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Old 04-02-12
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Default Feedback wanted / welcome

Hi all, love it if you could take a look at our site and tell us what you think : the good, the bad and the ugly. All criticism accepted

1. What needs reviewing? Anything and everything. Usability of site is the most important thing I think
2. What does your business do? A free website where members can find other members for sports and hobbies.
3. Who is your target market? Sports players, people wanting to get fit, people new to town, clubs and related businesses
4. What specific concerns do you have? Too much content? Too hard to see how the site works?

We have a solid following - 2000 odd members, 2000 hits a month, but now hope to take the site to the next level.

Thanks again for your help and feedback.

Cheers

Michael

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Old 05-02-12
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Default Re: Feedback wanted / welcome

Hi Michael - could you please post a link to your website so we can review?

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Old 05-02-12
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Default Re: Feedback wanted / welcome

WOOPs!!

www.sportspartners.com.au

Thanks Jacqui!

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Old 05-02-12
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Default Re: Feedback wanted / welcome

Hi Michael,

I think that usability of the site is fine... I found it easy to follow/understand and generally see how it works.

As to too much content - I think it's a tricky one, because the content you have appears that it kind of needs to be there so not really sure how you would reduce it? There is quite a bit going on on the home page and a lot of scrolling down to see everything. Generally speaking I probably wouldn't scroll all the way down and would more likely just use the links across the menu (but that could just be me). I wonder if it's necessary to have the same info on the home page that you have under the other pages? i.e. classifieds/public groups etc? That would shorten the content on the home page.

I am not a tech minded person so these comments are purely from a visitor perspective -

Top image where you have the "Join Now - 100% free" - maybe link it also to your sign up page? When I saw the Join Now text I just assumed I could click it to join now.

Bottom 'banner' (above copyright notice) where you read the "Find a sports partner", "Find a business" and "find a club" little logos - perhaps they can also link to the relevant search facilities on each? If someone has scrolled the whole way down the home page, it would be convenient to then make a decision and click through from there instead of scrolling back up again.

Just my 2c

As noted, I think the site was easy to use/navigate and all made perfect sense to me as to what you do and what sort of members would likely use the site etc.

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Old 05-02-12
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Default Re: Feedback wanted / welcome

Thanks heaps for looking and for your feedback Jacqui. Great tips for the banners - and even better an easy fix!

Re the double up of content, i think I know what you mean. I have them highlighted on homepage to encourage people to check out those pages/ functions, but I am like you - IE I use the navigation menus at the top of the site to find things or suss out a site. Food for thought there though as removing some of that double up would shorten the page.

Anyway, thanks again - appreciate your 2 cents for sure. It's always great to get fresh eyes and opinions.

Michael

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Old 06-02-12
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Default Re: Feedback wanted / welcome

Hi,

I agree with the comments by JP and a few more touches I can see that would improve your site.

The dark backgrounds on the 'Find a xxx' image could/should be lightened up as the rest of the site has a bright clean feel about it but I found the almost black background very out of place with the rest of the format. A very light grey and those red, blue and green icons will still stand out and call for action.

Rather than being one image linking to the same 'Partners' default on the Join screen, consider making each icon separate images and linking to what the visitor is expecting to find.

Definitely too much happening on the front page, especially wasteful use of real estate is the Wall for example that needs to be scrolled before more interesting content is found.

You seem to be making the front page target new members and existing members and it sort of falls short on both accounts whereas I think it should be one or the other.

I would think given your objective is really about getting a large number of participants to join up that you should target the front page towards the casual visitor and getting them interested and registered. Give existing members a couple of quick portals or links to get through the community or social parts of the site that interest them or consider checking for a cookie and redirecting them to a different front page.

For a little bit of technical advice your <META> Description and Keywords needs to be updated. Description should be a a sentence(not more than 150 characters) that is like an elevator speech and uses keywords people are likely to use to find you and should be similar but not an exact copy of text the search engine might find in the body or early part of your page. For Example "Sports partners helps you find people and new friends to participate in activities, hobbies, clubs in your local area". Then in Keywords you use the same keywords and variations of them but don't go overboard.

Also consider using meaningful keywords in the 'Alt Text' areas of your images to help with Google and friends liking your site more

"Our Mission" actually isn't your mission but a description of of what the site is about, so probably just remove that title all together and put a bit more meat into what the site is about. You have about twenty seconds to engage the casual/new visitor to your site and tell them what you do and why they should join in a manner that interests them.

For a bit of Trivia, in a previous corporate life I worked for the second largest IT company, behind IBM(worked for them too at times), who for about six months had the mission statement of aiming to be Second Best!!! because they knew IBM was too far ahead to be the best. Bad mission statements wasn't their only problem, but I think people start to nod off when they read "Mission Statements" so keep your site copy friendly and corporate isn't friendly.

The Copyright needs to be fixed up.

Overall very good site and concept and I would have signed up but you only listed Wakeboarding and I am looking for Waterskiiers who might also wakeboard.

Terry

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Old 07-02-12
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Default Re: Feedback wanted / welcome

Hi Terry. Thank you very much for your thorough review. Much appreciated! I can't say I disagree with anything you'be said and will be looking more closely at all you'be mentioned. I do get what you mean about the home page trying to Target both new and existing members. That's precisely what we were shooting for. I agree just too busy though, the way it is. Anyway thanks again and the first thing I'll be doing is adding waterskiing!

Cheers

Michael

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