Thread: Site ready for critique

Hi,
Have built my site http://www.jamesbartondesign.com to the stage that structure is in place, navigation, contact forms, email addresses, shopping cart. From now on it is along slog assembling product, photographing it and making the web pages. I want feedback at this stage because I have another 60 or so pages to go, so it is best to make any neccessary changes now. I'll tell you what I have tried to do.

1). To keep a clean look but designed in a way that is in keeping with the product and my market.

2). Keep my pages small (at present all between 48kb and 131kb).

3). Am aware search engines use text in their searches but have tried to keep it to a minimum in short paragraphs.

Feedback I am particularly keen to receive is as follows.

1). The stripped down style (quite difficult to achieve funnily enough): is it boring?

2). Have not completed all the page info as regards keywords and meta tags, but where I have, am I on the right track? Bethers- help!

3). Anything else that will put me straight. Am not worried about spelling mistakes and the like: my wife will apply the fine toothcomb as far as that is concerned.

4). Harsh criticism is fine. I won't take it personally even if you mean it that way!

Thanks in advance.
James.

Hi James,
I'm limited in time but looking at the home page- I'll work straight down:

Title - not worded well for users or se's - how about: "Statuette Manufacturer to British Armed Forces, Emergency Services - James Barton Design"

That's still long, but should fit and gets rid of all the extraneous words except one "to".

Get rid of "site under construction" - totally unnecessary -

Get rid of "Welcome to our site" That is where you should have a page headline in h1 tags- using your best keywords for THAT page.

Get rid of the line "It is pretty straightforward to describe what we do" - Yep, no one needs that extra text - you say you don't want lots of text - make every bit of text be important to the people reading it. A possible start: "James Barton Design manufactures statuettes for a specialty market including the British Armed Forces and Emergency Services.

Then you go on saying you don't sell to the public, etc etc - and it is a pity - so I would have clicked off - if I wanted those statuettes, you just told me what a pity - I can't have them - gone I go. I would NEVER HAVE seen that you are going to change that. Why say the other at all - don't do that - TELL me and possible customers what you ARE doing - not what you might have done in the past etc. Do you have any products that can be bought as is? Are all products only special ordered? Make it clear - in easy, concise terms what you have/do - with a picture or two (so you might have to have more on the page than you said you wanted). But pictures SELL products - they are necessary in a product environment.

Make sure you add your contact info - preferably including a phone number - to your footer - make it easy for people to reach you. And get a privacy policy link on the home page with your privacy policy.

That's it for now - and remember - you need to write about what you have - in terms of the customer - not in terms of yourself - and in a positive and exciting way whenever possible.

You really should have some type of pictures...I wouldn't buy just from this site without seeing what I was being offered, even if it is very nicely done site like yours.

Hi Beth,
Lots of sound advice and I have started already. If you have a moment I'd be grateful if you would advise me on meta tags and tell me if I'm on track or not. I have done as you suggested re the rewording of the page title that appears at the top line in the browser, but can you tell me reasoning behind that.I know this stuff is your baby so I want to learn as much as I can from you. I know you have only looked at the index page but if you have a chance to just take a quick trip around the structure of the products pages I am sure your input would be invaluable.
Many thanks,
James.

Hi Chocco777,
Is your advice that I should have products on the Index page? There are masses of photos in the site, but If you're saying what I think you are then I'll have to work out how I'm going to approach it. But that is why I'm asking for opinions.
Thanks,
James.

Site looks really good; you say that you have a lot more pages to do? Will this fall within the 4 categories you have at the moment. If so don’t worry, I was just thinking if you may start to need a fuller index area if this was to grow.
Hope you don’t mind! I was having a play with one of your pages.
http://www.collectors-info.com/testing/as1.html
Beth may be able to give some better advice, but I think the SE’s will struggle to find you without giving them some more info to work on. IE: Key words within your pages & your images named well with an alt tag. This was the reason for playing & getting an area for some text.
When I say struggle with the SE’s, I mean in the fact you maybe able to give them a lot more to go bye with a good description on each item for sale & being able to use more key words. Maybe a little about the history/army/famous personal & so on. Its just there is hardly anything for them to go on at the moment.

Good luck with the site.

James

They say a pictureis worth a thousand words...

Place about 3-4 of your products on the main page in a lightbox feature to make people know right off the bat what it is you sell!

You have some nice products so why not show them as soon as they enter.

Good job!

Danny

Hi Chris,
What you have done is certainly worth considering, but my goodness I'm going to work some to get all the info. Yes all the pages will now fall into the existing product categories. This site is going to take so long to finish. I knew it was something that I could not put out to a professional: the cost in time would have been prohibitive.
Thanks for the time you have taken with your help.
James.

Danny,
I think I may well run with that one. Many thanks.
James.

Hi to all those who have given of their time and advice,
1). Beth, as you can see I have started: will take your advice re contact info and privacy policy.
2). Chris. I will work around your suggestion re text. I still want to keep 2 images per page, so probably a longer page with a bit of vertical scrolling.
3). Thanks Danny. Have incorporated light box in the index page. Does it work? The only thing that bothers me is that I now have an index page that is 339kb. Is this too big? Does it take too long to load.

All input is gratefully received. Working on one's PC is a solitary activity and it is easy to make wrong assumptions and bad decisions.
Regards,
James.

Hi James,
your index page with the light box is loading fast, do not worry.
Two small suggestions.
1) you can use the light box for all the other pages, it will give a bit of dynamic to your site.
2) your products pages:
this page has three pictures http://www.jamesbartondesign.com/non-military-tmbs.html , it will look nicer if you center them.
The navigation menu bar they are confusing me, because from the product page you have four links for the different products, but when you navigate you have only three navigation button, I know why you have done it in this way, but it will be better if from your product page all the links to different products are " -blank " links, the viewer will have to close the page to go back, so he will be back to your products page.
The last one, the color of the background of your pages, is very military,
maybe a more lite color will give a bit of energy to the pictures.
Also, i would like to thank you for your positive comments about my website.
Ciao
Alas
www.mediterraneotanzania.com
Tanzania Hotels

Hi Alas,
Thanks for the time you have taken to give me your suggestions. The size of the page does worry me.
1). I am thinking about that. I cannot work out at present how to effectively link a lightbox page with my shopping cart.
2). These pages will have more items added the whole time. My lazy way is just add until the line is complete and then I start the next line. But I do hear you. Same goes for navigation. As for background; I shall experiment a bit more to see if something else works better.

As regards your site: I still want to stay at your hotel! I showed it to my wife and she was really taken by it as well (she lived in Kenya for the first 18 years of her life).
Regards,
James.

Let me know when you want to came to East Africa, and I will give you a Vodahost friends special price.
Alas

Thanks Alas, it just keeps getting better and better.
Regards,
James.

James,
I don't have time right now - but looking better.

Your paragraph of text still needs to be rewritten - you're still telling me you don't do what you do do LOL - and that won't help you.

The pics are great, but your alt text on them isn't - it needs to tell someone who can't see the picture what the picture is they can't see. That helps people and se's.

I'd also do the paragraph in two short paragraphs and get those pictures in between - so that they are further up on the page - noticed right away.

If you haven't already, please click on the final link in my signature and read some SEO stuff in my ebook.

Hi James,

As a newcomer, can't really comment on the technical aspects.

But as a consumer and an admirer of fine art....WOW. Your a true sculptor. Your work is incredible. How much time does it take to make one? Are they cast in metal? They're just fabulous!

I would like to see pics on your first products page. Wasn't quite sure where to click to find the products. But when I found it, I said, "Holy Smokes!"

Best of luck to you!

Hi Beth,
Hi Beth, you're going to bully me until I get this right! Seriously, I appreciate all you say and I will work on it. The titles on the images are wrong, I realise that. It is how the files are saved in my resources (at the time I had not appreciated that such naming would ever be on view in the site. Easy to sort out.

Patience, thank you for your kind encouragement. I know the product is good (that sounds as if I am on an ego trip but that really is not the case) and most of my product for Military is for that market because it is one that I know really well and you never, ever, get a bad debt. However with this site I shall now branch out and do things that have an appeal across wider markets. How long do they take to make? 100-200 hrs to sculpt an original. Most of my production is in cold cast bronze resin (looks like foundry cast bronze but at a fraction of the price. Can have items made in silver and real bronze for trophies and special commissions and the like.

Regards and thanks to you both.
James.

James well done on your site and I wish you well with it, a very interesting topic.

I have popped in a little late as a lot has been said, but one thing I would change is this page

http://www.jamesbartondesign.com/products.html

I to found it hard really to find your work and where to buy from, I then eventually spotted it on the above page, below the paypal banner. I would swap these around or take out the paypal info and place on each page with all the pics of your statues on. It sort of tells you about paypal before you have even seen a product. I then missed the first time where I could buy the actual items.

So I would let them know where they need to go to purchase and then on each seperate product page tell them about paypal or at least tell them where the products are and underneath tell them about paypal....I hope that makes sense, anyway remember that's just my opinion, its your site. I just always think the product should come before an explanation of paypal.

Good Luck

Paul

Hi Karel,
Very pertinent point. What is becoming clear from the input I have received is that what I thought is logical progression to my products is not neccessarily so. The paypal issue is very valid and I shall sort it out (heavens knows when: just not enough hours in the day). Do you really think it should be on each product page or just the thumbnails pages?
Thanks and regards,
James.

Hi,
By subjecting my site to be criticised has provided me with some valuable insight and opinions, so thank you one and all.

One change I made was to put the light box on the home page so that visitors might access some product images straight away. Some very salient facts came out when experimenting with this. The first concern was that it increased the size of the page massively (50kb to 350kb) and that is with well optimised images (file sizes about 30kb each). I went to work on the six images and optimised down to 40%. This straight away cut 100 kb and this is where I am at present. So,approx 200kb out of a total 250 kb size of the page is taken by the light box. This is a hungry beast even if images are pared to the bone.

My conclusion is that although it is an impressive toy it has no place on my home page. Also, anyone using it should not load it with too many images. Used wisely it does have impact.

For the time being the light box is on my home page, but when I have thought around what to do instead, it will have to go. Mine is a commercial site and just because it is pretty is no justification to keep it. It is a cuckoo in the nest.

Anyone out there with a dial up or otherwise slow connection. How fast/slow is my site to load on their PC?

James, you NEED the pictures on the home page if you want your website to sell for you. And you need them further up on the page. Yes, that means there will be a bit of a loading time issue - but your website is about those statues - and you do realize the more than 80% of your traffic is going to click off because the home page doesn't have anything that interests them? You need to capture that interest.

Yep, for some on the old fashioned dial-up, that might hurt you - and I know my stores load slower - but I have a higher than average conversion rate - even with the slower loading times. You have to look at what your website needs to do for you. If you don't have those pictures, and don't have them higher up on the page, you will, most likely, be hurting your sales in the long run.

Don't believe that everything said about load times and size of page is written in stone. Everything has some flexibility. If having the multiple pictures isn't working for you - consider having one single picture - in a larger size - up higher on the page - that truly reflects the work and is very eye-catching - will make people want to see more.

James

Although your comments do have some merit you are approaching the design of your site from the wrong side. The case or arguement for designing around a 56k modem or lower could be made maybe 7-10 years ago but not now. Designing your site to meet the standards of modem users is not the way to go and here's why:

1) There are two types of Internet users; First, those seeking information (text data) such as news sports where their search is independent and not related so much to images; second, those dependent on images such as shopping, and yes, I hate to say it but adult sites and others like it.

2) The total bit rate is 34 kbps for the 56k modem and 225 kbps for cable, DSL, and T1 and it is highly unlikely a person would ever get higher than 44 kbps off of a 56k modem even if it had V.90 capabilities. In saying that, having the option of DSL through lines now is cheaper per month than a dial-up modem and in alot of cases ISP's charge by the hour now with restrictions on how long you can stay on it. Times are a changin and fast!! And like they say, ISP's will be a lot like the 50's garage mecahnics if they don't adapt to the times...They'll be gone!

When was the last time IBM, Hewlett Packard, Dell or any other computer company offered a dial-up modem in their computer?

Rule of thumb: NEVER ever design for a modem

3) The Lightbox feature is a GREAT item and has to be approached by each idividual users needs and to tell people it is something to avoid is wrong! In looking at your site with the images, it loaded in about 3 seconds for me and was not cached at all. That's nothing to complain about and if you remove them to appease the modem users then you're on the wrong track.

4) as you already know, I have 21 pictures in a Lightbox frame. Out of the 50+ clients or potential clients that viewed my page, not one mentioned anything about the images loading slow and in fact the lightbox was probably the biggest selling feature for them because most asked how I did it. Three of my clients asked about using it for their own sites and wanted to know how I did it!

My approach is that MY clients visiting www.exportbc.com are after products and is dependent on them seeing images. Most likely they have already figured out that in order to view products on peoples web sites, a 56k modem isn't going to cut it for them. And it will be THEM making the change and not me! Build for the future not for the past!

Again, each person's needs may be different from you and me and they need to build accordingly.


Danny

Hi Beth,
I hear absolutely everything you say, I agree with what you say and I will address it. I think you will realise from my last post that my home page will be changed to bring the product to the fore (ie images of the statuettes). I want to do it in such a way that maintains the integrity of the site. If I cannot do that then I may have a redesign on my hands. The more I see the light box, the less I like it on my home page; It says look at me I am so clever. The desiger of lightbox is clever, but I have a feeling that hardly anyone will ackowledge that to their viewers. Bluevoda gives creditto the desiger. I think you may know That I value your opinions greatly because you are obviously very experienced and you cut to the chase (that may be too English: you get to the point). A bit off thread, I notice that when talking about links somewhere you said something that made me think that there may be an ettiquete or formality about linking that I know nothing about. Can you point me to a thread or anything else that may give me info on this?
Regards,
James.

Hi Danny,
If I said that I told people that to avoid the lightbox then I am clearly wrong. It is just wrong for me. Your site is well designed and I like it.
Regards,
James.

Hi James,
Your site looks really clean! One small detail: I don't know what "pri" means, and when I saw the link on the left that says: "pri prices" , the first thing that came to mind was that you made a mistake when writing prices, got it?
Maybe if you put: PRI prices. As I said, it's just a small little thing....
Cheers,

Hi ZNBR,
Thanks: clean is what I'm after. PRI prices, quite frankly, is for those in the know. I debated long and hard whether or not to include it. PRI shops are run by military units and their profits go to regimental funds. They are the core of my business. Perhaps I should not include the term but it is specific because I do not want ordinary retail customers: just do not need the hassle of chasing bad debts and overdue accounts. My site is the process of some major changes due to feedback from here, my customers and friends, so thanks for your input.
Regards, James.