New Website - Feedback on Design and Usability

[Holger Schmitz]

Hi

I have designed and programmed a new website that lets students and personal tutors meet. It is intended for an audience in the UK. I would really love some feedback on the design and usability of the website. I know there are still a few things that I want to improve. One of them it the design of the main navigation, which I am not happy with.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks

Holger

[TheGAME1264]

Tried your search without a postcode...didn't return any matches. It probably should.

The navigation is usable, although it lacks a logo (the Tutor Scout thing doesn't really look like anything) and it's dark on dark...go dark on light, ideally.

Might want to look at making your home page three-column...be a bit easier to read if you did.

Don't really have any other thoughts since I haven't been able to find any tutors.

[MeneerJ]

Hi Holger!

Been looking at your site and this is what I think:

Missing a decent logo, the logo will do alot for you in terms of looking professional and giving your website it's own identity. I'm not a logo man myself, but what about one of them college graduate hats with a nifty font?

Double navigation (up top and on the right side) is kind of weird to me You don't have many menu items, which is nice! The less items, the more accessible your website will be, so I'd stick with one nvaigation. I'd make it stand out a bit more visually, coz it's kind of bland now. ALso the search is kind of small in my opinion, I take it people are gonna be searching alot? Check out youtube's searchbar, it's huge, and stimulates to start searching. Also you'd might wanna consider the whole "e.g. math..." in the search bar does not speak to me. Maybe a different choice of words that sounds more human and inviting? But I'm dutch, so it could be me

I think the homepage has too much text. I assume you're gonna be dependant on alot of google traffic, people like that don't have alot of focus, and don't wanna read alot. I'd make three blocks with a short intro text and a read more button. The short intro text should basically have the essence of the whole alinea. I recommend making a three column grid: picture up top, below it the short intro text with a read more button. Maybe underneath that another big horizontal searchbar?

Think about what you want people to do on your website. Are they coming from google? Do they have time to read alot of stuff? Or do they just wanna start searching right away?

Hope these 2 cents can be of help. If you need any inspiration this is where I like to hang out:

www.templatemonster.com

Good luck!

[Holger Schmitz]

First of all, thanks for the thorough reviews.

I have thought about a logo, but what I came up with until now wasn't really good enough. I will definitely spend some time in the near future designing a logo that would go with the current colour scheme. The college hat is a nice idea ...

I will try out a three column layout for the front page.

@TheGAME1264: The search doesn't return any results yet, because there are no tutors in the database. Tutors can register for free and I think that I will have to state that a bit more clearly at the top of the page.

@MeneerJ: The double navigation is currently there because I don't have many links in the sidebar. There will be more links in the future, linking to information for parents, teacher resources, news etc.
I will keep in mind that it should not look too busy.

You are right that most of the traffic will be coming from Google and I will look at reducing the text on the front page and maybe making adding some graphics.

The example text in the search bar is encouraging people to type in the types of searches supported by the website. As it is a search for tutors, the user can search for subject, level and postcode. But you are right when you are saying that it isn't very prominent.

I think I have my work cut out for the next couple of days

Thanks again!