Website Review
First Impressions
Well, as a person who doesn’t know about the subject of your site my first impressions are certainly that I am going to be taught! I’d wager that if I did know about the subject, I would find something for everyone just by looking at the homepage!
Upon loading I can see a multitude of articles detailing the activities of the club itself. As a fan, this make me feel right at home within your site. That is something you want, you don’t want to make current fans feel alienated or new fans feel like they’re in for an information overload. Although, touching on this topic, I counted 10 articles on your home page alone. For me, I see many sites/blogs in your sites sense have fewer articles than that. For me, 10 articles just bloats the page and is using too much of your information at once. I can see something like 5 articles full of useful information being enough for your users to digest on their first visit but enough to make them interested and reading more. I hope you get what I mean here.
Although, I must say for my tastes the homepage is just a bit too busy for my liking. The calendar and poll down the side are things that I think, are just not needed. I can see why you would use the poll due to the subject of it, but is there not another way for you to conduct this? In your banner/logo you state you have a forum, why not do the poll within that and just add some space within your page?
Overall though, my first impression is quite good. The page is a bit too busy but is full of information (Which could be toned down just a little) to accommodate first time users more appropriately.
(Score: 15/20)
Appearance
your appearance is an area where I found myself questioning myself in some places. You have elements that are both good and bad. For example, I like how you have a colour scheme that matches the colour of the football club your site represents but then I see a nasty tiled background, which in web etiquette terms is a BIG no-no. If the background wasn’t tiled, you would get away with it but even so, I can see what the picture represents but surely there are better, more lighter and fulfilling images of the club you could use? Maybe a player modelling a kit or something.
As I’ve mentioned, your homepage is just too busy. You have a log-in/sign up bar atop the page which moves as your scroll, that is fairly irritating in my honest opinion, as is having a big bulky box for the same use down the side. It would be fairly simple to have a log-in/register button/option/box underneath the menu area surely? Do you need the last game down as a small video in the side? It just looks like an attempt to fill space in my view.
Why do you need a calendar? People can easily check the date on their computer or something; I don’t see the point in calendars on sites is all! I’ve mentioned other design issues surrounding your footer/header in other areas of this review so I won’t mention them again here but again, there is no point for such a waste of space really. You need to optimize your site, not chug it full with stuff that isn’t really needed!
(Score: 12/20)
Navigation/Layout
Navigation was a touch and go area for myself. I found myself using your lovely menu’s to look around the place but some things I just found weird when I was delving my way around your place. For example, your logo says ‘Forums’ in it, yet unless I am being entirely stupid (Which is possible!) I cannot find such a thing. I have found Community and then within that, activity and members and such, but no forums.
I’m sure if you had a forum it would be prominently displayed and easy to navigate to, as it will likely be a big part of your site. Maybe you just haven’t implemented it yet though. There are elements on your page that disturb my viewing of your site though. Above your menu, you have a black bar that for one thing, just looks like it was randomly stuck there instead of having a purpose. Maybe you should consider moving that, just for space issues.
Other than that, overall navigation is good. You have a consistent menu bar, which stays the same on every page I clicked on, and I find all the classic elements of a page (Body, Nav, Header and Footer) quite easily on your page although I did have some discrepancy over the footer area.
(Score: 17/20)
Content
In respect to your content, you have a fair amount of it! I’ve had a look around your site and this is where your site excels greatly compared to other sections. For example, I clicked on the ‘History’ page and whilst it did look like a wall of text (Maybe you can add a few images just to ‘colour’ the page so to speak) I am greeted with a wonderfully written and concise article on the history of the club. Was actually quite insightful!
Again though, this continues through out the site. Beautifully presented content which is a credit to your site. Maybe though, on the team player page you could consider adding in some photos. Just a visual thing, helps to break up the monotony of words.
Your home page articles do let me down a little though. Some of them are short and not up to the standard I expected from a ‘resource’ site for news of the club. Whilst yes, you do sum up the news within your articles, some of them seem to be abruptly ended or not up to the standard I would’ve expected. Maybe you could consider adding your own opinion of say, a transfer, a line-up or such. Invite discussion from within your articles, as another thing I’ve seen is the lack of comments!
(Score: 27/30)
Footer
Your footer sort of...perplexes me in a sense. My understanding of footers is that they are a little area at the bottom of the screen with little notices such as TOS, Privacy Policy and maybe the odd navigation link. But you, you seem to have a pre-footer and then an actual footer. It’s just strange to me and honestly, doesn’t look good.
Recent News could be put in place of the calendar you have down the side of the site, the Facebook box can be made smaller, or if you have to keep it that size, it’s another thing that is more useful down the side of the site instead of the bottom. As for the links next to the Facebook box, they could easily be placed horizontally within the green footer area instead of the big grey area.
Doing this, will free up space on your site and decrease the scroll bar length. Believe me, the web community in this day and age hates to see a scroll bar that goes on forever. Freeing up vertical space is a must for most websites today.
The green footer has a great colour that bodes well with the colours of the football team and would really benefit from some moving around. Take away that big white/grey area and move some stuff around, it’ll help.
(Score: 5/10)
Total Score
76/100
Final Remarks
A good site overall, but some flaws which really detract from what could be a very nice site for the area it is. I wish you luck in your endeavours.
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