Jump to content
Why become a member? ×

Website improvements

alexclaber

By alexclaber,
in Repairs and Technical

 Share

Recommended Posts

maxrossell Enthusiast

maxrossell

Posted
Posted

This is purely my own taste, but I find the site a bit wordy. I think I'd prefer it if the core text (i.e. the marketing stuff, the tech stuff is fine) was a bit more direct and to the point. Also I do like the homestyle simplicity of it (i.e. it doesn't have flash explosions and automatic music players and w***ing dragons popping up all over the place), but I think it could do with some more images, some pro-looking gear porn, basically. Also, since it's a boutique operation, maybe some more stuff about the manufacture process and all that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Stylon Pilson Rising Star

Stylon Pilson

Posted
Posted

1. Menu navigation should be improved. "Compact", "Big Series", "Vintage" and "Midgets" should be grouped together in some way, or under a "Products" sub-heading. Also, if "News" is obsolete, then remove it from the menu.

2. Some sort of nifty graphic that allows you to visualise the relative sizes of the cabs.

3. There seems to be a bug in the menu - I'm only seeing links to "PA" from the "Midgets" and "FAQ" pages.

Minor website suggestions:

1. A table with a fixed width of 900 pixels is not very neat. Could you put it in a div with a max-width of 900px instead?

2. Make a smaller version of the logo and make sure that it appears on every page.

As far as the information in the Technical and FAQ pages is concerned, it seems pretty complete to me.

S.P.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
wateroftyne Grand Master

wateroftyne

Posted
Posted

I think....

There's a LOT of info to wade through on your site, and most of it is copy. That's a good thing, though.. it's better to have info available, than not.

To focus it all, I reckon you need a single 'cabs' page that lists every cab you offer, along with a photo and bulleted features. Then, a link from each to a more detailed product page for that cab.

Also, I think your technical & FAQ pages could be combined and questions organised into groups.. with maybe the 'obvious' questions quickly to hand with short, snappy answers.

Also, and this is purely cosmetic... have the BF logo at the top of each page with the navigation bar under it, before the page body. It'll help brand the pages and give more consistency.

Youtube clips of the cabs in action. And even a video tour of the cabs. If people can see you (or a glamorous assistant) wandering around the cabs, it'll help gauge the scale of them.

Hope this helps!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Stylon Pilson Rising Star

Stylon Pilson

Posted
Posted

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='481062' date='May 6 2009, 03:12 PM']And even a video tour of the cabs. If people can see you (or a glamorous assistant) wandering around the cabs, it'll help gauge the scale of them.[/quote]

I like this idea. Especially if you then show a 10 year old girl picking a Compact up and putting it in the boot of a car.

S.P.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
BottomEndian Rising Star

BottomEndian

Posted
Posted

[quote name='maxrossell' post='481056' date='May 6 2009, 03:04 PM']Also I do like the homestyle simplicity of it (i.e. it doesn't have flash explosions and automatic music players and w***ing dragons popping up all over the place), but I think it could do with some more images, some pro-looking gear porn, basically. Also, since it's a boutique operation, maybe some more stuff about the manufacture process and all that.[/quote]
Ah, nuts. I was just about to suggest you add some w***ing dragons. But some pictures and descriptions of you and your carpenters hard at work would add a nice touch.

I would also suggest that you learn a little CSS, so you can make cosmetic changes across the board by simply altering one file, rather than wading through all the pages of the ever-expanding site to change one little thing. If I remember correctly, you can also use CSS to create drop-down menus when you hover over something, so you could do Stylon's suggestion of having a "Products" menu that drops down the cabs when you hover over it. It'd streamline things a bit.

Also, a big +1 to Stylon's idea of a nifty (or not even very nifty, just plain and simple) graphic that compares the cab sizes, and maybe compares them with some reference standards, like an Ampeg 810 or a Fender Precision.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
EBS_freak Grand Master

EBS_freak

Posted
Posted

[quote name='Stylon Pilson' post='481069' date='May 6 2009, 03:23 PM']I like this idea. Especially if you then show a 10 year old girl picking a Compact up and putting it in the boot of a car.

S.P.[/quote]

Sexist/Ageist.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
BottomEndian Rising Star

BottomEndian

Posted
Posted

And if you do want to learn some CSS (and expand your (X)HTML while you're at it), I can't recommend [url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/HTML-World-Wide-Web-QuickStart/dp/0321430840/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241622468&sr=8-1"]Castro[/url] highly enough. Really simple, but really powerful.

[Caveat: I'm not a web designer! I just found the book really helpful, and it meant I could knock together [url="http://www.phasedarray.co.uk/"]my band's website[/url]... which I now realise I haven't touched for a year. Bah. :) ]

Link to comment
Share on other sites
OldGit Mentor

OldGit

Posted
Posted

[quote name='ped' post='482290' date='May 7 2009, 06:47 PM']Wot about a link to your Baschat forum? I love the pic on the homepage of the little monkey fellow.[/quote]

Little monkey fellow? I thought that was Alex and the cabs were three storys high!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
~tl Enthusiast

~tl

Posted
Posted

I think the primary thing that needs done is for the website to be "professionalised" somewhat. Not so much in terms of the content, but in terms of the look and feel. First impressions matter, and black text on a white background just seems a little unprofessional and would certainly put me off if I was a new customer and hadn't heard about your cabs before. While I appreciate that it's easy to update like this, just because you have a fancy layout doesn't automatically make things hard to update. There are some great content management systems out there that help you keep the site updated without having to wade through the layout. Good design practices when it comes to HTML/CSS/Javascript help enormously too.

I agree with what people have said about having some sort of size comparison for the cabs and having an overview of the products on one page. You could always have links from that to a page for each model where you flesh out the details. Some more professional looking photos would be good – try and get them against as plain a background as possible and without too much else in the photos (little bears excluded, of course). As others have mentioned, the technical/FAQ pages could be merged. How about having just the question of the FAQs displayed by default, then when you click on them the answer is shown (pretty easy Javascript to achieve that). That helps people skim through for the answer they're looking for. As has been mentioned previously, get the logo on every page. How about a contact form that people can just fill in and that gets sent on to you by e-mail – having that instead of a published e-mail address will decrease the amount of spam you get in your e-mail account too.

I'd be happy to help you out with any HTML/CSS/Javascript, or even do some site mock-ups for you (web-design is a bit of a hobby of mine). Shoot me a PM.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
OldGit Mentor

OldGit

Posted
Posted

Well I PM's Alex a ton of stuff but here's a few more:

Look at how Ashdown do their stuff. they are really good at this and that's why they get reviwed a lot - they have a fabulous press area.
[url="http://www.ashdownmusic.com/bass/index.asp"]http://www.ashdownmusic.com/bass/index.asp[/url]
their press area has great pictures.
[url="http://www.ashdownmusic.com/press/releases/namm2009/index.asp"]http://www.ashdownmusic.com/press/releases...m2009/index.asp[/url]

IMHO there's some reason for Alex not having very glossy marketing however taking better pictures is not hard and will pay dividends ..

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Eight Collaborator

Eight

Posted
Posted

Disregarding all my usual advice on websites, I'm going to say this because when I thought about it, I found it interesting.

I hit the site as someone who'd never heard of Barefaced, didn't know who you were or what you were about except that you made cabs. Without thinking about anything except cabs I consumed the information and started thinking, "you know, that might be just what I'm after". There's a lot to be said about a site that just gives you exactly what you need without any other thoughts popping into your brain.

However, that's not to say it can realistically stay the way it is. But I just thought it funny that I of all people would have that experience.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
OldGit Mentor

OldGit

Posted
Posted

[quote name='Eight' post='482590' date='May 7 2009, 11:39 PM']There's a lot to be said about a site that just gives you exactly what you need without any other thoughts popping into your brain.[/quote]

All the best ones do .. there's a great short book on the subject that sums it up nicely "Don't make me think" by Steve Krug. (get the second edition).

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Eight Collaborator

Eight

Posted
Posted

[quote name='OldGit' post='482703' date='May 8 2009, 09:03 AM']All the best ones do .. there's a great short book on the subject that sums it up nicely "Don't make me think" by Steve Krug. (get the second edition).[/quote]
I'll be quite honest, I had never in all these years been on a site where for one second I didn't get side tracked slightly. Even the best ones. Which isn't saying anything except why I found it so odd that the Barefaced site held my attention on their cabs so well.

Haven't read that book but I can imagine what it says - and have had discussions on those lines so many times with clients who just don't get it. AAAARRRGGHHHHH!!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
OldGit Mentor

OldGit

Posted
Posted

[quote name='Eight' post='482865' date='May 8 2009, 12:41 PM']I'll be quite honest, I had never in all these years been on a site where for one second I didn't get side tracked slightly. Even the best ones. Which isn't saying anything except why I found it so odd that the Barefaced site held my attention on their cabs so well.

Haven't read that book but I can imagine what it says - and have had discussions on those lines so many times with clients who just don't get it. AAAARRRGGHHHHH!!!![/quote]

I lend a copy to my clients to save me trying to convince them :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Eight Collaborator

Eight

Posted
Posted

[quote name='OldGit' post='482905' date='May 8 2009, 01:27 PM']I lend a copy to my clients to save me trying to convince them :)[/quote]
Clever thinking. Some of the clients I've had, I wouldn't trust getting it back. Lol.

Still - I could just inflate their invoice a little more than usual to buy another copy. :rolleyes: Although there is only so far you can inflate a bill without it popping.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
paul h Rising Star

paul h

Posted
Posted (edited)

Always happy to consider some kind of web design=gear trade!

:)

Paul.



But here are a few instant thoughts...

Get some nice CSS styling on the navigation, remembering to use a sprite if you want to use background images. Personally I would just echo the logo with nice use of borders. Centre the design. 900px wide is fine but make it a centred div and you're good to go. Centre section is fine with white background but some kind of speaker cloth style background image might look cool for the remaining visible screen.

Another quick tip is to go for php and use an include statement to load up the navigation. Then as the site grows you can add buttons to the nav in one file and have it appear on every page.

Edited by paul h
Link to comment
Share on other sites
OldGit Mentor

OldGit

Posted
Posted

[quote name='paul h' post='483059' date='May 8 2009, 04:29 PM']Always happy to consider some kind of web design=gear trade!

:)

Paul.


But here are a few instant thoughts...

Get some nice CSS styling on the navigation, remembering to use a sprite if you want to use background images. Personally I would just echo the logo with nice use of borders. Centre the design. 900px wide is fine but make it a centred div and you're good to go. Centre section is fine with white background but some kind of speaker cloth style background image might look cool for the remaining visible screen.

Another quick tip is to go for php and use an include statement to load up the navigation. Then as the site grows you can add buttons to the nav in one file and have it appear on every page.[/quote]


But please, please please don't put text over an image as in Myspce. It's a disaster for legibility......

Link to comment
Share on other sites
paul h Rising Star

paul h

Posted
Posted

[quote name='OldGit' post='483074' date='May 8 2009, 04:36 PM']But please, please please don't put text over an image as in Myspce. It's a disaster for legibility......[/quote]

Good God NO! lol.

Was just thinking of the 100 or so pixels (screen res. depending) on the edges! I might even have to mock one up quick as a demo! :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
OldGit Mentor

OldGit

Posted
Posted (edited)

[quote name='Protium' post='483101' date='May 8 2009, 04:50 PM']A "build process" section showing a cab from bits of wood to finished product.[/quote]


GUS guitars has a really good one - sequence of images with good titles and notes - and in a shed :)
[url="http://gusguitars.co.uk/tour.php"]http://gusguitars.co.uk/tour.php[/url]

Edited to remove the typo :rolleyes:

Edited by OldGit
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...