

Ask HN: Feedback/Advice on my Website - goldham

Dear HN Community,<p><pre><code>  I built my first non-static website this last weekend with PHP, AJAX and MySQl. Can you guys can give me some feedback and/or advice on it? I need some opinions outside of my close friends and family.
</code></pre>
http://tothewho.com
======
Travis
A few thoughts off the top of my head (feel free to contact me out of band if
you want more...)

\- text is nearly unreadable \- there's no separation for any of the posts. no
rankings, you can't visually separate elements within the post. there are too
many of them on there -- which do I read first? Should I read them all, or
just the top one? Are they in some sort of order? A visual redesign will help
will all these things. \- Can I post w/o creating an account? I hate creating
an account places. Why do I need to do that? It's not obvious that I need to
create an account to post. \- Who are these people? Are they users, or
celebrities? Is this their twitter feed?

I'd focus on visual design. You don't really have too much "usability" that's
very complex.

~~~
goldham
Thanks Travis. It seems that a visual re-design will be in my near future. A
ranking system is a great idea. The idea behind the posts separation is that
you can search according to the city you are in. I guess that a short
paragraph at the top of the homepage or an about page would be a good
addition.

Quick question. From a user standpoint, is creating an account more annoying
than filling out a captcha everytime you want to post? Or should I find a way
to avoid both?

~~~
Travis
Personally, I'd rather fill out a captcha each time than have an account. I
just don't see a reason why I'd need an account. However, I suspect that this
might be a pretty diverse issue (i.e. people feel strongly about each side, so
there's really no right answer and compromise is difficult).

Why do you really need a captcha? Have you seen for sure that spambots will
target you? I'd recommend (at least initially, while it still scales) that you
just let people post. If spam becomes an issue, moderate. If that doesn't
scale, then I'd move to a captcha system. But don't build it in unless you
know you'll need it.

~~~
goldham
I never really thought about whether or not it was actually needed. Good
insight. I think I will remove the requirement to post but keep the accounts
as an option for users to track their posts. I'm also working on the voting
system right now.

Also, I gave the site a visual makeover. Hopefully it will be easier on the
eyes now.

------
Ernestas
You will get better feedback if you write in which area you want the feedback.
Design, idea...

I'm no guru but I think orange on orange is not easiest colors on eyes to
read.

Login button could say "login".

Interesting idea btw.

~~~
goldham
Thanks, I'm mainly looking for some help on the design and usability of the
site. I'll edit the original post.

I had a feeling about the orange on orange. I checked them against he WCAG and
they failed but, I still kept them. That'll teach me.

I didn't think about the login button. Thanks!

-Graysen

