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.

Ooh I like the blue, but think the links need a better contrast. But I'm not very arty, sorry.
I notice you've got a mouseover on the logo - are you planning to put them on all the links? Also, do you need an apostrophe in "nicks babysitting service"?

Looks great, easy on the eye, to the point and reassuring

I'd hire you.

What an improvement! Well done Nick. I even forgive you the cartoon figure.

Your site looks much much better than yesterday. I prefer to blue header and find the site much more user friendly now.

Brain too addled to check for typos but you seem to have a dedicated team of MNers for that

Now it's blue - the red quotes look a bit odd.......make them blue??

love the colour, love the quote format, love the piccie of you with the kids (although if you can afford it, would still spend some dosh on a professional one) - looks sooo much easier top navigate

All the info that was on the home page - has that gone, or did I miss something?

Professional local photographer has been in touch, we are negotiating a fee. However that will only be photos of myself, not with children, unless I can persuade a client to let me borrow then children for publicity purposes.

Lots of the information has now disappeared. It is all in the brochure. I am working on splitting up that content, so that it can go back on the site as multiple pages.

I think the quote formatting looks great as well, I am beginning to love CSS and using it to position graphics within other elements. For those interested, the quote graphics are background elements of .

Have also been spending some money on photos over at iStockPhoto. Special Needs and Testimonials pages now have a picture.

Ooo it has changed a lot today - I really like it, it looks great!

Re: the clickable logo on the home page - yes, see what you mean and no probably don't need it clickable even on the home page.

Looks very professional and impressive and the blue works much better than the red.

What I would now look at doing, nick, if you're not sick of it by now... is to try and bring the same branding into the brochure - use the same fonts and style features to make it a coherent theme throughout all your professional materials (same with letterheads for business letters and business cards if you can too).

Good idea. At least the car is already branded!

I like it

Looking good. You offer weekend sitting. Woudl that be something that you would be prepared to do in a wider geographical area? If so might be worth mentioning?

Alas my experience so far with weekend sitting is that parents often want a Friday PM start. As I nanny during the day (during term time), I am quite restricted in when I can get to someone on a Friday. There has not been a great demand for weekend childcare over the years, to be honest.

Something to consider for the future perhaps.

Wow, what a difference. I thought it looked ok yesterday, but that was to my non-geeky eyes. You have really improved it now, love the blue, looks very upmarket. And the pic with the children is good, very "sympathisch" as they say here in Germany!

That looks a million times better, good for you for changing it and not huffing and puffing at us!

I have loved all the feedback, especially the negative comments... though did take me back to my school years a bit - teachers always got at me for not being good at spelling or grammar.

While I can put designs together, my view of what colour schemes and layouts work is purely my own view and not often shared by others. Thus having so many more eye-balls staring at the colours and layout, giving their opinion helps loads, as all views can be taken account of and changes made to go along with the majority view. Does that make sense?

Time will tell of course if it means any more work, though an easy to follow, visually appealing website must be better than something rather bland.

"an easy to follow, visually appealing website must be better than something rather bland"

Absolutely. Are there babysitting/nanny directories you can get yourself listed on? Not only will it provide more leads but will help your google ranking if they list your URL on their site.

What about your local Children's Information Service?

CIS won't list me, as I am not registered with Ofsted. Though strangely SureStart CAS has now been taken over by Ofsted, so surely CIS should now list me. Alas, legislation says they are not required to list ALL childcare providers until September 2008.

Always on the hunt for places to be listed. Alas not being an agency I don't always fit the criteria, though I still try anyway

NIck I am glad you have got rid of the couple with the pushchair. Meant to mention it yesterday but it struck me as a really 'blue' or lonely picture.

Hi, I'm not sure if this has been mentioned but I think a short paragraph about yourself would be useful - eg where you grew up, a couple of small personal details - eg big family or small family, noisy house, calm house, what made you want to be a nanny, where you trained, what you like doing when you're not nannying. to my mind it would make you seem more real.

Where would I put such information hatwoman? Another menu item, such as About Me, would make the menu a bit big wouldn't it. Perhaps I could add to the contact page, or could have as a side link on a page. Anyone got any suggestions on how an About Me page should be incorporated?

Oh but I think NIck covers some of his history quite nicely in the brochure. Perhaps you could expand on that, in the first paragraph Nick?

Yes I agree - works best in the brochure, tbh. I think the whole feel of the site is quite personal and approachable anyway.

I like the fact the brochure loads automatically now in a separate window rather than you having to click to download it. The whole site does look really professional now (and damnit, why can't you live in Worcestershire )

I do agree it's already quite personal - when I said it wold make you seem more real, I didn;t mean to imply that at the moment you don't seem real, iyswim.

Have not read all the thread but is there a typo under the testimonials just after the specail needs bit from nikki ' so i had ni qualms' should be no qualms unless this is fancy english!!!

Also on the introduction i think it should read or IF your partner is away??

Not sure if this has been pointed out already apologies if it has.

From the section from mrs o'neil i think it says police not polite?