I don't really like the fact that the site has so little color. The
home page navigation is boring, I say leave the pictures in color and
add the naviation title under each picture instead of hiding the words
until mouseover. Mouseover is a cool toy that slows people down,
especially the alternating over or under text (cool feature that drives
me nuts). I really expected the pictures to take me somewhere different
then the top navigation because you use different terms. Instead
however you take me to the same sections on the top nav.
I think you are missing the opportunity to use the homepage to sell the
company. There is nothing on the page that tells me why I would want to
click the other pages. It doesn't 'pop'. Use that prime realestate to
add a few brief marketing messages- and then give me a reason to click
the other pages. Sell the sizzle on the homepage. Don't put too much
text there, but it needs something more then just pictures and
navigation. Tell me why I would want to visit the other sections, what
is in them etc. Then make sure I can link back to the homepage (other
then just the assumed logo- homepage link). The page needs some
grounding navigation. The homepage should be a launching place to the
rest of the site, but if I get deep into some of the other sections I
want a way to go back to the grounding navigation page, in your current
design, once I see the homepage and follow a link- I never see it
again. This drives some users nuts, they don't know where to go if they
get deep into a section.
On the homepage the 'envelope printing solutions' and 'useful envelope
information and guides' pictures are horrible. I know the envelop
printing solutions photo is a photo of some sort of printing or sorting
machine, but it is such a small photo of such a small part of the
equipment that it really isn't clear what it is or what it means. I
can't even tell what the 'useful envelop information' picture is??
Make the photo's larger and more descriptive. Don't use pictures unless
they help emphasize the content. It almost looks like you just threw
them in because you needed a place holder.
I hate that the news section is such a small screen and there is no
summary of the articles contained in it. IMHO news sections should
always have a summary screen with a link to the articles so that users
can choose which articles to view. It is better to put the first
sentence or two of an article with a bold headline so that I can scan
the articles and see if there are any that I want to read- instead of
having a single (way too big) page in such a small frame.
In the Envelope Solutions section you need to fix the navigation. When
you are on any of the sub-nav pages the envelope solutions sub nav on
the left side goes bold when you mouseover, that causes the spacing to
jump. People hate that. Just make it bold always or change the spacing
of the section to accomodate for the bold font size change.
The title Gallery is mis-leading. You have customer testimonials and
case studies there too. Rename that section, 'examples of our work' or
samples, instead of gallery. People will automatically assume that
gallery means pictures only.
You have a map on the privacy policy, and environmental policy pages??
Anyway there are quite a few more tips I could give but this is
starting to take too much time. Think about using the homepage to give
a more descriptive picture of the company. Right now it is very boring,
it needs more excitement and more context- something telling me why SCR
is a great company. Help me look into the people there more, machines
are cool to look at but they don't tell me why SCR is a good company to
use if I need envelopes printed.
I hope you were interested in a real critique and not someone to tell
you how awesome it looks. (it's really not bad, but there are a few
things that could be improved).
Good luck,
Aaron
