What do you think of my website? (Full Version)

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ZipLabor -> What do you think of my website? (10/13/2007 20:32:34)

Hello All,

I created a website and would like to get your opinions about it.

The idea for the website came from my many years as a business owner, home owner, rental property owner, and spouse. I always found myself in need of help, a helping hand to get something done. So, I would call friends, go to the park to recruit some kid, go to the local unemployment office to find someone, ask friends the status of their kids, and/or stop and talk to the guy on the side of the road with the sign that read 'Will Work for Food or Money'. These techniques were time consuming and many times failed and I could not find the help I needed.

So I created ZipLabor. ZipLabor is Temporary Short-Term Labor. The ZipLabor website brings together: people with a Task they need to do; and people qualified to Complete those Tasks. People with a Task to do I call Demanders and people who can complete the Task I call Performers. ZipLabor works on a National Level. Performers can freely post their Qualifications on the website. Demanders are charged a minimal free of $10 (max $100) to Post their Task on the website for up to 60 days.

To help Promote my website I use local volunteer community groups. These registered Organizations share all fees collected and are distributed royalty checks twice a year.

To help with security of the website, all users must supply a reference and enter into a legal agreement with ziplabor.

So, What do you think of the concept of my website? If you have visited the website, What do you think of it?

Thanks for your response. JBM



treetopsranch -> RE: What do you think of my website? (10/13/2007 21:37:27)

Found one annoying thing. After clicking on your menu items I found too many open windows. Don't open new windows for each menu item.

Redesign your menu and put it on the Home page also. (You have separated menu words which will confuse your visitors.)

Show visitors what country you plan to supply workers for. (Unless you intend to supply workers for all of the world. )

Your website is not accessible if javascript is turned off.



jurgen -> RE: What do you think of my website? (10/13/2007 21:38:28)

[:)][:)][:)][:)][:)][:)]

Good luck...... [sm=rotfl.gif]



d a v e -> RE: What do you think of my website? (10/14/2007 5:07:28)

is it this http://www.ziplabor.com/ ??

it looks shit



womble -> RE: What do you think of my website? (10/14/2007 5:31:48)

Um, well what can I say except the graphic at the top of your gateway page (gateway pages are rarely a good idea btw) is extremely fuzzy and doesn't look professional.

Putting myself in the shoes of someone who might want to use your site, I'm afraid I got no further than that gateway page as I got a big popup warning about the validity of your security certificate, something which I'm sure would put many people off even entering the site, let alone using it.

Looking at the site's certificate, the problem is that you're issuing your own certificate, which few businesses can get away with. For people to be able to trust your site you really do need a certificate issued by one of the big and trusted Certificate Authorities.



Donkey -> RE: What do you think of my website? (10/14/2007 13:42:16)

It looks so amateurish I would never use it. For something like this where the customer could be employing people at your recomendation the user needs confidence in the site. It should look professional.

Also the weird terminology you have invented is so wrong i.e. "Demander". It is a joke. If you don't use the right words nobody will understand you.

Nowhere do you state which country you are operating in (this is pretty crucial if you are trying to recruit short term labour) at a guess from the poor English used I would expect it's India or somewhere in Eastern Europe.

You need a major re-think.



Tailslide -> RE: What do you think of my website? (10/22/2007 4:06:42)


quote:

ORIGINAL: d a v e

is it this http://www.ziplabor.com/ ??

it looks shit


Two years I've been coming here and I've never ever heard Dave say something like this so I had to have a look and I have to say that he's right. I'm afraid that no-one will take your business seriously with this website it looks so unprofessional and frankly just dodgy.

If this is your sole business then either buy a nice shiny template and use that OR hire a professional.



ZipLabor -> RE: What do you think of my website? (5/10/2008 20:36:06)

I want to thank you all for your good and shitty suggestions. I have made many changes to the website and traffic is booming.

Please take another look and let me know what you think. Your comments are appreciated.

ZipLabor



d a v e -> RE: What do you think of my website? (5/11/2008 1:38:21)

wow! bright shit :)



Tailslide -> RE: What do you think of my website? (5/11/2008 2:18:55)

I'm honestly speechless!

Actually I'm not..

It's really good that you're trying to make the site accessible - but you need to make sure that you're using the correct techniques to do this and ensure that you don't completely miss some more basic ones. Some of the things that you are doing are actually incorrect - as are some of the things mentioned on your accessibility page:

1. Italics are considered harder to read than "normal" text - I wouldn't use them to highlight links.
2. I find the normal font weight serif text on some of your pages really hard to read on the #ccc background. Although technically enough contrast - it's still hard to read. I'd consider either changing the background colour to allow for more contrast or use sans-serif text.
3. Your links become bold on hover which is irritating to be honest.
4. You have no focus effect for non-mouse users on links.
5. With images off - there's no navigation!!1
6. Your navigation items are all in H2 tags! They should be in a list. H2 tags are headings.
7. Your use of yellow for the banner image is off - it should be a paler yellow, that yellow is way too bright.
8. Removing images from the markup is not by itself correct. All informational images should remain in the markup. Only background images (and stuff that's there "just for pretty") should be in the stylesheet.
9. You talk about users using the tab key - but you have no way of them knowing where they are if they do (see point 5).
10. Access keys are considered a "bad thing" by most accessibility advocates - they interfere with the way the keyboard works and should be avoided.
11. Image replacement is only of value if the technique allows the content to be visible with images off (some would argue also with CSS off).
12. Your layout is not a hybrid of elastic layouts! It's plain old fluid - which is fine to an extent but it is hard to read a large chunk of text if it's unconstrained in width - the eye finds it hard to travel from the end of one long line to the start of the next. So it's not good for accessibility to leave it unchecked.
13. Personally I think it's a complete waste of time going into such technical detail on an accessibility page - Talk about skip links, accesskeys (if you must use them), text resizing and colours - that's it.
14. You're using way too many fonts - stick to two to ensure a more professional look.
15. On your forms page I get a security warning from the browser - why do the pages have perl extensions? The form processor may be perl but the form itself should be on an HTML page.
16. You've got the main page heading in an H3 tag which is followed by H2 tags - that's incorrect. You should be using an H1 tag for the main heading, then H2, then H3. This is semantically correct and search engines also love H1 tags (as long as you use them properly).

Oh and at the risk of sounding insulting - and I really don't mean to be insulting - accessible websites don't have to be ugly or overly simple either. The "ugly" style is a particular technique used (see Zeldman!) and if that's what you're after - then great - but sites don't have to be either "pretty" or "accessible" - they can easily be both.



jaybee -> RE: What do you think of my website? (5/11/2008 10:07:15)

Wow! First time I've seen this. Zip, I'm known on here for my honesty. I call a spade a spade. In your case I'll try to be tactful.

Look, as a business idea that is superb. One of the best anyone has come on here with. It needs a superb site to go with it. When I clicked the link, what I saw was a site an amateur might have developed back in the 90s. it really isn't good enough for a business these days.

If you are serious about the business then get serious about your site. What you have there now doesn't anywhere near cut it.



treetopsranch -> RE: What do you think of my website? (5/11/2008 12:45:07)

Your choice of some words seem odd for the audience intended (I assume the USA since you have added a USA flag in your banner); for instance, the word "Demander" in the U.S. means to demand or ask for something. That doesn't fit with the words directly under that.

The word "Performer" in the U.S. is more associated with one who performs, (like an entertainer) and also does not fit with the words below it.



Donkey -> RE: What do you think of my website? (5/12/2008 6:39:22)

Dave's original comment still applies.



anderskorte -> RE: What do you think of my website? (5/13/2008 8:35:30)

Wow, straight talk guys...

Basically you only have two problems: typography and color.

If you're confused already, don't read further.

The first one is such a complex area I'm not going to speak it through here. Just make it work. Use simple and neutral fonts, apply decent line-height and text sizes, don't stretch or shrink text, don't add space between letters, don't use too many fonts (three on one page is a max). No fancy stuff. Your task is only to convey information, not to decorate stuff. That's what we're all trying to do when we design. If you don't know how to communicate with style, communicate without style. Make it simple and pleasant. Don't try to be cool and hip.

About the color issue, you shouldn't be using overly bright hues. When you apply blue, don't make it 100% blue, and don't make yellow 100% yellow. Make it slightly less saturated. And don't use too many colors, two or three is enough. Remember that white is a color too and makes a very good background for the main text. Also, if you're an unexperienced designer, colored text is almost always a bad choice. Use simple and neutral colors. They should, above all, be pleasant.



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