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(Yes I know the actual logo isn't up just yet I'm waiting for it.
Host Mist Web Hosting, Reseller Hosting, Dedicated Servers, and more! - this is the new design I have and compare it to:
Host Mist - Shared cPanel Linux Super Cool Web Hosting
I like the new design, so let's see what everyone else thinks of the new design.
Very nice update. It'll look great once you get a logo and stuff :)
Hi, I hope this full review helps. Looks like the new design applies to full content so content review should be applicable too. This is my typical full review outline.
Design:
Right off the bat the new design is leaps and bounds better than the old one which seems obvious from the first look at both. The new design is cleaner, more spacious and uses a more soothing color scheme. The larger menu and its centered, rounded and symmetrical style give the site a sense of elegance.
Other good things are clearly leaner graphics, a larger splash area and much more distinct styling of three main deals.
There is however room for improvement and here are some suggestions, aside from the obvious one you're already aware of, which is the logo that needs to be put in there.
1. Symmetry and elegance is partly ruined by inconsistent widths of the main menu, splash section and three deals blocks. Just making the three deals space out to fill the full width of the splash block above would make things look and feel much more aligned. Alternatively, the size of the splash block could be reduced to fit the three deals blocks.
2. The arrows in the splash block are kinda slanted to the right which also impairs the symmetry of the design. Making them truly centered would help. Alternatively you could put both of them in a corner next to each other so the visitor doesn't need to move his mouse when switching between rotating content. In that case I suggest putting them on the left side.
3. Again relevant to symmetry, the bottom menu is also a little slanted rather than properly centered. I'm guessing something in CSS is causing these issues.
4. "Starting from" text in the round graphic within the splash is too dark on a given background which brings its readability in question on some screens and for some people. Possibly make this text light gray or blue like the ".95".
Other sections are pretty good. The tables are styled well and the content is quite easy to read. I think with these changes applied the overall design would be just right. :) The rating however reflects the current state of things, minus the logo.
Design Rating: 8/10
Focus:Given a somewhat recognizable design style typical for web hosts and the name Host Mint the user should have no problem in figuring out what they're supposed to get from the site. A nice main menu, attractive splash block rotating highlights as well as three deals presented below immediately provide the user with relevant options to explore.
A news section is relevant as well, providing latest news about the hosting service and the network. No complaints here.
Focus Rating: 10/10
Content:
The content rating depends on how well site's content presents the hosting service in question and whether there is any additional useful and relevant content to be found. Homepage splash block rotates nuggets of information about the service ranging from important news (location move) and highlights such as the upcoming server specs and network locations.
Deals blocks mention the important features of the deal. The only trouble here is they don't link to more information. This could be because the design may be unfinished, but it would certainly be a good idea, even if the main menu already links to said deals.
News section below is brief and to the point, but does the job. Moving on to subsections; shared, reseller and dedicated pages provide a brief introduction to the service, a list of what all hosting plans of that type include (which is a great thing to have) and a table with full feature lists compared across plans. All in all quite good.
The client area, along with the typical stuff like client login, tickets and contacts also has a server status, domain checker, knowledge base and downloads, but there are no downloads and the knowledge base is essentially just an FAQ section as of now with 11 brief entries.
Perhaps a domain checker and server status could use a more prominent link in site's navigation, at least in the footer, as a lot of people may want to buy a package including both domain and hosting and may want to start by checking the domain.
All in all, while the client area is slightly on the weak side the primary content is fairly well done. And another thing worth noting is that all pages load exceptionally fast.
Content Rating: 8/10
Overall:
With heavily improved design and a decent presentation of services HostMist is off to a good start, but could still use some tweaks. Hosting is one of those incredibly saturated fields so excellence is always encouraged and welcome, if not absolutely necessary to compete.
Overall Rating: 9/10
Quite a lot of stuff you put in there. Thanks for the information and I will be taking a lot of this into consideration when adjusting the design.Quote:
Originally Posted by memenode
Sorry for the bump, updated lots of stuff so re-review would be appreciated.
Logo looks great and fits in very nicely! :) I think symmetry is much better now, the "starting from" text is easily visible and deals are linking to relevant place. So this probably puts it to 10/10 overall. :)
You might want to integrate livezilla live chat to your design somehow or at least replace the logo on it and remove "Freeware Live Help" at the bottom. People don't have to know it's freeware.
Yeah I'm probably going to get rid of livezilla and like replace it with Kayako Live Response.Quote:
Originally Posted by memenode