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Your Comments On This Website, Please!
Posted By: Ricky on 11/30/2004 9:37 AM (CST) 500 Points
Hi Experts,

I'm helping out my husband with his website. He wanted to know what you think of the current website and what should be changed.

www.3t-online.com

My husband is the third generation of Toccaceli developers. The company name is 3T (three Toccacelis) and they build apartment buildings here in the province of Ancona, Italy. They are an anomaly, in that they both build and sell their developments instead of outsourcing to an agency.

3T is quite well-known for quality work and innovation as well as one-on-one service, and their apartments sell out very quickly. 3t is also known for its personal touch; each customer gets his own interior decorator who draws up custom plans for each apartment to make sure that even existing furniture and appliances will fit to perfection. Each apartment has high-end features like alarm, satellite hookups, etc. Also, customers have a wide range of quality tiles and interior finishings to choose from, so no two apartments are ever alike. Their tagline is "naturalmente innovativi", which means "naturally innovative".

I know that you won't be able to read the copy, but I wanted to get some general impressions on the graphics and navigation. Hope I've given enough detail. If not, just ask!

Thanks a bunch.

Ricky.

Posted by: Inbox_Interactive Accepted Answer
11/30/2004 10:16 AM (CST)
"Naturalmente innovativi."

Why does everything in Italian just *sound* so much better? :)

I like the site. I think that not being able to understand the copy is a negative, however, as far as anyone's review goes. However, the MarketingProfs footprint is pretty big, so I bet there are some people either *in* Italy or who speak Italian who should be able to help.

The only thing that I don't like about the site is the use of daughter windows when I click some of the links. This creates a new browser window, which means I can't use my "back" button to back to where I was. Of course, I can just close the window, but my instinct is to hit that back button.

Also, while I think your use of Flash is very nice (and prossibly quite appropriate given then upscale nature of your product), this could hurt your visbility in search engines as there's not much HTML to crawl and index. If most people go to your site only because they know of the company or were told to go there, that may not be a problem. But if you're also trying to get casual Web searchers to your site, you may want to rethink this. Of course, you've already done so much work here that you don't want to scrap it, but maybe a second site--all HTML, no Flash--would make sense.

I like it, though!

Paul
 
Posted by: SRyan ;] Accepted Answer
11/30/2004 10:54 AM (CST)
Good morning (evening?), Ricky!

My thoughts, page by page...

The splash page looks cool (even though it's an irrelevant welcome mat to the rest of the site). The contact info that's on the splash page should appear on EVERY page.

The large graphics on the home page are a bit grainy. I think the edges of the images have that "lossy" sawtooth roughness that could be smoothed out. They look even worse on the deeper pages when they're enlarged.

The links from Galleria Lavori and Cerco Casa open up new browser windows. Not a good idea. Especially since the navigation bar is still in the header of the page, and none of those links work.

Although the other three links do stay within the original browser, when you hit the Back button from there the visitor goes all the way to the splash page instead of the home page. Yikes!

I understand the appeal of Flash, but the fonts on the flash-induced pages (like Azienda) sure are hard to read, and the lines are rather cramped. I think the text on the Cerco Casa page, for example, is much more readable (but I'd go one step further and try a stylish font like Verdana or Tahoma since they were designed for web readability). If they stay with Flash as a platform, see if the developer can improve the sharpness and line spacing for the text.

Is Lorenzo yours? Cute!

I got a real kick out of the map animations on the Contatti page.

On the Galleria Lavori page, the link to Ancona is missing.

Okay, that's it from me! Enough?

- Shelley
 
Posted by: Ricky Author Response
11/30/2004 11:19 AM (CST)
Hi Paul and Shelley,
I totally agree about those daughter windows that open up. Drives me nuts! Also, the grainy images and different fonts will be corrected.

Thanks for your thoughtful responses.

Good Evening!
 
Posted by: NuCoPro Accepted Answer
11/30/2004 11:47 AM (CST)
My first thought is to do away with the intro page - most people just find them annoying anymore. Having said that, I really liked your sight, even though I can't read Italian (I'm married to one, does that count?)

Something that's becoming more of a standard is to put your address, phone and email information in the footer of every page. Don't want to make customers work to find out how to contact you!

I hate to answer a question with a question, but feel this is important to the critiques you will receive in this forum - What is the purpose of your site and who are you trying to reach?
 
Posted by: NuCoPro Member Response
11/30/2004 11:50 AM (CST)
Although you may have GREAT sight or even insight, I meant to say, "I really like your site" in my previous response.
 
Posted by: Ricky Author Response
11/30/2004 12:36 PM (CST)
Vevolution,
I figured you didn't like my sight, especially since my eyesight awful and nothing to write home about.

The purpose of the site is purely image and informational (there's lots of info on mortgages in there, for example). 3t sells to local customers, who obviously do not need to do anything "commercial" online. Alot of the web content is also used for presentation purposes.

People here aren't as Internet friendly as in the US, so anyone visiting the site does so after seeing an ad or after having met with a salesperson (an occasional visitor will come from a search engine, but they are few and far between).

Thanks, and say CIAO to your wife!
 
Posted by: ASVP/ChrisB Accepted Answer
11/30/2004 11:09 PM (CST)
Ditto on the daughter windows.

I thought I was the first to note the Ancona link missing but Shelley beat me to it with her typically comprehensive and insightful review.

I'd lose the splash page because it does nothing to help impress the user or sell the business. Perhaps if you released the image with a picture of the interior of one of your best projects it might have some relevance. Otherwise it's just an impediment. The current image looks like you sell pebbles.

I like the inclusion of the history and the pictures of the 3T men. Makes me feel like I'm dealing with people nit some faceless corporation.

What is the gender mix of customers? If I was an Italian man I might be impressed with a picture of a woman who is part of the management team too... Or am I thinking too stereotypically?

I'm unclear whether you build projects and sell whatever you build, r whether people come to you to develop plans for their new house and get you to build them. If the latter, it would be good to show how you work with people to create a unique design tailored specially to their lifestyle.

If you don't offer that service, well, forget it then!

Hope this helps.

ChrisB
 
Posted by: jillm Accepted Answer
12/1/2004 12:13 PM (CST)
I must echo everyone above -- hate the daughter windows, and didn't like that when I hit the back button, I was taken back to the entry page.

I like that when you click on the logo in the upper left-hand corner it takes you back to http://www.3t-online.com/home.html. If anything, this is where you should land when you click the "back" button.

The navigation buttons at the top of http://www.3t-online.com/galleria/index.htm don't seem to work for me either. (Or, is the lack of my Italian linguistic skills getting in the way, and the page says "this is under construction?")

I would recommend updating your "new" image (see http://www.3t-online.com/news/index.htm for a sample), as it doesn't seem to match the look and feel of the rest of your site.

I have to echo Shelley's comments on the directions/map -- love the animation!

Overall, I like the site... makes me want to move to Italy! :-)

- Jill
 
Posted by: savialeigh* Accepted Answer
12/1/2004 5:03 PM (CST)
Across the top of page, you show the icons for the other pages greyed out, and the current page in red. This is an excellent wayto remind people where they are, but! Clicking anywhere in that banner area blinks you to the page you are currently on. Each of those icons should go to the page it represents, even when greyed out. That means they each need to be separate pictures, with linking on every page. (You only have to create each link once, then paste the whole into to each page, so it isn't as much work as it sounds like.) It is important that your users be able to get to any main page from every page in the site.

From this page :
http://www.3t-online.com/cantieri/borghetto/palme_capitolato.htm
the foto link goes to this page: http://www.3t-online.com/cantieri/borghetto/Menu_Palme_album.htm , but from there, the same link goes to : http://www.3t-online.com/Album%20foto/Le%20Palme/Palme_fondazioni.html ! Confusing. And the last page is totally different from the rest of the site which is rather disorienting.

I really appreciate the email contact form! To me, that says you want to be as easily accessible as possible.

Last, the people shots are great, very personable. The shot of all three is too blurry, but I hope that when it is retaken you will keep the set up and composition, and especially keep the natural expressions. Its a great style picture that invites you into a friendly room.
 
Posted by: Papadoc (Steve)* Accepted Answer
12/2/2004 1:12 AM (CST)
Ricky,

Love the overall on the site. There are a few quirks in the Flash but overall, it's a nice look. There was only one thing that was bothersome to me on the site. The music on La Storia about drove me crazy though before I got through 5 pictures. It seems like about a 4 second loop. Any chance of putting something in there that isn't quite so monotonous?

I don't know how you plan on using the site, so this may not apply. If you could care less about search engines, this won't matter. But if you want anyone to find you in the search engines, you need to get some text on the pages that can be indexed.

Right now, search engines cannot read text that is in Flash files so it's impossible to tell what they are about. You should also give each page a different title as well. Even though each page has different content, the search engines basically see them as copies of one page and cannot tell what any of them are about.
 
Posted by: Ricky Author Response
12/2/2004 8:16 AM (CST)
Thanks for the detailed answers, everyone.

ChrisB: you always give such great input. Thanks so much

JillC and SaviaLeigh: you both are right. The navigation is messed up because some of it is in HTML and some is in Flash. Lots of the buttons don't work and we're going to fix that. Also, the pages that don't match will be fixed: they were initially a "photo gallery".

Shardman: absolutely yes to all your points. Especially the music.

One more question to everyone: if you were shopping for a home, what would you expect to or want to see on the developer's website? For example, a "design your home online" feature, or a mortgage calculator, etc? I realize that you can't read the Italian, but could you give me some ideas of what you'd expect to see?
 
Posted by: et3dotcom* Accepted Answer
12/3/2004 12:55 AM (CST)

Personally I dislike most flash sites, and quickly leave the site – the reason is that I usually like to cut and paste the info I am interested in comparing, and with flash I am unable to use or manipulate the info to meet my needs– so I leave the site for another one that is “open”. I do think flash has its place for graphics effects, or entertainment value, etc.

From a builder I expect to be able to tour past and present projects, and be able to check references, a place to provide negative or positive feedback, and compare value measures like cost, time effectiveness, etc.

Daryl Oster
 
Posted by: telemoxie Accepted Answer
12/3/2004 7:56 AM (CST)
I had navigation problems, but they are covered above.

I really liked the white space, I liked the choice of colors and fonts, I loved the simplicity of the site, all these spoke of class and elegance... but I did not like your choice of photos. They did not evoke the same sense of artistry and style and beauty (nothing against your relatives) There is just so much beauty and art in Italy, I was expecting to see columns and vases and beautiful landscapes... the photos you have chosen do not illustrate the story you tell above.
 
Posted by: Ricky Author Response
12/6/2004 3:11 AM (CST)
Hi everybody,
I'm closing this question now. I'd like to thank all of you for your time and your individual comments. I'm post a new question soon with the new site, which will hopefully incorporate almost all of the issues that you brought up.

Ciao for now,

Ricky
 


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