We are about effecting some changes on Mimi's Site Review.
I'll be keeping you posted but a thirty to sixty day timeline to
effect the change is what we are looking at. We want to change the
look, feel and format of our site reviews with the target of producing
a consistency and quality that can be easily identified with and that
would add a distinct value to those who come here. The count down to
full implementation might start from the end of this month.
Quick thought/ review
ecrater.com
I 'discovered' this site on google search when I was looking up
'freee-store'(it was second on the number one page). What's unique
aboutit? It the first of such sites that I signed up to completely
from myhandheld without resorting to a desktop.
Why is this so special? Most sites don't handle mobile sign ups well.
Some even tell you plainly to sign up using a desk top(I won't mention
names). For others, you will encounter problems like dud tabs( tabs
you would tap but won't do what they are meant to do whether is to
link you up to another page or something else). But with ecrater.com
sign up, everything went smoothly. The whole process of signing up
went without any hitch and even though this should(in this time and
age) be seen as a given, it really isn't and they should be commended
for:-
1. Having a site/system that is fully optimized at the sign up stageto
give the mobile browser the best experience possible. Many a site fail
at this and there are even sites that should have no business failing
at this(like a company that is wholly dependent on the web for it
existence and income not to be able to give you this full mobile
experience when signing up and to actually tell you to go to a desk
top....its really a shame and like I said before we won't mention
names). There are even content publishing sites(another pointer) that
can't boast of this 'simple' but positive mobile experience.
2. Saying something and doing it. Some sites only tell you of the
experience but fall short of meeting their own benchmark.
Drawback
After successfully signing up with ecrater.com from my handheld,
Iwanted to see if the 'living room' experience would be the same. That
is, if I can sign up from my handheld, can I load up images/products
from my handheld(I wanted to set up a store for digital 'products'that
I had already stored on my handheld). It didn't work as
smoothly......I met a dud tab.
After logging into my ecrater.com account, I was directed to set up at
least one 'category'(which I was eager to do). After filling the
necessary details on the set up page(name of the category/description
etc), all that was left was to click the 'ADD' tab for it to go live.
I clicked it. It was a dud tab.
Shock/wonder?
There was another tab beside the dud 'ADD' tab; the 'CANCEL' tab(maybe
it was placed there if you wanted to cancel or delete the category
later because one could easily have gone back to clear the form that
had just been filled or clicked the back tab on the browser). I
clicked on the 'CANCEL' tab. It worked.
Conclusion
Obviously, since the cancel tab worked then the add tab was meant
towork but it didn't. Something needs to be done by ecrater.com.
Unfortunately, I have never gone to a site and checked theirf
unctionality with my handheld before and went back to see that such
faults(such as dud tabs) had been corrected. They have never been
corrected.
It kind of leaves me with the impression that either they don't
really check to see that the user experience of their site is top draw
using any kind of device or they can't really do anything about it.
Still I still commend ecrater.com for having a site that gives a
hitchfree sign up experience from a handheld. If they can just correct
that tiny but very importan dud 'ADD' tab within their site and indeed
lookto see if there should be any other corrections, they would be
thefirst site I have seen in a long while that has an A-plus
mobilebrowsing experience.
--
Sent from my mobile device
