Congratulations! This is a free usability review from UsabilityInstitute.com. "Usability" refers to how easy and effective it is to use a Web site. Although it involves how a site looks (graphic artwork), it is primarily concerned with how a site works, what you click on, what happens, and whether the site does its job. Perhaps this review is all you need to improve your site. If that's the case, great. Please mention UsabilityInstitute.com if you talk with others who need help with their site.

The following three sections provide a general analysis of your website from a relatively quick review. Although Web design is still perceived as a highly creative endeavor, there are many aspects of it that call for standardization and compliance with widely established conventions. Implementing even a few of the ideas below can really improve a site.

	Part 1: Content Basics
			This first section is intended for typical public web sites (for products and corporate information), but also applies for the most part to intranets and software applications that run in a browser. We've been advocating many of these ideas—in the context of general software—since our 1997 book, Computers Stink, but they've been beautifully enumerated for WWW purposes in Steve Krug's book, "Don't Make Me Think."
			Click for explanation		Hover for explanation	Comments
		1.	Logo in top left, linked to home
		2.	Tagline		Visual shopping
		3.	Welcome blurb		"Find like things that look similar..." In the competition between "what is this site" and "how to use a new paradigm immediately," the latter wins. I'll have to reword my checklist for "category breakers."
		4.	Plain wording
		5.	No 'happy talk'
		6.	Concise wording
		7.	Visited pages are distinguished by link color-coding		Implement this on your site map.
		8.	"Utilities" are easy to find		Despite being a category-breaking app, I think that Site Map, and possibly Login should be top-right most. They can still stay in the bottom band, but I think that the bottom band is a vestige of days gone by when it appeared as text adjunct to sites that became 100% graphical links. Bottom links will probably persist for eternity, but they're not the primary design solution.
		9.	Search on all pages, with box and button
		10.	"You Are Here" indicator		The main nav highlight.
		11.	Breadcrumbs' as links		I understand that this might be percieved as antethetical to the concept of the site, but remember, that's your concept, not the visitor's concept. If every breadcrumb stops at Home>Likeness Search, maybe you have to reinvent breadcrumbs? "Home>Likeness Search (Handbags... Blue... Transparent)

Want to save the environment for your kids? Check out our sister site, WorkAtHomeWednesday.com

Part 2: Visual Design: Fonts, Colors, Layout, Basic Interaction Design, and Accessibility
As we read in a graphic artist's ad, "Technology makes it work but art makes it sell," and you should take heed. We're not graphic artists here at Uinst, but we know good art when we see it and the common denominators that separate good pages from bad are clear. Look at the top sites and you'll see they spell out the following criteria.
	Click for explanation		Hover for explanation	Comments
1.	Sans-serif fonts
2.	Appropriate background color
3.	Appropriate color hues
4.	Visual representation of the information hierarchy		This is where most of the minor tweaks might be.
5.	Conservative quantity of colors
6.	Text sizes are "relative"		No.
7.	Anti-aliased graphics
8.	Graphics' file size doesn't slow navigation		Possibly, not sure whether speed will deter users, and whether it's actually the issue.
9.	"Alt tags" used well		Interesting question... do text alternatives, which are a tool for the sight-impaired, apply to a site for the sighted. My brain hurts.
10.	Links don't just say "Click Here"		Lots of links are correctly nouns and verbs.
11.	A style sheet (CSS) is used		A possible consideration for the visually impaired, but I'm not sure it's a factor anymore compared to browser features.

Do your hands ache after a day at the keyboard??? This review sponsored by RSIRescue.com ...

Part 3: Genuine Value: Useful Content & Critical Interaction Design
And now for the hard part. If all of good Web design were as clear-cut as parts 1 & 2, above, you wouldn't need much judgment and there would be a lot more good sites. But the easier the decisions are, the less significant the thinking and effort behind them... and the easier it would be to provide useful content. This section is where you make or break your rapport with the visitor. If you provide real value and give folks enough tools to get to it, they will push past the basic omissions and ignore even the most amateurish art.
	Click for explanation		Hover for explanation	Comments
1.	Questions are answered
2.	Search results get the job done		Not merely a checklist item, but the whole business proposition.
3.	Effective 'click tree'
4.	Conceptual flow from upper left to lower right
5.	Simple, outline-like site map		Aha! The site map appears to give some insight into the mental model. Maybe. The visitor can't tell how much of the facets are indexed or if it's deeper than the site map, but any ability to visualize the dataset helps.
6.	Primary navigation is obvious
7.	Secondary navigation is obvious
8.	Contact information easily accessible
9.	Links are clear
10.	Intro panel or animation not excessive
11.	Graphics used only for core message

Summation & Next Steps

Overall Rating: Strives / Survives / Thrives

Despite any and all areas for improvement, software will eventually conquer this valuable domain.

Combined Notes and Recommendations:

1. Oops, in attempting to prove that visited pages are indicated by color-coded links---never mind that it's an irrelevant heuristic from content-centric sites, bear with me---I repeatedly clicked Mens Shirts in the dropdown and clicked Search to no avail. Ahhhhh... it works with a required search term.
2. The delay waiting for the Details panels when rolling over an item proved challenging (on reasonably fast cable modem connection).
3. The search results caption, "Your search for men's mocassin in shoes generated 3469 results" doesn't quite stand out as a heading of search criteria.
4. Need more oblique photos, possibly better contrast. The quality of images in shopping sites is always a challenge, and of course not owned by sites like like.
5. What's the difference between clicking a picture and clicking the Likeness Search button?
6. One rollover showed a series of angles. I waited to see the same thing on another and there were none.
7. When getting an empty search (Your Likeness Search for Tommy Bahama Men's Lakeshore Blvd. in shoes generated 0 results ) the fact was not announced in the results area, only in the routine results heading area. Yes, I stared at the empty page for 8 seconds, waiting for data to fill in, partly because it said "Showing [20] Results per page," and partly because I expect pages to take time to load.
8. After a search, the Price Range said 55-144 (apparently constrained based on the hits) but I thought it might constrain my search. I thought Reset should be Clear and not constrain the value, but I can imagine your dilemma... (what's the ceiling?).
9. As I use it more, I want more space for thumbnails. I set my browser to Full Screen.
10. The graphical (not text) control headings are fuzzy in IE7. I'd like them to be text.
11. The graphical headings along with the ever-present "Like finds things... Learn How" seems to take up space. Of course the initial appearance must retain whitespace so as not to look to techy and crowded. Maybe that line should go away once off the home page. Maybe "Find things that look similar" should go where "Alpha" is, and Learn How or "See Demo" should be moved right into the Likeness tools toolbar?
12. Change the Apply/Reset buttons to text links, to stop competing visually with the other buttons.
13. The powerful criteria tools are obviously a layout challenge, and it feels like they're everywhere. Obviously they have to be all over the place, but how does the designer minimize the clutter and sense of sprawl/invasion? Possibly the top bar needs to be in a graphical container of some sort to say "look I'm just your eyeball tools, this is where we are." As I experiment with my monitor settings, I see there's a very light gray background. Could be my monitor, I've seen the same washout even on my own pages. Maybe I'm saying, visually promote the top toolbar and downplay the left (faceted criteria) better. Perhaps the site as a whole must attempt to emply more staging of tools based on visitation. Show the faceted checkboxes only after some usage or show just a few and a More button?
14. I suggest putting Sort By in the results area. Consult eBay as a sample, not that they're any sort of an aesthetic model, but on this one count, I suspect their location is right. This will move a control closer to what it acts on, and simplify the "Likeness Tools" (Eyebar ?) better.
15. The search box didn't retain previous typing. Perhaps you don't want to (or my computer is preventing it?).
16. Couldn't tell if the slider bar for Color applied its effect immediately (the Ajax feedback issue?). This is an industry wide issue. I assume the solution is popup progress indicators whenever an Ajax retrieve is in action, right? Users need to know when the computer is trying to help them and they really should wait. I personally think this is a biggie, sitewide.
17. Couldn't tell how to get details (zoom/rollover) window on Your Search Item. Hovering on other shoes showed the detail window.
18. Saving likelist confused me for a few seconds... why are the Login/Register links there? Ahhh... because saving requires registering.
19. The Save to My Linklist popup should include the branding and not look so much like a 'chromeless' window... it's very atypical.
20. Even thought I like using emails as acct IDs, I actually stumbled at the Password/Confirm Password fields, starting to put in my email acct's password (!). Perhaps studying other sites will explain how they break that association. Maybe they have a more lengthy field caption, "Enter a password for your account." Not sure if it was just my problem.

Hope this helps and let me know what you think,
Jack Bellis, UsabilityInstitute.com