Thread: Be Gentle

The site I have been working on for about a month now.
Just a bit of background info: 1) It is a demo site I intend to use to sign estate agents in my area in South Africa to create a local medium to market property with a view to expanding nationally, hence the reason for their being only one property (my own) on the site to view. 2) Once I have approximately 100 properties I will go live with it.

Please go through the entire site and give me feedback on any link errors, site user-friendliness and general appeal.

Hey, guys, be gentle!

http://www.panzoomproperties.com

Thanks a million
Bruce

Hi Bruce..
I'm not much of a critic, but as an ordinary web user I think the site is well thought, very organized and neatly presented. I like the idea of having the 3 video clips playing at the same time, and considering that it was 3 videos, they loaded up reasonably quick. I am not a big fan of animations and propably find your home page a bit too animated for my eyes.. There are 3 animations going on at the same time.

The Affiliate banner can, in my opinion be changed.. Especially that you are using a common image, ie, uncle sam... I would suggest that you make affiliate banners that are self explanatory, ie, 'Become a PanZoom Affiliate and Earn Cash Today'.. or something of that nature.

I like the background and it is representative of what you promote.. The lay-out looks good.. but here's a little trick, it is always prefered if the page downloads from top to bottom.. you can do that, except for text which often loads up quicker than any other element.. To get your elements to load up in a particular order, send elements to the back or front of the page in the sequense you want them to appear.. In your case, I would send the red back ground for the menu items back to get it to load quicker.. the should load from back to front.

Hope you you don't find this too harsh.

Very gentle.
Thanks a lot Carlos, especially the good comments.
I will consider changing the agents billboard and affiliate to static images.
Will tweak it, esp. the loading order.

Adjustments made to site, feedback will be appreciated!

Hi Bruce, nice to see that you have finally published....

Good idea, well presented and easy to work with.

Now for the tweaking...............

Consider putting "BACK" buttons on your contact "error pages" and on your confirmation page, link back to your home or preferred page.

Tweak the text in and just under your header logo, being merged with header, and makes for difficult reading.

Q&A(last 2) in as ashort a time as possible.(does not read right)
defeat thewir object(delete the w )

Vodahost banner.....
put your affiliate code in the link(you could be losing money)

Small, but essential points Bruce.....................

Would you like to be included in the SHOWCASE ?

btw: I wish you well in your forthcoming wedding.....

Thanks David, busy with the back buttons.
I take it the text you're talking about is "The number one .... properties in your area" and "helping you search effortlessly for your dream home". I raised them because in my system they show too low, considering adding a rectangle to hold this text.
Q & A typos will be looked at.
I do not have a vodahost affiliate code yet, will join and add it to the link, what would the URL look like with the code in it?

Will be in touch about being included in the showcase, want to approach estate agents and have REAL properties on the site to give it substance.

Thanks for all your input, it is highly appreciated.

Bruce:

The link url look something like this:

http://www.vodahost.com/partner/idev...id=xxxx_y_y_zz

Thanks a lot.
Busy setting up a paypay a/c.

Kind regards
Bruce H

Bruce, I like what you have done with your site. I found it easy to naigate through and had plenty of good information. The layout was well organized and professional looking.

www.411ing.com

Thanks a lot Daniel, thinking of losing the i-frame on the home page for optimization.

Guys, no need to be that gentle.
65 views and about 4 comments!

Hey Bruce,

Very well put together site. I loved how everything appeared in the that one section when you clicked. Transitions of pages were excellent.

My one thing was the computer gaphic thing on left of your top banner...could that be placed somewhere else...I thought it ditn't gel with you banner ...but then again everyone has their own opinion....excellent job and really quite nice to navigate.
Good Job.

Bruce...your site is fantastic!! I love the whole thing and you have worked so hard!

But why do you want to loose the i-frame? For SE? I think that David published a thread here on how to stay optimized WITH an i-frame--something about if you have your links in the frame, it will be picked up by the SE, but I can't find that article...

I LOVE your i-frame and hope you can teach me how to have one as that is how I want my site to function....with the same "set up" as you have where my customers click the "buttons" and stay on the same page with the "new info" popping up in the center of the page. I love the way your pages "flow".


Here are some "picky" things....
I set my screen to 800 to see how it all "fit" on a small screen and you have to scroll to the side to "scroll" within your frame....meaning, when I'm reading the stuff inside your pages, i can't see the scroll bar to go down the page (hope that makes sense). That could be annoying.

2. When I went back to my regular screen size (large!) I have difficulty reading your green menu buttons. where you have the black "gradient" or shading on your green buttons, the red words are difficult to read. It's not huge problem..., but just a picky comment. Maybe if you outline the letters in black...or pick a different color than the red?

3. where it says "helping you search effortlessly for your new home" under your logo it is very hard to read... the blue background color is too dark for your black letters....and I LIKE that slogan, so maybe you could "tweak" that...again, VERY PICKY but you want your logo to really GRAB!!

And, I would LOVE to see your colors more consistent....like all the same blue family (you go from gray blue to perwinkle blue to a cobalt blue) and several types of green (lime green, blue green, and even Pine green in your menu buttons) and many different shades of red/burgundy. But that is just my preference....i find all the different color families jumbling to me.

But I think you have a WONDERFUL concept and I wish you lots of luck getting new properties!!! YOur site is GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay.
First up is beegud, the computer graphic (webbrok) is my main site, just a link, where would you rather have it?
Input appreciated!

Islandcrazy!
Mail me on bruceh@vodamail.co.za and I will help where I can with i-frames.

1. At 800 setting does my info require a side scrroll, I hate that?

2. Had white test on buttons, will try and constryct various text colors, what bwould your preference be?

3. Was white, trying to get the right color!
Is it at least positioned right?
What color would you suggest?

Will work on color consitency.

PS. JUst busy finalising a couple of things to go whole hog.

Comments highly appreciated.

ADVICE: Islandcrazy_Publish and broadcast, we are here for you!

Just want to give a hearty thanks to all the comments.
APPRECIATED!

Bruce, I've watched you from your post about thinking about buying BV wesite builder. You came a long way, quickly. Unlike some of us. Your site has a lot to say on one page and the links I tried worked well, liked just about everything, certainly would use it , if I needed. Great work.

Ok Bruce....let me say again how much I like your site. I've been looking at it off and on all afternoon! Not to mention the concept of your company is awesome!

Let's see, you asked me a couple of things:
1. side scroll....well, the only thing you can't see if you don't side scroll is the smaller scroll bar on your inside pages. None of your imformation is cut off, but you do have to side scroll to use the other scroll bar (that is alot of the use of the word "scroll" LOL LOL!)

2. text color on buttons...well, i first thought white, so maybe try that again?

3. well, it was picky of me....sorry! It looks like you have those words on top of a sky with clouds? what is that graphic? is it a whole page (background image) of sky with clouds or just a little piece? I was thinking....if it is a whole page background....why not use IT instead of the periwinkle/dark blue backdrop you have in the rest of your frame? The steel blue in that sky is a better match to your brick wall? Of course, I do not know how hard it would be for you to change it....and maybe this doesn't make sense....but it would make your page more consistent and less choppy with all the colors...

oh, just ignore me Bruce! I go overboard when it comes to "illustration" and layout stuff. Which is why my site is coming along so slowly!! LOL

as far as your advice to me to publish? ROFL ROFL!!! I am so slow as I only work on it between my other jobs. I have the logo done and all the rollover menu buttons...that's it!! I will try and get the first page done by next week. Right!!!

Can't wait to see what else you are going "whole hog" on!
And thanks for the email invitation...i will DEFINTLY use it!

Thanks a lot for the kinnd words Choco.

Islandcrazy
Your input is really appreciated.
Thinking of getting the best viewing size for my site and having a pop-up that tells visitors what that size is when the home page opens!

The background with the clouds is a very good idea, didn't even think of that.

Should have it done by Monday the latest!

Kind regards all!
Bruce

Well done Bruce, big improvements.

Monday??? I want to see it now! LOL LOL LOL Chop! Chop! Bruce!

well, i think even if you leave it as it is it ROCKS! Not sure what you meant by the pop up....but i'm sure it is a great idea! Thanks for indulging my artist ranting yesterday!!! LOL

I'm gonna try to make an i-frame today...watch your email! LOL LOL

Will do Islandcrazy. Busy with the clouds, thanks for the advice, it looks brilliant and was far easier than I thought, just changed pic in index page, really blends in much better!
Some pointers on the I-frame: Create your template (I used photoshop for this) and then create the i-frame with the link to the page you want to show as your home page. I named mine content. Make sure to make the background color of the i-frame the same as the place where it will go on your page so it fits in.
Create the page to be shown in the i-frame.
All other pages that open on your buttons etc must be given the target name of the I-frame (content in my case) or the page will reload.
Hope this helps.

Thanks Bill, nice to see you around.
I must give a lot of credit to the commentators who shared their input.

ooohhh!! I can't wait to see the clouds!!!! Sounds like you are happy with it!! i do get carried away at times! LOL

Regarding the I frame...thanks for the pointers! i'll go whip one up right now! hee hee hee!

Hey, didn't mean to take over your thread with i-frame talk...I just really like how yours works and i bet others will too!

Hi Bruce...sorry hadn't checked back sooner.

Now as for where to put the company icon...hmmm...no body else seems to havea problem so maybe it's just me...lol

But if I had to put it somewhere...I'd put it where the VODAhost banner is...maybe make the pagea tweensy weensy bit longer and add it there....but seriously ...you have it going on brudda and I would not worry about it too much...me just a picky bee...lolol

Thanks bee, I got rid of the computer logo, figured it kinda detracts from the actual purpose of the site - selling property. The logo was for the "mother" company Webbrok.
Looks a lot better without it - Thanks!

Islandcrazy - http://www.panzoomproperties.com
Your cloud awaits!
I adjusted the size to view better at 800 X 600 aswell, must do some slight tweaking of the pages to show better in the I-frame.

Awesome!!!! I love the way the sky background ties all the elements together! You have been working so hard!! I love that you got rid of the computer logo thing, too! much cleaner!

The side scroll thing is MUCH better! good job! love the new blues you put on the scoller things.

ok, just a little fine tuning--but ignore me if you want---it's just the first thing my eye said to me.....take it as you wish....i have no idea how hard this will be.. If it was ME...I would unify the top section of your page..it's kinda choppy....so that it makes a bigger statement of who you are visually.

I would nudge the words "helping you to find your dream..." down so that none of the text overlaps that white box under the house.

Then, i would nudge the red menu bar and everything else down to either "sit" on the house-"for sale"-banner or leave just a little blue space there ....try both to see what you like better, adjusting the billboard as needed.

Do you hate me?? LOL LOL

I would also (sorry!) make the blue voda square a little smaller..it kinda sticks out into your logo area too much.

Ok, I wil stop with my picky little art things....i love your site and think you have done a great job! Do you like it with the clouds?

No, by all means be picky.
All the advice has helped to improve the site's appearance

Sorry, missed your last question.
Love the clouds, looks a lot better

aww!! I took one last peek before I went to bed and there you are!!! Good, I was afraid I was very bossy! glad you weren't offended.
I wanted you to know I took your advice and forced myself to publish a couple of pages today and start working out those iframes....of course, i did it wrong (i'm sure I named the target thingie wrong)...but I will tackle it again tomorrow! Thanks for the gentle push in post #14....not ready to broadcast yet!!

Don't work too hard tonight! Can't wait to see what you come up with next!

Good for you.
If you need help with it drop a line.

About the red banner moving down!
Do you mean all the way down so the banner is inside it or rather to touch the top of the banner or end just before it?

Busy working on the suggestions!

Hi Bruce.... Nice job, just a couple of handy hints for you. I hope they come in useful.

Lots and lots of colour contrast on your site which will definitely hurt the eyes after reading a few pages.

Maybe a few too many adverts my friend. Visitors may see this as you wanting their clicks to other sites instead of you wanting to provide them with info (ie your site subject).

Personally I dislike frames very much. It has been known that search engines will find the page that inside the frame, rather than the whole site. Imagine this... Somebody finds your site on a search engine but when they click there is no header, no menu and hence no way to navigate the site because it is the page with the white backgroun that has appeared on their screen, not the entire site with the white page inside it.

I wouldn't go through the entire site and rework it but if you are ever re-modeling or building new sites it would definitely be something to consider.

:)

Hi Bruce, finding it hard to find something wrong, which can only be a good thing. I tend to be the one that will find fault, which is the views I want when I get my site up & running. Your site is real easy to navigate & understand & I like the way you have used frames. The only 3 little things that I wasn’t sure about is.

• Not sure if your link is working back to your home page underneath your contact us form.
• The white writing on your main menu is a bit faint on my screen, but looks fine with the mouse over to black. Not sure if the menu bar may look better in a royal blue. This is only from the adage. (Blue & green should never be seen) .
• You have a link to the contact us frame on the background image on the main page, but this may be intentional.

But looking real good site.

Chris.

Goodmorning Bruce! (well, it's 9 am here) Not sure what you were asking about the red banner....hopefully by now you have just played around with it and found what you liked...I was basically saying to move it down so you could move your "slogan words" down and eliminate some of the blue spaces to make it less "cut up".

Hope you don't mind if I tag along on some of the comments here since I'm trying to do a similar iframe site:

Rob said: >>>>Somebody finds your site on a search engine but when they click there is no header, no menu and hence no way to navigate the site because it is the page with the white backgroun that has appeared on their screen, not the entire site with the white page inside it.<<<

Can't you "fix" that by just making sure you have a link to your main/home page on all of your "inside" pages? Like a banner on each page? This whole SE vs i frame problem has me stumped as I LOVE the look of Bruce's site and the way it functions....I don't want to throw the concept out the window(no pun intended) but there has to be a way to optimize!

Chris wrote: >>
The white writing on your main menu is a bit faint on my screen, but looks fine with the mouse over to black. Not sure if the menu bar may look better in a royal blue. This is only from the adage. (Blue & green should never be seen) .

I agree...the white is a little troublesome! Sorry Bruce! That's my fault! Hey, I think blue buttons instead of green might be a good idea!!! I mean, as long as you are changing EVERYTHING!!! LOL But I would choose a blue in the same blue family you are using, just a bit darker.

Well Bruce.....are you sorry yet that you asked for MORE COMMENTS? LOL
You are a good sport for sure. It will be my turn soon and I will count on you to reciprocate! LOL

Hi Bruce,

Nice site. From my own experience I have a few comments about color & design.

1. Never use a bright color on top of another bright color. The contrast is too much for us lowly humans to deal with.
2. For colors, always use a bright color on top of a dark color; or vice versa - a dark color on top of a bright color.
3. I read in a book somewhere that the most successful websites always use 3 dominant colors: Red, White, & Black.

Now for my comments on your website banner.

1. You could tweek it with photoshop. The words "The number one photo and video gallery of properties in your area" and "helping you search effortlessly for your dream home" needs to be nudged down a bit inside the colored bars. This could easily be edited with Photoshop.
2. Green buttons on a red background? Is that a South Afrikan thing? I mean, you have a blue back for the rest? Why not make the buttons blue? Better yet, what's your national flag colors? Use those colors.

Comments on page layout:

1. I'm not fully understanding why you have a brick wall as the page background. Seems to me to be a lot of unused wasted space.
2. Most folks don't put a lot of ad banners on their front page. Most have a "Links" page where they put the ad banners. Yet some even use a banner frame and rotate the ad banners inside the frame, just NOT on the front page.
3. The bullets on the left outside the frame are way too close to the edge. I don't know if you can fix that.

Comments on i-Frame:

1. In the i-Frame you have a table with borders that you use for the "Pick of the Week," yet no table is used below that. The section that has tid-bits and news etc could really use a table to help seperate the columns and paragraphs. Currently they almost blend with each other. I would use some sort of line to seperate the columns, yet a table with no borders works pretty good here.
2. Again, on the "Listing" link the frame squishes some of the graphics on top of the text. You could really benefit from using a table for each element here, too.
3. In the Q&A link, at the bottom of the frame, the dark-blue link on top of the dark background just loses me. In MS-Frontpage, you can actually highlight that text link with a brighter color to make it easier to read. (Blue-link surrounded by white, ONLY for that text while still keeping the dark background).

Other than those things I mentioned, I really like your website, and would like to steal your code. LOL.

I like it!
The only (picky) point I would make is that the text for the "individual" section under the Price War header seems to be in a different font to all the rest of the site. Looks like Times Roman rather than Ariel?

Good Luck

I think we killed Bruce! Bruce? Bruce? HUG FOR BRUCE!!!!!

I just want to know how you did it. I'd like the background as well as all the graphics. Any secrets?

R

Sorry guys, been a bit hectic lately!
All your views are great food for thought!

ROB: Will look at color contrast, lots of other views agree, I feel the ads applicable but on big-D's post seems a link to such services would be more applicable. There are a lot of diff views on i-frames. In my heart of hearts I know it is perhaps detrimental to SEO. I like the aesthetical appearance of it and as my site will be used more by agents SEO will not be a mojor issue, but a good advantage at the end of the day. I have back-buttons to the home page in case surfers get lost in space

COLLECTORS: Will look at the link on contact-us, as most you have suggested to change the buttons to blue. The b/g mage on contactus was not intentional!

ISALND: you won't scare me off that easily. Have links tro home page on i-frame info. I know there is a big debate on i-frames and SWEO, but I prefer the look and feel of a site using frames!

BIG-D: You have a lot of good info in your posting, especially on color and design, esp blue buttons. The brick is relevant to the SA market as homes here are built of brick (site made for 800 X 600 as this seems the norm). Thanks a mil for the idea to have links to banks instead of the home page, watch this space. Can definitely move the bullets in. Will work on the listing link then.
Big_d - you steal, I kill.

HELGANOG: Individual pricing needs work, as you picked up ity is not on a par with the rest of the info.

Howzit ray.
Pretty wide question you're asking.
More than willing to share how it's done, tell me what you want to do and I will give you all the info I can.

I created a template with an i-frame within it (matching the background to the area the frame was in), then linked buttons etc to other pages that opened in the frame's position.

Remember to name your frame and then each page that opens make the target the name of that frame.

Let me know what you want to do and will help wherever I can!

Bruce, YOU ROCK! i really admire your openness. I feel that your website is part mine now and find myself wanting to "defend" the things you have there! That is WEIRD!!! But, I'm weird!

Anyway, so glad you are willing to let us all experiment on you!!! I guess it is ok for you to have some down time once in a while!

We are all anxious to see how you progress since your site is so unique and wonderful! Thanks!!!!

Originally Posted by islandcrazy

I feel that your website is part mine now and find myself wanting to "defend" the things you have there! That is WEIRD!!! But, I'm weird! We are all anxious to see how you progress since your site is so unique and wonderful! Thanks!!!!

You have helped demonstrate how remarkable VodaLand truly is, and to explain what is meant by "Your Success is Our Success!" beautifully!

(But then, everything in St. John is beautiful!)

Guess all can say is: total agreement

1."Without exposing yourself" sign is too quick
2. I get a "Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage

3.It is an attractive looking website. Work out the bugs and you have a winner!!

will tweak "exposing yourself"

Thanks for your comments scubadiver

Changes made to site as per suggestions.
Thanks guys.

Bruce, South African Patent !!! You Go Boy !!!!! That's what I'm talkin 'bout. So far, the website is looking really *****. The buttons, well I'm being picky. Nevermind. I asked to steal as a sign of being very impressed. I DIDN'T MEAN IT.

Just kidding big-D.
I owe the finishing touches to all contributors.

I have to apologize for not writing sooner, I just got out of thehospital once again. Anyhow, I think my best best is to start over and , rewatch the videos, take better notes and go from there.

One question. Can I just build my home page, etc in Blue voda and then transfer it over to soholaunch?


Thanks mucho

Ray

Well done.

Oh, what the hell.. Bruce mate.. I've been giving away page addresses of my website even though it's not finished yet.. feels like making people taste an unfinished cake..

For color contrast and some color tricks and educational experiences, have a go at some of these exercises.. http://adsenseproject.com/implementation/step_4_7.htm

Just don't tell anyone.. not yet anyway..lol

Cheers.

Too Late! I found the cake.

Originally Posted by Costume Lady

Too Late! I found the cake.

haha.. That's cool CostumeLady.. But just have a nibble and put it back in the oven.. needs more cooking.. ;)

Wow! You must of had a good laugh at my site.

Absolutely NOT.. I put my feedback post about your website.. I think it's great.. Now you got me thinking you might be having a good laugh at my pages.. hmmm..!!

Not at all, I envy your site. It's so put together.... it's smooth & classy.

Originally Posted by Costume Lady

Not at all, I envy your site. It's so put together.... it's smooth & classy.

What a massive injection of morale boost.. Thank you kindly Costume Lady.