Please grid my site!

Site URL: https://www.excelquestions.com

My site is three weeks old today and I'd really appreciate some feedback. I have never built a site before and built this after starting out on socials. 

My content is a library of Microsoft Excel questions. As an advanced Excel user, I realised there were thousands of resources out there that taught people Excel but no where that users could practice what they were learning. I and almost everyone else who is proficient in using Excel got good at it by solving problems and that is the premise behind my site. As I am doing something new, its absolutely vital that the idea behind my site is communicated well and thus my main question is, does the site convey this purpose clearly? 

I've tried to express interactivity and fun through the banner images to differentiate my site from the thousands of straight corporate sites that teach Excel out there but as the site has to handle lots of Excel screenshots, I've kept the colour scheme able to compliment those. Does this work or do I need to rethink?

Also, my main keywords will be scattered throughout the category pages and thus its highly unlikely any search users will follow through my site in a linear fashion. They are going to be landing all over my site. I've tried to keep my pages as stand alone sites in their own right for that reason so that users are not left clueless if they don't end up on my home page. Does this bulk out the pages too much and if so, is there a better way of doing this?

Finally, is everything coherent? I find working projects in my job, that when you are totally engrossed in something from inception, you can overlook coherency as you have a defined image of the design from inception. Whereas if you come into a project, you see it for what it is at a snapshot in time and can point out incoherent ideas or experiences.

Thank you very much for reading,

Tom

Doing a quick scan, I would recommend that you rethink how you show the articles on the News and updates section. The image thumbnails to the left are too big and add nothing to the article. Maybe reduce their size and make the news headline larger.  

I've done a quick overview of your site. It's a great layout, but  I would suggest changing the header fonts to a more readable font like Montserrat. Also, instead of having "excel questions", I would rather turn it into a header and add "starter, beginner, mid, and advanced levels" under one tab. Also, for better UX, I would 'simplify' the footer a bit more. 

3 minutes ago, mattzarchy said:

I've done a quick overview of your site. It's a great layout, but  I would suggest changing the header fonts to a more readable font like Montserrat. Also, instead of having "excel questions", I would rather turn it into a header and add "starter, beginner, mid, and advanced levels" under one tab. Also, for better UX, I would 'simplify' the footer a bit more. 

Cheers for the feedback. Ill 100% look at the fonts. With the starter,beginner,intermediate etc, do you mean converting them into a subheading on the Header under a Questions tab?

Well I went for it anyway Matt and I far prefer the header now so thanks for that!

I like the idea😊

I also think you can do much more with what you show on the first page. Instead of explaining what Excel questions is, why not just show them? What I would do is to remove most of the text on the homepage and replace it with some examples and questions. Then the visitors can jump right in to the action!

1 minute ago, RasmusM said:

I like the idea😊

I also think you can do much more with what you show on the first page. Instead of explaining what Excel questions is, why not just show them? What I would do is to remove most of the text on the homepage and replace it with some examples and questions. Then the visitors can jump right in to the action!

Thanks Rasmus. Yes, I think you're right. I know I need to really sell the idea to the user as its something different and maybe showing rather than explaining is a better way to do it. Tonight's project!

@Excel_Questions Great, sounds like you understood what I meant!😃

your site is looking good I visited you website and checked it completely you can see some more tips here to make it more attractive.

I think your messaging needs some work--It seems very wordy and not on par with the vibe of a website meant to offer resources for help, but rather more of a lecture.

I suggest reading up on messaging and establishing a tone that goes along with what I think you're trying to achieve as a simple-easy-to-use resource. 

Ex: instead of having a video that says "play me for an introduction to excel questions" just say "Excel Q's 101" or "FAQ" or "Intro to Excel" or something of that sort.

I also felt bombarded by two giant black intruding cookie boxes. Hurts user experience.

57 minutes ago, monocle.jasmin said:

I think your messaging needs some work--It seems very wordy and not on par with the vibe of a website meant to offer resources for help, but rather more of a lecture.

I suggest reading up on messaging and establishing a tone that goes along with what I think you're trying to achieve as a simple-easy-to-use resource. 

 

Ex: instead of having a video that says "play me for an introduction to excel questions" just say "Excel Q's 101" or "FAQ" or "Intro to Excel" or something of that sort.

I also felt bombarded by two giant black intruding cookie boxes. Hurts user experience.

Thanks, thanks and thanks some more!!!! That's the kind of feedback I was after 😃. Thinking about it, you are right on the tone. Its something I didn't attribute a strategy to and might well be the element I'm really making a mess of currently. It has got to be less assertive and more " here is a helping hand". I know my demographic and thinking about what they would be feeling and requiring from my site, I've got it all wrong! 

I will work on this with absolute priority. 

Unfortunately, I can't do anything about the cookie boxes, I have to cover GDPR here in the UK and Squarespace isn't offering control on third party cookies 😞. I understand your feedback on this and if I can find a better solution in time, Ill apply it as soon as I can.