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Website Critique     
 
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Website - Comments Welcome!
Posted By: L81 on 12/5/2006 7:17 AM (CST) 25 Points
What do you think about the look & feel of my website? Is it pleasing to the eye? Is everything easily accesible? Is it easy to find what you are looking for? Do you like the music? Comments on the mission statement or the e-Learning?

Thanks for taking the time!

www.L-81.com

Posted by: NuCoPro Accepted Answer
12/5/2006 7:31 AM (CST)
WHOOPS!

You forgot that your Home page is supposed to give at least a clue about what the heck you are doing. I had absolutely NO idea what you were selling - I thought it was web site design.

FYI - The music is pleasant for about 5 seconds and then is incredibly annoying. Plus there seemed to be some small crowd conversation going on underneath it.

The web "standard" for an About page is to provide information on the company and its people. Contact Us provides information on how to contact the company, however, since you put a Contact menu item before that one, it will confuse people.

Your graphic skills are impressive and would be really great for some art related site, but I have to believe your target audience, contractors, will be put off by it.

One last note - a cardinal rule of software is that you NEVER market version 1.0 of ANY product. People assume its barely past beta and full of bugs. I would recommend rebranding this as version 2.0.
 
Posted by: skoobie99 Member Response
12/5/2006 8:08 AM (CST)
L81 Software Builder,

I'll add to Vevolution's comments, since I too had no clue what your website was about. In addition to the cryptic nature of the product, which only starts to become apparent after clicking on many of your pages, I found no easy way to return to the main screen.

The music was not really irritating, but at least I could turn it off...
Then I clicked on 'Mission' and I got some really weird music - had to search for a way to turn THAT off. Enlarging the scripted text (hard to read) and scrolling down repeatedly (copy too long/wordy) gave me a better feel for what this is all about.

'Contacts' only refered to the program's abilities to organize contacts and 'Contact Us' only brought up an e-mail blank, so I was left wondering where the heck you are based, how I can contact you (say by phone) and whether to place any trust at all in you (how do I know you are not a scammer?).

Hope these comments help,
John
 
Posted by: Chrissie Accepted Answer
12/5/2006 11:05 AM (CST)
It may just be my computer, but I did not hear any sound anywhere on the site. I did have my speakers on and I turned them up quite a bit and still heard no sound.

I opened it in IE

Other than that it looks fine. I did not know what you were promoting at first, but quickly figured it out because I think you have posted about the software on here before. I would imagine that any promotional material that you put out directing people to go to the site will explain what it is you are promoting, otherwise why would people visit the site.
 
Posted by: Chrissie Member Response
12/5/2006 11:32 AM (CST)
Never mind it was my computer. (the reason I could not hear the sound)
 
Posted by: L81 Author Response
12/5/2006 1:32 PM (CST)
Vevolution:Thanks for your input. I think that you may be right about the landing page being vague, but the visitors to the site, know what they are to expect. We will consider making that page more informative. As for the 1.0, it's the product name, it is not version 1.0. The version is actually 2.4. The idea was to convey that it is software. Tech people will not love the "1.0" connotation, but my target audience is not very computer savvy & I don't believe that this is an issue. BTW, thanks for the compiments on the grphics.

skoobie99: Comments noted and will consider.

Chrissie: Thank you. You get it!

Everyone: I guess that I lie somewhere bewteen the two extremes... those that like & get it ... and those who do not. I will try to improve on what I can.
 
Posted by: NuCoPro Member Response
12/5/2006 1:51 PM (CST)
You could still put some headline text on your Home page to identify what the site is. You never know who might stumble through your "door" and anyone who WASN'T directed there by your marketing would be confused as to what they had uncovered.

This is particularly important via web searching. For instance, if a contractor puts "contractor accounting" into the search box and then gets your site - do you want them to have to "work" to figure out what you are selling?

Just out of curiosity, why did you make 1.0 part of your product name? I've been trying to figure out the link to something of relevance to the contracting community. :)
 
Posted by: L81 Author Response
12/5/2006 2:03 PM (CST)
Vevolution: We will work on the Home page. As for the 1.0... We are going to be selling this in builder supply / hardware stores and we needed something to immediately convey to the target that this is software. Since software has never been sold in hardware stores before, we are pioneering everything... including the product name.
 
Posted by: NuCoPro Member Response
12/5/2006 2:30 PM (CST)
I just noticed that you Mission menu item, doesn't bring up anything. Also, the Buy Now item takes the visitor to a logon screen?

I couldn't tell from your site, but you should have a way for your users to do direct emails and/or faxes from the application.

It looks like you could have a winner. I hope you are able to "get the attention" of the contracting community.
 
Posted by: L81 Author Response
12/5/2006 2:54 PM (CST)
Vevolution: The "Mission Statement" brings up a pop-up. If you are unable to view it, you may have to allow it in your browser. The "Buy Now" requires registration. We did that to avoid all of the abandoned shopping carts of casual browsers. I know that it's a bit of a pain, but you'd have to register somewhere down the line anyways & this way, only the serious shoppers will take the time to register. Faxing & emailing directly from our application will appear in the next upgrade.
 
Posted by: NuCoPro Member Response
12/5/2006 3:10 PM (CST)
Uh, no offense, but I would either disable or change the music you have playing with your Mission page. I was trying to read the text at the same time I was trying to comprehend the song lyrics and figure out what style of music it is.

Is it World Music? That's the best guess I could come up with! :)
 
Posted by: L81 Author Response
12/5/2006 4:40 PM (CST)
The song is "Sinnerman" by Nina Simone. It was used in the remake of "The Thomas Crowne Affair" in an incredible scene. I've loved the song ever since & I thought that since the mission statement was my personal page, that I'd share my favorite song too! For those who don't share my passion, there is a button to stop the music.
 
Posted by: KathySmithFilms* Accepted Answer
12/5/2006 7:19 PM (CST)
Hi,
I checked out the website. The opening shot didn't show what the product or service is to a blonde chick. I would add a tag in cool graphics what your place provides. This let's us recommend you to someone we know that needs your product. The music on the mission statement rocks but to read your clever desk note I lowered the volume.

I figured out what you do by going to see who you select worthy to be linked. At that point, I clicked and landed on another site of someone else, which was not kept as a link within your site so I needed to navigate back to you. If I weren't doing this survey I might have kept going because the links were so good. Now i know you service general contractors. Now the whole site communicates. Hope this communicates.
Kathy
 
Posted by: Harry Hallman Accepted Answer
12/6/2006 6:37 AM (CST)
If I were you I would redo this site. Get rid of the Flash except as an accent, get some html copy that explains what it is that you are selling including benefits, and change the colors as there are way too many.

First I would start with a web strategy. What do you want people to do when the visit your site? Write your copy accordingly. Second I would get it friendly for search engines. Third I would set up on Google Analytics and monitor activities and tweak the new site.

Harry Hallman
 
Posted by: L81 Author Response
12/6/2006 7:05 AM (CST)
Harry: Thank you for your input. I agree that we need to add some HTML copy to the site, and I will look into the benefits of Google Analytics.

As for your esthetic critique, the negative comments on the colors are the first from well over a thousand people from whom I have received feedback. That is purely a personal taste issue.
 


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