Melissa Donovan’s last blog post..Jeff Buckley: Grace

Melissa, you’re on. Now I just have to pick a day to make this a regular thing.

@ Allison – Many are, yes. We generally perceive websites in universal ways and the eyes scan in typical pathways or get distracted for typical reasons. I’m glad it helps and that it’s fun for everyone.

In all seriousness, you guys will rock at this. I can’t wait, and definitely put me on the list. My new site (melissadonovan.com), s’il vous plait. Merci beacoup Vous etes magnifique.

Melissa Donovan’s last blog post..Jeff Buckley: Grace

@ James – Thank you very much! Some of the changes have already happened, most should be done by the end of the week.

I agree with Brett – these are incredibly helpful – not just the one you did for my site, but also reading the ones for other people… many of the tips are universally applicable.

Allison’s last blog post..Feisty Tuna Roll

Will keep “plugging away” today… should be ready soon

Brett Legree’s last blog post..subterranean self worth.

Awesome about the plugins. Unleash that baby to the world!

(PS – site up, plug-ins seem to all be working – woo hoo!)

Brett Legree’s last blog post..subterranean self worth.

“Gimme that rifle,” an impatient open hand waggled its fingers at Harry. “Why’d you put it on the floor? You know better than that… Hey. Hey,” he nudged his partner with an elbow. “There she is.”

The woman looked innocent, oh yes. Sushi, they’d told him. James snorted. Sushi was just a cover for much more. No one could be that naïve. She hadn’t ended up as a job because of sushi.

“I need to stretch my legs,” Jamie mused. A fast hit. Bullet to the brain. “Screw the rifle.” He reached over to the glove compartment for the Glock he kept hidden inside. “Watch my back,” was his parting shot before the car door snicked shut behind him and long strides carried him closer to the girl.

Love the banner. The red is a pleasing color, the contrast of white text is easy to read, and the choice of a sans serif font and simple design adds to the overall instant appeal.

But you have no tagline or clip or something to tell people instantly what this blog is about. Sushi Day? Nice name… what does it mean? What will I get at this site? Restaurant reviews? Recipes? Productivity tips for my day through the art of sushi?

The search bar has no place in your banner. Remove that, put it somewhere else or lower down in the banner so as not to be obtrusive. Also, replace the in-field text “Sushi” with “Search recipes.” Never be clever. Be clear.

Where’s your RSS button? Low right, below the fold – and yet your subscribe by email is featured in the top right corner. Stick those two elements together where people can see them and get on your sushi wagon. I’m not sure what the list of buttons below your RSS means… I’d ditch those. Extra clutter and it actually encourages people to click away to see what they are.

You have 931 readers – um, girl? What’s that doing way down there? Put that up in that top right corner too. That’s worth showing off (and tempts other readers to subscribe. Follow the crowd mentality and all that.)

I’m confused by the Featured Recipe in the navigation bar. Is the recipe featured on the page I’m reading not good enough? What’s wrong with it? Am I supposed to go see the other recipe? If it’s featured, why isn’t it on display? Personally, I’d remove that link and put it somewhere else, perhaps on the right-hand side. Call it “This week’s featured recipe” or “this month’s featured recipe” for clarity.

The navigation seems clear – and yet not clear. What is Maki and Nigri? Will that bring me to recipes? An explanation? A history? First time comers to the site may not know what these terms mean (like me), so I’d add something onto those words. “Maki Recipes” or “All About Maki”.

Adding words also makes your navigation a little bit friendlier. It reads staccato because of the one-word selection. That may also be a preferential thing, but I’d rather see “Contact Us,” “Our Advice,” “About Sushi Day” and so on.

I think you should highlight your store in some way, especially if it makes money for you. A banner button on the right, maybe?

Hm. A last thought. If you put your navigation along the top, you gain space for other things. On the other hand, many people have navigation along the top, so being different is sometimes a good thing.

I’m nitpicking for your site, to be honest. It’s a nice site. It’s instantly appealing, easy to read and makes me want to look at fish food. And I don’t like sushi

She’d gone down hard. A struggle. And James didn’t like to hurt girls.

He shouted to Harry as he ran back to the car. “Drive! Drive, drive, drive!!” Harry scrambled over to take the wheel, and James threw himself in the passenger seat, hoping he hadn’t been spotted.

So that works out to about 40 words on a slide. And if the average person can read 200 to 250 words per minute, they read it in about 10 seconds. Yet the speaker drones on for a minute or two on each slide.

I learned to speed read a long time ago… so at 800 to 900 words per minute, you can see that 40 words doesn’t last long for me.

Let’s just say I get to draft a lot of my writing, and do a lot of other thinking, in these presentations!

PS – the new recipe & blog post are great

Brett Legree’s last blog post..subterranean self worth.

@ RLD – Ugh… powerpoints. I had to do a presentation for a class last week, and sit through 19 others… I’ll bet you college powerpoints are worse than anything you see in the business world! Yuck.

@ Chad – If James disagrees with me then ignore what I’m going to say (he’s much more of a designer than I am!) but I think your blog would look better if you make the line spacing a little bigger. It looks very packed and kind of busy to me, and makes it a little difficult to read, especially when you write a long post.

@ James/Harry – May I also request a drive-by?

Allison’s last blog post..Feisty Tuna Roll