Website Design

Hi friends,

I’m not sure if this page also allows discussions on Website design, but lets just try it. We have recently released our new Project called CalculatePlus, which enables users to perform online calculations and conversions.

The handling of the page resp. the user input is very much based on the well-known Google search, only that with our tools one gets suggestions about possible basic calculations or conversions.

Also for the style we decided to go with a very minimalistic approach. On the front-page you see the search box, down below a short description (which eventually will be removed in the future) and the latest calculations (also conversions are calculations) and we might will rename this also into “latest searches”

If you go for testing the tool out by using the search field or clicking on on of the latest “calculations” you will reach the sub page for the calculation/conversion. On that, we have a box that shows the input and the results. Down below there is yet another bordered box that allows to share the result on a social network, followed by yet another section/box with the latest calculations of the category and the overall latest calculations. On the right-hand currently we have the descriptive text for the result. This will move down the share buttons or above the share buttons in yet another box. On the right-hand under the text in the bordered box we currently do have the advertisement. It is planned to remove the border for that box and just show the ad. (Note in the scrreenshot below the Ad and the text is not yet included. you can see it better on the page)

To me currently there are simply to much bordered boxes, but somehow this is difficult to solve. Also there is planned to have some more text for every calculation site, so we are not sure on how to solve this best.

We would be very happy if you guys could give us some feedback on the style, the planned features and also on the handling of the page. Both needs still quite some improvements! Thank you very much in advance!

This is a nice idea because now I do tons of calculations through google or the old way - literature and a calculator.

I like the minimal style though thinning out the letters this much make the smaller font types hardly legible.
The social media buttons are great - I would definitely share calculations if something worthwhile comes out.

I would like it if there were variations in the logo symbols in terms of the shapes or colors used, to give me more of an indication of where I am, or in which category, within the site.

Since this can become a huge website you need to first of all specify who your target audience is. By targeting a specific audience you can have a good position next to players like Wolframalpha.com who have a more universal, geeky Googlish approach to their website design. Because it’s so large and generic I don’t feel involved and I feel I have to take a lot of effort to get into my own ‘zone’. There is definitely a need for such a site for industrial designers. Within a certain field it would need to be as comprehensive as possible with all kinds of formulas - strength calculations, wing calculations, electronics, aerodynamics etc - a simple input-output form with optional explanation of the formula with diagrams/graphs would be great.

After having done a calculation I would like to be able to dynamically change the output - preferably with sliders, otherwise with a dynamic text box.

By the way do spell checks, e.g. Engeenering → Engineering

If you’re looking to simplify the first look, I feel the “latest calculations” could all be contained in a toggle menu, maybe using the green “>” icon to denote a toggle? The caption text under the search box could also be condensed to a toggle menu, something like “categories”. You could use the placeholder text to demonstrate what the caption text is telling you…
“Try it out: 1e-10 mm/s to ft.us/h

Dear ralphzoontjens, thank you very much for your review!

Try to get a little bit into your remarks and your suggestions

I like the minimal style though thinning out the letters this much make the smaller font types hardly legible.

May I ask what specifically you find not readable that well?

The social media buttons are great - I would definitely share calculations if something worthwhile comes out.

That is great that someone immediately sees the value in it!

I would like it if there were variations in the logo symbols in terms of the shapes or colors used, to give me more of an indication of where I am, or in which category, within the site.

I think that is a very good idea and this goes to our TODO list! What we currently tried to avoid is to have that common category scheme and function merely as a pure “search engine”, however we still think about how to make it more clear what category is in and also might limit the search to a certain category. These different colored items/logo/symbols sounds like a pretty cool way to do it! Thanks again!

… Within a certain field it would need to be as comprehensive as possible with all kinds of formulas - strength calculations, wing calculations, electronics, aerodynamics etc - a simple input-output form with optional explanation of the formula with diagrams/graphs would be great.

Yes targeting a group is a good idea. We are still thinking on how to solve that properly. Also more textual description is planned and will be implemented soon. Formulas and Graphs is also a thing we want to achieve in the future, however we do not want to get to much blown up and stay minimalistic. But maybe we make some sub-pages that are independent from the search/result page and the search/result pages just shows a small amount of text, whereas the main text/graphics/formulas is a link to another page within the site.

After having done a calculation I would like to be able to dynamically change the output - preferably with sliders, otherwise with a dynamic text box.

This is definitely planned and will be implemented soon. Our first thought was with text boxes. What exactly do you mean by sliders if I may ask?

By the way do spell checks, e.g. Engeenering → Engineering

I’m surer there are still some spelling errors around. And yes that is of course important and we really should do some automated checks! Thanks for pointing that out and many thanks for the overall review!

best
Henry

Dear CRVaughan!

Thank you too a lot for the review.

I think that toggle would be good idea and I will talk about that with the guys.

You could use the placeholder text to demonstrate what the caption text is telling you…
“Try it out: 1e-10 mm/s to ft.us/h

may I ask you what exactly you mean by this exactly? thank you!

best
Henry