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Hi Andrew
It's quite an honor to given the opportunity to add feedback on such an amazing site that gets so many visitors a month.
None the less there are few things that jump out, when I look at this site, I'll use the notes section, as it is easier.
I like this site it's easy to navigate and very informative, however from a design point of view there's a few inconsistencies...
Good Luck!
Mashable.com Homepage
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1
move this ad unit after the trending story
serve reader 1st then present ads.
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2
move up
since the top spot is vacated. move whole sidebar + trending story up.
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3
swap logo with join mashable
people read from left to right. Brand before anything. put logo then the call to action. it will have a side effect of the Logo talking directly to reader making it more effective. also the nav bar is left aligned. so its a bit jarring.
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4
move this to the right
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5
if possible
have the fb like within the article. how can the reader like a summary? the share buttons are social proof enough to drive readers into the article.
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6
make this into a grid
turn this into a grid of thumbnails. you can fit 16-24 in there. have a div show the story when they hover it. click to go into article.
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7
color code this
color code this. the site is color varied enough thats its a design fit.
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8
All social in one place
All social icons (retweet, fb share, digg, comments, fb like) should be in one place
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9
Two columns to have complete headlines
All headlines are trunked with this 3 column approach. Maybe try a 2 column approach
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10
Date at front
There's no need for bullet points if dates are at the front of the line. This is especially more useful since s.o. can scan the dates.
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11
One story large
There are only 3 stories on the whole page with headline and intro text. Maybe have one story for each section enlarged as well
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12
Facebook Icon
as this is already down in the footer, it seems odd that you would want it up here next the logo, it also seems unbalanced being so square compared with the rest of the icons in the footer
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13
This nav menu
this would be better incorporated into the main nav, that's my opinion, as to me it feels like it's squashing the site name and logo
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14
I would move this down under the header
at the moment there's too much going on.
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15
Love it
don't change it
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16
can you make it hideable?
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17
another one?
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18
and again
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19
see these are nice and round
not like the one at the top
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20
due to the size of the pages
wouldn't it be better to be top 10?
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21
different styles
there seems to be no continuity in the icons
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22
Nav Menu 100% width background
I will make the Nav Menu background to stretch 100% in width and a much more contrast to the active nav: darker blue
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23
Nav Menu 100% width background
I will make the Nav Menu background to stretch 100% in width and a much more contrast to the active nav: darker blue
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24
Nav Menu 100% width background
I will make the Nav Menu background to stretch 100% in width and a much more contrast to the active nav: darker blue
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25
Logo to the Left
Why don't you move the Logo to the left and the facebook to the right after the search zone, and then the search zone goes from the right to the middle, and make it a little bit larger the text input
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26
Google ads...dammm I am blind to them :)
To be honest me, I am blind to the google ads, and I am sure most of the people are, but I think is okay since you don't have to many options here :)
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27
The Sidebar is OKAY
The Sidebar is okay, I just miss the category view also here, maybe make it collapse with an "+" you know...
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28
Top Stories...to much uppercase
Why do you use that much uppercase? It's really hard to read, it's like a title which goes on and on and never stops, that my first impression! Use only the title uppercase and the description normal... and gray color not the same blue, it's confusing
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29
Number of social media items
The number of social media items on the page is just insane. It's cluttering the interface with so many choices I don't know where to click anymore.
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30
Why is this here
Is this related to search?
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31
The main menu
Is to small and cluttered. The icons help a bit but it's still a text soup. Consider drop down menus, tabs like yahoo, or something else to un-clutter this area.
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32
Top menu
Some of these buttons could be in the footer or many menu. The most annoying problem with this design is the amount of choices available.
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33
Social area
This is nicely done.
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34
Social networking buttons
If this is the main page, why would you need these here? Usually I read the article before I share it or Digg it ... so the place for these would be in the full length article page.
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35
Top stories
This is bad. Most users will never read this small text, they will skip this area completely.
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36
News Layout
I would consider another layout for news in which you could fit more top stories in without the user having to reload the page. See Yahoo or other news sites. They don't make you reload the page.
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37
News Layout
I would consider another layout for news in which you could fit more top stories in without the user having to reload the page. See Yahoo or other news sites. They don't make you reload the page.
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38
Partners
This is OK. Dimmed logos.
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39
Footer
The footer looks like a filler with no interesting or worthwhile content.
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40
page-top menu items
Spread these links out the full width of the 960 pixels, make them a much darker shade, and give the whole bg div a light blue hue. And make the bg repeat the whole screen width (repeat-x).
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41
Not impressed by "Bing search"
I'm sure Microsoft pays a nice chunk of change for this so my comments really don't matter. But IMO I would rather see an unbranded search field as a user. When I see the branding my mind connects that with a browsers search field, which is often branded, and I think "search the web" not "search this site". So I typically don't use search fields on sites when the field is branded with a search engine that is unrelated to the site.
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42
Put twitter here also, or instead
This is a good call, I'm sure. But Twitter should probably be here too, or instead. I bet more of the audience uses twitter to engage with Mashable type content than facebook. Facebook seems to be used (at least in my circles) more for personal connection than getting outside content. Or, seeing as how the footer states there are over 400K RSS subscribers, why not make this the RSS feed icon?
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43
Repeat-x
Why not take up the whole screen width here? Keep the container for the content, but let the background take up the whole screen width.
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44
Can you say "Fugly"?
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45
Perfect.
This is very appropriate, and nicely done (both the email signup and the social media links). However, I think the facebook link in the header is confusing and deterring from engaging with this element by separating the social media links.
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46
Nice choice of colors sitewide
And great use of color against white, with neutral gray tones
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47
Populating content
Like how on the actual site content populates here as you scroll down the page.
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48
Actual site has a ton of sidebar stuff.
Is all the sidebar stuff on the actual site necessary? And so much advertising. I know you gotta pay the bills, but man!
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49
Very useful. Like this piece.
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50
Like how these partners are listed, but not obnoxious.
Take the hint elsewhere!
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51
Good but unnoticable.
Consider changing "About Mashable" to a slightly larger font-size and color to blue or darker gray to stand out. This is maybe a little too hidden to me.
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52
Good. Nice touch on having stats listed.
