Know-How Exchange : Website Critique

check your server stats. what is the screen resolution of most of your visitors? Of 250 hosted clients, the majority of screens I see today are 1024....you still have a left justfied site with a big band of empty white down the right side. Nothing says out of touch like catering to old screens. Sorry, it knocks your presentation dow big time.

DM

CLN

It looks very good. I'm on a fast connection, but there was just a brief second before the movie started, quite acceptable to me. The navigation looks very well thought out. A couple of minor points:

- on the home page, I like the site to be very clear about what it does. The tagline is pretty good, but it wouldn't hurt to have a short sentence somewhere that says: The plastics industry's most complete source for adding color and special effects to plastic parts. The spoon doesn't bother me; you also show a strawberry and I don't wonder if you make strawberries. Also the spoon is explained reasonably one click away, if I'm really curious about it. I bet people in the industry can guess why you use a spoon.

Also, some of the big type items in the right column "quicklinks" graphics are links and some aren't. I'd like to see consistency with that treatment. No apparent reason that the text "hot topics" couldn't also link to that content, even if it is redundant.

- On the literature page, it wasn't obvious to me what I should do after I check the download box. I had to scroll down a good ways to find that I needed to give my personal info before getting any of the literature. I'd like to see a brief explanation at the top (why it benefits me to give you my info...).

- On the contact us page, I would like to see text indicating the company's location and an alternative to the html form. Sometimes in real life, html forms don't work at all, sometimes you don't hear back, sometimes you want something different than what they'll get you. The company must have a phone number that will get answered by a person, and I also want to know physically where you are.

- The handling of the Bayer corporate and other associated entity links is interesting and I'm sure it's the product of a lot of discussion, but as an outsider, I'd be happy to find those links either on the home page (where they are not) or on the "About Fantasia" page. I wouldn't expect to find them on every page except the home page. Doesn't seem like a huge problem, but it's just odd.

- Clicking the H2 link displays a rather bureacratic message explaining that this link takes me outside Bayer's jurisdiction, but then I don't go anywhere.

Congratulations on a great project. I'm a content and architecture specialist with a lot of web consulting experience and I do see a lot of drab and poorly thought out sites; it's nice to look at a good one!

Marge

i liked the site. Unlike Darcy I am not bothered by the white stripe.
I would think about the people you are trying to attract. As i reviewed your site i wasnt sure who that would be.
Materials managers, design engineers, purchasing departments, etc.... I would think about that for your next redesign.

Hi Skoobie99,

YOUR DESIGN IS FUNCTIONAL & THAT'S GOOD...
The website design is nice as it relates to the structure of the concept. It seemed that I moved through the site real well withouth any problems. occassionally I had to scroll down a little to see some of the images that were cut in half at the bottom of my screen but even this was not a distraction. Your collection for contact information was basic and to the point without a lot of unnecessary fields. Often times it seems people are trying to capture more information than they should be asking for in the beginning of an online relationship. I've found the least the better but in your case you seem to have a very targeted site and your viewers coming to the site are looking for what you are providing.

SUBCONSCIOUSLY WE DO NOTICE HOW THINGS MOVE...
The graphic on the main screen has excellent colors but toward the end it seems the transitions between words and images (the movement) seems to speed up at times and it could be a little more fluid like running water from a stream. But this is so minor most people might not even notice it but that's my artist eye and maybe I'm being a little more critical than needed. I'll take a look at it again later on and maybe the conceptual concept with colors will stimulate my understanding so that I can express better what it is. I like flash designs but most people don't realize how the movement of images needs to work in harmony with the words. It's like being a good film producer...knowing when too speed up and slow down a movie is extremely important because on the subconscious level you may lose your audience.

GREAT WEB DESIGN-EXCELLENT ON CONSISTENCY!!...
Overall you've got a great site. Keep up the good work!
Remember our only real problem in life is our failure to be "MORE Creative" than we’ve ever been. If you “Invent” your opportunity YOU WILL most definitely create your future. You can email me right now if you need my help. Thanks for letting me share my expert ideas with you! Is there anything else I can do for you?

Your Servant, Deremiah, *CPE (Customer Passion Evangelist)

>if you click on the 'Get in touch' link on the home page

Oh, interesting. I had found that "get in touch" page after I sent my earlier note. But the page I found first is the "contact" page in the top menu, with search and sitemap. These links are on every page ("persistent"). So you've got two different contact pages: the "contact us" page with only an html form and the "get in touch" page with the sales contact info.

So just now I've gone back, curious about where I even saw that "get in touch" button. (Yes, it's large and on the home page, but I was looking for something in the regular navigation); after bouncing around a bit I found it on the "Design literature" page; when I clicked on it, I went to ... the "Contact us" page (with only an html form). Also, the button for the "get in touch" page is not on every page.

So: if the "get in touch" page is the one you want people to find, I'd link to it from the "contact" item on the persistent navigation (by persistent, I mean menu picks that are in a predictable location on every page). But what I'd really want is to combine the content of these two pages, so you'd have one single page with both the textual contact info and the html form. Then you could link to it as "Contact Us" as well as "get in touch," as needed. Whatever you call it, it should be on every page in a predictable location, and the menu text should appear on the page itself, so you know you got what you clicked.

This is probably more than anyone wants to know about the contacts pages! But I'd think you'd want to at least make the linking consistent.
Good luck,
Marge

Hi John,

I like your website. As an engineer, what I need is product and quality description with price and sales details. What I want to suggest is every field come with different requirements but every thing comes to quality and price.

If you use high resolution and check your competitors website use will get all the answers. It takes less time to down load movie on front page. Rest is very nice!

Best of luck..

Regards,

M Bhor