The 7Creation website is currently hosting a graphic competition organized by the people who run Labuan.net In a bid to help promote the arts and culture scene in Malaysia, they’ve come up with a challenge for anyone to participate. To find out more details of the competition, proceed to 7creation.com
Before I get started, please remember that all reviews are done honestly by me as a single website designer and someone who takes into account the usability of the website heavily. Some of the things mentioned might be of personal preference but if you can never accept it then please refrain from reading on.
Their press coverage started on 3rd November 2005 (though not in West Malaysia I guess) and their website is still currently in its beta [1] stage. It’s obvious from the screenshot above that the website is still very bear and it’s presentation hasn’t been given enough work.
The homepage currently only sports a miniature banner with people that aren’t clearly seen in it and with a login panel right in the center. The navigation at the moment looks more like the menu you’d find in the footer area of a website than a main navigation.
Not being a elitist or cynical person towards Adsense integration, I don’t see how Adsense should be related in a website like this especially when it isn’t even doing its part on the homepage.
The homepage is the door of the website and should be bringing more information then what it has now. Where is the introduction or details of the competition for fast access? Does a user really need to have to click on each link just to find out the details of everything? If I were too lazy to click on all of them then you’ve just lost one user.
I really feel that if the homepage doesn’t improve tremendously, it’ll prove to be one of the more obvious dropout spots for most users.
Click image for a larger version.
There’s clearly some improvement trying to be put in the content page. However, I think 7Creation is still lacking in its aesthetic appearance totally. The banner itself on the content page isn’t help promote the contest but the website with such huge fonts of the URL. I don’t the user needs to be reminded which website they’re on.
Let’s look at what we (designers) need to do in order to join this competition. Well, the form to fill is pretty general however there are some questionable fields as to why we need to fill in these things though it’s an online contest.
Why does the organizer want to know my home address and even identity number? Gosh, am I going to be bombarded by spam mail in future or even worst, are my details going to be sold to some spammer? Though the users who might be joining this competition won’t be as worried, the practice of requesting for information that is too personal or doesn’t proof to be required should either be explained or ensured of its safety.
The other thing I just noticed (which is cool I guess) is that the form even tracked the IP address of the user. *shock*
The information provided to me is sufficient but 7Creation might want to rethink their site architecture and definetely get their designers on the design of the website.
Would anyone else like to add anything?
Are they worth for the critiques?
i cant register inside
Apparently not jill, since they don’t even bother replying to jay’s problem here. But the post will be here if they still need it.