Please review- new site

[richardtj]

Okay, so it's not exactly new, but I've spent the past 4 months completely revamping the old site (a complete re-write). I know that it's not going to be to everyone's taste, but looking for any constructive criticism.

Site is: Computer Recycling Cambridge

Here's a quick run-down on the site:

1) Template design took 3 months, built around CSS with no Flash and Java to kickstart ie6.
2) Designed to inject completely different way of thinking into what I see as a pretty mundane product when it comes to marketing
3) I've designed the site to make it more user interactive and readable than most. I'm hoping that the bounce rate on this site will be below 40%?!?

I've optimised the site considerably, but if you're outside the UK, I think the speed may be a little low (2.1 secs in the UK)
Pagespeed scores the site at 95%.
If you're knowledge of CSS is good, please take a look at pagespeed issues with the CSS- it doesn't like the number of levels to my flyouts (crap coding on my part).

I've tried to remove as much redundancy fro the CSS as possible, using position:aboslute rather than position:relative and avoiding using too many containers!

Finally, I design on a mac and then review on a PC, but on this site the 2 look pretty much identical side by side. I've had to specify things like line-height for the fonts, as there's issues with ie not displaying like the more CSS compliant browsers. However, Opera won't play ball with non-standard fonts. Can anyone suggest what type of fonts Opera needs to see in order to work? Does it even matter with Opera? I've checked G's webmaster tools and it looks like less than 2% of visitors use Opera.

Forgot to say, trying to avoid Flash on this site as it's designed for B2B and a lot of businesses won't allow employees to have Flash installed on their PC's. With Apple not supporting Flash on their new handhelds (iphone, iPad), I'm a little wary of adding any flash to a site that could potentially be viewed through these platforms as well.

 

[bens1287]

I like the overall concept but there are a few things that need work. I'll start with the good though... great load times throughout the entire site. I mean really good load times and I am in the US. Also, it's not a carbon copy of other stuff out there on the web. Always good to be original.

Negatives
The site navigation, while unique, is a little confusing and when I click one, I am not sure what page I am on or I clicked the right one. I would say keep the hover boxes but maybe get a page title in the body of the site, or somehow make the pages unique.

also, there's a weird white margin on the bottom of the footer. I am on the latest version of Firefox on a Macbook 13in late 2007 model. The site isn't buggy or anything. I just think your footer has a margin or something on the bottom of it.

Also, validate your site's html at least. The css is whatever (fyi it doesn't validate) but, at least your html should.

But regardless nice, original design

____________________________
Ephan Design

 

[sarahdaniels]

i like your logo things that bothers me about your site are:

1. the place where you put the contact..about and license.. - it doesn't really blend well on the bg
2.the text from the 3 boxes are too small having hard time to read it.
3.try using dark colors for the 3 boxes
4. use a readable font

I hope didn't offend you but of course its just my comment.

 

[d a v e]

the drop shadows behind the spires look messy

use a soft brush to soften the edhe where the sky disappears to white - and there's a flag behind the 'd' of Cambridge.

it's commendable that you've css sprites but you have images as a gif that should be jpegs (e.g. the footer image)
i get a horizontal scrollbar at 1024 px wide (latest firefox, win vista)

no favicon - always nice to have for bookmarks

text-shadow on the box text makes it hard to read - best to use text-shadow on larger text sizes

it might be just me but i don't like the way you have to hover over everything to get the (more) info...

link logo to homepage

text boxes don't resize with text size increase

not whether you have all the alt attributes specified - and they should mirror the image text esp. the logo

a good effort but (you knew there was a but) i think it would be simpler and more effective to keep the layout simpler and present the info as straightforward paragraphs, maybe with 3-5 bullet points as intro to quickly present benefits of recycling etc (i.e. inverted pyramid style)

 

[BigRed]

A few things on first impressions, the landscape of Cambridge is great for a tourist site but way off beat for a "green " computer recycling company (even if it is in Cambridge).
The "Environmentally Conscious" section is difficult to read with the white text on a green background. You have a lot of detail and info on the front page, but maybe too much, for example, Personal recycling and Current Legislation on the top menu sure stick out but might be better in a smaller menu option. I guess the page maybe has a tad too much text content.
Most folks probably don't know a whole lot about computer recycling and all the legal stuff is great but maybe some snaps of the recycling process might help.
Viewing in Firefox is fine but it scrolls a tad off the page but I have a wide monitor so it's no big deal, but might be an issue for some folks.

Fonts in Opera? Check here for more on that http://my.opera.com/ODIN/blog/opera-10-alpha-web-fonts-acid3

 

[fbhc]

May I ask which CMS you built the site on? The load times are good in California. Other than the above mentioned stuff. Your pages are not search engine friendly with the URL. I suppose if I was looking for this information, it might not be as confusing as I found, but sorry some of it is with all the pop outs.