This document is divided into four main parts:
- ACME Media Overview
- Audience/Customers (what they want)
- Page-By-Page Critique
- Recommendations
Contact steve@ryancreative.com for your own independent website review.
|
|
|
|
Part Three: Page-by-Page Critique (excerpt only)
The suggestions and comments in this section may not be relevant if you choose to implement the recommendations in the next section of this document. Otherwise, many of these issues are quick-fixes and should be addressed as soon as possible to preserve ACME Media's professional integrity.
MediaRoom/Home (index.html)
- It's great that 'MediaRoom' and the home page are intended to be one in the same; it gives clients a presence and shows ACME Media in action; however, this presents a problem when you start hosting 50+ MediaRooms
- Centred page layout is great (works well here)
- Lots of breathing room/whitespace which is excellent: people don't come here to be 'wowed' by high-end multimedia, graphics and information overload - but rather for functional purposes (the recommendations section respects this approach as well)
- Going 100% wide as a page size would open up more space and make for a cleaner layout: not sure why the border is there
- Live date or last update feature is good to have - especially for a media site
- Top branding banner height should be reduced (it takes up a lot of window real-estate, and the width should be 100% - assuming you go with the 100% model; links could be worked into the design
- The two site sample graphics don't seem to add much value; the images are too small to read, and further, only one of them is linked to additional information
- You have both 'Media Communications Services' and 'Media Communication Specialists!' (two messages and use of plural or singular should be consistent in the word communication(s); only one of these messages is necessary)
- This page needs an intro message that clearly states what ACME Media is, and who it benefits; the message and content on this page should appeal to both groups (info providers and recipients) which were defined in part 2 of this report
- First toolbar link "MediaRoom" - isn't clear that it is actually the home page (same page); making it a dead link and/or highlighting the active menu section would solve this small issue
- Why Business and Technology News? Consider only news about your clients - or 'picked-up' stories or headlines from current releases; the Vibrant News feed doesn't seem applicable in this case and the link to their site (ad exchange) might cheapen ACME Media's corporate identity; people don't come to ACME Media to read business and technology news, as fed by Vibrant, but to see what's new with respect to media communications - or to find out about ACME Media's services
- Why have ACME Media design and maintain your virtual pressroom? At ACME Media we design simple streamlined websites that avoid flashy animation and large graphics on the front pages…" This message should be massaged and worked into the homepage intro text; also, this page needs the ACME Media template (header graphic)
|
