How would you critique this listings website?

I couldn’t look at it for more than 5 seconds, to be honest. That’s probably the worst looking website I have seen in 10 years. Sorry I couldn’t provide more feedback.

The main thing is that I have absolutely no idea what the website is for. Is it a search engine, is it to help people find things? If so, what things. Super cluttered. I like things to be very clean and very obvious. This was neither. You shouldn’t have to scroll around multiple times to figure out what the site is for, or how to use it.

Here is an example of a website that really works well for me MelindaLee.com It is a cooking site, that part is quite clear. Across the top you can find the home page, the recipes, and things that were featured this week, About Us and Contact. If you scroll down, you will see that Ms. Lee has a website, a radio show and a magazine, you can click on each of these to find info about each separate thing. The graphics are clean, minimal and obvious as to why they’re there. It is very clear what the site it for. It’s easy to find what you need.

Another site that works very well is McMaster-Carr It is a site for finding just about any kind of hardware, fastener or tool you might need. It gives you categories to choose from, just in case you’re not sure what it is you are looking for. It also give you a search box at the top if you know exactly what you need. It has the contact button and order history and build and order way at the top, because that is where you will need to start. The contact info is very clear and easy to find, including a phone number. Again, the graphics are minimal and obvious as to why they are there.

The technical aspect isn’t bad, it seems quite user friendly technically. It is not the most attractive site, and if I had to narrow it down I’d say its the fonts? They are just seriously crappy. Sorry cant think of a better word. The colors could do with more punch I reckon like the back panels and so on. But yeah I like the general layout.

In the USA I wouldn’t choose to call a site F’Me unless I actually was soliciting people to do just that. The site won’t win any beauty contests. More importantly, it fails the most important test for any landing page. It fails the 50 millisecond test.

I suppose if he can convince enough local service providers to pay for listings with him, and somehow market the site so that he attracts enough eyeballs to make advertising there pay for those service providers, it could be a success. He might want to consider adopting fluid design instead of fixed width. The layout lends itself to fluid design with a CSS max-width setting for the containing DIV so it doesn’t stretch to kingdom come on a huge monitor. Using fluid design would help users with hand-held devices access it without lots of scrolling. A very successful example of a site with this sort of purpose is Craigslist. I use http://boston.craigslist.org/ often. Look at how obvious its purpose is, and how clear it is how to use it.

I can’t tell what it’s for. What am I supposed to be finding there? It doesn’t seem to have a database yet. Without being populated, I can’t really get a sense of it. Also, it’s European, and maybe only for Spain and Greece (why Spain and Greece?), so I can’t tell if any of the listings are useful. Will there be reviews? I kind of like the slogan idea. But the website needs one of its own. A useful one.

Hi, to introduce myself: I am a friend of the owner, of this site and I have helped on the coding side. The site is a local business directory for the UK, Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Greece, Germany, Malta and Cyprus. The site is translated (not google) into 8 languages.

The initial aims of the site, was to give ex pats somewhere to find services and suppliers, in their area, in their language. As the site was being built, it became more apparent the even the locals didn’t know the closest suppliers or services.

Also, affordable advertising is very hard to find, making the site a valuable tool in these days of crisis. With this site, anyone can afford to advertise and to do so in 8 languages.

There is a very special search system, that will only show results of what is actually listed, so that people don’t waste their time and end up with a “Sorry, we don’t have anything for your search criteria”. To make this system work, There must be adverts to search through. This is the catch 22, without populating the database of adverts, there is little to find (as mentioned by (wundayatta).

Being technical minded, my artistic design is not the best. I have tried to make everything as user friendly, as possible, but obviously without honest and sensible suggestions, it’s hard for me to know what the general public would like.

So please, give any constructive criticism that you have, throw it at me.

Thanks for listening.