This is an online classifieds Web site that connects sellers and buyers. I’ve focused on the site’s home page for this critique.

This segment is a review of the Find4You Web site (http://find4you.com.au/). Because this is such a big site, the review focuses on the home page. The main points to critique are:
- Giving people a clear place to get started.
- Being careful to make navigation stand out from non-essential elements
- Keeping trapped white space out of your layout

I love, love, love the “Start Here” box in the upper left, but I think it needs to be made even more prominent, and placed beside or integrated into the intro text box, which is the home page’s dominant element. I think this box is really the quickest way to get people using the site, and I’d like to see it punched up with color or graphics, too.
Layout issues: The layout as it stands creates two areas of trapped white space, at the top of the page because of the way the intro text is broken up, and then at the bottom between above the Search box. In general, you want to avoid creating a layout that traps white space this way – it’s very ‘upsetting’ visually, and if you have big holes you’re certainly losing a chance to put something valuable in it. I suggest moving the Start Here box into the white space in the intro text. The search box is a tougher problem, because on interior pages, it’s isn’t as awkward as it is on the home page. However, I think it would make sense to pop this into the middle of the home page below the intro text, or even below the horizontal navigation – it’s an important element!

Linux Segment: Teach yourself and your kids how to program with Hackety Hack

linux is simple and accessible — it runs on anything / even a PS3
learning how to write code is easy with Hackety Hack
learning to program is *fun* and free
We’ll have a quick look at Xubuntu running on a PS3 for fun and a talk
a little about Linux and the Ubuntu distribution. Next we’ll talk
about software development and the barriers to learning it and how the
Hackety Hack project hopes to change things. Next we’ll fire up
Ubuntu, running on my MacBook, and get Hackety Hack started. Hackety
Hack is a programming environment for learning how to write code.