Site critique please 4

[johnwm]

I would welcome constructive comment/criticism on

http://www.ttkc.co.uk

Client has control of input to news and happy customer page (they were tested with dummy data before launch) so there may or may not be anything on those pages when you look.

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[BillyRayPreachersSon]

- With JavaScript disabled, you see no images at all on the homepage. You could at very least show one image (or even all images), and then if JS is enabled, add in the slideshow functionality.

- On the same note, with JS is disabled the footer nav links jump up - presumably you're not clearing your floats?

- The footer text ("Website produced by...") is far too small to be legible.

- The navigation arrows on a gallery page are totally different to those on the home page. Consistency is a good thing - so use one or the other. Don't mix and match.

- The descriptive text of the gallery images leaves a lot to be desired. Get rid of the 'trendy' pap, e.g.

"using the simplistic lines of the shaker style that supports the hi tech stainless vogue"

"shaker design but in a rustic oak look that breaks all the rules"

"bright and clean accomodating your quest for originality" (note: spelling mistake in "accommodating", but it's still pap!)

(need I go on?)

and replace it with some half-decent and less patronising text.

- Don't shout (homepage, "AND YOU DO NOT PAY FOR THE FITTING UNTIL IT IS COMPLETE"). Use plain English, and don't start your sentences with the word "and". Basically, overhaul your content to be a lot clearer, and more grammatically correct.

- Be consistent with your punctuation. Some of your sentences end with a full-stop, some do not.

- Update your meta keywords from page to page. The will greatly enhance your SEO. At present, SEs such as Google will probably think each of your pages are very similar (you'd be surprised at how much difference this makes).

- Move the nav to the top of the page. If you need to scroll down to underneath the content just to navigate, it will put a lot of people off.

- Get your "Contact us" page looking good. The form labels are not aligned with each other (I'm using Fx 2). You also mix 3 different font sizes for the body coy on this page. Consistency, consistency, consistency (must try harder)!

- Don't use "px" units for font sizes. They don't scale in IE 6 (bad for accessibility).

That should keep you going for a bit!

Hope this helps,
Dan



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[johnwm]

Thanks for your comments Dan - your thorough analysis is much appreciated.

I've now resolved the JS issues (I think). Floats are now cleared. I've increased the 'Produced by ' text slightly and changed the nav arrows on the index page.

I agree with your comments on the text in the gallery, and I will try and persuade the manufacturers to allow us to supply our own text. At present they are insisting that we use their words if we want their pictures.

The homepage matches an existing published flyer, and will be updated when the new flyer is published. All sentences now end in a full stop.

I've lined up the labels on the 'contact us' page and changed font-sizes from px.

If anyone else has comments I will be glad to hear them.


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[Stretchwickster]

Just a few first impressions:
- clean looking layout
- would prefer navigation at the top rather than or as well as the bottom of the page for aesthetics reasons and because the home page navigation is off-screen when viewing in 800x600 (and the gallery page navigation is pushed off the screen even at 1200x1024)
- I would give a custom style to your links

Clive

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[traingamer]

They have enough money to pay you (I hope), but they can't shell out a few pounds for a logo?

... foreign imports...

...is redundant.


Many potential customers like a telephone number posted conspicuously. I, for one, never do business with someone who does not provide that information on a Web site.

The site is very clean and lean (which I like), but needs a little more.

Greg
"Personally, I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught." - Winston Churchill

 

[johnwm]

Thank you both for your input.

I will discuss navigation placement with the client again.

The apparent redundancy is repetition for emphasis as it forms an important part of the client's USP and is intended.

The company telephone number will be put on the contact us page as soon as it is connected (this is a new company).

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[BillyRayPreachersSon]

You still have a sentence beginning with "AND" on the homepage...

Dan



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[johnwm]

I've now got nav at top and bottom. The phone is now connected (and on the 'contact us' page)

No answer from the picture copyright holders yet, but the AND is gone!

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[BillyRayPreachersSon]

You have probably pasted those Gallery descriptions in from Word, as you're getting odd characters.

In Firefox 2, visiting

http://www.ttkc.co.uk/closeup.asp?myMax=51&myID=38

shows "today?s" instead of "today's", so presumably a smart quote has crept in?

Dan



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[BillyRayPreachersSon]

Also, you have a whole bunch of validation errors in your HTML. See here for more details:

http://www.htmlhelp.com/cgi-bin/val....co.uk/&warnings=yes&spider=yes&hidevalid=yes

A lot of them are, again, unescaped characters (e.g. "&" should be "&").

Dan



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[johnwm]

Thanks again Dan - I put it down to my clumsy import routine and poor detail checking .

I must practice harder to get your eye for detail!

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[BillyRayPreachersSon]

You don't want to be as anally retentive as me



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[Stretchwickster]

A few more comments from me too:
- I'm not sure about the h2 tag containing "The Total Kitchen Company" at the bottom of the page. A suggestion might be to change the link at the bottom of the page to: "The Total Kitchen Company Website produced by Concepts in Business Ltd". That way the text is still included but doesn't distract.

- The link at the bottom of the page takes one to the "Contact website producer" page. Here, the form elements are lacking alignment.

- As I think Dan mentioned earlier, there's a sentence all in caps on the home page. Make it lower case but emphasise it using an em or strong tag.

- There seems to be inconsistent use of headlines above and below the top navigation and horizontal rules. On some pages "The Total Kitchen Company" appears above and the page headline appear below the navigation. On others the page headline appears above the navigation. Definitely make your pages consistent in this respect. Also, I'd be tempted to play around with the top navigation and see if it looks ok as the top most item of the page.

- As Greg mentioned a company logo would improve the aesthetics of your pages no end, even if it were just a more stylish font (maybe saved as an image).

- Remove the blue link border from your images

- Align the form elements and the "Registered office" address of the Contact Us page too.




Clive

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[scaifea]

I'm viewing on IE 5.5 at the moment.

Consider the following:

Look at the centering of the information on the Homepage, it just looks odd at the moment.

Try to get Happy Customers on one line, the nav might look a little slicker.

COnsider a different mouseover colour on the nav for accessability reasons (people with certain eye conditions may not see it change).

"Website produced by" text is still too small and some SE's can take small text as a sign of spamming!

Remove border from images

Appliances - not sure here, does the company get these appliances for me or do I have to find and buy myself, it isn't clear. I suggest that you client has all the options on their own site and not sending people off to manufacturers sites.

Contact Us - I suggest that your clients details are at the top of the page, not hidden at the bottom of the page.

Close Ups ... look at centering the text properly on the close ups page. Also if I am interested in a "Tempo Maple" (for example) so what, why isn't there a "Buy" or "Contact Us About This Kitchen" button?

Optimisation ... you need to sort out your optimisation of the site, this will never get picked up by a search engine.

What are their values? I love this test of a website, ask your client what their top 2-3 values are, and then see if it is obvious to someone looking at their site.

<1 second ... remember webiste visitors will decide in less that one second whether or not to click the "Back" button, give them a reason NOT to do it ... sexy banner, special offers on homepage etc

I don't mean to sound negative, I'm positive about the site and the effort put into it and what can be done to improve it.




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[johnwm]

Thanks again for all the input.

I have looked again at the layout at the top of the page, and dumped the <hr>.

I have corrected the misalignment on the 2 mail pages, correcting some clumsy cut&paste mistakes.

The border to the images seems to be a construct made by non-standard web browsers. It looks just as intended in standards-compliant browsers I have tested in. I will try and find a hack for it - maybe someone has one to remove these artefacts round an <href> image?

There seems to be a fine line between the needs of pure design and the needs of marketing. I guess some things are just a matter of that balance - you can't please all the people all the time! As regards to the marketing issues raised, although we're probably off-topic in this forum, the purpose of the site is NOT to sell kitchens, although it's a common misapprehension amongst those who haven't worked in the direct sales industry. The client and I are quite happy that the marketing aspects of the design will achieve the clients' objectives. These items include the sentence all in caps on the index page, the wording and size of 'produced by' and the absence of logo.

Any further comments will be welcome.

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[BillyRayPreachersSon]

maybe someone has one to remove these artefacts round an <href> image?

a img { border: none; }

Dan



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[scaifea]

I am not a web designer but I have been in marketing for 20 years (9 years online). The objectives of any website falls into virtually two categories.

1. Awareness (of brand, service or organisation)
2. Sales (supply information, make sales)
3. Marketing (manage events, build relationships)

In "Direct Sales", websites tend to act as a channel to reinforce existing channels, they start by supply information and quickly turn (or should do) into a sales channel.

The supply of some mechanism to aid that sale is critcial to the success of the business. Remember some 76% of UK users research products online before buying. If your client does help their potential customers make an easier purchase, they WILL lose the opporetinity.

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[johnwm]

Thanks Dan - done

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[GUJUm0deL]

Checked this in FF/IE
[ul]
[li]Don't really like the nav menu look and feel. Looks like boxes just floating in mid air. The menu at the bottom should be really be in textual footer instead of copying the top nav.[/li]
[li]Don't really like the fact that when I click on a 'Gallery' image, it opens in a new window/tab. Especially when you click on any nav items the link opens in the child window. So now, I have two tabs/windows open of the same site.[/li]
[li]The 'Gallery' also looks like its floating in mid-air.[/li]
[li]Not really sure why you have a Special offer listed in the "News" section[/li]
[li]In the 'Contact' section, after I send a request, the page reloads with the form but the 'send mail' button is missing.[/li]
[/ul]

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[johnwm]

Thanks GUJU.

The menu at the bottom of the gallery closeup page was unintentional and due to me including the wrong footer inc on the closeup page. I have now rectified that.

The entire contents of the News section (and the references section) is directly generated by my client via a content management system.

The other actions are by design.

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