Afternoon all,
As some of you know I am in the process of starting a business building motorcycle shocks and retailing road springs.
As I do not have the budget to pay a web designer I have been working away on my own building my website. I am at the point where I am going to launch
the business very soon and the website is (nearly) done. As with lots of projects it gets difficult to assess your own work so if anyone has any
input, good or bad I'd love to hear it.
The site is here.
Thanks in advance.
Mike
Looks quite good, but I would look at the following:
Logo quality, looks quite pixelated.
Button size and location. The red buttons look quite big on the front page, then when you click them and move to another page they get smaller and
change location, whilst its not a Flash based site, it should be easy enough to locate these in the same place on each page to make navigation more
fluid.
At the same time as above try follow the same format of page widths, picture, logo and text location.
Looks good, but if I were looking for shocks, having no prices would turn me off a bit. I know they vary, but cant you put indicative prices?
Refreshingly simple style good.
It states £350.00 for shocks.
You should have the same navigation buttons on each and every page as you have to go back to the previous page to navigate around. i.e. you can't
get from every page to every other page bit anoying and may turn people off.
But good look with it, nice to see new businesses coming alive.
Thank you all for that. Good points, well made.
As said, the price is mentioned but obviously not clearly or often enough..
And I will get on sorting out the Nav Bars and the logos.
It amazes me how good this site is for just about everything... I've asked lots of people to look at the site before but no-one mentioned any of
these issues.
It ain't easy doing everything on your own but you guys are a big help.
Thanks again and I'll get back to you with the new improved version asap.
Oh and any more criticism is very welcome.
Cheers,
Mike
Just to clarify is that £350 per shock ie a set of 4 will be £1400? + or inc VAT?
This page doesn't load properly in Firefox on my machine
http://www.shock-factory.co.uk/page5.html
In two places only the top half of the text line loads
"specification" at the bottom of the second paragraph and "For all other enquiries please use our contact page."
[Edited on 18/4/12 by Ivan]
quote:
Originally posted by snakebelly
Just to clarify is that £350 per shock ie a set of 4 will be £1400? + or inc VAT?
My main thought is that the pages are too wide. On a 1024 resolution you only get the text with no image, and sometimes the menu structure is also cut
off.
When I used to work with web pages an 800x600 screen was the target. Obviously we've moved on since then, but I'd have thought a 1024x768
screen resolution would be typical.
Apart from that, it's just the consistency. Keep the logo in the top left and maintain it's size for all pages, if you need another logo
(like the m shocks one) then it should go top right. The text seems to overlap the logo as well, the front page is an obvious one. With a white image
background but a pastel page background you can see the overlap.
As mentioned you should try the pages in all main browsers (IE, Firefox and Chrome is a good start).
For the prices, I think it's the absence of spring prices that is the question, rather than the shocks. It's ok providing a bespoke service,
but a typical price would help people. Unfortunately my experience of getting online quotes puts me off any website where it's required, without
an indicative figure I'd be going elsewhere.
quote:
Originally posted by Ivan
This page doesn't load properly in Firefox on my machine
http://www.shock-factory.co.uk/page5.html
In two places only the top half of the text line loads
"specification" at the bottom of the second paragraph and "For all other enquiries please use our contact page."
[Edited on 18/4/12 by Ivan]
Not to be nit-picky, but on the home page I think the red section titles (Shock Factory, M Shocks, Sheffield Steel Springs, etc...) should also be
links to their respective pages.
I also second the consistency between the pages as far as logos, menu selections, and whatnot.
I use Chrome and it looks great for me! Good job
Beags
quote:
the top half of the text line loads
Mike, I'm no expert on websites but I would like to give you my best wishes for your new venture. I really hope it all goes well for you.
Best regards
John
quote:
Originally posted by MikeRJ
quote:
Originally posted by snakebelly
Just to clarify is that £350 per shock ie a set of 4 will be £1400? + or inc VAT?
Why would you want a set of four shocks for a motorbike? They only have one at the rear in most cases.
looks ok but home made. When i used to sell websites we used to ask the client to find a website they like and copy the style. find a website design
company who have templates and copy it :O)
good luck and good work for a start.
I see this needed on so many websites.
Phone number on front page. Often people return and then need the number and have to rummge around the site, Im not a fan of 'contact'
pages.
it suggests contact by email, but I didnt find an email address
also for a company 'obviously' uk based, I find the french company registration is somewhat strange
no guide prices on springs
and no usual manufacturing/ delivery times.
Thank you all for some very valuable input. I am very appreciative of all your help.
To reply to each of you:
Loggyboy. You’re right about the logo. It needs cleaning up. Will do.
Make Everything. Although, as others have said, the price is quoted, your comment shows that it is not quoted clearly or often enough. Believe it or
not the price is pretty competitive for the motorcycle market so it deserves a better billing.
Loggyboy, big-vee-twin and beagley. The nav bar and other inconsistencies are not good. It is mainly due to the package I have used but should not be
impossible to fix. I’m on it!
Snakebelly. Yes, the price is £350 per shock including, VAT, delivery and a C spanner. I do make some car stuff but clearly not Locost! My car
customers tend to be those who want a higher performance shock, often running big spring rates on inboard systems, equally those who want a prettier
damper than the usual. I also offer a ‘deal’ on pairs or four units.
Ivan, rb968 and flibble. Will investigate and fix those page loading errors. Ta.
Slimy38. When I chose the page width I did so on the basis of my old 19” screen which accommodates the site with some room to spare. I’ll have a look
at how much work is needed to slim it down.
John Bonnet and others. Thanks for your kind wishes of success. With all I have invested in this project failure is not an option. If you want to help
me succeed then please tell everyone about it!
Jossey. Thanks for your ‘home made’ comment. That helps give me some focus and a target to aim for.
Tasmod. A gem! There are a few suppliers I use who ‘hide’ their phone number on the contact page almost as if they don’t want customers to ring them
and one or two others that have it incorporated into the front page banner. I do want people to call so the number is going to be on the front page.
Thanks.
Gremlin. The buttons with envelopes on are the e-mails. I don’t really want to have the actual mails shown directly on the site for obvious reasons.
Anyone got an idea as to how to make this clearer?
The company is registered in France because that’s where I am. With the low(ish) cost of shipping and my previous experience of dealing with sleepy
importers who don’t understand the product, I am dealing with the UK direct.
The spring prices are shown in the catalogue.
The delivery on springs (two weeks) is quoted on the Sheffield Steel home page.
And yes, I need to quote availability on the shocks, particularly as it is very good. Orders are shipped the same day or at worst the next working day
by UPS.
Many thanks to all of you for your help. Any more input would be very welcome. And if I can help any of you with anything please ask.
Cheers,
Mike
Just for consistency, the name of the home page link is different on different pages - 'Home' on some, 'Shock Factory Home' on
others and 'M Shocks Home' on others.
Stu
[Edited on 19/4/12 by whitestu]
your logo problem is purely jpeg artifacts.
im guessing you have a logo in a jpeg, you then resized it and converted to png.
im not sure what your resizing it with, but if your using paint or MS photo editor - you would be better downloading something like
irfanview its easy enough to use and free, when resizing pick the lanczos filter, it will give the best results
code:
I don’t really want to have the actual mails shown directly on the site for obvious reasons. Anyone got an idea as to how to make this clearer?
Thanks again. I'll try the resizing and as for using a picture as the mail address that's a great idea. I'll also make it a button that
goes straight to mail.
Much appreciated,
Mike
PS Already spent all day fixing stuff. I should be ready to upload the revised site some time tomorrow.
Grateful thanks to all of you.
I have now spent a while on the site and the revised version is here.
Please keep the crits coming people. You are being a huge help to me.
Cheers,
Mike
You have been busy.... much better on the style consistency between pages. I can also tell that you have changed some of the padding and margins of
the <div> elements for positioning of text and images. Keep putzing about and you'll get more and more comfortable with what you like and
what looks good.
Beags
Yep, definitely much better. It fits on my screen!
Everything looks a lot more consistent, a lot more 'together'. The only thing now that I can see is the set of five buttons, on some pages
it drops to four and some it drops to three. I'd keep every page having the five buttons, even if the button is on the page that it is
referencing. I'd also add the five buttons on the 'under construction' pages, so basically you'll end up with all pages having the
same header.
Other than that, spot on. 
[Edited on 20/4/12 by Slimy38]