Help with a hypothetical design?

[BlackChakram]

Hi everyone,

I haven't posted here in years and this isn't exactly related to mapping, per se, but you guys here are the right kind of audience for something I've been working on.

I'm learning web design and have made a mockup home page for a hypothetical program called Scribefile that helps organize resources for worldbuilding and fictional world creation.

Could I get at least 5 people to look at this mockup and tell me what they think? Is it clear what the site is trying to sell? If it was a real site, would you be intrigued to investigate further? I'm cool with criticism as long as it's constructive.

Thanks, all.

(P.S. Please check out the second image rather than the first. I noticed a mistake shortly after posting it. Of course.)

Scribefile - Home Page.png

[johnvanvliet]

are you planning to have people use the site with there telephone ?

vertical designs royally annoy me when using a desktop or laptop

also way TOO MANY "join for free"

also that phrase is a telltale giveaway to something NOT being what is clames to be

a distraction from " the fine print" that is hidden in the EULA

i fallow the minimalist philosophy for web design on the outward facing part of a server stack - normally i would use a LAMP set up

as to 5 gig for $120 / year google has 15 gig FREE

[ladiestorm]

It looks interesting enough, but there are a lot of site out there that offer what you have here, and they offer it for less. I mean, my phone already has a note widget, I use it regularly for my grocery list. I have access to one drive on my laptop that stores just about everything, if I let it. I also have a free subscription to Photobucket that let's me upload my maps.

The only really unique thing here is the organization, that's personally my one downfall. I have a binder for my games, I actually have a different binder set up for each game I run, it's not.always the best at keeping everything at my fingertips... But a DM screen would.sort of do that too.

I guess what I'm saying is that, while it looks interesting, it isn't unique enough in what it provides to charge the prices you want to charge. Also, you are selling it primarily to group of gamers... We generally don't have that kind of money to spend, and when we do, we spend it on things to enhance the game, like books and such.

[selden]

Note that the request is for a critique of the design, not a critique of the services being offered.

I think the design of the pages is too "flat." In other words, there's little or no difference between the content images and the tools (buttons and links) used to navigate among the sections of the page and to the (not included) "marketbasket" pages where one would subscribe to the services. Studies have shown that flat designs of this type tend to cause people to spend much (perhaps most) of their viewing time trying to find navigation elements instead of understanding the content.