Feedback - www.pcmatrix.co.uk

Hi,

Can you people have a look at www.pcmatrix.co.uk and give me some feedback on the design and content etc.

Cheers,

Neil.

Nice idea. I know that a lot of people on this board don't like frames but they work well here.

If you change the colour of the background I might even consider using the site!!

I know frames aren't that popular, but I did think that in this case they were a good option considering most people have compatible browers and run at a screen resolution higher than 800x600. What do you suggest for backgrounds?

I think that anything other than pink would be fine

I agree with DookieDuke - and btw, I think the site is a great idea

Site should not be designed for any specific browser, resolution, types etc.

Entry Page: CLICK TO ENTER!
People do not expect to have to knock at the door before entering a site.

Frames:
Frames are last centuries relics and should be allowed to RIP [Rest in Peace].

Site Hijacking:
Displaying another site within a site is considered site hijacking and at best annoying. If people want to search Google, they will go to Google.

Under Construction:
This is another relic which should be let to RIP. People will be put off by half completed work. It is better to a site with 2 working pages than having a site with 2+ many "Under Construction" pages. You may want to consider adding the page only after completion. For clarity, every site is constantly under construction as it is changed and updated. There is no need for animated gifs [next].

Animated Gifs:
You will not see many, if any animated gifs on corporate site. Occasions and discrete animated gifs are acceptable. In all other circumstances they should be avoided.
The main exceptions to above rules are the use of animated gifs in BBS and as avatars.

Background:
The pinkish/purplish background should be popular with young girls.

Menu:
The box that contains the menu has masses of wasted space.


Good luck

Hi,

I've taken on board everything everyone has said - and here is my response to Clan:

Entry Page:

I totally agree! I've never liked 'Front doors' to sites myself although they still seem quite popular on a lot of other sites. The reason I did it was just to give the information regarding the res and frames - but I've noticed from my stats that most viewers are using 1024*768 or higher anyway - I used to design sites assuming 800*600 as that used to be common, but times move on - I'd still try to make my sites viewable in all resolutions if possible. I've tested the site in: IE 6 and the latest verisons of Netscape, Opera, Mozilla and Firefox and it seems to work OK in them all apart from a niggle of the background also appearing in the inline frames - which I can easily sort.

Frames:

After doing some research, I came to the conclusion that 'inline frames' are far more acceptable than the traditional style - and as part of the HTML 4 standard shouldn't be a problem for any browser worth its salt. I used them in this site as the main point of the site was to browse different manufacturers from a central point, and to be fair it seems to work quite well. The alternative would be to open pages in a new window which I find annoying but other people may have other ideas. I could have used the same window to load the whole external site, but then people would have to use 'back' to get back to PC Matrix which defeats the object of the site. However, I would still not use any kind of frames just for the sake of it - just thought in this case they served a useful purpose.

Site Hijacking:

The google thing is temporary until I can decide on a good relevant news feed to keep the site updated. The google news used a search string that produced results relevant to the site and seems to serve its purpose. The future may see something improved - but the site has been rushed in a few hours of my spare time!

Under Construction:

I agree! Under construction messages are crap! But I wanted to get the whole structure of the site up ASAP. They will dissappear very soon!

Animated GIFS:

I like my molecule! I think it is a nice logo and not to over the top. I'm keeping it, but won't use any others if I can help it. If the affiliates want animations in their banners or buttons it's up to them - they provide the artwork. l'll try to keep everything to a minimum though. I personally hate Flash, but many corporate sites love it.

Background:

I thought it looks OK, but obviously a lot of people are not to keen! I'm looking for alternatives - any ideas? Just plain white all over?

Menu:

The wasted space is dependent on the resolution, but the menu may change in the future anyway.

Conclusion:

The site will develop and change in time, but I think the concept is good. I work in the H/W distribution channel, and had good feedback from associates and like using the site to do my own research so at least thats one person who finds it useful!

Now, where did I put those cheesy MIDI files for the background music, mmmm....

Neil

sounds perfect -

hey nice idea!

but your visual design could be improved. For example some of your fonts look jaggedy (Apr 09 04). The drop shadows is distracting, I think less is better, or just use HTML text. loads faster too.

The top index area has these large diamond shaped bullets, those are too large, and is overpowering. you could make them smaller than the link font size and have more horizontal spacing.

all the best!

Cheers bam bam, I'll look into adjusting some of the visual aspects.

www.pcmatrix.co.uk

I would love to check it out, but my firewall doesn't let me, something about being aproached by some daemon

sorry..

I agree totally with the above post. Here is my critic:

Background:
Even pink was better, methinks - gradients are a general no-no.
Whe the user has images switched off, the whole website is a horrible white

Menu:
You have very cleverly used images for links - this makes the site look unprofessional, and you haven't provided alternitave text, so when I have images turned off, I have no idea what they are!?! Leaving the user to belive that your only page is the first one. Even when images are on, the style of the text for links is horribly dated.

Professionabilty [new word! ]:
If the site didn't make use of frames, had a banner, a decent color-scheme (IE. not pictures for backgrounds, more than just white), and some text which didn't require images to view, the site would be half way there.

Suggestions:
Use the Alt tag.
Look at other websites to get idea for your one.
Either get a decent graphics producer, or stop using graphics.
Dont use frames!!!!

Frame Suggestions:
For your actual website, dont use frames, then encourage users to enter a page with a single (inline) frame in it with the websites the users want to see contained in it, and all the links next to it.

Otherwise, nice idea - although you might want to get permission from the sites you're gonna be including...

Yeah, the frames suck -> the menu scrolls in Firefox too.
Animated gif -> say no more.

I think your shop could have better navigation -> I don't know whether there is any method in it but I got bored by the time a got to page 03.