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  1.  
    • CommentAuthorSunRise
    • CommentTimeJun 27th 2008 edited by SunRise on the 27th June 2008 at 15:49:27 EDT
     
    Got time right now? I'm looking for some constructive criticism on a site I'm working on. It's for a new business I'm starting. Basically its a centralized site for anyone looking to buy a new home in Austin that is set to feature a new community search, mls search, as well as categorized information about living and working in Austin. The point is to make the site an authority in new home reasearch and thus bring buyers to the new real estate company I am founding....Thats the background anyways. I am looking for what needs improvement. Be as mean as you want, but tell me what is wrong and what you would change. Thanks guys! I owe youbakie.


    almost forgot...here is the best New Home Search in Austin, Texas.

    EDIT: the quick search on the front page is not yet implemented. The only semi-working pages are the first two under community search and the main page for Austin info. Content is still lacking but I want to know if there is anything I need to change now before the site gets bigger.
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      CommentAuthorSean
    • CommentTimeJun 27th 2008 edited by Sean on the 27th June 2008 at 15:55:13 EDT
     
    Nice idea. I hear Real Estate in Texas is really booming.

    As for your site design, visually it looks ok. My personal opinion is it needs more color and pop to the design.

    When will you have the site actually functioning? Like the search features and MLS?

    Another question, are you using a pre-made script for the back end or is it custom?

    Also, for your URL's, don't do for example about_us, do about-us which is way better for SEO.

    A good way for your about us link to be really SEO friendly would be to make it about-austin-home-guide. That is really keyword rich for what you want and will fit your site.
    • CommentAuthorwundertype
    • CommentTimeJun 27th 2008
     
    It looks functional but I think it misses a slice of life. On such a site I'd like to see photos instead of the second set of abstract icons.
    • CommentAuthorMattKern
    • CommentTimeJun 27th 2008
     
    Nice site. Better than 99% of the real estate sites out there.

    My 2 cents. Make the active tab and sub menu a different color than the main background. I got the active tab part, but it took me a browsing thru a few pages before I realized the sub menu was there. Also, make the submenu text size bigger than the normal text.

    Great site, though.
    •  
      CommentAuthorSean
    • CommentTimeJun 27th 2008
     
    Posted By: wundertypeMy personal opinion is it needs more color and pop to the design.

    This goes along with what I said above "My personal opinion is it needs more color and pop to the design." bakie
    • CommentAuthorDaisy
    • CommentTimeJun 27th 2008
     
    I like it too. The only suggestion I'd make would be that I just tried adding

    font-family: georgia;

    to the body and (to my eyes) it gives the whole page a much more professional look.
    • CommentAuthorbluecafe
    • CommentTimeJun 27th 2008
     
    I think you should insert any pictures of houses that the visitor sees at the first sight that it is an real estate site. My first impression was that it has something to do with tools, second impression was auction site (buyer tools, seller tools). Sometimes pictures say more than thousand words. And I too think that you should choose a better font than the browser standard font to make it look more professional.
    •  
      CommentAuthorbradm81
    • CommentTimeJun 27th 2008
     
    I like it overall. Simple. Clean. and Clear. Three constructive criticisms:

    1. All the color on the page is in the header. You can use some of that to highlight and differentiate some of your body elements.

    2. Needs pictures. Good real estate page has to have some good pictures of homes right?

    3. Not crazy about the use of times in the body, but that might just be my taste



    Nice work. Hope this helps, and good luck!
    •  
      CommentAuthoricyone
    • CommentTimeJun 27th 2008
     
    Posted By: bradm81
    Needs pictures. Good real estate page has to have some good pictures of homes right?
    Top priority in my opinions
  10.  
    Posted By: DaisyI like it too. The only suggestion I'd make would be that I just tried adding

    font-family: georgia;

    to the body and (to my eyes) it gives the whole page a much more professional look.

    Thats what i was going to suggest!
    • CommentAuthorpapab30
    • CommentTimeJun 28th 2008
     
    Your pages need to have a docType and the site would look better either centered or full width rather than going from just one edge.

    you've got errors on the php side. community search is looking for a wrong datatype. i know that you're just now developing, but you might want to look into that.

    very table heaving. i know tables are easy to generate and everything, but sometimes a simple div can do wonders. might want to think about that.

    I see that you're pulling the stylesheets in from a different domain. intersting, but one thing that you could do is to have one style sheet in that local folder do an @import of the three stylesheets you're linking, and then have only that one stylesheet referenced in the pages. cuts down a little on the bandwith there.

    Inline styles and javascript mouse events. maybe this can be controled from the stylesheet maybe not. you look into it, it might be an advantage.

    You're using fully qualified paths for navigagtion. You could just use realitive paths in case something changes (domain name change, different working folder etc.).

    If you're looking for getting spidered, a few meta tags might be good thing. You're missing those completely on each page.

    Looks like you've got a heck of a start. I know getting an engine working is a lot of hard work, but getting the look and feel is even harder. Keep it up, and hopefully we see you on the number one spot on Google.
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      CommentAuthorainslie
    • CommentTimeJun 28th 2008
     
    Posted By: SeanNice idea. I hear Real Estate in Texas is really booming.


    Nice keywords dropped in there Sean. You SunRise's business partner? bigsmile
    •  
      CommentAuthorgnome
    • CommentTimeJun 28th 2008
     
    <humour> I guess all the SEO has has altered Sean: he now speaks only in keyword phrases! </humour>
  14.  
    First of all, bravo on a user-friendly design. I really like the "Quick Search" on the home page. Gets right to the point and lets people start using the site immediately.

    Some suggestions:

    In the "Search", "Service", and "Savings" boxes, I wouldn't indent the paragraphs.

    I like how the navigation buttons pop out when you hover over them, but it takes a second for the hover image to load. If you change your code so that the images are background images, you can use this technique to get rid of the lag time when people hover.

    In the "Austin Info" and "Community Search" pages, there is a grey background behind the navigation. I think it looks better with a white background, as on the home page.

    The submenu (on the "Austin Info" page, for example) looks a little bland. If you styled those links with some blue or orange background, it would look better and make the links more noticeable.
  15.  
    This is my favourite part of the site...
    http://noohome.com/austin_info/This is a picture of image not found. It is one of the best parts of austin.

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