What would you do?

OK,

I think I've taken this site as far as it can go at this point.  My imagination is at the limit.

If you ran this site - http://mygridironspace.com what would you do?  Would you make any changes or additions?  Add a Mod I'm missing, or simply wait for version 7 to come out in 2011?

I need your eye and expertise Dolphin users.  Let's see what you can come up with that I simply do not have the imagination to come up with myself.

Thanks!

Well my niche is website design, and i have to say your place looks spot on, you have the balance just right to make it look busy, inviting and good use of layout.

regards

Tyke

OK.  Here's my two cents.  My very first impression was bewilderment.  IMHO, your front page is way too busy.  Do you really need all those blocks on the front page?  Sometimes more is not better.  Sometimes more is just more, and the really important stuff gets lost amidst the clutter. 

When I come to the page I wass overwelmed by colors... i'ts I think al little bit to... 
On the other hand in the sports its a normal way to get with many colors..  sooo.. 
There will people say Very nice and say its not a place for me....

killerhaai

Well i like it , i think the point to a place like this is to make it look like there's a million people using the site, and it certainly looks very busy. I dont know much about American football myself, ( no im not weird,or a man wearing a dress,.......... Im British ) but looking at the Barnsley fc football website,(our local team) which is bright red with a touch of red, filled in with red the blue on this is rather subtle by comparison, but is typical of a sports club site.

regards

Tyke

It is my opinion that the front page of a website should be like the cover of a book.  You don't try to tell the entire story on the cover of a book.  The cover of a book, or front page of a web site, should create interest and make the person that is looking at it, want to take a look inside. 

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To me, too much clutter on the front page of a web site, just looks chaotic.  When I look at the page, my eyes can't focus on a single thing, and I am not encouraged to explore the site.  All I want to do, is click the browser's 'back' button. 

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I'd ditch the 4 column layout and go with 3, and get rid of half the blocks that are just echoing information that is a single click away on the navigation menu.  Keep the really important stuff that piques a visitors interest and make them want to explore the site.  As it is now, I think the front page will scare away more people than it lures.

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This, of course, is only my opinion.  The members of the site may like the front page.  I'd ask them what they think

Have to agree way too busy especially with images, lose  centre image from header and try amalgamating some of the other images eg youth/highschool, ncaa/nfl, maybe fanatics/cheerleaders?,  have just 3 columns maybe run column 4 (advertising space) just inside members accounts *once you got them in*.
Members block just have 8 or 12 you don't need 20. Forum posts , members articles and groups just have 3 not 5...
Also I would do some promotions at actual NFL/NCAA games to get them to your website and join * some kind of incentive*. I wouldn't bother with internet marketing.

I just typed up a huge response to each one of you, but then mozilla crashed, so here's the condensed version.  :-)

Thank you for your fast replies.  Tyke is right on the money when he pointed out that this is a sports site and not a dating site.  As a sports site, it should fall in line with every other popular football related site such as espn.com, nfl.com, & cbssports.com to name a few.  Each one of these sites are loaded with content and fan interaction. 

Think of my site as an american Football portal combined with socvial networking.  That being said, you can see why I have that large image up top.  I want a new visitor to know immediately that they are on a site that caters to them.  If I make it a front page and force people to sign up to see inside, most will close the page and move on.  I may be wrong, but that's my opinion. 

As far as the colors go, I feel they need to be prominent and if it wasn't for css issues within Orca, I would have more colors on the homepage.  Why mess with a working model that is being carried out to perfection on these other sports related sites?

So keeping this point of view in mind, are there any mods or changes you would make to improve this site?  If the site offends your sense of design, I understand and thank you for your input.  If not, please take a further look.

Thanks!

Well I like it!

I am not into sports etc. But the site is colorful and well thought out. It is a bit busy but in this case I think that helps. I wish I had some of your imagination.

Stuart

Thanks IronMan!  It's always good to have a superhero on your side! 

I like it, but then, I fit your demographic, I love football, and I was a mommy too.  IF I had a kid in little league, I might have been interested in the idea that you have NFL in the same place as kid-ball.

First thing I did though, was look to see what you have on the Seahawks.  (Somebody's got to love them besides their momma!)

I looked for a search box.  didn't spot one.  I do think you should get that right up under your live support link.

Also, I didn't realise it WAS a live support like at first, it looked like some feature to ask advice on a rule or a call, with the unpire or ref looking icon on the button.  Somehow might want to make that more prominant.

I agree with the 4 column thing going down to three as others have suggested, BUT, my reason is that I think folks are tired of seeing ads on page one.  I tend to think killing all advertising on page 1 would serve a lot of sites well. but nobody else agrees, so Don't take that as worthwhile input!

So, why do you ask?  selling the site? 

I've been waiting for you to sign up and represent the Seahawks! 

Advertising pays the bills, so there is now way I drop that, but I do confine that to the far right column.  goo dpoint on the live support.  I'll have to think about that one.  As far as selling it?  No way.  I just built it 2 months ago. 

nfl.com has 16 content blocks on their front page

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espn.com has 11

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cbssports.com has 16

Your site has 26

You can keep all the content, but I really think you should find a way to present it that doesn't take up as much space.  If you consolodated some of that content and put it into a tabbed content module, that rotated content automatically, it would really clean things up.  You'd still have all the same content, but visitors wouldn't have so much going on all at once.  You might even consider rotating advertisements in a single block.

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For instance....

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If you put 'Latest News' 'Forum Posts' 'Groups' 'Articles' &'Blogs' in a rotating tabbed content module, Then took those 8 Ad blocks and put them in a single block that rotated automatically or on a page load, then you would have 15 blocks instead of 26.  You'd still have all the same content and you could go to a 3 column layout.  You could make the ad block bigger and ads would be more likely to get noticed

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You also have a broblem with the ads that you do have.  I clicked on one and it opend the advertisers web site in the same browser window.  There I was.... no longer on your site.  You never want users to click on an ad and be led away from your site.  Any clickable ads should always open a new browser window.  The ad I clicked, was particularly nasty, in that the click opened a web site in the same window, then with a very short delay, redirected to a new page.  This is a really nasty thing that some sites do and I despise it.  Why? ... because it effectively disables the browser back button. I can't get back to your site by simply clicking the back button..... one of the reasons you should always open a clickable ad in a new browser window.

I almost forgot..... unless you have permission to use all those logos on your page background, you might find yourself in deep doodoo one of these days.  I hate to be a fly in the ointment, but folks like the NFL are pretty sensitive about unauthorized use of their logos.

Thank you for that input.  How would go about doing the tabbed module?  As far as the logos go, no problem with the NFL, they dont mind at all, it's Major League Baseball that gets their panties in a bunch about stuff like that.  Also great catch on the ads, Ill definitely fix that right away.

 Have a look at the content sliders at dynamicdrive.com.

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http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex17/index.html

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I've used this one before and it was really easy to implement: http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex17/featuredcontentslider.htm

It doesn't look easy at first glance.  :-)  Do you have it on your site currently?

Not on my Dolphin site, but I do use it on a different site.  I've stopped all work on the Dolphin site, because 6.1.4 is useless to me.  I'm waiting to see if Dolphin 7 fills all the gaping holes in 6.1.4

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I'd wait for Dolphin 7 before you made any changes like that, unless you plan on sticking with 6.1.4  But..... to implement the content slider, all you have to do is uploade the files and put the supplied code in an html block.  Then just put the various site content in the DIV tags.

I keep telling myself I'll wait for 7, but that day never seems to be coming.

Wow - you have been working your ass off.  I do agree - a bit busy on the front end - your objective should be to get them to register I would think.  Have you considered making each NFL Team a group?  That way people would automatically have people with common interests - and probably in the same area when they join.  Good job.

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Rob

Thanks Rob!  I thought about that, but I think it would be better if they ran their own group that way they would do their own recruiting for members.  That and I also have main forum for anything NFL.  I wish I could intergrate Vbulletin, IPB, but that doesn't seem to be happening.

You mean like this?  http://astrosturf.com/forums.php

You got to be kidding me!!!  How did you do the impossible?

I wouldn't want any ad, on any site of mine, that didn't open in a new browser window.  From a surfers point of view, I hate those annoying click ads and popups.  As long as I have been surfing web sites, I can say with 100% certainty, that I have never, ever, clicked one of those ads.

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When the time comes, I'm going to try out a business directory script and sell ads to local businesses.  I've done a bit of searching and I kinda like the one here: http://idevspot.com/demo/bizdirectory_2_x/index.php

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I don't think I'll integrate it into the Dolphin user/registration system, because  I don't think integration would serve any useful purpose.  I'll just put it in a dynamic Iframe, and let businesses register an account with the ads directory script.  That way if a business want's to place an ad, they can do it without ever dealing with the main Dolphin site if they don't want to.  With any decent amount of members, I can't see why a business wouldn't spend  $1 - $5 for a 30 day ad.  In Houston, TX there's no shortage of businesses that need to advertise..... current economy notwithstanding. Whether or not this will generate more advertising revenues than click ads........ I guess I'll find out.

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I'll let regular site members use the Dolphin classifieds to buy and sell their personal stuff.

Hi there, signalzero.

Well, I'm a football fan too. But I'm also a professional webmaster and an extremely active (40+ hours per week) internet user (met my wife online in 1996). I don't like garrish colors or gaudy gurgling blurbing blinking nonsense and I try to design sites for the general masses (business), regardless of what I may feel or want personally. Having said that, I think that considering the audience whom you're trying to reach, your site is pretty much perfect ... except for the fact that there's just way too much white everywhere.

I would leave everything as is ... except for two tiny very quick changes that you can make in the general.css file.

I'm just starting on our own community, but as far as those colors are concerned, this is kind of what I have in mind:

http://www.meinewelt.einfachclicken.de/

I would make the very light blue background that you have right now just a bit darker, and then I'd make the white backgrounds (which are currently the darker backgrounds on my community) about the same blue color that you're using right now, maybe just a hair lighter. You should be able to keep the current font colors. That'll keep everything looking perfect as it is, while toning down those super bright white backgrounds a little. Well, that's my two cents worth. Here's a site design that I've been working on for the past couple of years ...

EinfachClicken Services Ltd. (lots of images & colors)

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Greetings from Germany

Sammie: Thank you for the reply, but again I must respectfully agree to disagree on that point.  This is a football site and as a football site, the homepage follows a whole different set of rules.  Interesting point on google,  I haven't considered

meinecommunity: Thank you!  I totally agree with you on the background color and whiteness.  When I made changes to those colors, it looked great on the homepage, but Orca looked horrible and I couldnt find where to change the css independantly within Orca.  I wish I could.

I probably should know this - but what exactly is a bounce rate?

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According to our awstats, our site is averaging 5.23 separate pages for each visit. Fantastic ???

Each visitor comes to the site at least 2.29 times per monthly cycle.

(unique visitors only track once per hour though, so some of our stats could in theory be higher)

Now mind you, germany only has 1/3 the population of the USA, so far fewer online visitors.

The entire concept behind our design, is to provide REAL viable results in as little as 3 clicks/pages.

Our total monthly hit count (hits are crap though) is between 250.000 and 350.000 monthly.

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The site design caters to literally everyone ... children, professionals, seniors, beginners.

Pages, Colors, Design, Widths, Lengths, are all designed to look good, yet be EXTREMELY user friendly.

The entire structure is template based ... so that we can later duplicate/clone entire countries, quickly.

No advertising ANYWHERE, period (banners to our own stuff in our video portal).

Chances are that the no-ads will be ruined though once we look for buyers/investors in April.

At 40.000+ files, it's the biggest internet prototype that I've ever come across or heard of, encompassing over 15 TLDs with over half a dozen subdomains and several dozen free online functions.

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So hey, what do you do when you get laid off in your mid 40s, can't find a job, have no decent social system (USA) to fall back on, with pensions that have totally gone down the tubes? Well, I guess you can either kill yourself (kidding) or go nuts on some type of project, investing your last savings, dreams and hopes into that. Lucky for me, I have ADhD. This here is my baby, and mighty proud of her I am. A good community was the only thing that was still missing, everything else we already have, including tons of stuff that's offered with RAY, which we consequently don't need. And yeah, we developed a commercial pay setup around the whole thing too. All of the stuff from the link above is our freebie public stuff. The project is so huge that we had to create a whole separate TLD for investor information. Knock on wood, that I didn't blow over three years of my life on this .....

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Greetings from Germany

54.40%, but in my defense, the site you see now is very different than it was 1-2 weeks ago.  If you think this one is busy you had to see the one before.  :-).  I'll check that rate again in another month or two.

I LOVE YOUR DESIGN SO MUCH, but i prefer mine ( http://smansakra.net.tc ), simpler and confortable on my eyes

he he he

@ smansakra

Hi Reni :-)

Your site is nice ;-) but still displays some code (browsing with IE7) in the top left corner: <!--[if it IE7.]--> <!--[endif]-->

Warning Warning... Thread hijack attempt.

Hi Signalzero and all others,

Let me start off by saying that I am not a fan of watching football at all, but give me a ball and I'll play.

Now, your home page is quite busy and a little overwhelming. Like many others have suggested, I would consolidate some of the content if it's possible. Your navigation bar is interesting. It's arranged weirdly to me. You have a more pages link in the middle of the nav bar. I think that could be put at the end of the nav bar.

I like that you have a lot of useful information on your home page. I don't however think that you need to have THAT much useful information on your homepage. In some of your content blocks, you should have a little less. The "Members" block for instance, like youdidntdidyou said, would be just as useful and more efficient with just 8 or maybe 12 members.

I want to throw this in really quick. Out of everyone who commented here, how many of us went past the home page? Or bothered to comment on any other page? That's how overwhelming it can be. Now, I did go past the home page and even went as far as joining (chrisp is my username). My first big complaint is that you REQUIRE a photo upload before you're allowed to join. Big mistake IMHO.  I almost didn't join because I don't use my work computer to host my personal photos but luckily I had a Portable HDD hooked up. To some this could be a big problem. Some web surfers don't think to upload something from the Windows "Sample Pictures" folder if they don't have an image of themselves ready to upload. They just don't upload one and most won't do it later when they have that photo of themselves available. I suggest you make that field optional, but strongly encouraged. Maybe make a message box popup that alerts the user that they have not chosen an image to upload and give them the choice to either "cancel" and upload an image or "ok" don't upload an image right now and move on.

Now on the content... I can't wait to see what you have in store for those "I'm a...." buttons on the homepage.I really think it's important that you have a space on your site that caters to each category of your members without grouping them too broadly. Because the headline on your logo in your header pretty much promises something to represent pretty much everyone that would be interested in football and it'll be important to those people signing up and uploading their photos that you fulfill those promises.

On your "featured sites" page I would do away with the whole explanation thing on that page or just have a link or banner saying "INTERESTED IN BEING A FEATURED SITE" and actually have something that has to do with your current featured web sites. Your members probably would not want to be too bothered with the back-end operation of the site (getting articles, contributors, advertisers, etc. unless they go there purposefully. When I went to that page I felt like I had accidentally clicked on the "Advertise with us" link on MSN or like I was sent to eat in the kitchen of a lack-luster restaurant. I think you maybe should have a content block dedicated to each site with a small photo and the reason they're being featured or a snippet of their content or something like that.

Overall the site is really useful for who it caters too but it can be a little overwhelming in some places. As far as mods for the site, have you seen/heard of/read about dolphinmods Points System? Its a great mod and I have purchased it and will be using it on my site that's currently being developed. I think for your target users, competing with each other for points and maybe even prizes (T-Shirts and sports memorabilia maybe?) could be a great incentive for them to be more active on the site and contribute more.

That's all I have for now. Since I did register on the site, I'll be back in a few to create a Ravens Fan Group since somehow you don't have one lol....

Good luck man...

oh, thank michel...

i must be forget while editing... he he he