Homethinking Redux Part CCCLVII
Last week, we launched a new version of Homethinking, with (hopefully) major UI improvements and also the addition of advice, whereby Homeowners can ask questions around the real estate transaction and get answers from professional real estate agents (instead of 14 year old girls in Korea using their cell phones). The quality of the answers, as determined by the questioner, also contributes to the agents ranking on Homethinking.
One lessen I have learnt in the year and a little we have been going is that I did not know some pretty basic UI principles. I thought I did, could say if a site was well designed or not but that is very different from starting with a blank canvas. Over the past year I have quickly learnt through a crash course how people interact with web apps. I don’t think I would have ever got that unless I decided to do a startup. Any web sites I launch in the future, I am pretty sure I will be able to do an OK job.
Either way, I want to thank Mike for his great advice. Other great resources are Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox (I had read the columns, but reading the columns as you are redesigning a site is infinitely more valuable) and Yahoo’s UI design patterns.
So take a look at the new site and let me know if we are on the right track and offer a few comments on what’s still confusing or wrong.
Its a massive improvement and I love it.
The map on the old site was too large, taking up most of my laptop’s screen and in my case, living in Canberra, there wasn’t a lot to see on the map - obviously the site doesn’t target Canberra though, but I couldn’t see much else because of the oversized map. Now, the map is still practical, but there is all the additional teaser info below that pulls me to look further down the page and everything is laid out much better.
Also, the additional red/maroon kind of colours are of benefit. They add excellent contrast to your existing colour scheme.
Well done on a valuable redesign.