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Making a new website - Feedback appreciated
shmokes:
I've been working all week on a new review blog for children's iPad apps. It's about 80% designed, and looking pretty good, I think. But I'd appreciate any feedback anyone has on the design, content, navigation, features, etc. Is there anything there that you really like about the site? Anything you think is missing? What do you think of the length, tone and depth of the reviews? And so on.
So far I only have a handfull of children's book app reviews up. The book apps are kind of my specialty since my daughter and I read three books every night before bed, and for the last year we've read almost exclusively on the iPad. So I've read a lot of these books I'm reviewing like a couple dozen times. But I'll get some games and education apps reviewed soon too, so those categories won't remain empty for long.
Also, I haven't even looked at the CSS for the table (Books and Story Apps>All Book Ratings), so it's ugly now, with print that's a bit too small, but it'll get better soon.
I wanna think of everything and get the structure of my site as close to permanent as possible so I don't have to go back and update all of the existing content. For example, I'm thinking that I should categorize apps by age group, so visitors can, e.g., opt to only see apps that are appropriate for kids under 4. But since I haven't already implemented that, I will have to go into every review I've written so far and add that feature.
Anyway, please have a look. http://bestkidipadapps.com
And if you have kids, and you have an iPad, I hope you find that it's worth visiting regularly.
shmokes:
Oh . . . I should note that while you are certainly welcome to point out typos, I haven't actually read through any of those reviews, yet. So I expect that there are quite a few and I will catch most of them on my own since I still need to read through all the articles and add hyperlinks throughout them. Once I have everything nailed down I will, of course, make all my links as I'm writing the reviews.
drventure:
Nice site! It's clean and nicely organized.
I gotta wonder, though about the whole iPad childrens books concept in general. So, I spend 2-5$ each on these apps, which is not much granted. But then, how long will they last?
My daughter's got books on her shelf that were mine and my wife's when we were kids, and that she loves reading. I don't see that likely to happen with digital stuff.
Just wondering what your thoughts were on that? No big deal.. Just another way to get kids reading (which is never bad)...
Howard_Casto:
--- Quote from: drventure on July 30, 2011, 09:27:04 am ---Nice site! It's clean and nicely organized.
I gotta wonder, though about the whole iPad childrens books concept in general. So, I spend 2-5$ each on these apps, which is not much granted. But then, how long will they last?
My daughter's got books on her shelf that were mine and my wife's when we were kids, and that she loves reading. I don't see that likely to happen with digital stuff.
Just wondering what your thoughts were on that? No big deal.. Just another way to get kids reading (which is never bad)...
--- End quote ---
I agree. I still have my little golden books in a storage box somewhere. But then again, as an adult I've went almost entirely digital, so I dunno.
In regards to the site, I think it looks really good, but I've never been a fan of those blogs with the "reverse letterbox" bars on either side. It isn't that it looks bad, it's just such a common practice with those web templates floating around that whenever I see it I think "this site was put together in 10 minutes". I think those bars could be better utilized by perhaps links to recent books (with thumbs of course) for quick reference. And maybe links to buy the books on the right... would get some ad revenue in there. ;)
Also in regards to the "split blog" style where you put two links on the same row. I realize your site is for childrens books and it isn't the same audience, but they updated kotaku's site with that style and the users revolted until they put in an option to use the old blog style. For me it isn't that big a deal either way, but the reason a lot of people don't like it is that when you fit two reviews on one row there isn't much room for text. A combination of quick links in the left vertical bar in conjunction with a more traditional blog list might work, at least as an option.
I'm not saying the layout is bad btw... I think you could use it as-is and it would be great, but you asked for some suggestions so I just gave my 2 cents. ;)
DaveMMR:
I like it, pretty well organized. I assume you're using Wordpress (well I guessed that by peeking at the source) and I must say I like the way that theme looks. If I had to offer up one complain it's the link colors are a little too light on a white background.
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