Critics Wanted - What don't you like about my childcare website

[nannynick]

My Babysitting Website has had a little revamp over the past couple of days.
I would love you to tell me what you Dislike about my site... for example, was there something you would want to see, but didn't find? Do you think the colour scheme is horrible? Do you think it contains too much information, or too little information?

Come on, be as nasty as you like... tell me what you dislike. Many thanks.

Personally, I wouldn't put all the info on one page but split it up. People are generally lazy bastards and don't like scrolling. If they can't see the info they need either on the first page or in an obvious menu item they'll give up and go elsewhere.

Don't worry about the google thing, some basic SEO will cover that. Make a list of the key words you think people will search under or how you want them to find your site. Make sure there's a smattering of the main ones in the text on each page (in a pleasing manner of course, you still want it to make sense to humans), particularly within the first paragraph, headings and image tags.

The other thing Google looks at for page ranking is how many people (and how important they are) link to you. Get your website linked on any nanny sites, get a few link exchanges going, post the link on message boards etc (but for gawds sake don't SPAM! ) These can all help your ranking.

The other thing I would look at is make sure the site is visually appealing in all browsers. I'm currently looking at it using Firefox, and there's a lot of places where things don't line up properly. You have too many different indented left aligns which are confusing to the eye. Either make them obviously unconnected or make them line up - the almost-but-not-quite makes it look disjointed and accidental.

I like the fact that you automatically fit the screen size BUT the major disadvantage to that technique is that people like me who view on a large screen are left with a HUGE dollop of white space to the right of the main text which looks odd and rather unprofessional. Probably better to drop the auto screen size thing altogether or if you want the flexible layout you need to force it to line up appropriately even on the bigger sizes.

Alignment: pick one Left aligning the header will make it look more professional rather than having that centre and the rest of the text left aligned.

The red: to make the red box in the middle stand out more, flip the background of the header to white and the text to red maybe? Would minimize the in your face red and help guide the reader to the important information.

Does that help or have I gone into overload mode?

I can really recommend the Non-Designer's Design Book for a very well-written accessible handbook for basic design layouts and what looks good and appealing to the human eye, btw.

Looks great but agree with other posters that the home page is too long - people hate to scroll.

You either need to put some of the information on separate pages or have a "jump" feature at the top, where you can click on "towns covered" (for eg) and it will go straight to the list without the need to scroll.

Browsers - I too am on firefox and it looks ok to me...? Maybe it's to do with the latest versions or not...?

Hi Nick, very informative, but a few errors need to be corrected if you want to be the most professional possible.

This doesn't make sense-

To help you and your children I always meet families before agreeing to babysit. This meeting typically lasts around 30 minutes and helps us all as it:

as it what? you go into a list of bullet point items

You may have heard of Babysitting Agencies. Over the past few years these have become increasing popular as - should this be increasingly?

"I have twin 3 year old boys, one of whom is autistic and has a congeuital defect TYPO

Going to a friends Wedding? Need an apostrophe for friends

that your children are enjoing themselves back at home. TYPO

Payment should be made to in cash?

Clients may not require domestic chores - request may be better

That's the home page, do you want me to go on?

I proof read DH's documents, so hope you don't mind!

Miss Golightly - I'm thinking more that the red boxes don't line up with each other... the right margin (presumably because of the auto-sizing) is also ambiguous - photos don't line up their right margin with either header or red box.

In general, a style looks more appealing if the margins are obvious, and if you are going to indent, you need to indent in a very obvious way to make it look purposeful.

Seen something else - the top line:

Find A Babysitter - Evening Babysitting - Daytime Nanny - Weekend Childcare - Overnight Childcare - The Babysitter - Babysitters - Baby Care - Baby Sitter

This is obviously just to squeeze in your keywords for google rather than useful info or links. Remove them, it's unsightly, confusing and unnecessary.

oh I see what you mean rubberducks. I thought that was just a feature of the layout rather than the browser but what you say makes sense.

Rubberduck - you're very good

Heh, hubby is in web development and is always passing me interesting books to read and I've dabbled in basic Search Engine Optimisation in the past.

I'm a natural data-hoarder - I absorb seemingly irrelevant stuff at the time and find that comes in useful later on

Personal photo - do you have a photography service in the area which does cheap sittings e.g. £15 includes a free 7x5 on the basis that you will prob want to buy more? You might be able to negotiate that to a small shot to use on your website in return for a link/credit

I love to read 'About me' sections of websites.

Other idea for photos - ask at your local college for photography students.

I'm sure would jump at the chance of doing a photo shoot with you for very reasonable prices on the condition they can use you as a reference and include you in their portfolio of work

Thanks all, your suggestions, comments and of course the proofreading is all much appreciated.
Have added some more testimonials, am still playing with the layout.

If I fix width the design, what screen resolution should I aim for?

Todays Stats show the following visitor screen resoluitions

1024x768 48%
1280x800 16%
1280x1024 15%
800x600 7%
1440x900 6%
and a selection of others with lower percentages.

If I used fixed width, to fit say on 1024x768 and left justify it all, will that look odd on bigger resolution screens (though I expect users of higher resolution screens don't run web browser full screen). What about smaller screen sizes, navigation in particular may look rather odd, or are those 7% and less not worth worrying that much about?

I've clearly got a lot to learn design wise.

You've got two options really, you can either go for your majority readership (1024x768 and above) but then that risks annoying the 7% at 800x600. Hubby says in general he would design for 800x600 still (if only to allow for the people running at 1024x768 and not using a full window).

Look at centering the screen (but left justifying the text, does that make sense?) For example, This hotel's website repositions itself to always be in the centre of the screen, whereas headings, main body text and menus are left aligned. Note the one item that is right aligned ("Make a reservation online") stands out now - a nice way to highlight and important piece of text, but even that is neatly aligned against the right margin of the title picture and furthest reach of text.

Just had another look at your site - looks HEAPS better already! I would say that the text on "Testamonials" and "Special Needs" looks a bit bland and uninteresting. What about making the speech from other people in the special needs section in another colour to make it stand out more? Or use some headings to separate the text. Or underneath each quote have who said it in a different colour, right aligned. Or use graphical quote marks to make it stand out more. Anything to break up the huge block of text and make it more accessible really

The "More..." bit is still a bit disingenuous. We have no idea what information is hidden behind the more and then it's huge info dump.

What about having it as a separate menu item in the form of a FAQ and rephrase as questions people might ask you - like "What postcode areas do you cover?", "Are you a babysitting agency? What's the difference?" etc. Then a separate page for terms and conditions (one of the small links at the bottom would work well for a T&C section - you want it to be easy to find for those who are interested but not in the main sections).

Nick - Bet you wish you'd never asked?

I like the site - just a couple of comments.
I'm not sure what the links at the bottom are for, they seem to be a mix of external websites and links to your own pages. For example, why do you have "Babysitter for children with Autism" when there's something similar under your "Special Needs" main link?
You've called the availability calendar the "Evening babysitting schedule" in another link - this confused me (unless they are actually different documents, I didn't think so, apologies if I'm wrong).
Your top links move from left to right depending on where you are, for example, on the home page the Home link is right against the left hand side, when you click on "Cost" they all move right.
Finally, for stuff that opens in Adobe Acrobat, is it worth providing a link to download it?

I can see that I will have a busy day changing the site. It's a work in progress, so all your comments are much appreciated. Do please keep them coming... they are great.

Sorry nick Hope I haven't been too picky!

Looks good

ON the Meeting Families First page, the bit just before the list doesn't make sense...

the list is supposed to be a continutaion of the sentence preceeding it, so each list item does not need a capital letter to start, and it should continue that sentence.

e.e.

This meeting typically lasts around 30 minutes and helps us all as it:

• allows your children get to interact with me, get to know me a little, play their favourite game, show me around their home
• means you get to meet me, before I babysit for the first time

etc.

I also think it would be useful to have the quotes from parents stand out a bit more - maybe a different color text?

Fantastic site, Nick.

But, since you are looking for criticism:

1- Too much red text at the top. I don't like the bright red bullet points. I'd change them to black text (bold is fine) and I'd have fewer of them. Some of those points (like NNEBqualified) could be save for an "About me" page, which could replace the "Contact" page).

2- The pictures and the layout of the front page are great. But, since babysitting is such a personal service, it might help if you have a picture of you (probably playing with kids) on the front page.

3- I love the availability calendar. That is great. But, can I ask why you put your location on each entry? Is that information of some value to the parents? I would think you would just say "booked". But perhaps there is a reason this additional information is of value?

Rubberduck - I like that you are being picky so feel free to be even more picky, I'm learning loads.

Eleusis - 1: I'll think about condensing the bullet points. May try Bold Black, though I quite like the red
2: Getting permission to display pictures of children is tricky. Am working on getting a professional picture of myself taken.
3: The location helps parents who have booked the slots see which slots they have, without it being overly public (thus location rather than surname). Does that make sense?

Hullababy - Have been playing with the quotes, see the Special Needs page for latest version.

Hello, I haven't read the other comments in full so sorry if I've made any repeat comments, but here's mine :

Top banner - as with colour psychology, I thought the red was a bit too overwhelming and bright. Red signifies danger and not calming at all. A more calming colour would be more effective.

Your photo - I thought it was good that you placed a photo of yourself as its more personal. But I suggest featuring one of you in the company of children, as opposed to you alone. Smiling children in your presence would give parents the reassurance of you being reliable, if that makes sense at all.

Apart from that, I thought your website is comprehensive and detailed. Good luck!

I think it looks very professional and says that you are somebody who takes their profession very seriously.....