Ask HN: Feedback/Advice on my Website | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Feedback/Advice on my Website

3 pointsgoldham7 comments

Dear HN Community,

  I built my first non-static website this last weekend with PHP, AJAX and MySQl. Can you guys can give me some feedback and/or advice on it? I need some opinions outside of my close friends and family.

http://tothewho.com

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A few thoughts off the top of my head (feel free to contact me out of band if you want more...)

- text is nearly unreadable - there's no separation for any of the posts. no rankings, you can't visually separate elements within the post. there are too many of them on there -- which do I read first? Should I read them all, or just the top one? Are they in some sort of order? A visual redesign will help will all these things. - Can I post w/o creating an account? I hate creating an account places. Why do I need to do that? It's not obvious that I need to create an account to post. - Who are these people? Are they users, or celebrities? Is this their twitter feed?

I'd focus on visual design. You don't really have too much "usability" that's very complex.

Thanks Travis. It seems that a visual re-design will be in my near future. A ranking system is a great idea. The idea behind the posts separation is that you can search according to the city you are in. I guess that a short paragraph at the top of the homepage or an about page would be a good addition.

Quick question. From a user standpoint, is creating an account more annoying than filling out a captcha everytime you want to post? Or should I find a way to avoid both?

Personally, I'd rather fill out a captcha each time than have an account. I just don't see a reason why I'd need an account. However, I suspect that this might be a pretty diverse issue (i.e. people feel strongly about each side, so there's really no right answer and compromise is difficult).

Why do you really need a captcha? Have you seen for sure that spambots will target you? I'd recommend (at least initially, while it still scales) that you just let people post. If spam becomes an issue, moderate. If that doesn't scale, then I'd move to a captcha system. But don't build it in unless you know you'll need it.

I never really thought about whether or not it was actually needed. Good insight. I think I will remove the requirement to post but keep the accounts as an option for users to track their posts. I'm also working on the voting system right now.

Also, I gave the site a visual makeover. Hopefully it will be easier on the eyes now.

Just updated the credentials required to submit, care to try it out?? :) http://tothewho.com/submitform.php

You will get better feedback if you write in which area you want the feedback. Design, idea...

I'm no guru but I think orange on orange is not easiest colors on eyes to read.

Interesting idea btw.

Thanks, I'm mainly looking for some help on the design and usability of the site. I'll edit the original post.

I had a feeling about the orange on orange. I checked them against he WCAG and they failed but, I still kept them. That'll teach me.

I didn't think about the login button. Thanks!

-Graysen

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