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Ask DN: Need feedback for site designed by a programmer

over 8 years ago from , CDNJS, JSON Resume, Earbits

Hi everybody, the site in question is https://fpvracing.tv

We don't have the resources for a designer and thus have attempted to make an engaging home page ourselves.

I was hoping somebody could point out the obvious design/ux errors and make suggestions for easy wins. Any other ideas for alternative layouts would also be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance for any and all feedback!

5 comments

  • Lee Nelson, over 8 years ago

    I agree with many of Micheal's points. I've uploaded a Skitch to share some of my own opinions. Hope you find the advice helpful.

    Imgur

    3 points
  • Danny KingDanny King, over 8 years ago

    I think your biggest problem right now is actually around positioning/messaging. What's the goal of the site and who are you trying to reach with it? Because right now (without reading anything) the homepage feels like it's trying to sell me a racing drone.

    This seems like a niche activity so I'll assume you're trying to entertain a select group of people and educate everyone else. If so, you may want to focus more on the racing community.

    Your main advantage is that this style of racing produces awesome videos. Try leaning on this more; perhaps by treating the homepage like a portal (articles, videos, user content, etc.) rather than a strict landing page. This will play nice with returning users. And it may actually convert better since there's not much of a learning curve here. Once someone watches a race they'll know what's going on. Here's a rough explanation (and a few other tips) of what I mean: https://precursorapp.com/document/fpvracing-17592200880386

    I think you'll find more success by making the community feel more encouraged and leveraging their talents into an educational resource for newcomers.

    tl;dr The content is great, focus on that more :)

    1 point
  • Tori ZTori Z, over 8 years ago

    Great that you are looking for advice.

    However, there's just too many problems that you do need to hire a designerhttp://imgur.com/Qieej0C Simply looking at this and I feel like you guys will get 0 conversion.

    Tips: You don't even have to hire the really good designers (as the guys here which their hourly rate is 100+) Hire someone who know that basics. Find a student. I'm a student myself and has been freelancer for like 2 years, working on several projects. There're a tons of people like me and our rate is not as much as the senior guys.

    0 points
    • Crampa ...Crampa ..., over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

      Haha, wow... c'mon man don't be so smug. The screenshot you posted is obviously just a bug which can be fixed.

      OP took the initiative to do his own front-end and the result is not bad at all. Definitely comparable (I'd argue better) to a student's work. And I challenge him to post his conversion rate because I can promise you it wont be zero.

      My feedback:

      • Reduce # of assets loaded on the home page. 11 MB of images is a lot, killing people's mobile data. You can optimize the images to be much smaller, or try lazy loading them.

      • Too many navigation items. It's overwhelming at first. A site with a lot of content is great, but try a hierarchical menu that helps users drill down to the section they want.

      • Make site content 80% or less of viewport width. 100% width, I find, make the layout feel tight. But at tablet and mobile breakpoints, 100% is acceptable.

      • Reduce number barrier to entry by allowing users to sign up by just entering an email and password/confirm password. The username should be the email address, and users can optionally add a "nickname" later.

      10 points
  • Alec LomasAlec Lomas, over 8 years ago

    a place like /r/design_critiques might be a better place for this.

    In addition, this article that was just posted to DN is really applicable to the signup form / value prop section.

    0 points