With my website all ready to go, minus one or two little mishaps I have asked if a couple of users could give me some feedback pointers. Below are their responses with a rating out of five.
Test user No.1
The first user responded saying the website is “contemporary” and “minimalist”, which follows with the style of avant-garde websites. I’m pretty sure this was a compliment so I’m taking it as one! She also said the website is clear, user friendly and crisp. This is amazing news for me as that is exactly what I was aiming for. She also loves how the links in the about page go straight to my social media sites, commenting on how helpful this is. However, she noticed that there was a glitch on the home page with the ‘© Matt Stephens’ writing at the bottom of the page as it doesn’t stay where it is supposed to and therefore ends up partly behind the main image. This is something I knew previously about yet I haven’t been able to sort out. Finally she commented on how there could be slightly more images for the user to see. Overall she gave it a 4 out of 5.
Test user No.2
The next person to test my website said their first impressions were that of a simple and easy-to-use, user friendly website. This is exactly what I wanted when making this website, I also think this is where the market is going with people wanting a website they can quickly view. They also complimented the gallery, saying, “I’ve never seen a gallery that scrolls like this”. This is fantastic news. They thought the style fitted nicely too; the logo looks great and fits nicely with the gallery thumbnails. Again, they noticed that the copyright symbol on the home page was in the wrong place. They didn’t comment on much else other than its ease of usability. They gave the website a 4 out of 5.
Test user No.3
The final person to view my website told me they were “really surprised” as it had come on quite a lot since they last had seen it! It sounded like a pleasant surprise to them so I was happy with this reaction. They then proceeded to tell me that they also love the scrolling in the galleries; “it works seamlessly and looks amazing”. After returning to the home page he then told me that he had also noticed the copyright symbol was out of place and had gotten itself behind the image. He then spotted something that I hadn’t; the home page scrolls up and down when in a standard sized browser, but not the whole page, only the image itself. This is something to work on. He tells me that the contact page is good and it is definitely easy to get in contact. The final scores on the doors was a solid 3 out of 5.
Conclusion
Overall I’m really happy with what people have said! There are a few negatives that I need to work on and if I had not left this project so late I would have been able to fix these negatives before the deadline. However, doing this has been a great help to see what people do and don’t like about the website. It is now clear that the simplistic layout is a success, with a user-friendly and overall easy to navigate website.
Before uploading it to the web I plan on fixing the copyright glitches on my homepage, adding another album or two to the portfolio section and just ironing out any final problems.
Overall I’m rather pleased with how it turned out. I now know exactly what I need to do before the final upload to the internet.
mattstephens 