Review - GilsMethod.com

Well let's start off our official review section with GilsMethod.com! The owner emailed me a few days ago after seeing the "review my site" link that I have up here on Jakkar.com. So as promised, here is the review:

I must be WAAY behind in the times here or something. I see sites like this, and I look at myself in the mirror going "uhh maybe there could be something more than want you are doing?" I know Jakkar.com has a way to go, but sometimes it's almost like everyone else is rubbing it in my face!! But I will not cry! I am bigger than that! So let's take a look at this site and evaluate it piece -by- piece.

Layout: I like the standard layout used. Navigation on the top left, with some content links on the right. Of course the site is light on the ads, so that is usually pleasing to most users. I think that he has good color usage too. (believe me, I know all about bad color usage! I got enough hate-mail about my original layout) I seem to be about to find out most of the stuff that I want to pretty easily. So if I am looking for a "how-to" on a certain Windows issue, I don't spend too much time fishing for it.. So that is pretty good.

Bells and whistles: Not too many "flashy splashy" things popping up in your face as you look around. No flashing images or backgrounds to give you a headache. So they followed the K.I.S.S. rule (Keep It Simple Stupid)

Other design comments: One thing that I couldn't help but notice is how much it looks the the blogger.com site. The colors are the same, and even the logo in the left corner is pretty close. But I guess that if you are familiar with Blogger, you should feel at home here. But there are slight deviations here and there to make it a little bit fresh.

Navigation: Well This is a shining point on the site. In a clear and easy to find area (right side) is a navigation bar that is vertical and lists everything major about the site. There is also another navigation on the top of the site too. It seems that this is for some of the major topics, or frequent links. And they use a Windows explorer-type dropdown for the subcategories. So people should be quite familiar with that. But one tip that I might suggest: Ajax for the drop-down calls. This will save having the whole page reload. FYI. One last little thing that I did like was the "trail" type navigation. This is a basic little way of letting the users know where they currently are in the site, by providing a listing of links that they had selected. (see below)


Objective: Well the goal of this site is pretty obvious and is well stated in the intro pages. It's a "how-to" for computer questions for novice people. (hmm kinda like Jakkar is for web newbies. hmmmmm...) There is only one or two places where he deviates from this, most noticeably with the "wallpaper" section. But this is a minor deviation at best, so there is little concern of a newbie getting confused as to why they are at his site.

Keeping it fresh: Well this is one place that I looked at for some beginner tips as to how to keep everyone in touch with jakkar.com. I like how they have links to the feeds and other publishing ways to keep their readers up to date with what is going on with the site. I am still reading some of the feeds that they have, and I will soon implement them.

Interaction: For the most part, the interaction is pretty one sided. There is many posts from the owner into the site. But then upon further review, I noticed the "forum" section that allows users to create accounts and post to the site. So this is a very useful tool, for the users who will be coming back for more, with more questions on their minds. (Again, this is something that Jakkar.com currently lacks, but what else is new?? Give me time, I'll get it running.)

OVERALL: Well, when I first went to the site, I immediately thought I was dealing with a professional. And I am quite sure that I am not that far off. If you look beneath the surface, you can tell that they are still trying to iron out the site, but they have an impressive first impression. There are a few areas that one could get lost in, but those are few and far between. I would like to see these guys a few years from now.

And drumroll please................
_____________________________________________
Score: 7 out of 10