Hi All,

Have spent the last month building a new prepaid card comparison website - Prepaid365 - www.prepaid365.com and I am keen to get the views of all the wonderful people on this forum.

 

The site is mainly a comparison site which lists and reviews prepaid cards and provides a basic comparison of prepaid cards in the UK.

 

I would appreciate all and any comments you have on the site design, structure, functionality.

 

You guys are the gurus and this is my first venture - so please be kind in your criticism but truthful with regards to how I can improved this.

 

Once again, the site for review is www.prepaid365.com. Direct link to the comparison section is http://www.prepaid365.com/compare-prepaid-cards.html

Cheers

 

Ash

It looks quite nice visually (although the "advertisements here" is a little strange), but the structure of the markup scares me. There are soooo many tables in there. It would benefit from a transition to a more clean semantic structure.

I like the design, looks very slick.

It looks quite nice visually (although the "advertisements here" is a little strange), but the structure of the markup scares me. There are soooo many tables in there. It would benefit from a transition to a more clean semantic structure.

 

Hi,

Thanks for your quick response. I have to be honest - the tables were not my choice. Would you be able to provide a bit more info as to how i could get rid of the table but keep the design as is.

 

I am the designer as in the concept designer and I am working with a fellow professional to get the site built. If you can provide me with some specific feedbakc (which would be greatly appreciated) - i could ask the changes to be implemented.

 

Thanks again.

 

Ash

 

p.s Ads here will be replaced by banner ads ..of course

I like the design, looks very slick.

 

Thanks Mike...any problems loading the site....was that fast enough...I am alittle concerned about the number of images and tables etc especially on the homepage.

 

Thanks again for your comments

Hey,

 

No, it was fine for me on loading time...although the net we have at work is superfast. Might be better for others opinions on that.

 

Like Splashtech said, the site could do with being coded in css/xhtml, taking away the tables. However, it's good to see what you do have there at the moment does validate.

 

One more thing...the text on some pages is a little small and it won't let me resize it using the IE option.

 

Apart from that, like I said, looks pretty slick. Good job.

Basically, my approach would be to look into copying the current layout using divs. The idea would be to have each area of the site (header area, sidebar, main content, footer) in a seperate div, and positioned and styled using CSS. I'm not partularly good at explanations, so I thought I'd gather a few links which may help you. Many forum members here will also be able to lend advice.

 

http://www.digital-web.com/articles/writing_semantic_markup/

http://www.456bereastreet.com/lab/developi...sslayout/2-col/

http://accessat.c-net.us/test/template-2col.html

http://www.glish.com/css/7.asp

http://www.pixy.cz/blogg/clanky/css-3col-layout/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tableless_web_design

http://www.w3.org/2002/03/csslayout-howto

 

Hopefully some of that will help you

 

Semantic markup is the concept of using markup which describes the content. For example, <strong> tags are used around text which is to be strongly emphasised. <p> tags are used to show paragraphs in the copy. Headers (<h1> - <h6>) are used for headers in the site. Tables are used for tabular data. Layout is not tabular data, so it does not make sense semantically - divs are a much better fit, since they are used to represent divisions in the page, i.e. different sections.

 

There are many resources out there to help with CSS and layout in addition to those I have provided. I'm sure others will be able to give some great book recommendations too.

Basically, my approach would be to look into copying the current layout using divs. The idea would be to have each area of the site (header area, sidebar, main content, footer) in a seperate div, and positioned and styled using CSS. I'm not partularly good at explanations, so I thought I'd gather a few links which may help you. Many forum members here will also be able to lend advice.

 

http://www.digital-web.com/articles/writing_semantic_markup/

http://www.456bereastreet.com/lab/developi...sslayout/2-col/

http://accessat.c-net.us/test/template-2col.html

http://www.glish.com/css/7.asp

http://www.pixy.cz/blogg/clanky/css-3col-layout/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tableless_web_design

http://www.w3.org/2002/03/csslayout-howto

 

Hopefully some of that will help you

 

Mike and Splashtec - this is really helpful stuff...now I hope that I can implement the changes that you suggest. Good resources as well. I am on the job!!!

Here is a site with some info on text sizes too:

 

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/howtosizetextincss

 

Hope it helps.

Well firstly I'm looking at this and it screms TEMPLATE - is it one ?

 

The whole awkwardly placed girl just looks like something from templatemonster, and the tables coding suggests that also (very sorry if I'm incorrect!)

 

 

Also, lots of important text seems to be in an image, when it could most certainly be raw text on a bg image, I would certainly look into this.

 

All the best for your website !

Well firstly I'm looking at this and it screms TEMPLATE - is it one ?

 

The whole awkwardly placed girl just looks like something from templatemonster, and the tables coding suggests that also (very sorry if I'm incorrect!)

Also, lots of important text seems to be in an image, when it could most certainly be raw text on a bg image, I would certainly look into this.

 

All the best for your website !

 

Hurts for sure mate!! Its not a template at all. The girl image has been questioned before but I'd rather have a character on here as oppossed to just a card image. Wanted to give the site some life.

 

I hear you on the text images and that is part of the optimisation process I am learning about, not to mention the use of tables but definitely not a template.

 

Harsh but your feedback is appreciated.

 

thanks

 

Aashish

Hi there, good work overall on the design! It looks great and is very appropriate for the kind of website. My one suggestion would be to increase the font-size of the copy slightly.

 

I hear you on the text images and that is part of the optimisation process I am learning about

Yes, by using images for text, you lose important, relevant keywords. For example, using the title "Prepaid cards for your business" in a link would be quite useful for optimisation (rather than simply using "more").

 

Edit: oh and by the way, I agree with calumbrodie about the bottom links.

While slick, your website confused me instantly. I stayed for ten seconds looking around and then I left (not being mean but that Is how I test to see how well a site is designed). I came away not knowing what your site actually does (something to do with prepaid credit cards, are you selling them / reviewing them??) I think this is as a result of their being too much stuff on the first page competing for my attention. I don't think you need a major overhaul just a little trimming (be ruthless) and re-jigging. The graphics / font colors are all nice and clean. And get rid of all those links in the footer, It's hard to explain but when I see that I usually automatically hit the back button. It's a natural reflex to avoid spyware and sites that traul the internet and leech content (I'm sure there are others here who will know what I'm talking about!) and it also makes the site seem busy. You need a little more variance in size between elements too (to create a hierarchy of importance). Your close to having a really nice site there. Sorry If that was a bit harsh but you did ask!

 

Oh and ditch the flash.

While slick, your website confused me instantly. I stayed for ten seconds looking around and then I left (not being mean but that Is how I test to see how well a site is designed). I came away not knowing what your site actually does (something to do with prepaid credit cards, are you selling them / reviewing them??) I think this is as a result of their being too much stuff on the first page competing for my attention. I don't think you need a major overhaul just a little trimming (be ruthless) and re-jigging. The graphics / font colors are all nice and clean. And get rid of all those links in the footer, It's hard to explain but when I see that I usually automatically hit the back button. It's a natural reflex to avoid spyware and sites that traul the internet and leech content (I'm sure there are others here who will know what I'm talking about!) and it also makes the site seem busy. You need a little more variance in size between elements too (to create a hierarchy of importance). Your close to having a really nice site there. Sorry If that was a bit harsh but you did ask!

 

Oh and ditch the flash.

 

Noted and noted... valuable feedback indeed..and I agree with you on most points...i think i need to have a little rethink here.. thanks

I like the MP spending dig

I like the MP spending dig

 

Let the truth be told :0) - sadly though a few of my friends rightly said that a lot of people may not get it :0)

Hi All,

Have spent the last month building a new prepaid card comparison website - Prepaid365 - www.prepaid365.com and I am keen to get the views of all the wonderful people on this forum.

 

The site is mainly a comparison site which lists and reviews prepaid cards and provides a basic comparison of prepaid cards in the UK.

 

I would appreciate all and any comments you have on the site design, structure, functionality.

 

You guys are the gurus and this is my first venture - so please be kind in your criticism but truthful with regards to how I can improved this.

 

Once again, the site for review is www.prepaid365.com. Direct link to the comparison section is http://www.prepaid365.com/compare-prepaid-cards.html

Cheers

 

Ash

 

 

I just want to point out something about your Flash animation.... It looks great and all But It took 1 minute and 20 secs to complete one loop. How many potential customers would look at that flash animation... I think personally 90% of people will ignore the flash animation ( Just personal opinion). But you have made that your center piece for your website. If I was a potential customer I would want to go straight to the content.... I should be lead to the content within the first 5 seconds.

 

anyway design is very good but just keep refining and you will get there

 

 

Pointze