Review www.cma-canada.org

Hi,

I would like to hear the opinions about
our corporate site - www.cma-canada.org

Please be opened, don't hide anything.
Truth and only truth, even if it hurts!

Thanks

Overall the design is clean and professional appearing, with good use of color and images.

However, your navigation is virtually impossible to follow. With disappearing navigation elements, unpredictable interface changes, and surpising outside links launched in same window there is no flow to the user experience.

Seems like the classic case of a nicely designed site being pulled in too many directions at once, to accomodate a variety of business needs, and as a result creating major usability issues.


-surfkook

nice site, although i hate it when a site is aligned to the left sorry. As you have set it small (or it is on my screen) and aligned to the left i feel uncomfortable using it!

When i click on the navigation i get a different background for the rest of the page and also a extended navigation bar..this looks really odd. Could i suggest that you make it a little bigger and/or align it in the center??!!

other than that the site looks good, clean and professional

i have just played around with it a bit more and some of the pages take a while to load and i am on broadband here !!! so i dread to think what it is like for dial up users...also the interface does seem to change a hell of a lot....sorry to sound critical but i think you have a great talent but have tried to do too much on one site!! If you try to keep things consistent then people find it easier to use and come back to it...

i hope that helps.

RF

Thank you all, guys!

SURFLOOK, I appreciate your feedback.
Could you please be more specific?
What do you meant by
"disappearing navigation elements, unpredictable interface changes, and surpising outside links launched in same window"?

Guys, I'll tell you a little secret.
The design was done by
outsourcing company.
Then the people from WebImpact (Content Management System) created templates for us.
And that's how we ended up with this design.
The site is a ColdFusion application.

I find it slow.
Interface is not consistent.
I think only the header
looks professional.
If you look closely everything below the header
and top menu bar is designed with much
less accuracy and style.

What do you think?

the same, its got so much content on it its so hard to navigate. I think you unfortunately have been ripped off. I hope they didnt charge to much for it. The style os good, layout isnt.

Well first, your navigation issues appear quickly on the homepage. There are so many links that as the user, I have no idea where you want my focus to be. Your top navigation would seemingly be the primary nav, yet your left-hand navigation and bottom navigation standout more because of size and color. But these can't be the primary navigation as they disappear once you click on one of those items??? Also, CMA News on the right is clickable, but opens nothing.

Secondly, the disappearing and inconsistent navigation appears all over the place. For example, when you select the About CMA link, the left-hand and bottom navs leave, a quick links left nav appears, and top sub nav appears. Click a quick link, the top sub nav now disappears and the entire top nav shifts down. If I don't click a quick link, and click on the subnav in the previous step, the Quick links now disappear. These are major inconsistencies which wipe out the user's context and access to other parts of the site.

Unpredictable Interface changes - see "Online Library", "CMA Store". CMA Store's Home opens in same window, yet the home link actually spawns your corporate homepage in another window....huh?? Should be the other way around IMO.

In my opinion left alignment is a matter of taste, but the size and tight spacing could be a problem for users with vision issues. But that is secondary to what I consider MAJOR usability issues. But sometimes these are not any one person or design firm's fault. Business requirements are set, issues arise, compromises are made, and eventually the "just get something up" attitude wins (usually driven by cost).

Good luck!

-surfkook

Hi SURFLOOK,

You are a hell of a good critic!
I'm serious.
I can sign under every word you say.

Especially I like
"Business requirements are set, issues arise, compromises are made, and eventually the "just get something up" attitude wins (usually driven by cost)."

I want to write this down in big red letters
and hang in front of me so that I don't forget
that all we do is for the customer.

Can i ask where do you work?
What's your position?

Thank you so much,SURFLOOK.

I do website and web application development for a large U.S. based financial management company.

BTW, here's another one to put in big red letters:

You can have it cheap, you can have it fast, and you can have it right........Pick Two

Enjoyed taking a peek, and again, good luck!

-surfkook