Website Review and Suggestions

**a random guy** · 06:42 PM

UPDATE (1/27/07): brand new layout, need lots of feedback

http://www.backcountryboarders.com

Hey, just made my first "real" website, looking for some feedback. It's meant to be an all-encompassing snowboarding site, and it has a social network on it as well. You'll have to register to be able to take full advantage of the site's features, I tried to make registration easy, but you don't have to...

I'm mostly looking for the answer to: why wouldn't a snowboarder register on this site? Mostly trying to get people to come to it, but it's hard when it looks "empty" and there is no activity, any tips?

Anyways, looking for any type of feedback at all: missing features, technical errors, design and usability issues, just tell me what's bad

- thanks!

**waffles** · 11-05-2006, 11:52 PM

I really don't like it pushed against the top left corner like it is. Get yourself some space in there and it'll look a whole lot better.

Other than that, I really like the look of it.

Getting users could be a pain though. Just keep adding good, useful content. And maybe get some friends to leave comments and otherwise show some activity.

**myworksweb** · 11-06-2006, 01:42 AM

I think your website is kick ***!!!!! only one suggestion: there's alot of space below the login and the search area...try to utilize that with some ads!

**waffles** · 11-06-2006, 09:49 AM

I'll second that to a point. No ads.

**Chris R** · 11-07-2006, 07:16 PM

I dont think its bad for it being your first real website. I would like it more if you could keep some of the content on various pages more contained. It has a decent amount of potential for information. It would be better if you could keep the rest of the site more like the Gear-> Boots & Bindings page.

**mehboob** · 11-09-2006, 02:08 PM

I think its nice! not bad!

**alex_m** · 11-09-2006, 04:24 PM

As your first real website, is good. But you need to add more content. The interface is nice, I love that it has no ads!

**michaelstoen** · 11-09-2006, 05:18 PM

It's good looking but it could look more alive. The color scheme now is basically orange black and grey. I would add one or two more colors to spice it up, also the banner on top could be some small flash animation, would make the site feel much more alive. But it's definatly looks good!

**lucidly.com** · 11-09-2006, 08:07 PM

It kind of seems like a site you would find that is town-specific, I would jazz it up and center the web page. You're on a good start though.

**a random guy** · 11-09-2006, 11:22 PM

ok, I made some changes, let me know what you think

**GremlinaCoconut** · 11-10-2006, 05:25 AM

Good for a first site. Looks a bit off in Firefox though - have a look.

**Alone** · 11-10-2006, 06:07 AM

Very good site

Thanks

**a random guy** · 11-10-2006, 11:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GremlinaCoconut

Good for a first site. Looks a bit off in Firefox though - have a look.

Took off the margin, it did look weird.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alone

Very good site

Thanks

Care to offer any constructive criticism?

**cogentoo** · 11-10-2006, 12:29 PM

The first thing that popped out at me was how low the quality was on the top banner, and the images in general. It looks like they're GIF's, which doesn't work very well with images that have many swirling colors like yours. Try to save them as a JPG with a higher quality setting and see how it looks.

Other than that, it looks pretty cool. I like the laid back talk you use, it especially helps to feel more like the people who run the site are like me. Thats great in the kind of target audience you're going for. Keep it up!

**Menard** · 11-10-2006, 02:37 PM

I don't know anything about snowboarding, but I do like your site. The design is clean and easy to navigate. I like the ID tag used for the login. The drop down menu looks really nice. The only thing I could suggest, as one reviewer has already mentioned, is that you could use some content or filler down the right-hand side.

**day1dreams** · 11-10-2006, 04:36 PM

I agree that it's pushed too far to the left. If you could find another place for the sign in box, or scale it down a bit, then the page might seem a bit more centered. Other than that, nice site!