Know-How Exchange : Website Critique

My first impression is that it's not clear: who you're targeting (people in SE Queensland? All of Australia? The world?), what makes you the better choice (price? selection? service? customization? unique products?), and what your clients think of you (your website copy is all about YOU, and not about their needs).

The copy is stuffed with keywords, which feels artificial.

Your "contact us" form has too many required fields. If someone was to call you directly, they wouldn't have to provide so much information. Keep it short/simple until it comes time to really need their phone # and last name.

Your text is cut off in a number of places in my Firefox browser. Make your title shorter (not try to SEO stuff) as well.

The animated banner is distracting to my eyes. As a minimum, stop it moving after a few seconds, or give the user a way to pause it.

It's a good start to start improving.

Among other things, your photos are loading way too slow. You need to make them smaller so they load faster.

My first impression is that you don't have a clear identity. The overall feel of the site is very generic. It's clean, but doesn't convey a "feel". Are you going for elegance? Budget? Reliability? These are the things you want to think about as you design the color scheme and typography for the site. I understand that the blue reflects the "aqua" part of the name, but there are things you could do to create more of an emotional response.

The second thing I noticed immediately is that it's not consistent. The fonts change size and family; the images and runarounds aren't constant. You'll want to sync it up some.

I like the animated top banner, but wouldn't necessarily set up a way to pause it so much as cut it back in size - maybe half as tall as it is. You could also consider arranging it so that it's a series of images that fade in, but then don't roll. That would give the eye a rest as each image sits for a couple of seconds before being replaced by another. Another option might be to keep the words that fade in static, while the images rotate. You can still have the words fade in, just not roll. There's too much going on there. Very often, simple is better for making an impact.

The bottom one...well...it feels gratuitous because it's not sharing any new information as it rotates. I'd probably get rid of it all together and create some kind of a call out for the new service area. This is a big deal. Don't bury great information like that at the bottom of the page.

I didn't have the issues with loading that Laura did, so can't speak to that. The pages loading pretty quickly for me, but I'm on a pretty quick connection and you do want to design to the lowest common denominator.

With a luxury item (at least blinds are in America) you definitely want to "sell the solution" or "sell the experience". At least, that's what I call it. The most current trend it to talk to your end-user as if you're having a conversation with them.

Jay is right about the content. The copy needs some work. It's a little stilted and full of typos and grammatical errors. That, in itself, conveys a message that's not as positive as it could be. You need the website to convey your company ideals, message, and identity, down to the last dotted "i" and image quality.

One last note, you could probably use your space a little more efficiently, e.g., text to the right of video or images instead of below to fill in white space, or slightly smaller images. Try to minimize the vertical scrolling.

Overall, it's definitely a good start. All the information a person might want is available with a minimum of clicks. It's very clean, other than the banner. The contact info is easy to find and you sound knowledgeable. The images are clear, clean and well-chosen. It's definitely on its way.