Please critique - Doreo.com

[ffeingol]

Hello everyone,

The site is not totally done, but please critique www.doreo.com. Since the name gives no clue as to what the site is, it's a web hosting site.

Thanks,

Frank

[D856C]

I think the color scheme is ambitious. Something seems a little off balance between the simplified 'plug' side and the fine details on the right. A little hard to put a finer point on it than that.

The left side bar looks to have missing content (MSIE 5.5). There is a section with a light green arrow "Jul 6, 2003, 6:47 AM" and a dark green arrow below it "Join Now." Where the first section hugs the entry tightly, the dark green arrow seems to point to nothing -- (join now lies below the fold, off the immediate viewable area in a 768x1024 screen res) Spacing for similar looking elements should be similar, or the visual assumption is there is nothing down there to scroll to.

Further, there is nothing in this design which 1) initiall catches the eye, or 2) guides the eye (visual flow) from one section to another. Elements, like the domain name lookup box, lie like a scattershot pattern across the page.

Finally is the content. I like the quote, but there could be a little more conent on pages like "Why choose Doreo.com hosting?

Doreo.com™ is a customer oriented web hosting company that provides premium quality services to its customers. " This immediately suggests the question in the readers mind "...Who isn't." Or more accurately, who doesn't or wouldn't say something similar.

This report: "What's the site about" (http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20010722.html) is about what's called a tagline. It doesn't go nearly far enough, but it is a start. Point is there are generic phrases which apply to anyone in a category, and then alternatives which only apply to your offering. I would apply that approach which sets you appart in the mind.

If, indeed, content is "king," here's something close to what I would like to see (http://aspwebhosting.com/whyus.htm), plus a similarly detailed section on business service performance. You could even put a few key indicators (technical AND business) as a statistics widget on the site.

[ffeingol]

D856C,

Thank you very much for your comments. So far we have been working on the overall layout/colors etc. Some of the pages have more content than others. As you have pointed out, the "about" pages are very thin at this time.

On the left hand side ("July 6,2003, 6:47 AM") the three most recient general news items will display. For code testing purposes there is only one news story now, but more will be added.

Thanks again,

Frank