Constructive critisim please
Discussion
I have just updated our new web site on our new web host (Muncher).
I did it by myself using dreamweaver, having had no previous experience. I would appreciate it if some of you could have a quick look at it and let me know if there is anything blindingly wrong with it.
I know it is not perfect, (nor will it ever be until we are mega successful and we can afford to get the best web designer in the world) But I like it, and hope to get some business from it.
www.ac-stoneworks.com
ps. be gentle with me.
Kwacker
Hi Kwacker,
Pretty good for a first shot: it certainly loads at the speed of light and is simple and I can find what I want.
But a few details:
About Us:
b/g appears tiled to 1024x768 - as I run 1280x1024 I can see the repeats. There must be a function where you can size the image to fit any monitor? Also I'm not sure about the 'dungeon look'.
Granite/Marble samples:
Pix are very small - these could be bigger/sharper wihtout hurting download time.
Specials:
Flash reflections - reshoot using daylight.
Links:
Trying to be creative but IMO, frankly, a mess!
But you've done the hard bit; the above is just polishing (no pun intended)
Pretty good for a first shot: it certainly loads at the speed of light and is simple and I can find what I want.
But a few details:
About Us:
b/g appears tiled to 1024x768 - as I run 1280x1024 I can see the repeats. There must be a function where you can size the image to fit any monitor? Also I'm not sure about the 'dungeon look'.
Granite/Marble samples:
Pix are very small - these could be bigger/sharper wihtout hurting download time.
Specials:
Flash reflections - reshoot using daylight.
Links:
Trying to be creative but IMO, frankly, a mess!
But you've done the hard bit; the above is just polishing (no pun intended)
Nice site, layout etc.
Personally I like quick hit, in, find info, get out sites.
A couple of things.
A few of the pages are just over my screen resolution and therefore the scroll bar appears on the righthand side.
Remember is that screen resolution is total screen size and most people have the explorer type tool bar across the top, reducing the useable space.
I alway try to design, build within say 900 x 700 dimensions to make sure I don't get any overlap.
Also, IMO your location pictures do not protray a proffesional 'quality' image that you are trying to promote. Which I am sure you are. I am not sure what you could do with it, but in needs changing.
Hope that help.
Chris
Personally I like quick hit, in, find info, get out sites.
A couple of things.
A few of the pages are just over my screen resolution and therefore the scroll bar appears on the righthand side.
Remember is that screen resolution is total screen size and most people have the explorer type tool bar across the top, reducing the useable space.
I alway try to design, build within say 900 x 700 dimensions to make sure I don't get any overlap.
Also, IMO your location pictures do not protray a proffesional 'quality' image that you are trying to promote. Which I am sure you are. I am not sure what you could do with it, but in needs changing.
Hope that help.
Chris
You have the makings of a good website, and with a bit of attention I think you will have a good sales brochure with a little bit of work.
I'd echo some of the sentiments above, with regard to the size of the granite pictures. Do small pictures on the page with clickable enlargements.
I'd also suggest that you take a look at www.seochat.com to help with getting your pages descriptions, metatags, keywords and other SEO (Search engine optimisation) things right. It really is enlightening when you compare your own site to similar sites with high page ranking in search engines.
What I'd like to see, as a potential customer of yours (maybe, if our business takes off as well) is more talk, describe what you do and how you do it, where you do it and how long it takes to get done.
I'd also want a better navigation system to get back to more information. And of course I'd like to see typical prices that you would charge, to see if it is worth ringing you or not.
You might want to do a speil on when to use granite rather than marble, bring a bit of your 20 years of experience on to your pages.
Business address and telephone numbers are important too, (edited to say "doh! see than you already have your address details down) I know that I am more likely to trust a business with a permanent address, rather than a Box No. or nothing at all.
>> Edited by thepeoplespal on Wednesday 20th October 17:36
I'd echo some of the sentiments above, with regard to the size of the granite pictures. Do small pictures on the page with clickable enlargements.
I'd also suggest that you take a look at www.seochat.com to help with getting your pages descriptions, metatags, keywords and other SEO (Search engine optimisation) things right. It really is enlightening when you compare your own site to similar sites with high page ranking in search engines.
What I'd like to see, as a potential customer of yours (maybe, if our business takes off as well) is more talk, describe what you do and how you do it, where you do it and how long it takes to get done.
I'd also want a better navigation system to get back to more information. And of course I'd like to see typical prices that you would charge, to see if it is worth ringing you or not.
You might want to do a speil on when to use granite rather than marble, bring a bit of your 20 years of experience on to your pages.
Business address and telephone numbers are important too, (edited to say "doh! see than you already have your address details down) I know that I am more likely to trust a business with a permanent address, rather than a Box No. or nothing at all.
>> Edited by thepeoplespal on Wednesday 20th October 17:36
simpo two said:
Hi Kwacker,
Pretty good for a first shot: it certainly loads at the speed of light and is simple and I can find what I want.
I'd say:
Re-take the images of the stone, make them clickable larger images.
The links section needs to be redone.
Multicolour Red Image isn't there
I'd echo what has been said previously, it's a very visual product, I think some fantastic images could really make a big difference.
The hardest bit is getting the site built, the easy bit is tweeking it imho.
One of my clients is a web designer who did www.designwithheart.com (ignore the font, his client wanted it!)
Just for info it'd be £400 to get the whole site looking really professional, although of course you can do it yourself but will take a while to get it the way you want it.
>> Edited by Muncher on Wednesday 20th October 21:17
OK. There is absolutely no need for Flash navigation - I for one can't get past the front page.
You might want to consider a cleaner look too, in my humble opinion. Also, you are giving the search engines absolutely nothing to index. They certainly don't parse Flash either and so can't get into your second-level pages any better than I can... No search engine listings = almost no visitors.
Hope this helps.
Ciao
Zak
You might want to consider a cleaner look too, in my humble opinion. Also, you are giving the search engines absolutely nothing to index. They certainly don't parse Flash either and so can't get into your second-level pages any better than I can... No search engine listings = almost no visitors.
Hope this helps.
Ciao
Zak
kwacker said:
But I like it,
scary words, I was fearing the worst. however it doesn't offend my eyes which is a relief, considering most amateur attempts are appalling (then again i'm a c**t when it comes to commenting on websites).
that background image is way too big filesize-wise. 94kb... is a pain for dial-up users (yes there are a lot of dial-up users still).
also design for 800x600. (ie 700x400).
-D
I simply can't convince my wife to target 800x600 on www.shopatbettyboop.co.uk and to be honest, it's more by luck than judgement that it displays properly on even 1024x768 since she develops on a machine with a screen resolution of 1400x1050 
There's no telling some people, eh?
There's no telling some people, eh?
JonRB said:
I simply can't convince my wife to target 800x600 on www.shopatbettyboop.co.uk and to be honest, it's more by luck than judgement that it displays properly on even 1024x768 since she develops on a machine with a screen resolution of 1400x1050
There's no telling some people, eh?
Always give the developer the crappiest, oldest, least functional machine, and you can guarrantee it will work anywhere...
Size Nine Elm said:
I simply can't convince my wife to target 800x600 on <a href="http://www.shopatbettyboop.co.uk">www.shopatbettyboop.co.uk</a> and to be honest, it's more by luck than judgement that it displays properly on even 1024x768 since she develops on a machine with a screen resolution of 1400x1050
There's no telling some people, eh?
Always give the developer the crappiest, oldest, least functional machine, and you can guarrantee it will work anywhere...
simpo two said:
I build websites using tables that I can scale to 100%. So whatever res monitor you look at it on, it always fills the screen (or whatever %age you set). Anyone who still uses 800 x 600 probably doesn't have an internet connection anyway!
or doesn't use full screen to view web pages
i'm on 1280x1024 but dont view full screen cos it is just silly.
sagalout said:
Haven't viewed this site yet but interested to see someone going at it from scratch as I thought you needed a course in Web Design before you could get anywhere. Whats this Dreamworker programme like to use and is there any others on the market?
No need for a course to start. There are plenty of resources on the web which you can use. www.webmonkey.com is a good place to start with info on the technical side and design side of things.
If you want to code from scratch, learning HTML can take a little while (although it's not difficult). IMO it's worth it as you learn more about how it all works . Tools like Dreamweaver allow you to create pages in WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) mode - a bit like creating a page using Word or Powerpoint. This creates (somethimes messy) code for you.
Regardless of how you create the pages, content and design are critical. A good page to start is looking at web pages you like and getting inspiration from them.
vex said:
Also, IMO your location pictures do not protray a proffesional 'quality' image that you are trying to promote.
I'd second that, you're trying to promote a premium product, no doubt commanding premium prices so I'd probably stick with more high quality pics of your installed products rather than your flat bed truck!
Best of luck with the venture,
Chris
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