- Original Poster
- #1
Hi,
I've been working (this has taken much longer than I'd planned) on a web application to allow small businesses to take bookings online at a low cost (just a few pence per booking) but while I've got the basics there I'd really appreciate some feedback and advice. I've done my market research and small businesses seem to want this service but I need to make it easy to use.
The core of the site is now working and I've applied some branding but there are some elements that really need some work and I'd really appreciate some outside opinions. General feedback is most welcome but below are a few areas where I really need some help.
Workflow
Firstly, if you could have a look at the main workflows of the site, registering a company and setting up your products, then as a consumer going in and booking an appointment.
Do I need to guide users through the set up process a little more? Should I spend the money setting up a how to video tutorial (a bit beyond my abilities).
Would you make any changes to the registration process / data?
Split design
At the moment I've got two levels of branding, one for the public/consumer pages and a second one for the company/provider control panel. While this seemed like a good idea at the time, I'm now not sure, what do you think?
Should I re-focus the public pages to just sell the service to providers then provide the directory of providers under a different URL?
Booking pop-up
As a provider you have a few options as to how you link to the booking engine, either directly to the website or linking to a pop-up window. You can customise the pop-up window to some extent but I'm not sure this works particularly well, suggestions are very welcome.
Notification emails
At the moment the site sends some notification emails but the text is just bare bones holding text. What would you change about the layout/text and should I be looking to use HTML emails? If I go for HTML is it OK to use my branding or should I keep it neutral and add the provider's logo?
Known issues
There are a few parts of the site I've not yet finished or are in development so don't worry about these (but again, suggestions are most welcome).
- Help has not been implemented yet
- The directory of providers is just a rough sketch, ideas of how to lay this out are very welcome.
- The pricing / features page is just a mock up
- The "About" page has not been implemented
- I've also not dropped in the alt text/meta tags/keywords etc yet (but I'll need help with this and other SEO later).
- The site may be slow as it is on a test virtual (to save costs you know).
Feedback
If your feedback would be helpful to others (not just myself) then I'd encourage you to add it to this forum to contribute to all of our learning but if it is specifically related to my site or particularly embarrassing then could you please use the feedback form on the site (I've test this and it works for me).
The test site can be found at test.openyourdiary.com
Thank you in advance
Alex
I've been working (this has taken much longer than I'd planned) on a web application to allow small businesses to take bookings online at a low cost (just a few pence per booking) but while I've got the basics there I'd really appreciate some feedback and advice. I've done my market research and small businesses seem to want this service but I need to make it easy to use.
The core of the site is now working and I've applied some branding but there are some elements that really need some work and I'd really appreciate some outside opinions. General feedback is most welcome but below are a few areas where I really need some help.
Workflow
Firstly, if you could have a look at the main workflows of the site, registering a company and setting up your products, then as a consumer going in and booking an appointment.
Do I need to guide users through the set up process a little more? Should I spend the money setting up a how to video tutorial (a bit beyond my abilities).
Would you make any changes to the registration process / data?
Split design
At the moment I've got two levels of branding, one for the public/consumer pages and a second one for the company/provider control panel. While this seemed like a good idea at the time, I'm now not sure, what do you think?
Should I re-focus the public pages to just sell the service to providers then provide the directory of providers under a different URL?
Booking pop-up
As a provider you have a few options as to how you link to the booking engine, either directly to the website or linking to a pop-up window. You can customise the pop-up window to some extent but I'm not sure this works particularly well, suggestions are very welcome.
Notification emails
At the moment the site sends some notification emails but the text is just bare bones holding text. What would you change about the layout/text and should I be looking to use HTML emails? If I go for HTML is it OK to use my branding or should I keep it neutral and add the provider's logo?
Known issues
There are a few parts of the site I've not yet finished or are in development so don't worry about these (but again, suggestions are most welcome).
- Help has not been implemented yet
- The directory of providers is just a rough sketch, ideas of how to lay this out are very welcome.
- The pricing / features page is just a mock up
- The "About" page has not been implemented
- I've also not dropped in the alt text/meta tags/keywords etc yet (but I'll need help with this and other SEO later).
- The site may be slow as it is on a test virtual (to save costs you know).
Feedback
If your feedback would be helpful to others (not just myself) then I'd encourage you to add it to this forum to contribute to all of our learning but if it is specifically related to my site or particularly embarrassing then could you please use the feedback form on the site (I've test this and it works for me).
The test site can be found at test.openyourdiary.com
Thank you in advance
Alex
