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Qabiria is a language translation services company with
a new website built with Joomla a
comprehensive content managment system based on PHP.
Its site is a great example of how much of a head start
you can get from such a tool... and how little you have
to do to achieve basic usability.
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Congratulations! This is a free usability
review from UsabilityInstitute.com. "Usability" refers
to how easy and effective it is to use a Web site. Although
it involves how a site looks (graphic artwork), it is primarily
concerned with how a site works, what you click on, what happens,
and whether the site does its job. Perhaps
this review is all you need to improve your site. If that's
the case, great. Please mention UsabilityInstitute.com if
you talk with others who need help with their site.
The following three sections provide a general
analysis of your website from a relatively quick review. Although
Web design is still perceived as a highly creative endeavor,
there are many aspects of it that call for standardization
and compliance with widely established conventions. Implementing
even a few of the ideas below can really improve a site.
If you've made it this far, I have a free
gift for the first 10 visitors who
reply. If you know anyone who's learning to
read, email
me and I'll send you a free copy of a kid's
book I wrote that has just been printed (February
14th, 2007). Please include "Poopy Phonics" in
the subject line so I have a chance of recovering
it if it goes to my spam folder. For smart
mouths everywhere, the book is PoopyPhonics(.com). No
strings attached, but if you like it, consider
posting a review to Amazon.com. —Thanks,
Jack
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—No spam,
no emails, no private info given out—
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Do your hands ache after a day at the keyboard??? This review
sponsored by RSIRescue.com ...
Summation & Next Steps Overall Rating: Strives
/ Survives
/ Thrives
Qabiria is perfectly adequate to its initial
business needs. By using a great content managment tool—Joomla—with
professional templates, it conveys professionalism by its
inherent appearance and built in interactions. Translation
is such a valuable, authentically justified skill that prospective
customers are likely to see past any minor flaws in a young
company's website. So the few items we highlight for improvement
might not be a problem. In other words, when you need a translator,
you don't care if they're great web authors.
But when competing for more significant
business, or when a visitor to the site is rapidly comparing
several vendors and has no tolerance for any imperfections,
these minor issues might loom larger.
Combined Notes and Recommendations:
- Remove the entrance page. This is a bothersome technique
left over from the early days of the web.
- Don't make the user click a second time (ex. Mission Page)
to reveal the detail content.
- Make sure everything on every page (!) is in the selected
language.
- Combine some of the standard content (About/Mission) so
that there fewer pages. Just tell them who you are and what
you
do in
as few
pages as possible.
- Fix the three phrases, "Read Sergio Alasia's resumé"
so that the word "resume" always appears (at any screen resolution,
zoom level, etc.) Might be an IE7 thing.
- Can you remove Admin from the public pages with Joomla?
- Change the Search button to a simple icon to the right
of the search box. Capitalize "Search..."
- Remove the Help link?
- Have a native of each language edit the pages in those
languages.
Hope this helps and let
me know what you think,
Jack Bellis, UsabilityInstitute.com
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