I had introduced this site some time back but forgive the indulgence, a lot of work has been done on it recently to make it more friendly and I would really like to get some feedback on how useful it is.

Hopefully any ideas also that would improve it.

A quick summary (cut & pasted) from our Recommend Us email is as follows:

Site Name : OpenOutsource
Address : www.openoutsource.com

The site is a portal for outsourcers and freelancers and as a very brief summary has the following items of interest:

* Outsource & Freelance Bulletin Board
* Regular News on Outsourcing, Service Auctions, Open Source and Freelancing
* List of online service auctions to find or post projects
* Service provider information
* Details of the Open Company Specification


The real question is - Is this site useful?

Hi OOS,
Just took a quick peak and I must say I like the way you've beautified the Google ads even if it wasn't what you were asking about.
In terms of usability, the top navigationg is pretty tough on me that I didn't find it intuitive at all. There is no accompanying text or anything appearing with a mouseover or title to give me an inkling what it is apart from if I look into the long url.
I'm sure what you have is useful, but I really don't know where to look first as a casual user. I tried the top resources link (the counter doesn't seem to be working by the way) and I found a couple of interesting things that way.
I know quite a few who would be interested in your content I've already spotted freelancers direct that I'm going to pass on to someone else on the forum.


Rob

Eeek!!! Looks like I have got some issues. Still not user-friendly enough!!!...

Getting the Google Ads to work adequately in PostNuke was certainly a challenge - thank you.

I am concerned about the mouseovers - they all should have titles that appear in the menu links. Where were they not working?

It certainly looks like the site didn't explain itself enough - I recently cut down on the text on the home page because I thought it a little too much to read. Has that defeated the object?

Where did you find the counter not working? Was it when you did a backpage?? - it should work if the page is entered or refreshed.

Well at least some content is interesting ...

I don't know if this is an example of where a webmaster having worked on a site and knowing where everything is doesn't quite see how hard a site is to use. Certainly looks like I did the right thing and asked for a fresh set of eyes to take a look.

Thanks jrobbio, I will try to work out how to improve the user-friendliness of the site.

Shawn

Hello again, I see that you have used alt instead of title, which will only do a mouseover effect in IE and not gecko.

This is how your code currently looks
Now here is how it will appear properly in IE and Gecko (mozilla etc)

Making more descriptive alternative text and titles can be helpful not only to your users, but for the search engines too. There are a million sites that call their home page, home and I am guilty of that too. There are plenty of more targeted things you could choose.

I tried with the top list again, but it still says "0 most read stories.." even though there are 29.

Rob

Thanks Rob,

I have fixed the things you mentioned - good advice - now that I have dug out Mozilla again I will see if there are any other differences.

I must say I am quite pleased to see the IFRAMEs working properly (When you look at a service auction it displays the homepage in an IFRAME) hope that is still true in Gecko.

Shawn

Shawn, I am sure you've put in a good amount of time and energy on getting your website up the way it is, so I won't tell you what's wrong with it; instead I'll tell you what I'd expect from a site such as openoutsource.

I prefer a clean, simple layout usually but that's just a personal preference... and when I surf onto a site like yours, I'd expect a fairly prominent box in the middle of the layout, screaming:

For Freelancers:

• Some latest offer I
• Some latest offer II
• Some latest offer III

For Outsourcers(?):

• Some latest offer I
• Some latest offer II
• Some latest offer III

IOW, if I were you, I'd move my readers to the meat-n-bones stuff right away! Well, I think you get the idea...

I know how lucrative AdSense can be so I can understand your reasons for featuring them on openoutsource but most of these ads are your 'competition'!?

Just like I would never accept to list another topsites-website on GIDTopsites™, I think it would be unwise for you to be advertising other, much more established, freelance / outsourcing sites; atleast not this early in your endeavour to get your website refined and noticed.

__________________
J de Silva
Learning Journal | GIDForums™ | GIDNetwork™ | GIDWebhosts™ | GIDSearch™

Cheers Jds for looking it over.

Don't be concerned about the amount of time that I have spent on the website - I can take any criticisms 8-)

I have thought over what you said and decided my next move should be to create (or outsource) the front pages. I have just received some emails too that say the site has great information but is not very usable and I certainly would like to put this right. The only problem is the getting to the meat-n-bones straight away, knowing which bone to lead the users to. Maybe sub-sites would work. I like your idea of being punchy and to the point on the first page so that may be the way to take it.

To the design drawing board...

I am not sure who you would consider my 'competition' - (sounds like a response from someone who hasn't done their market research doesn't it ) - I am trying my best to complement what is already there. For anyone who does spend the time going through the site may discover that the real reason that the site exists is due to an idea called the 'Open Company Specification' but that is something for later - (Imagine a company that no-one owns, that is run by the users of that company)

So the AdSense works well and helps bring in a revenue stream to the site and doesn't concern me if it leads to 'competition'. The site does have information that doesn't exist elsewhere. If it does cause any issues however, or even if Google decide that our site is not appropriate then it will be removed.

For those who read these posts and click through to the site then please accept my apologies for the temporary inadequate design, it will be taken care of in the future.

If this thread stops here I will take this chance to say congratulations on this bulletin board. From my own impression when I first came in I have rated it the best on OpenOutsource - keep up the good work.

We are planning on going round the service auctions and getting them to respond to a questionnaire. Anyone interested in this? Do you have any questions that you would like to put into the questionnaire?

If you are interested or want to take part then follow the 'Site News' link on the homepage - 'Join in with the Service Auction Questionnaire!' or go straight to the topic
www.openoutsource.com on the forums.

Haven't visited GIDForums for a while and certainly notice the difference in the forums. Well done - This site scores highly...

I was actually pleasantly surprised that that this post was in the 'Good examples' for the web site reviews requests Cheers...

However - I hope it is OK to come back and ask the same question again?

Is this site useful?

www.openoutsource.com has grown and there is a lot of information on it but I feel it is lacking something ... and I want to put it right.

Any thoughts anyone?
...Does it have a high yawn factor?
...Is it interesting?
...Would you register on the site? - (Will you register on the site?) :-)
...What do you think the site is about? - (Not a trick question?)

Finally (a bit of advertising), not anything to answer here - Is there anyone who is an expert in any of the fields of outsourcing and service provision? If so are they interested in moderating a forum in the subject of their interest? Take a look around our www.openoutsource.com and let us know.

Hi. I looked at the site and thought I would give a bit of feedback. Please keep in mind that I am not a web page creator guru, but I have looked at a few.

No. I think it is overall very professionally done. The one thing I don't particularly care for is the filter options displayed in the forums. I can't explain exactly what I don't like, but everything else is so elegant and formatted and this appears to be kind of thrown in. (I know it isn't, but at quick glance it looks jumbled.

Not right now. It needs content and members. But you already knew this

I would if it were something that I was interested in. I think that it is a good concept and I know of people looking for these type of services. Once again, people may shy away because of the scarcity of posts/members.

Work outsourcing. A place where people looking to get work done can meet with people willing to do the work. Not so much individuals, but companies. In my profession (engineering), this is used for large, large projects in order to get the production (drafting) work done more quickly and usually less expensively.

Overall, I think your site is attractive, with the one exception I noted above.