Review and Analyze my Site Please

[rspassey]

Hello everyone,

I've been slowly working on a new website, www.separationbysix.com, for the last 4 or 5 months. I started off wanting to create a social networking site, much like mySpace, but it quickly turned into a blogging site, more along the lines of Blogger.

Basically, I am hoping that you guys would be able to review and analyze my site and point out anything that you personally think should be changed. I'm up for any suggestions, and will consider and experiment with many options.

Note that I have modified the LifeType platform somewhat, and I have tinkered with the templates quite extensively. If the advertising seems to extensive, please say so - I will definitely tune it down a notch once I have earned enough money to upgrade the server it is hosted on (about $500 to go).

TIA,
Ryan Passey

PS: if you want to check out the options and structure within the user panel, you can either register an account or I can set up a guest account for people to use.

[newbuilder14]

Well, overall you did a wonderful job creating such a site in the given amount of time.

I will make some comments on it per your request:

-The title of the page says Community, how about making it something more interesting like Sx6 Community, something eye-catching.

-The margins for the top and bottom of the page are too minimal for my liking, especially the bottom, it appears that the bottom is cut-off.

Overall, awesome work, keep it up.

[rspassey]

Alright, thanks for the suggestions. I like Sx6 - it looks clean and does catch the eye.

[ken_tbh]

I just noticed a couple of things.

I'm by no means a web expert but I thought a non-web persons opinion might help.

1. Under the latest posts section I had trouble figuring out how to pull up the full article, maybe making the title a link to the full article would help or maybe placing a bigger button that says "See more" would help also.

2. I cant exactly place this one, but It seems like the sites been compressed. What I mean is that should fill the whole page and doesn't. Kinda like its confined to a column in the middle of the page.

Overall I generally like the site and it seems like you put some serious thought into it. Just those couple of things stuck out.

[rspassey]

Thanks ken_tbh; I see what you mean about the articles - I will consider making the title the link, which is a really good idea. At the same time, I could also change the current link to the full article (the blog poster's name) to a link to their profile.

I decided to keep the dimensions as they are, as to preserve the concentration of content. If you had a smaller screen resolution, like most people do, then the current dimensions of the pages will fit very nicely. Spreading it across the whole screen resulted in some very awkward looking layouts; the welcome message was only 2 lines, article previews were only one line, etc.

I appreciate the advice, thank you.

[mairving]

Some thoughts.

-I think that I would have the background color(outside of the text area) a bit darker. This should give better contrast and draw peoples eyes to the text where they should be. As it is it is a bit hard to focus on the text.
-The text seems to all flow together. I think that I would make the article headings stand out a bit more.
-The navs are somewhat mysterious.
-Upon going to a site you should be able to tell within a second or 2 what the site is about. I couldn't tell exactly what the site is about without reading a bit. You need something to shout out what you are about. Look at MySpace. Pretend that you don't know anything about the site. First in the logo it says 'A place for friends' (or preverts). Then you see pictures all around. There are a bunch of links on the home page that make you curious. You need to create some more buzz.
-The logo and site are not explained easily. It could be anything from a botany, gardening site to an Easter one. The logo is good but I don't think it matches with what you are wanting to do. The site name doesn't help explain it much either.

[ken_tbh]

Originally Posted by mairving First in the logo it says 'A place for friends' (or preverts). .

HAHA! I love it!

[rspassey]

Originally Posted by mairving Some thoughts. -I think that I would have the background color(outside of the text area) a bit darker. This should give better contrast and draw peoples eyes to the text where they should be. As it is it is a bit hard to focus on the text. -The text seems to all flow together. I think that I would make the article headings stand out a bit more. -The navs are somewhat mysterious. -Upon going to a site you should be able to tell within a second or 2 what the site is about. I couldn't tell exactly what the site is about without reading a bit. You need something to shout out what you are about. Look at MySpace. Pretend that you don't know anything about the site. First in the logo it says 'A place for friends' (or preverts). Then you see pictures all around. There are a bunch of links on the home page that make you curious. You need to create some more buzz. -The logo and site are not explained easily. It could be anything from a botany, gardening site to an Easter one. The logo is good but I don't think it matches with what you are wanting to do. The site name doesn't help explain it much either.

Great advice. I'm working on a more closely related header and logo - I just threw that one up there because what I had before was just a plain, no image, banner. A few of my friends will "pose" for some pictures (I think a 200*350 image of a female in a green tank top with her arms raised above her head like she is dancing with dark hair drifting through the air would look really nice). I'll look into making the headers and different areas more distinguishable.

Thanks guys, I'm really appreciating the tips and advice - I spent so much time tweaking the site, I am, in a way, getting a bit sick of the way it was looking just because I would spend so much time altering it - having others help with this process helps a lot.

Briefly, and I will expand upon this is the "about us" section I have yet to add - the site is going to be molded around the theory of 6 degrees of separation. Once I have the site and everything looking the way I want it, I am going to add a system that allows you to link to your friends profile and blog from you own personal blog (kinda like myspace). The catch is, I am going to add a ticker and a "net" that show how you are linked to your friends, and the friends of your friends, etc for 6 degrees of separation.

[rspassey]

I'm going to make some changes this coming weekend - this is by far the most tedious school week of the whole year (test upon test upon test), and I haven't had time to work with it that much.

Thanks again for the suggestions, and if anyone else would like to add something, I'm all ears.

[rspassey]

Alright, I've worked quite a bit more on this site, and while I haven't adjusted to some of the suggestions here (there are still many things I will change), I have a new banner image and have worked quite a bit on the internal stuff.

I just felt like I should update you guys on my progress - if there are any suggestions you'd still like to make, I'm all ears.

www.separationbysix.com

In the "welcome" are on the homepage, I am making an image to go there that will portray some of the the text says - in a much more web 2.0 manner, that is.