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Author

Matthew Kammerer

Published

February 9th, 2009

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Previous Exposure & Review format

I have had previous exposure with Envato market places before. Normally I like to be able to review sites the first time I am exposed to them. I will review in my normal structure. I will describe my experience as I travel through the site pointing out things I like and things that confuse me, and points of improvement I suggest along the way.

First impression

As I land on FlashDen.net my eyes scan the page and are naturally drawn from the FlashDen logo in the top left corner, down to ‘Get Started!’, then to ‘What Is FlashDen?’. It is interesting how the headers create a diagonal direction across the page and lead to each other. These three headers inform me of all the basics I’d normally look for when visiting a site for the first time.

My eye flows from the top left corner diagonally across the page to the right.

A little deeper into the home page

Navigation is intuitive but I have to investigate the difference between the orange and brown navigation to figure out why they are separated.

The whole concept of the bargain bin is left to the user to figure out. I wonder what the two small images are linking to. Bargain Bin and Video Hive. I would like it if there was some sort of header to introduce these two features, it feels like these were slapped on afterward without much attempt to incorporate them.

Onto the content

Breadcrumbs allow users to always know where they are.

The flash items are organized nicely. It is easily to find what you are looking for and it is is easy to sort by sales, author, etc. It is easy to always tell where you are using the breadcrumb navigation located along the top of the page. I think breadcrumbs are an easy and effective way to increase a user’s experience in navigation!

As I browse the navigation on the left of the page I come across two confusing features. First, the orange section seems to be categories broken down but it seems some of these links take you outside of the site. From following Envato I know this is because they have taken videos to their new market place, but if I was a new user I’d be confused. Second, it takes me a bit to realize that the forms of navigation with an arrow pointing down will not lead to a new page but offer sub pages. This is frustrating at first but then makes sense.

Feedback is provided through notification such as this throughout the site.

The site is filled with confirmation notices that are very human like. Orange boxes tell users when they have completed an action. This feature adds feedback for users actions, making them feel more comfortable with the site.

I like that the blog easily links back to FlashDen. The layout is different, therefor users may feel as if they were sent to a new site entirely but with the logo linking back to FlashDen this is prevented.

Making a Purchase

Taking part in a contest put on by ThemeForest.net I was able to get $10 to the Envato Marketplaces.

Users are alerted when making a purchase.

I ventured into the font section and found a nice font I wanted to purchase. While logged in, I clicked the item in order to purchase it. When I clicked I was prompted to make sure I wanted to spend this money. This feature could prevent people from making purchases they accidentally clicked on and is implemented in marketplaces abroad, such as iTunes.

Purchasing is easy and downloading is even easier. There is even an option to redownload the item if you need, which I really like!

FlashDen CAPTCHA of sorts..

Am I human? 72. Er, Yes.

One thing that stuck out to me was the way FlashDen prevented spam and automated completion of their forms. They have a field that asks if you are human. Intuitively I would want to answer yes, however the note below the field says to type 72. This is interesting, and even though it may be a bit confusing I would prefer it to normal CAPTCHA images that I struggle to read.

Suggested Changes

• Better incorporate the Bargain Bin and Video Hive graphics. As I stated earlier, it looks like these badges are slapped on the site with no consideration of how they would fit in. I have to click these things to find out what they are, I should have a good idea from headers describing them instead.
• Describe the author’s comments with headings. The first comment on each item for sale is orange and seems to be comments from the authors. Why not have a header introducing it as notes from the author?
• Seperate links to Video Hive. Make links that take us to a new market place easy to distinguish.

Conclusion

FlashDen has been one of the best sites I’ve reviewed thus far with UX Booth. I think there could be a few changes made that would improve UX, but outside of those changes the site flows very well.

Thank you for the chance to review your site, Collis!