Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I recently started johnlocker.com, and I wanted to get some feedback on the site layout, features, and ease of navigation.

It`s kind of like YouTube, but just for documentaries and educational videos. People can also copy and paste URLs of videos found on sites like YouTube and Google Video and instantly import them on the site. It uses dozens of scripts, but I tried to make it look as simple as possible.

The site is getting used by hundreds of schools and institutions, so I just wanted to make sure that it`s easy to use.

For instance, is it easy to find something your looking for? Is it easy to make the video full screen or leave comments?

Any suggestions or improvement ideas would be great.

Thanks,

Mike

P.S. Sorry about the typo in the title :(

:-) Worse is the typo in the URL. Here`s the correct link:

First of all, your index page title is so long, it`s like...a documentary unto itself! Keep your page titles short enough to read, but with some real meaning. So "John Locker: The Smartest Free Documentaries" would be sufficient.

I went to the Search page and typed in "bees." There were no results. However, instead of just telling me that, why not include on that page, "Search again?" the query form right there, so I can indeed search again.

I did the same with "birds" and figured this isn`t really a learning site, it`s something else. So I figured...let me go back to the home page and find out. I see there`s no "About" page, so no idea why it`s called "John Locker." But...I thought I`d persevere, being a stick-to-it kinda guy. :-D

I clicked the "Categories" page, and instead of seeing a text-based list of categories, perhaps nicely alphabetized, all I saw was the same thing as the home page.

All in all, if I were trying to learn something, I`d start with Wikipedia, then probably go to YouTube. There`s nothing compelling on this site that would fire me up and convince me to include it as a permanent resource in my syllabus.

I think what would make a whole lot of sense would be an introductory content area, no more than about 4 paragraphs on the main landing page. You already have your Categories along the left margin, and that`s fine. The key, here, is going to be the search engine.

There should be another "search" box, directly on the main page. Maybe below the User Login or perhaps move that to a less prominent location. You could put the login off on the margin, and the Search right at the top. (The "Search in:" isn`t aligned correctly, coming to the right of the last form field. I think you`re missing a paragraph return.)

Additionally, you might want some indexing tags along with the comments. At the least, you could use them to categorize the videos---in more than one category. They`d also be handy for subcategories and other such things.

I`d like to see more information about the length of the video, and perhaps a way to quickly email a video to someone by URL as an embedded link.

All in all, it`s a good idea, and the site looks nice. I understood how to get around the place; it`s only that I don`t see it capturing its niche just yet. I`m not quite sure what a "smart" documentary is: How is it different from a "dumb" documentary?