Using javascript for sign up.<p>Even though something like 90%< of users have javascript enabled, I think it is an unnecessary risk to have a signup form be 100% dependent on javascript. Especially when it is so easy to just provide a real link to a basic signup page and then load that right within the facebox using jquery. Pretty sure you are using facebox and facebox makes this ridiculously easy.
Hrm "Get In. Get Out. Get Smarter." Don't like it already, sounds trite.<p>"Ya tai!
- Hiro Nakamura, Heroes "<p>What has that got to do with anything? And it is "Yatta" not "ya tai."<p>The entire style of the site feels cheap too. I'm not sure, maybe the striped banner up top? You need a logo.
I signed up. The "conversational japanese" course was highly rated and recommended, so I enrolled in it, but I don't know what to do now. There doesn't seem to be anything there. Where's the course?<p>The "enroll" button was a bit scary, I wasn't sure what that would do. I'd expose as much of the course materials as you can without forcing someone to enroll.
To me, the signup/login forms are not clear. You use "login" on the signup form. I instinctively associated that word with logging in, so i kept looking for where to "sign up". A better word would be username.<p>When signing up using the big orange sticker icon on the right, you get no status message as to what happend after submitting the form. It was only after trying to sign up using the top left link that it told me "username exists" which meant the sticker signup apparently worked.<p>Not requiring a password on initial signup tells me you want ease signing up as much as possible; why are you requiring email validation then? Seems counter-productive.
Let users gain instance access, and then delete accounts that haven't validated after a set timeframe, (with reminders).<p>Minor pet peeve. The facebox boxes have too little padding on the left/right margins. It does not look nice.<p>I tried to sign up for a course by clicking on the plus sign, but after I do that I am lost as to actually how to "take" the course. Maybe this is a lack of content issue, but I'm still puzzled as to whether these courses have video, audio, read like a textbook, or??<p>That is all for now.
Once you get into the site itself the design is fine. I think the negative reaction you are seeing is more about the landing page. To sum it up; it has a web 1.0 feel. There is a lot of text, and it seems like a pretty intense sales pitch.<p>I'd cut that landing page down to the bare essentials.<p>The site itself feels very complete, but without content it is impossible to understand what the point really is. I registered and as others mentioned, I had no clue what to do. The "what to do" drop down is great, but so much to read. I don't have the patience to read all that (and I want to help you), so I wouldn't expect a user to read it.<p>Regarding content; you need to champion a topic. Pick something you know that would relate to other people. If you can't think of something, do something technical.. The site can't be empty, and the things that people see must be current.<p>good luck, looks like a strong start
Just wanted to say thank you all again for the valuable feedback.<p>I have taken many of the suggestions from here and updated the site's landing page to be less wordy and more to the point.<p>Also, I have streamlined the signup process so that you no longer have to validate your email address (although now I probably need to add a CAPTCHA or something at least).<p>I've also added in a new user help page that you are taken to upon signing up that tries to give some pointers on what to do next rather than just dumping you on your profile page.<p>Again, thank you all for the feedback!
As soon as I understood what you were offering (make your own courses online!) I wanted to browse example courses that had been released, and it wasn't obvious how to do that.
for a one man army, I think its pretty neat what you've put out as v1.<p>Some gripes:
- Please allow me to see content without a signup. it will help in SEO too.<p>- You can put up this on your hompage :)
<a href="http://www.cafecourses.com/courses/3-course-creation-101" rel="nofollow">http://www.cafecourses.com/courses/3-course-creation-101</a>
and invite people to take up more courses (if #1 is done)<p>- Related courses will help when looking at a particular course (you already have tags and search, so I think it might be easy to do this)<p>- Your login form is a bit too intrusive for my taste. Why do I have to check my email to continue using the service? (I dropped out at that point and didnt get to see a course)
I didnt mind a signup for testing ur service but checking my email was a blocker.
I have 2 emails (both on gmail) and one I dont check at all. Used for experimenting. To see that inbox I have to signoff from my account and log in there, wade through spam to find your mail.
Tried to sign up but all I got was an animated gif in the popup window. Tried with Safari and FF on OS X.<p>Edit: The popup worked from /courses but not from the home page.