Pain Relief Medical Site Review

[millibids]

Hi,
Would appreciate any feedback on this new site:
painrelief.com.sg

Especially interested if:
The design looks professional
The message is clear and convincing
Any extra cpywriting/SEO work you might suggest
Thanks

[exodo]

Well, it has got potential, I like the gradient background, the simplicity and the green header backgrounds.

However I still feel it needs quite a bit of work to reach a professional standard.

The banner is way too tall and busy. It pushes the content too far down.

I also think one neck pain image would be enough. I think the imagery is too negative and cliché. The best image is the one behind your logo. You know, the emphasis should be on what people feel like AFTER visiting the clinic.

> The design looks professional

A professional design in 2007 doesn't use tables. I would redo the site in CSS/XHTML only. You are using the XHTML declaration but you are using tags like <br> rather than <br />?

Your graphics still needs a little bit of work.
The logo doesn't look professional and that makes the message not convincing. I have a hard time believing this is a serious clinic. It looks more like a blog created by a rather young person.

Your rounded corners has dark blue as background and it shows. Remember you have a gradient background and you need to try to match that color.

The headlines are a bit misaligned vertically and the green bg a bit jagged.

The text in the side columns are to cramped. I would suggest a bigger font and more line height.

> Any extra cpywriting/SEO work you might suggest

For starters, why is "A fast safe and effective solution to acute and chronic pain..." an image? It would look much better as text and also be indexed by the search engines.

[bumpyride]

Same again about the big tall banner image. It totally dominates the page.

Not sure about the way the image text scrolls in from the right. That looks like a pretty old-fashioned effect. Like 'exodo' said, it would be much better as proper text.

It took me a while to find out where the main navigation links were. They are hard to spot. Might be better if you either made the nav text bigger, or, made the text hyperlinks shorter, and put them at the top of the page, so they were easier to spot, and more intuitive for users.

Would be nice also if there was some kind of CSS to mark the currently viewed page, so people knew where they were on the list of pages on your navigation.

[Crossfire]

I like the header and your choice of colors. I also like the design layout. Looks modern and professional to me.

[Dan Grossman]

The header is too big; there's not enough usefulness in it to fill half the screen above the fold.

There's not enough content in the two sidebars to necessitate having two. The navigation on the right side and contact information on the left is reversed from usual site structures on the English-speaking web. I'd combine both into the left side, with the navigation on top, giving your content the space previously occupied by the right sidebar.

The footer needs something in it; a solid color bar looks awkward. A copyright notice and your phone number might be a good idea. I'd also reduce the space between the end of the body and the top of the footer slightly.

I don't like how the bottom of the header is a shade of blue not used elsewhere in the design; it looks like it was copied from a site with a different background color and reused.

[kimberlybarryd]

Again the big header, and at a large size. 154kb. The text below the header seems like it just doesn't belong where it's at.(can't describe it) Just out of place I guess.

[electroskan.com]

The scrolling text at the top just below the header is a pain to the eyes.

[abelking2648]

Nice header and colors. Very good design and clean layout. Appears modern and professional. But it a little longer to load.

[knite786]

Decent clean site. Layout works well.
Main title, WAY TO BIG. Condense a lot, move to top left and use a different font. Looks a little weired.
Can you maybe merge both slogans into one. Looks like its kind of busy with 2 slogans and and one big logo.
Like the above post, flash pics are a little too negative. I feel like I have neck pain now. More positive lifestyle type of images. The text tweening could be a little smoother and not so jerky.
If you are just going to use text for your top banner, then might as well make it actual selectable text. For the contact info also no the top rt. Search engines love that stuff. I am sure your meta tags market that name and phrase as well.

Just my 2 cents

Regards
Sarfaraz

[SpawnOfJon]

I think you have a decent layout so far. The first thing that I notice is the overuse of the same tone of blue. Try adding more colors to make it look a little interesting.

[Jay-S]

very bad, youz need 2.0 design, http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/orei...is-web-20.html

[Pixelateur]

It's certainly not bad for a start. Here's a few things you may want to consider:

1. The big headline, especially the type face you've chosen, may not be suitable for a medical context. It may appear as to playful, i.e. not trustworthy enough. Why not go with a type face that conveys more reliability? Many of the world's largest banks for example have chosen this route and it works pretty well for them.

2. I think it was a good idea to choose a blue colour scheme, however the many solid colour fill areas start to hurt my eyes after a few seconds. Think about using subtle gradient fills on those areas and you'll notice a big difference. Also think about using one more complementary colour, such as dark orange. It will make the design look more balanced.

3. It's often not clear on which page I currently am. There's no feedback given to the user. Maybe it's a good idea to highlight the current page in the main menu. What makes matters worse is the banner which remains the same, no matter on which page I am. How about using a different banner image on every page?

Just a few things to think about, but overall I really like what you did. Good luck.

[Osmigo]

The flash movies don't look very professional. Like pixelateur said, not for a medical context. It's more like something you'd see on a car dealership web site. Nobody is going to sit there and eat popcorn and watch your flash movies for 5 minutes before going to the rest of the web site. Better to LIST these advantages.

I agree, the sidebars on the right could go under the ones on the left. Then expand the text a little.

A few linguistic issues:
You say your treatment is "help patients who suffer from both acute and persistent pain." So your practice is for patients who have BOTH acute AND persistent pain, not just one or the other? That's what it says...

You say you are "Using a combination of conventional medicine..." A combination of conventional medicine and what? Or maybe you mean medicines.

Your "Common Misconceptions about Pain" is good, but you need some kind of comments under each one, stating why it's a misconception. What is false about it, and what the truth really is.

Also, it's "inquiries," not "enquiries."

Hope that helps,
Osmigo