Free Dating Site

[majesty2009]

Its not finished but I want you guys to take a look and give me some suggestions. I have fixed most stuff that I can and I am currently trying to work out a deal with a programmer to get help with the rest.

Here is the main stuff that I have figured out that need to be fixed and hopefully I can do so in the comming weeks if I can hire some help.

1. Search by Zipcode
2. Better Looking/More functional profiles.
3. Chat Rooms by Locations-Currently there is only one.
4. A forum, currently there is just some cookie cutter useless forum.
5. Instant Messaging
6. Voice Mail

I am currently working on the instant messenger and the forum, but I do not have the technical skill to change the profile layout/desing, implement the search by zipcode, and create the chatroom by location.

Please take a look and list other improvements that you see. Also keep in mind that it is a free dating site and not realy designed to be like myspace. So stuff like customizing profiles the way you can on myspace I dont think is needed. I just want the overall look to be less "templety" and more usefull.

Kickbackworld

[Evan]

Random thoughts:

It looks cheap. The logo (map of the world) is very distracting, it's hard to read the text with that image behind it. The background of the logo image doesn't match the rest of the header. It looks like something you made in MS paint. the big space to the right of the logo looks awkward and the different colors between the logo background and the header background make it worse. The first two links I clicked on "My Desktop" and "My contacts" took me to a page that said I couldn't access them. Don't make the most inviting links on the page unavailable for first time users. In fact, I'm a big fan of making as few things as possible unavailable for first time users, but the prime link positions are an exceptionally bad spot to put that stuff. Your logo image should link back to the home page. There should be a simple, obvious way from EVERYWHERE to get to the home page. I clicked through a bunch of links and it seems like none of your pages have this. The white bar 3/4 down the home page looks strange and draws way too much attention to a completely nonfunctional section. I don't know what an "Inkspot" is. It looks like its a forum, so call it a forum. If you don't want to call it a forum, call it something else that isn't "Inkspot".

That's enough for now.

[majesty2009]

The logo is just a placeholder tell my lazy graphics design friend makes me a logo. Should be soon. Im not sure what other links should be in the prime spot exept maybe the register link. If you dont sign up there wont be much to do.

Ignore the inkspot, that will be removed and replaced with a forum.

"The white bar 3/4 down the home page looks strange and draws way too much attention to a completely nonfunctional section." Are you reffering to the search bar that is used for searching for people?

Lastly Im not sure that anyone needs to be redirected to the login page after they login. Why do they need to go back there?

Thank you for your time and I appreciate your comments. I will be printing out this whole friend for future refferance once I sit down with the programmer I want to have lots of ideas ready.

[Evan]

[ QUOTE ]
The logo is just a placeholder tell my lazy graphics design friend makes me a logo. Should be soon.

[/ QUOTE ]
Okay.

[ QUOTE ]
Im not sure what other links should be in the prime spot exept maybe the register link.

[/ QUOTE ]
I don't really care what you put there, but if a typical user gets told "you can't do that" two times in a row upon coming to your site I'm inclined to believe there are changes to be made.

[ QUOTE ]
If you dont sign up there wont be much to do.

[/ QUOTE ]
Then you need to change your setup. Either make the home page a sign up page (thereby making the other stuff you can do less important) or make more stuff available to non-members. Making a home page that looks like you can do stuff and then finding out you can't do the first two things you try sucks imo.

[ QUOTE ]
Ignore the inkspot, that will be removed and replaced with a forum.

[/ QUOTE ]
Okay.

[ QUOTE ]
"The white bar 3/4 down the home page looks strange and draws way too much attention to a completely nonfunctional section." Are you reffering to the search bar that is used for searching for people?

[/ QUOTE ]


[ QUOTE ]
Lastly Im not sure that anyone needs to be redirected to the login page after they login. Why do they need to go back there?

[/ QUOTE ]
I go to your site and I click on "blogs" and the only way to get back to where I was is to use the Back function in my browser. It doesn't matter if you can't think of why they'd want to, I promise users will want to go back to the homepage. This holes true regardless of whether or not you feel it's the most logical/efficient/whatever way to browse your site. Make the logo a link to the home page, simple as that.

[majesty2009]

I have no idea what is up with that white bar. I have never seen that on any other computer I have accessed the site with or mine. Also never heard that from another user. I will have to look into that.

[BradleyT]

Evan was pretty spot on.

It's bad telling a user they need to register and not providing them an immediate link to register or a link to log in.

Edit - also put the Browse link first. I wan't to immediately be able to go to your site and browse before deciding if I want to register.

[BradleyT]

[ QUOTE ]
I have no idea what is up with that white bar. I have never seen that on any other computer I have accessed the site with or mine. Also never heard that from another user. I will have to look into that.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's in my computer too. IE7 on vista.

[IRuleYouHard]

[ QUOTE ]
It looks like something you made in MS paint.

[/ QUOTE ]
You say that like its a bad thing [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[majesty2009]

Wow Im realy going to have to look into why thats popping up. If you want to browse there is the search tool right there on the front page, but if you guys are first time users and are confused I better fix it.

Thanks Guys. I aint getting mad and I am deffinetly listening to your tips. They are all very usefull keep em coming.

P.S. This is no where near ready to go, but this will help me as a get a profesional designer to start working on this.

[maxtower]

Isn't there a script that already does all this stuff you could just plug in and have it ready to go?

Thats got to be cheaper than working from scratch even with customizations.