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Website Critique   URGENT - Need Help Fast!  
 
This question has been closed, and points have been awarded.
New Website Critique
Posted By: babackstrom on 2/23/2007 12:44 PM (CST) 250 Points
We are a printing company in the process of renovating our website. We would appreciate any feedback on content and navigation. Our demo site is:
www.precisionpressinc.com/demo/index.html
Thank you in advance for your help.

Posted by: Keisha* Accepted Answer
2/23/2007 1:07 PM (CST)
I took a look at your website and it is rather simple, which can be good and bad. It's good because it's not cluttered, but at the same time I don't think it provides enough information about the labels. You give a lot of information about your company and what you can do, but not enough about the products. Also, there aren't any pictures of the labels so potential customers can see the products. At a quick glance and clicking through to about 5 pages I still don't know what kind of labels you sell. If I just found you from a web search I wouldn't know what to expect because there is no description of the products. Again, I like the simple concept and think the site is easy to navigate. I hope this helps.
 
Posted by: Annelies Accepted Answer
2/23/2007 1:56 PM (CST)
Very nice design. Which is important for you. But, I agree with keisha: it's a bit empty and it takes a lot of clicks before you get to the info of the products which I found more clear in your brochure than in the website itself. I took about 4 minutes to look through your website and I don't know much about you and the products. Giving examples is very important and! what I miss a bit is the customers point of view. The big question is: what do you like to do with your website? For what I understand from it, you are looking for big production companies that need labels on their products. But how do you prospect these companies and what is your websites role in it. Is it only a PR tool to make a good impression and maybe an invitation to contact you for a custom made offer? Or do you want to use it as one of your important channels to find new customers and inform them?
Two remark on usability:
1) it would be nice if there was a dropdown menu where you could see the sub menus when you roll over. Never forget, surfers are not prepared to go through your website to find something. They want everything in a few clicks, if not... they go to the next website.
2) The second remark: the difference between a link you clicked (so the menu that you are navigating) and the other links is not very clearly. There is hardly a color difference and the difference between bold and not bold is not strong enough.
When you tell me what the purpose is of this website, I will come back to give you some more custom advice.
 
Posted by: babackstrom Author Response
2/23/2007 2:02 PM (CST)
Thank you for your feedback. Your comments are helpful and our intention is to add a product gallery. The goal of the website it so show committment to a niche industry. The website is to support our reps who are finding the "right fit" customers. It is also designed to depict how different we are from a very cluttered industry.
 
Posted by: skoobie99 Accepted Answer
2/23/2007 2:17 PM (CST)
babackstrom,

I agree with Keisha, the website layout is pretty pleasing however the lack of product images is killing you right now. While there are plenty of images on the pages, they are all non-specific, business-oriented images which do not appear to have any correlation to what you do.

In "Markets Served" under "Labels", there is a note that the product gallery is coming soon - not a good sign at all when you don't have any images to show.

In addition to this, the page "Customer Forms" under "Tools" really seems to be a customer feedback page - which contains no feedback or testimonials.

You have a nice collection of pictures+names of your team members but it is buried - had to click on "Who we are", then "Our Team", then "Meet our team" ... I don't think any casual website visitor would go through that many pages to find that information.

Finally, I was looking for a "Contact Us" page, eventually found the "Reach Us" page and in there I saw your address after I clicked on "Our Location". But wait a minute, your address is at the bottom of every page ... there isn't even a general phone number or e-mail address for inquiries in this page where first-time customers would be expected to go.

Overall, nice appearance, but low scores for usability and the numerous click-throughs are aggravating.

Hope this helps,
John
 
Posted by: peanutpeanut Accepted Answer
2/23/2007 2:22 PM (CST)
on the first page you invite people to take a moment to find out what you are all about. that is wrong. just tell them who you are and what you are about. the second paragraph ask you to find out how you are revolutionizing the industry and yet when i click on that there is some motherhood statement and nothing else. give me the nitty gritty and tell me how you are doing it. you need to get to the key points faster and more effectively. i do however like the clean look of all your pages and the photos go well with them.
 
Posted by: MajorHal Accepted Answer
2/23/2007 2:23 PM (CST)
Your site is nice, clean and the color scheme is good.

Dump the graphic on the left side of the door being opened. People don't want to navigate thru several clicks or pages to find out what you do. Put some graphics of your products and maybe photos of the staff in place of the door.

Don't invite people to find out what makes you different.
Tell them straight-out on your Home page. Tell them what problem you are going to solve for them. Then tell them how your going to solve it.

Of course, all of the above assumes you are trying to attract customers with the website. And, you have can offer them an unique solution to there problem. Do you have a positioning statement? A USP? Why would a customer choose you? You offer a lot of info, but again I had to navigate thru a lot of hyperlinks and pages to find.
 
Posted by: babackstrom Author Response
2/23/2007 2:25 PM (CST)
Thank you John. Good comments on the contact information which we are adding. Point well taken on adding the finished products.
 
Posted by: mrgiordano2000 Accepted Answer
2/23/2007 2:35 PM (CST)
Babackstrom,

You have gotten some great feedback so I wont comment on the simple design.

From a programming standpoint the pages you show have some bad practices as well as some ill formed html in the pages. This can cause the site to not rank as well with search engines and also case little variants from page to page.

For example if you click on either the "labels" or the "who we are link" the top menu shifts left to right.

I can see the sight was built using Dreamweaver, make use of the Site Template feature. Your menu and footer should be in non-editable regions to remain consistent throughout. Also as you add pages you would be able to create a shell and then fill the shell with your content.

I know the site is still in development but when nearing completion run it through http://www.w3schools.com/site/site_validate.asp to validate your xhtml and css syntax. This will also make sure you site looks the same in IE as in Firefox.

I hope some of this helps and good luck with your site.

Michael
 
Posted by: Brand-in* Accepted Answer
2/23/2007 4:34 PM (CST)
I like the overall simplicity of the site and i'm glad to hear some images will be put up. That was going to be my first critique because I am not extremely knowledgeable with printing options and what you offer so to see examples of your work would be very helpful. The only other thing I would change would be to grab your attention more. Simplicity is great, but boring is not. Good luck!
 
Posted by: babackstrom Author Response
2/23/2007 4:37 PM (CST)
thanks again for all your help. Points are valid.
 
Posted by: inspired Accepted Answer
2/23/2007 8:39 PM (CST)
My first impression is that there is too much information on the front page. I was confused as to what I should be looking at.
Second comment. I know you are trying to keep it simple but I don't think every page should look just like the next. It looks like you used a premade template the way it is set up right now.
Also stick with a color scheme and limit yourself some on the amount of colors being used.
 
Posted by: KathySmithFilms* Accepted Answer
2/24/2007 4:06 AM (CST)
Hi babackstrom,

Your website is wonderful. Very well done. I laughed at seeing the two chicks in marketing on your team.

Being from tinseltown, I am used to haveing the balance of mass and significance and your site has that balance. The pictures you chose for each division are genius. One thing to add is the option when it is a download such as specifications to let the client know its a pdf file.

Very easy to navigate. I look forward to seeing the pix of your products page. Great team...warm and inviting.

May you help promote lots of stuff for others.
Kathy
 
Posted by: catsa Accepted Answer
2/24/2007 9:02 AM (CST)
I don't know if mayber i'm looking at things a little differently, but as neatly as your site is put together, it in no way promotes what you do. I think yu should maybe consider designing your site with a theme of which compliments your business. If i were a random individual and i stumbled across your site (without reading the first page or two) i would think you're selling stock photography...
Well i dunno, thats just me...
 
Posted by: thecustomer Accepted Answer
2/25/2007 11:12 AM (CST)
hey, that's a nice looking site.
Which is important in your industry, I guess.

Two toughts:
1 If the site is there to support sale, how come the direct line numbers and e-mail addresses start on page 4 of 'who we are'?
Shouldn't they be more prominent?
Maybe clickable thumbnail pics of the sales team on the 'How to reach us' page?

2 After a visitor clicks on a section heading, they're presented with a gateway page that invites them to do something they already thought they'd done when clicking on the Section header. So there's one click mor ethan necessary, and an unhelpful one at that. I'll bet your sales team talks about delivering what's promised? Then set up the web navigation to do the same.
Maybe move the text on the gateway page panels to the head of the panel, and put a humbnail intro to each of the subnavigation sections in the panel.
Done carefully (is there any other way!) you'd keep the clean design, and give your visitors more information at each stage.

Site visits are journeys; navigation elements are signposts. Putting one click too many into the trip is the equivalent of software asking you 'are you sure' when you've asked it to do something simple. It wastes folks time.

hope that helps

It's a nice design!

Will Rowan
 
Posted by: thecustomer Accepted Answer
2/25/2007 11:13 AM (CST)
hey, that's a nice looking site.
Which is important in your industry, I guess.

Two thoughts:
1 If the site is there to support sale, how come the direct line numbers and e-mail addresses start on page 4 of 'who we are'?
Shouldn't they be more prominent?
Maybe clickable thumbnail pics of the sales team on the 'How to reach us' page?

2 After a visitor clicks on a section heading, they're presented with a gateway page that invites them to do something they already thought they'd done when clicking on the Section header. So there's one click more than necessary, and an unhelpful one at that. I'll bet your sales team talks about delivering what's promised? Then set up the web navigation to do the same.
Maybe move the text on the gateway page panels to the head of the panel, and put a thumbnail intro to each of the sub navigation sections in the panel.
Done carefully (is there any other way!) you'd keep the clean design, and give your visitors more information at each stage.

Site visits are journeys; navigation elements are signposts. Putting one click too many into the trip is the equivalent of software asking you 'are you sure' when you've asked it to do something simple. It wastes folks time.

hope that helps

It's a nice design!

Will Rowan
 


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