Website Feedback Request

[JabariHolloway]

Hey Everyone! I'm new to Hacker News so I don't know if my request is appropriate - my buddy Brendan suggested over coffee that I should ask the Hacker News community for feedback on my personal website that I recently designed and developed. So here I am! I'd like to ask three things about the site: 1. What do you think about the design? 2. What do you think about the UX? 3. What do you think about the quality and usefulness of the content? My website's up and running at http://jabariholloway.com

Thanks in advance!

-Jabari

[dzolvd]

I definitely recommend putting in the time to use https. If you use LetsEncrypt it is free and can be completely automated.

Closing the about me window to reach the achievements and stories links was unintuitive for me. (also perhaps consider having clicking outside one of the story events close the story (the same as clicking outside the about me and contact me panes), scrolling back up to the x wasn't that bad but my first instinct was to click on the background.)

I am also unsure why the achievements / stories buttons switch between the two as they don't overlap, I understand not wanting to have too much showing at once, put perhaps a pan on the background or something (not a fully fleshed out thought).

[JabariHolloway]

Thanks for your feedback dzolvd!

I checked out LetsEncrypt and it looks like just what I've been looking for! I've got another website I'm working on (an in-person Continuing Education platform), which will also need https so this is a great solution! Thanks!

I can see how moving from the about me window to the achievements and stories links is unintuitive. Which part is most unintuitive: Knowing to close the about me window? Knowing to click the achievements button or stories button? Or that clicking either button reveals the achievements or stories links, respectively? The problem I'm trying to solve here is to have some introduction to the site as well as a self-image shown immediately to 1. Let people know what the site is about when they first arrive and 2. Connect the real-world me with the virtual me. I believe the about me window does that, but it also seems to cause confusion in how to navigate the site. What are your thoughts?

Oh yeah, you called it - when both the achievements and stories links are shown at the same time, the page looks too busy. Also, on mobile the achievements and stories links do overlap.

Thanks again for your help!

[dzolvd]

Knowing to close the about me window was the most unintuitive for me, I had clicked the three links along the bottom a few times before I saw the x, perhaps linking the achievements and stories text on the about me to their respective views could help, or include one or both along the links at the bottom? Some of it may be I am expecting to see it listed alongside those links from years of websites having essentially a resource list along the bottom? (not saying this is good practice necessarily...)

[JabariHolloway]

Great insight and great suggestions! I really like the idea of linking the achievements and stories text on the about me to their respective views! Thanks!

[anotheryou]

a few ux things:

- background image could be a little more crisp for big screens and retina

- white text at the bottom doesn't indicate what is clickable and the "Site Design © 2016 Jabari Holloway" is much to prominent for something that adds little value to the site

- blue buttons look very bootstrappy, I'd use the outline versions (there is a button-outline for bootstrap, no?) to keep the weightless look fitting the theme of the site.

- some subtle shadow on the floating text in the color for the "black" in the picture would add readability, fading away really close stars (just 1-2px at 50% opacity can to wonders and is hardly noticeable as a shadow)

- the about screen needs a big button for [come on in and have a look], the close button is counter-intuitive and hard to find here.

- the reddish text in the about me looks a bit off, I'd stick to black, white and your highlight color blue

- I'm personally not a big fan of half-transparent backgrounds.

- I like the paging on the stories, but once you scroll the back button is gone, it should be always visible

- I would consider always showing all menu points, make achievements and stories visually different, but keep them on screen.

- I like animations to be very quick, so I don't have to wait for them to "use" the site. The growing glow to make the text readable is much too slow for my taste. Maybe use "ease-out" to quickly grow to size and still have a smooth stop.

- a fancy suggestion: show all achievements and stories, but connect each group like star constellation and have "Stories" and "Achievements" as the constellations names ( http://www.physics.unlv.edu/~jeffery/astro/constellation/con... )

- when scrolling down on stories, the bottom menu moves up the page, guess that's not supposed to happen.

[JabariHolloway]

Thanks a lot for your feedback anotheryou!

-I like the way the outlined buttons with transparent background look

-I'll try your subtle shadow suggestion

-Do you absolutely think I need a call-to-action button on the about screen? Do you think adding Achievements and Stories links respectively to the "Achievements" and "Stories" text within the about screen would work well?

-While the reddish text looks off, it doesn't stand out well with black, can't be seen with white (based upon the current background color of the about screen) and looks unappealing with my highlight color blue. I agree with you on sticking to a color palette, but doing so didn't work well in this case

-Thanks, I wrote my own pagination algorithm :). I'll add a back button that's always visible

-Do you know a way of making the achievements and stories menu points visually different without the page appearing too busy?

-I'll try the "ease-out" instead of "ease"

-Cool suggestion! I'll keep it in mind for a future design of the site!

-The bottom menu moves up while hovering over a story, which happens incidentally if the mouse intersects a page while scrolling. I'm not sure how to keep the hover effect and disable it while scrolling

Thanks again for your help!

[anotheryou]

- call-to-action would not be needed if achievements/stories buttons are visible. Maybe you should make the about page a bit more bold. A big fat "Hi, I'm Jabari" and no close button.

- the reddish text: I'd probably go with black on opaque white

- I'd make the stories/achievements with the outlined buttons and the about/newsletter/contact things in small text right underneath, maybe with underlines so it's clear they are links. Maybe seperate them with "|" (about | newsletter | contact)

- just position the menu with "fixed", not "absolute"

[JabariHolloway]

- ok, great. I'll work on making the about page more bold. I prefer the "Hi, I'm Jabari" over the "JabariHolloway.com" - it's friendlier and people already know they're at the website if they've come that far so I don't need to reiterate where they are!

- when it comes to viewing text, black on opaque white doesn't cause confusion and looks neat. In this case, if I went with opaque white, people wouldn't be able to see the stars in the background, which would detract from the sense of outer space the website conveys

- I like the idea of using separators - I'll add them :)

- perhaps this is truly a bug because the menu does have "position: fixed" set. Are you viewing the website on a large monitor, say 24-inch or 27-inch?

Thanks again anotheryou!