Hello, this blog post is all about doing a demonstrative blog review for a touristic blog – Drum liber (open road).
Copywriting
+I’m so much in love with the use of diacritics on your web site; great job!
+You write “niciun”; boy, oh, boy, that’s so nice!
1. In this text box:
a. You can translate “Comments” into Romanian;
b. “de” preposition makes little sense in the context;
c. The date format is not specific to Romania;
d. I don’t think that the actual day of the week is important in the context (“marÈ›i”);
2. You write this:
“Extreme româneÅŸti = cele mai…”
and give no explanation; what’s with this text?
Design
+The colors of the web site are calm and non-intrusive, very nice!
1. Regarding this box:
a. It all feels very crowded, there is little space for anything in that box; make it a bit larger;
b. For usability reasons, I’d put that box in a separate page, and only provide a link to it; right now it takes too much screen estate;
c. While “numele tău” is articulated, this can’t be said about “Email” word;
d. You wish me to blindly trust you with my email address; I’d put a link with a “(?)” text attached to it, and I’d explain on that page what is your policy regarding emails – how often do you send emails, how can I unsubscribe, what will you do with my email address; applying for Data Protection Romania is also fine;
e. It’s confusing to have both an email subscription service and a newsletter service; what’s the difference between the two? I’d explain this on the very homepage;
2. The banners area is way too large for my taste;
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
+I like the Twitter button a lot; great!
1. The title of the homepage is not really keyword dense:
“Drum Liber îţi arată o altă faţă a României. Vezi România. CălătoreÅŸte în România”;
2. On the 404 page I’d put the search function right at the very top of the page;
Structure of information
1. What is this category – “Altele”? How can I resist the temptation of clicking on it? Do categorize everything, including “Others”!
2. Sometimes you use tags which are irrelevant:
“1 milion de fluturaÅŸi”;
3. You have very similar tags:
“pestera Muierii Pestera Muierilor”;
Usability
+The search box is in the upper-right corner of the web site, that’s nice!
1. Instead of having a separate box for subscribing via email:
, I’d put the email subscription option as a link;
2. Imagine this process: I visit your homepage, click on a blog post; you show me this in the breadcrumbs:
Why is “Altele” category relevant to my being right where I am? Why would I care in which category does this blog post fit? And it’s obvious not the way in which I got to this blog post; also, if one blog post is in two categories, which do you display and why? Soooo complicated; I’d much rather display the categories of a blog post and that’s it;
About page
+I like very much the the introduction – direct and pleasant to read “Te salut cititorule!”;
+I congratulate you for your Wikipedia activity!
1. Generally, in this kind of expression:
“atât cu minunăţiile lor, dar ÅŸi”,
it’s best to use “cât È™i”:
“atât cu minunăţiile lor, cât ÅŸi”;
2. I consider this affirmation:
“Străinii se laudă atât cu minunăţiile lor, dar ÅŸi cu porcăriile aduse la rang de obiective turistice”
to be very harsh and negativistic; I’d avoid this;
3. Comma missing:
“interesante unde”;
“2009 eu”;
“de pe site cu”;
4. Again, in this situation:
“Nu într-o zi, două, dar”
it’s best to use “ci”:
“Nu într-o zi, două, ci”;
5. “ÃŽntr-o România” => “ÃŽntr-o Românie”;
6. Lack of diacritics:
“comunitatii”;
Photo album
+You did a great job gathering all those photos; well done!
1. I’d translate “pictures” and other English words;
2. I’m not sure you use the word “viziona” right;
Top 300 tourist objectives in Romania
+Very nice list;
+The support of other persons to grow the list is incredible;
1. I’d say “email” or “e-mail” instead of “mail”;
2. I’d explain what crossing a word means;
Trip planning
+Highly useful guide;
1. “intro”;
2. I’d work more on the numbering of this list:
3. “LocaÈ›ie” is not properly used;
4. “specializatea”;
5. “de” is the right preposition here:
“surse bune in informatii”;
6. Google is best written With An Initial Capital;
7. “sa imbini 2” => “sa imbini două”;
8. “rucsacii” … “sunt de multe ori tratate”;
9. Comma missing:
“locatie poate”;
10. “obisnuitat”;
11. I’d put the wording order in this sentence differntly:
“macar 2 litri de apa pe zi este recomandat sa consumam”;
12. “vei stii”;
13. “arajează”;
14. “cum să” … “arajează”;
You don’t know where to go?
+You do a very nice gesture suggesting people where to go;
1. I see you’ve left the “Add comment” feature; having two forms on the same page can be confusing; I’d make the comment form unavailable;
2. Someone gives you a lot of details via the web form, and you reply privately; why not make this public? Others can enjoy the information you provide on this page;
The contact form
+You have both a contact form and an email address listed; good;
1. I’d put my own name in the page, people should know to whom they should address the correspondence;
2. I think you meant “Yahoo! Mail” instead of “Yahoo”;
3. I’d avoid specifying right from the start the reasons for which you expect others to contact you:
“Daca vrei să îmi spui părerea despe iniÅ£iativa drumliber.ro, dacă vrei să îmi trimiÅ£i sugestii sau orice alt sfat,”;
In my humble opinion, that list is unnecessary;
Support us page
+I like the idea of the page a lot;
1. Uuuu – “făcuto”;
2. Comma missing:
“download aveÅ£i”;
3. “folosiÅ£i fiindcă”;
A random blog post
+I like the fact that you use the “Similar posts” feature, very useful;
1. I would translate “or” to “sau”;
2. Instead of:
“Email (nu va fi publicat) (necesar)”,
I’d put:
“Email (va rămâne privat; necesar)”;
3. I’d mention that “Website” is an optional field;
4. You can translate this text:
“Notify me of follow-up comments via e-mail”
in the plugin options page;
5. I’d put an option for RSS subscription for the comments of each blog post; if I wish to see what do others comment on a blog post, I would like to have this option; details on this;
6. When you show the list of similar articles:
you use a strange notation: you use both a numeral list (1., 2., 3.), and an icon specific to lists (»); this is rather strange and not for my taste;
7. The final tag on a blog post should not be followed by a “,”, but by a “.”;
__________
Bottom line: Drum liber is a blog with a lot of passion for the Romanian beauties, with messages written in a hope for a better Romania. Congratulations to the authors and owners of the blog!