Feedback on a website - pls help

[s a m]

I have just finished working on my new web site, its taken a while to put together and the first decent site I have had for my company - always been too busy making other peoples.

I am trying really hard to get the site looking good, easy to navigate, professional etc. I am a student, and this has been my job for a while.

I would really appreciate people’s feedback on the site - it would help me a lot and I can improve the site further. The more bad bits people tell me, the less possible customers I will miss out on due to such problems.

www.2dmedia.co.uk/?link=ph

(I am not promoting my business with this post, simply looking for feedback. I have already said I am a student not a big company, so that’s blown it anyway!)

Thank you in advance for your comments. Happy Christmas too.

Please feel free to post them here as it will keep the topic active, but if you prefer you can email me.


EDITED TO ADD: The main aim of the web site is to get clients for web development, software development and the other stuff on the site... but largely web design. Does it do this clearly?

>>> Edited by s a m on Sunday 12th December 00:31

[chassis 33]

Just had a quick look thru, I'm not a techie or anything so to Joe Bloggs it looks spot on. Will add it to my favourites for "future reference"

[jazzybee]

Very Good, I think the content is just right for the small business person looking for online services. My only pieces of advice would be: 1. Your search engine ranking optimisation service image should be a little more recognisable (show more of the Google/yahoo logos) and maybe put it higher up the page (swap with the Digi camera rental (good idea btw). 2. Your company logo - I would ease the angle of italics to make the characters more legible and move it over to the left hand side of the header - its where I naturally look for the company name. 3. Finally, for my taste, about 10% too much text on the screen - I would like a little more 'white space'

Otherwise fantastic

[mcecm]

In the camera section

your site said:

Because of travel constraints, we usually only meet provide this service in the Essex area

Does that make sense? Or is it just me?

[s a m]

mcecm said:

In the camera section your site said: Because of travel constraints, we usually only meet provide this service in the Essex area Does that make sense? Or is it just me?

Thanks - I have corrected that. It was a typo.
Cheers for comments so far, please keep them coming.

[EmmaP]

My only comment are:

You are too cheap;
You shouldn't disrespect London photographers; Too much text -people will get bored; and
You need more examples of your work. I think that you have too narrow a selection at present.



>> Edited by EmmaP on Sunday 12th December 02:09

[S a m]

I have had a lot of thoughts on prices – I have been doing this for a couple of years, started off cheap, and have put prices up with confidence… most sites I do come out at the £700 mark (some consider this expensive!), but unfortunately there are a lot of companies (hundreds) in Essex alone offering sites for £299 and so on. Although I consider the quality of these as “shit”, no effort goes into them, and they are made by newbie’s with no clue about sales, the customers don’t seam to take this into account and if I quote too high, they aren’t interested.

I recently lost the contract for updating a clients site, she wanted bigger more powerful online shop, I quoted her £800, but she went with a newbe lad who charged about £200, and gave her a straight out the box OS Commerce install with no customisation, just a messy looking site.

Disrespecting London photographers? sorry to anyone offended, I will consider re-phrasing. Inspiration came from all the wacky looking bods at Max Power Live with their long messy hair, utility coats and huge cameras… rather intimidating. They are proper photographers, I am a guy who takes pictures.

Text… agree, I am not very good at keeping to the point. But part of it is SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and I have to include certain words to ensure google picks the site up nicely. I am steadily going to work on text, if there’s any specific areas you see that need attention please let me know. (like this post!)

Clients… I will try and stick some more stuff in. Trouble is, anything more than a couple of jobs back I don’t like – I am learning new things all the time.

[PetrolTed]

I reckon you've got a second or so with a web site to communicate what you're offering. That's not obvious from the site.

I've read the first paragraph which sort of tells me but then the following on stuff is just predicatable marketing speak.

You need (IMHO) a clearer statement of what service you're offering.

[Mannginger]

As a user and not web site designer - I thought your 3 "Edge" boxes (Value, Personal Service and Real solutions) would be links. Maybe you could find away to involve them a bit? Maybe to customer feedback?

Phil

[bigbaddom]

More grammer, I liked the digi photo idea, but once I read it I was slightly put off.
Because of travel constraints, we usually only provide this service in the Essex area, however 'depending the project' travel outside of Essex can be arranged.
Read it through. Ive put the inverted commas where I think the mistake is.

[GreenV8S]

'We design with the user in mind - software that is over complicated...'

This sort of sentence structure is just crying out to be misunderstood. Better to make it a positive statement about the benefits of your solution rather than remind your customer of the problems they might encounter.

[S a m]

GreenV8S said:

'We design with the user in mind - software that is over complicated...' .

I have changed the text, hope its better now.
I have seen some competitor’s software packages they have made for clients, and quite often its very poorly made, hard to use, nasty programs – so I am relying on recommendation to a certain extent. If I get the opportunity to have a chat to anyone requiring the service, I know I can clinch the deal. I have had a couple of successful products on the net, but I have only been offering it as a commercial service for a few months so don’t have much of a portfolio.

bigbaddom said:

'Because of travel constraints, we usually only provide this service in the Essex area, however 'depending the project' travel outside of Essex can be arranged. Read it through.

I agree , I hope its clearer now. I am basically saying that if you want a couple of product photos taken on a nice white background etc, but live in Scotland, its not going to be feasible. If you live in Scotland, and (for reasons beyond me) think I am some amazing talent, and want to hire me for a month… then I am off to Scotland.

Mannginger said:

I thought your 3 "Edge" boxes (Value, Personal Service and Real solutions) would be links.

Good point, one of my clients said that too. I am having a think about what I can do to make them more interactive, possibly some enhancements on the flash to make them “open up” with some more info, or link to the clients page.

PetrolTed said:

I've read the first paragraph which sort of tells me but then the following on stuff is just predicatable marketing speak. You need (IMHO) a clearer statement of what service you're offering.

Always the hardest thing. Because I do a lot of things, I am trying to get interest on them all – maybe this is a bad idea. The web design is the main thing, but I am also trying to make people aware that I can take care of their other requirements too – like photography and software. I got my latest software contract after making the firms website, it was only out of chance the conversation happened to lead on to management systems that they realised I could take care of that too.

EmmaP said:

My only comment are: You are too cheap; You shouldn't disrespect London photographers; Too much text -people will get bored;

Photos section changed, no negative regarding expensive London bods.
Could you advice me on which text areas are too waffely, then I can target them better.


Thanks for all your comments so far… please please keep them coming, I really appreciate it and this is the best feedback possible.

[polar_ben]

Mannginger said:

I thought your 3 "Edge" boxes (Value, Personal Service and Real solutions) would be links.

I thought the same as well...

Web design has become a weird hobby of mine but I certainly don't do it for a living. With that in mind, my thoughts are:

- Main text (centre column) needs more padding (whitespace) on either side. Not sure if blue is the easiest colour to read, and it might help to beef up the line height.

- Logo should be top left - that's where people usually look for one - www.poynterextra.org/eyetrack2004/main.htm (and the D in 2D looks like it could be an O or an 0)

- Ditch the tables and use CSS for layout!

[simpo two]

'As for style, you choose. Colour or black & white, formal, corporate, reportage, creative - just say. When the shoot is completed to your satisfaction, you can either take your images straight from the camera (RAW or JPG), or we can do as much post-production/retouching as required and send them to you on CD.'

How does it compare with this? www.autograph.uk.com/photography.htm

That's MY copy from MY site. Kindly write your own, you cheeky er.



>> Edited by simpo two on Monday 13th December 20:13

[polar_ben]