Review of new PearlSquirrel Homepage (version 3.8)

[eggo9432]

Review of new homepage for music sharing site (PearlSquirrel)

Hi guys. Now that my website has become quite a bit more serious and is becoming slowly more popular, I have spent quite some time designing a new home page that looks very professional and still maintains the functionality of the old one. Here is a link to the page http://www.pearlsquirrel.com/aaatestindex.php, which will not go live as the home page until everything is perfect. I would like to know what you think about the colors and/or anything else about it. Maybe some suggestions about what you would like to see and what you don't like. Thank you very much, and I appreciate all of the reviews.

 

[ellescuba27]

The page looks nice, could use some colour but I like the clean and open design. I don't, however, like all the empty space on the right (at least on my widescreen) and would recommend having the thumbnails take up a percent of the page (not set in pixels).

 

[eggo9432]

The page looks nice, could use some colour but I like the clean and open design. I don't, however, like all the empty space on the right (at least on my widescreen) and would recommend having the thumbnails take up a percent of the page (not set in pixels).

When you say thumbnails taking up the space, do you mean something like having an image on each side of the center div, such a an a cool-looking music note that has a mirror effect. There should be the same amount of empty space on the right side as the left, could I possibly ask what browser your are using, It could be browser-specific. Thank you so much for the review, I really appreciate it!

 

[ellescuba27]

Here I've uploaded an image of what I see:

I recommend stretching the thumbnails to fill the space, using a percent, IE:

<img src="thumbnail.jpg" width="50%" height="25%" alt="Thumbnail" border="0">

The image fills 50% of the page one way, 25% of the page the other way, because of the percent at the end of the width and height attributes. Not adding the percent uses pixels automatically, I assume this is what you're doing, because it would look nice on a normal screen, but not my widescreen LG. (If nessecary, I'll let you know this can also be done the same way with CSS, width:50%;height:25%

 

[eggo9432]

I must apologize, as that looks completely awful and I did not see that error. I have subsequently upload that file to be the new PearlSquirrel Homepage, and have tested it one firefox to make sure that it works. It was a browser compatibility issue that I did not see. If you would not mind going back to http://www.pearlsquirrel.com/ to tell me what you think of what the page should actually look like, that would be very appreciated. Also, thank you for taking the time to upload the photo and show me the error, that is also very much appreciated.

 

[ellescuba27]

My biggest suggestion is to add some nice colour. The site is great but as I looked from page to page I noticed the footer changed (Help, Terms of Service) specifically on the help page. Also, I like the header you added but may I suggest a frameset instead of loading that information over again each time? Provide a Go button next to the search bar for those who don't press enter, and try revamping the search page so when you press the back button the info is still there (for the purpose of web searches, it's often better to use GET instead of POST) or just customize Google Custom Search to your site, and use Google's Webmaster tools, they are well known and anyone can use Google. It may also be possible (but it's server side so how would I know) to combine Register and Sign In into one page, with Sign In on the left side and Register on the other, or even better yet, combine both the Register and Sign In forms into the same tooltip as the Sign In one. I recommend having the Sign In one on the left like most websites, not a big problem but you only need to register once so the majority of users need to use the Sign In button, not Register. That is being a little nit picky, though.

I see users are enjoying the site and that's what really matters! Don't go overboard like Youtube did or *people will complain* they like the old design better whether or not it had more features. You can expect at least one user, given anyone can join not just friends, will complain about something you changed because it didn't look nice. It's OK to make small changes, however, and that is good.

Just an unrelated tip: MAKE SURE USERS DO NOT LINK TO COPYRIGHTED CONTENT. Skyrock is one example of a site like yours that users upload copyrighted stuff on. Don't let that happen!

 

[eggo9432]

Thank you for the awesome suggestions. As you said, the footer does change. I was waiting to change the other pages to the new version until I got the approval of the new home page, so I will start on that immediately. As for a go bar next to the search button, I will work on that. I actually don't need a frameset b/c I use ajax/jQuery page loading to lad in the content of each page. Also, I do realize that the search page is a problem and I plan on fixing that when I release the new version. Also, about the copyrighted stuff, I am introducing an official band feature to help copyright material from being uploaded, as I realize that it could become a problem one day. Thank you so much for the reviews, I really appreciate them.

P.S. What colors would your recommend, and where, to make the homepage look better?

 

[ellescuba27]

Maybe some yellow, pink, or other brighter colours would fit with the theme, but that's up to you.