Sitecritic.net Website Reviews – How can your website be improved?

Content

This site immediately reminded me of the adverts that fall out of your Sunday newspaper supplements, and rather appropriately it’s for an unusual gadget. Ceiva is essentially a digital photoframe, showing a slideshow of images that can be directly uploaded from a landline (USA only), receiving images from emails or mobile phones. Whilst they have taken great care to aim the marketing to all generations, the underlying message is that it is for grandparents who don’t want a computer in the house, but want to receive images from their family.

Given this subtext, I felt the site would benefit by being pared down to reflect the simplicity and ease-of-use of the product. Instead, I felt barraged by marketing information – there is a great deal to read here for one product, and they don’t miss an opportunity to sell, sell, sell. However, the site has obviously been put together by people who know what they are doing: there is a clean, consistent look throughout the site; the Flash transitions/animations are effective; and features such as registering and uploading images work quickly and efficiently. The light blue colour scheme goes towards opening up what could be a claustrophobic site, as does the choice of stock photography, though using these anodyne images loses some of the personal touch the site could really do with. There may soon be redemption as the ‘community’ page, which mainly contains newsletters, claims it will soon have a section where people can upload their own images – this would really boost the friendliness factor.

Functionality

Navigation through all the information works very well. Simple rollovers of the main sections are on the top of every page, revealing subheaders. There is also a listed site map at the bottom throughout browsing, making it easy to hop around. There is a comprehensive FAQ section with a search option and was easy to navigate in itself.

In the members section, you are able to send images to other emails and your contacts who own the Cevia – and so is an important portal for consumers. Uploading images is very easy and a very similar process to adding an email attachment, though the site doesn’t optimise files, so if a large image is sent through, it could take a very long time for the person owning the Cevia to upload via a dialup connection. The option to upload an image to send to an email address worked quickly, though you have to hit a link to their site and view a slideshow of the uploads (including a frame promoting the product), and it is difficult to save the files. This all seems somewhat superfluous as you can easily use your email provider.

Conclusion

The site is crisp, yet cluttered and would benefit from a good editor to create more focus on the product from the start, rather than the offers. The site’s corporate look and desire to sell sometimes overshadows the message of community and warmth that the product is meant to bring. Paring down the information and giving it space to breathe would go a long way.