Greg,
The priorities on the front page seems slightly off.
The golf equipment reviews dominate the front page, despite only 3 reviews all year.
The forum posts - without a doubt the most active part of the site - is positioned outside most "normal" computer screens.
In the left column, there are some "tips", while the "Lessons" are completely missing from the front page ... kinda odd considering the "Golf
Tuition Online" branding.
At the moment the user experience is like this ...
- Enter URL
- Get splash screen that is uninteresting for anybody except perhaps first time users.
- click logo
- Get front page containing login
- login
- Get front page that is fairly (if not completely) static, containing (visible) banner ads, google adwords, a 3 skills ad, a static GTO event link and a static "Tiger tackle" link.
At this point, I have made 3 active action and I have had 3 fairly slow pageloads. And I'm still not reaching any of the exciting, dynamic information available at this site.
To get there, I have to select from the menu or scroll down, the latter which will still only get me a list of the 10 latest posts (and a lot of other static links).
Don't get me wrong - I think most of that stuff SHOULD be on the front page, but there are just too many static items in "better" positions than the interesting dynamic items.
I would suggest that the equipment reviews are moved to the left column, and that forum posts move up.
Below the forum posts, tips and lessons could be positioned. Of course, more activity in these areas could move them above the forum posts.
Also, I would suggest moving the splash screen to the "about us" section. I honestly don't think anybody reads it, and you might even lose potential users just because it is there. To me, it is a daily annoyance - very likely to others too.
Just my dime's worth.
