New Matrix Design

Made a few changes to http://www.matrixreseller.com/temp/

We are also going to change the sound on the nav to not be so load as well and doing some other fixes.

[Brangwyn]

Just noticed one thing thats a little missleading. On the graphic advertising H-Sphere you have "Instant Activation!!!" ... thats not strictly true, for instance us internationals have to wait for billing to confirm our payment details etc.

It's only a minor point I know, but some person who doesnt have their account activated instantly is bound to complain about it.

Or just put a * by it and explain the verification policy if you click on the *

[electricfox]

Also, saying that you can set up unlimited accounts (says so on the graphic on the front page) is a little misleading...

[Silverbug]

could have at least gotten one of the chicks out of the matrix (such as the lady in red ) instead of that one on the top of the page. hmm, but still i guess that not *really* and issue.

[bootNumlock]

my god--Streng would do that sight for way under 10k, you guys already supply all the technology--we would just be makin' it pretty. and if you wanted to stay in the visual theme of vortech and new matrix, we help maintain visual identity every day. You should call me next time! check http://www.seemore.com for reference and http://www.cpcircle.com/NewSite/ for some sites with decent design for under 10k. Also, our weak attempt at flash design for our website (some broken links, but worth the look for the sound aspect of this topic) http://www.strengdesign.com/2001/flash

[bootNumlock]

actually, this is just a bit of a technical nit-- the infinite grid pattern if you expand the window wider and wider is cool, but i would think that maybe you should anchor the main window content (hsphere and c-panel info) instead of floating them in a %100 master table. I have aslo been told that grids are also very 'last year' or several years ago--but i dig them just fine.

other than that-- i think it is a nice start. Not worth anything near 20k however. Does that include production? or just design? Our sites run less than that with production (did i already mention that?)

No this one did not cost 20k no where close way under 1k for just the layout.. We can do all the inside parts its just the over all layout we need or want to..

[dweimann]

I like the clean/saline look but i tend to find sounds a bit intrusive. If you really want them, have a master toggle switch for users to pick. Also, sounds tend to assume that all people surf without background noise/music, but many people, including myself, work with music in the background, so often sounds appear annoying rather than the desired effect.

We tend to build really clean, smooth interfaces on our projects: http://www.cube216.com

[tkraffty]

the layout and design are pretty cool... Nice color scheme, and solid graphics... but...

1.) I agree with everyone else about those button sounds... After the first two mouseovers, it quickly changes from neat to pretty damn annoying

2.) also, your visitors probably aren't going to make a distinction between CPanel or HSPHERE... They're looking for features and possibly platform-specific information, and using the hosting-software as a type of navigational category here just adds another layer of confusion

3.) one other thing many people seem to forget... unless you're totally happy with your current traffic numbers and don't need any more visitors, this demo site is completely worthless in terms of search-engine indexing. The graphics and Flash files you've used in-place of virtually ALL normal text on these pages, and the image-maps instead of direct links, can't be indexed or catalogued by the search engines - in effect, making these pages appear virtually blank or empty to any spiders or search engines that would come here. You're even missing the image ALT tags... all of which results in a site that currently only contains the following indexable keywords:

"Home, Terms of Services, Sitemap, Special Offers, Press Releases, © 2003 Matrix Web Hosting"

Now, if anyone is searching Google for "web hosting reseller plans"... are they going to find your site?

4.) lastly, you could improve your main navigation. (a.) You've tried to reduce the text down to one-word items, which in 3 out of 5 cases aren't really adequate. Contrary to popular belief, site visitors do NOT click a link just to see what's on the other side. If the text on the button doesn't tell users what to expect BEFORE they click, they most likely WON'T. (b.) I'm not sure if all of the main items you've chosen are really all that important to your visitors... "Servers" and "Network" don't seem as important a resource as say "Hosting Solutions"... (c.) And don't forget to sort your links according to what YOUR VISITORS are going to be looking for first... (just makes for better usabilty and improved visitor experience)...

Based on the above, I'd suggest this for your main nav:

"Reseller Plans | Hosting Solutions | Support | Contact Us"


...and that's it for my free usability review

Thomas Krafft
website design & development
www.krafft.com

web hosting & business services
www.idowebhosting.net