New Website - opinions needed

[punkrockdad]

We have just recently built a website to advertise our skills and hopefully bring a little more business in along the lines of the kind of furniture we like to build

What we need is some feedback and any first opinions to improve the site.

http://www.mark-hopkins.co.uk

Thanks in advance

 

[JFC]

You might want to look at that chip out you have on the hinge in the gallery :wink:

 

[punkrockdad]

Its all part of the 'aging process' :wink:

 

[JFC]

:lol: Looks like a nice classy site . When will it all be up and running ?

 

[punkrockdad]

Still working on the text and detailing.

Inbetween jobs we get 30 minutes to discuss and push a bit further. We've also now installed broadband in the workshop which has REALLY given the old bakerlite rotary phone the hump!

I see you have a website, do you find it brings work in?

 

[JFC]

I don't use mine to find work i use it as a gallery for people that contact me . If they see what they like there it saves me time having to ask them what they want . I did have more contact details on there but my first call was from someone in Scotland ( i'm in London) so i decided to use it as an online portfolio .
Regarding your website i would get more pics up in the gallery as i think that is the first place people look . If they like what they see then they will look at the rest of the site .

 

[DomValente]

I'm assuming that you've only posted pictures of the desk, 'cos that's all I'm getting.
If so, looking very professional, good luck.

Dom

 

[JFC]

One day Dom you might be able to make things like that and stain them the right colour :wink: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[nickson71]

Nice looking site .........I'll be back to have another look once there's more content

 

[mr]

Comments on your website in no particular order.

It's built entirely in flash - yuk. Not everyone has flash - is there an html option?
My back button has been hi jacked I don't like that. It breaks me out of my comfort zone. Do that too violently or too often and the user will leave the site.
I can't see the point of your first 4 pages other than as a gallery of sorts. Home / Design / Reproductions and Installations pages have no content other than a graphic and an email address.
Your gallery has three(?) images of the same piece? You need more, the piece in question is so extensively featured through out the site that it makes one wonder whether you have made anything else. The gallery is also hard to see - images too small - and hard to use.
Where are the current projects? It appears to be another blank page featuring a large photgraph but no content.
Find us page - the map is so small I cant even tell what part of the country your in.
Cont link (far right hand side) _ I presume it says contact but if so the act part of the word is cut off and again there is no content on that page other than a photograph and the contact details that you have on the other pages.
I see you have given your web agency a credit on every page. Why?

In general - my browser controls appear to have been disabled - I cant enlarge the text to make it easier to read. My back and forward buttons don't work.

Having said all that the furniture itself looks rather nice and if I stumbled across the site I would want to see more of your work. I would head straight to the gallery and then if inspired I would bookmark the site. Unfortunately there isnt much to the gallery.
It's a very glossy site but lacks content and I question the use of flash, particularly in the way it has been done.
I quite like the typography and the overall brochure design is workable but the web is not a magazine and different techniques apply.

Cheers Mike

 

[DomValente]

Don' t make me say that word :twisted: :twisted:

 

[ByronBlack]

You need to ditch the flash navigation - absolute cardinal sin! Can't navigate it properly, it takes an age to load, is not in the slightest bit accessible - really really bad move.

The gallery should have a simple layout with thumbs, get rid of the flash buttons.

Sorry to be harsh, but flash is not designed for making professional websites, a lot of people will have trouble with this site, you can't increase the text for example, there is effectively no content for search engines to index, so in their eye's your website is just spam.

I would suggest taking the design, and work it out properly in a well coded XHTML web page, this will not only help you get in the search engines, but will also allow everyone to read your content, it'll also work faster, and be easier for you to add content and scale it up.

No offense intended, but this is a mistake a lot of amateur's make - using flash for design, it's an animation program and a media delivery system, stick with the proper tools for your website (Xhtml) and you'll benefit from it.

In my experience, most customers couldn't care less about moving swishy things, it's the content and ease of use and speed of the site that is paramount (This is based on years of user-testing and experience).

If you need any further help and some more information let me know, an i'll post some links that will point you in the right direction.

 

[Fecn]

The map you have on the Find Us section is a bit hard to read becuase it's been resized with a poor anti-aliasing algorithm.

If you were one of my paying customers, I'd have done something like this for you... (except I wouldn't have used google maps for the source map due to copyright etc)

... and I'd have put the full photoshop verion of the file up somewhere like here...

http://yourhome.org.uk/Mark-Hopkins-Map.psd

... but of course... if you were paying, I'd have done it on my company's website instead of my personal image gallery. (Feel free to use the artwork if it's any use for you... I did it just because you're a forum member and I'm not looking for any payment... mostly because I've already spent all day doing maps for websites and one more won't make much difference to me now.)

If you're after some criticism....

1. It's all flash - Up to you, but you could think about providing a text alternative for search engines (which won't be able to index your site), the visually impaired (using text-to-speech for reading the web) (or those browsing the site via PDA, mobile phone, locked-down PC.. or just about any of the numerous things which don't support flash)
2. It's teeny - The world has moved past 640x480 screens - When designing for the web it's now more normal to assume everyone has 1024x768 as a minimum.
3. Is ther any point in the Contact Us page - Your contact details are on every page.
4. Your web designer's email address is more prominently featured than your own.
5. I think you have your HTML doctype set incorrectly (or maybe a missing speech mark somewhere ) - The W3C validator moans like hell... and HTML that doesn't validate properly can confuse poor search engines which will then ignore your site.

Anyway.. that's enough of my day job... I came here to escape all this web stuff.

 

[Steve Maskery]

Yes, it's an impressive piece, but it's just one. Have you ever made anything else?

Of course you have, you couldn't have reached that standard from a standing start, but there is nothing else to show off to people that you have a broad portfolio. Fine if you want to play the One Note Samba, but if you want to attract custom you need to show some diversity and variety.

Says Steve, who has had one commission in the last 12 months!
Very best wishes, it's tough out there.

 

[Chris Knight]

Ditch the flash! Many people hate it and you will want a site you can update with new content yourself at some point. Flash makes it harder for you unless you are a web designer yourself.

Assume you will fall out with your web designer (everyone does eventually) and make sure you have copies of everything and copyright to it. Currently the site is registered in the name of Warren Redmond - not you.

 

[punkrockdad]

It's built entirely in flash - yuk. Not everyone has flash - is there an html option?
--- Theres no HTML version, but I take on board your comments and will develop one. I chose Flash as I like the animation and overlay effects.

My back button has been hi jacked I don't like that. It breaks me out of my comfort zone. Do that too violently or too often and the user will leave the site.
--- sometimes I like the new thinking that has to be done to navigate a website. if everything was the same we'd all be called Mr Bill Gates.

I can't see the point of your first 4 pages other than as a gallery of sorts. Home / Design / Reproductions and Installations pages have no content other than a graphic and an email address.
---- Quite true. We will be inserting more copy and images on these pages. The images are more as a backdrop.

Your gallery has three(?) images of the same piece? You need more, the piece in question is so extensively featured through out the site that it makes one wonder whether you have made anything else. The gallery is also hard to see - images too small - and hard to use.
------- Also very true. I'm tring to implement a zoom feature for the gallery or maybe run it horizontally instead of vertically.

Where are the current projects? It appears to be another blank page featuring a large photgraph but no content.
------ Good point - again, we will be inserting txt info when we have written (and spell checked it)

Find us page - the map is so small I cant even tell what part of the country your in.
------ We're in North Manchester !! lol I will draw up a stylized map, but for now I've just stuck a screen dump in from googlemaps.

Cont link (far right hand side) _ I presume it says contact but if so the act part of the word is cut off and again there is no content on that page other than a photograph and the contact details that you have on the other pages.
---- I can see all the word contact - can you email me a screen shot? I'm concerned we could possibly be using fonts that arnt embedded. Content wise - its on its way!!

I see you have given your web agency a credit on every page. Why?
---Because he's such a nice guy (its me

In general - my browser controls appear to have been disabled - I cant enlarge the text to make it easier to read. My back and forward buttons don't work.
---- I totally agree - Accessibility IS an issue in flash. Maybe I should break the TXT out in to HTML frames.

Having said all that the furniture itself looks rather nice and if I stumbled across the site I would want to see more of your work. I would head straight to the gallery and then if inspired I would bookmark the site. Unfortunately there isnt much to the gallery.
It's a very glossy site but lacks content and I question the use of flash, particularly in the way it has been done.
---- I havent taken very many photos of our furniture just yet and only photographed enough to build a structure on the site.

I quite like the typography and the overall brochure design is workable but the web is not a magazine and different techniques apply.

------- Excellent critique Mike - thanks for the input. I shall make notes and address them. Hopefully you will see an improvement over the next few weeks.

 

[mr]

Screenshot sent.
Cheers Mike

 

[ByronBlack]

a small tip:

Dont try and re-invent the wheel with regards accessiblity and navigation, its been done to death over the past 15 years and there are clear and succesful techniques which use proper Markup.

You've been given excellent advice (mostyl ditch the flash) if you wish to be succesful, I would very much urge you to listen to that advice because as it stands your website is failing on way too many area's to be sucesful.

Have you had any user-testing on your website? Have you tested it against numerous platforms, such as PDA's Mobiles, Laptops, Tablets, Mac, etc.. these all make up a good propertion of your audience.

How do you intend to use search engines? Text in flash is not recognised by outside indexing tools so your site will appear blank.

Why should peoples current navigation tools be disabled? (back button, forward, reload etc..)?

How does someone with low vision look at your website when the text size is locked into your flash movie?

What do people on low speed connections do while they are waiting over a minute for your pre-loader to work?

This is not a dig at you, but you really need to look at these issues. Clearly you woodworking is excellent, and it's only fitting that you're websites covey's that same quality.

As an aside, over half of my work was repairing and rebuilding flash based websites for commercial companies who made the mistake of entirely building their site in flash - usually from college kids.

If you don't have the time/expertise to build your design in proper markup, then there are companies who'll turn a photoshop mockup into a a fully accesible and validated XHTML site for very little money - this will then give you a massive headstart and will allow you to easily update the website.

 

[Bodrighy]

I live in an area where I can't get broadband and I am still waiting for it to load....it has been 6 minutes so far. There is always an HTML option in fact if you look at most proffessionally made sites nowadays you will find that flash is used very little as it tends to hog bandwidth too much.

The golden rule when building a web site is to keep it simple, keep images small with links to bigger ones if you wish and make sure that the whole page can load within 10 seconds or people will switch off. Also remember that only just over 50% of Internet users have up to date equipment including browsers so never build a site that can only be viewed on the latest version.

As others have said there seems to be only one example of your work. You would be better having as many different examples as possible. I clicked on Gallery and saw the same thing as on all the other pages.

Sorry if this is all negative but one of the things I teach is web design and am continually trying to drum the KISS principle into my students (KISS = Keep It Simple Stupid) :lol:

Stop and ask yourself what you would be looking for if you were going on a site like this.

Pete

P.S. I am not calling you stupid by the way, it's a common saying in Somerset....

EDIT

If this is going to be a commercial site you will need to make sure that it complies with the WAI You can check your site out here

The Melbourne Olympic site designers got sued a fortune because it wasn't accessible enough.

Pete

 

[Dave S]

Some very good comments have been made already which I would also endorse. Two of your comments jump out at me:

I chose Flash as I like the animation and overlay effects.

This is a common mistake. Who is the website for? Certainly not you - it's for customers or potential customers. Generally animation and overlay effects don't go down too well. Personally I felt a bit sick looking at all those pics sliding about all over the place.

--- sometimes I like the new thinking that has to be done to navigate a website. if everything was the same we'd all be called Mr Bill Gates.

There are, however, conventions which have developed. Naviagation is a prime example of this - people have certain expectations as to how a site functions and will soon move on from a site which breaks these conventions too radically.

Research shows that most people will give up on a site if it takes longer than about 8 seconds to load. Yours took longer and you have only one item in your gallery so far.

Mike is correct - different techniques do apply on the web. However, I think it's worth considering what people would do if they were looking at the real thing. You obviously make high quality furniture. Were that desk in a gallery, I think people would look at it from all angles, open the drawers, feel the surfaces (wood is so tactile). I think the ony way you can emulate that experience is with high quality photographs that are clearly displayed. Currently it's all a bit of a clutter and the website really doesn't do your work justice.

All that said, I know it's not easy. I'm in the rather strange position of being an application developer as a day job , but also about to commission a website for a new company I have set up with my wife. That website will be selling quality products (not woodwork related) so the challenge of showcasing quality on the web is one I have recent experience of.

I hope these comments help - certainly I'd be happy to bounce ideas around further.

Dave