
Website Feedback Request - JabariHolloway
Hey Everyone! I&#x27;m new to Hacker News so I don&#x27;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&#x27;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&#x27;s up and running at http:&#x2F;&#x2F;jabariholloway.com<p>Thanks in advance!<p>-Jabari
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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!

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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...](http://www.physics.unlv.edu/~jeffery/astro/constellation/constellation_north.gif)
)

\- 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!

