privacy Policy | Domain Name Policy | Domain Resolution Policy' links at the bottom of the page. Overall, I do find it is much better for sure! A great step forward! Cheers, NRG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gighalen Posted December 7, 2008 Author Share Posted December 7, 2008 I'm actually running PHP 5.2.6, I guess I just forgot to update it in the demo pages. And you have 100 databases with the standard plan, I just forgot to update it on the hosting page. And the 7.95 is on the per month basis, you save 10%-30% depending on how long you register for, and you get a free domain name as well. I like your other suggestions though, and I will try to implement them tonight. Thanks! Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nrg_alpha Posted December 7, 2008 Share Posted December 7, 2008 Hi Tom.. something to consider is this book. I have an earlier edition, but the principals are the same. The book is geared towards non-designers, and how to place, align and group items, be it text, images or a combination as an example. It's kept simple as far as how the auther demonstrates and explains things.. makes a big difference by doing small changes in alignment and whatnot. It's not a thick (nor expensive book). While it is very helpful for people designing ads or flyers or many other incarnations of printed elements, it truly does apply to web design as well. A very useful book IMO. It one of those 'good bang for small bucks' kind of thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
defeated Posted December 7, 2008 Share Posted December 7, 2008 Hi, Your page http://www.sitepearl.com/billing/public/ has some extra space below the white border which is nice but it doesn't appear on any other page. Also, why not use mod_rewrite to tidy up those ?page='s and use the opportunity to drop in some nice keywords! Like the send button on your contact form but the form itself could do with a little work to make it look nicer.... just some simple css to make it look friendly and inviting rather than having it as standard. It makes it look more professional. I haven't gone into the site in any real detail, these are just first impressions. Hope you find them useful... If you don't you can always ignore them! Defeated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gighalen Posted December 8, 2008 Author Share Posted December 8, 2008 Thanks for the feedback. I greatly appreciate it. nrg_alpha, thanks for the link - I will most definately look into it. I'm a coder, not a designer And defeated, thanks for pointing that out to me. I will go back and add some padding to the bottom. What is this mod_rewrite you speak of? I'm not sure if I'm familiar with it, but I'll try googling it. And yes, a revamp of the contact page is currently in the making I won't be able to do it tonight (I have a HUGE chemisty AND history project due tomorrow :-\), but I will update the template tomorrow after school implementing the suggestions I have recieved. Thanks again, Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newb Posted December 8, 2008 Share Posted December 8, 2008 not bad, but some aspects of the design, such as the buttons and navigation, look really unprofessional. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
defeated Posted December 8, 2008 Share Posted December 8, 2008 For mod_rewrite you could try http://www.workingwith.me.uk/articles/scripting/mod_rewrite There are also tools available on other sites that will generate the code for you if you google around a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Posted December 8, 2008 Share Posted December 8, 2008 Far better design! Though still have the problem with JavaScript where you can't submit anything on the contact page or even register without it! Although approx. 95% of users do have JavaScript enabled still need to cater for it, if not just to show professionalism! The only bad thing I have to say about the design though is you appear to have two different styles merging. For example the orange/gold images on the homepage don't match up with the sharp, stylish header images! Also I'd recommend using Arial or the "Trebuchet MS" font, would look better / cleaner I think! Adam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gighalen Posted December 8, 2008 Author Share Posted December 8, 2008 Ah thank you. I was thinking about chunking the orange buttons and creating some new ones. And I'm also about to revamp the contact us page. I've just been REALLY busy the past 2 days because I'm teaching my chemistry class this week as part of my own chemistry grade (ironic, I know), but tonight I should have a lot of spare time to work on the site. And I will try out the font you have suggested. and defeated, thanks for the link! I'm gonna go pop a couple pizzas in the oven & will get started after I'm done eating Thanks for all the feedback/criticism guys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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