Website Test

okiepolkie · February 2006

www.holcombavt.com

I've my business website up and running for a couple of months now. It has been a good reference tool, but it is need of at least some minor updates.

If you can, give a few suggestions on what you would change. Keep in mind that everything was created using MS office, especially Frontmage, so that is what I am primarily limited to using. I'm using one of the templates, so I can't change things a lot, but suggestions on color or placement would be helpful.

Here are a couple items that will be updated within the next few days:

-The fonts will probably be changed, but I'm not sure what they will be changed to. When I originally designed the site, I went through several fonts and like this one, but it doesn't show up well on every screen I've looked at.

-Refined company logo. A friend designed a higher resolution logo using Adobe. I just have to get it from him.

-The mission statement will be changed.

-The portfolio will be updated to include more installations, as well as making the images come up faster. If anyone knows what resolution they need to be at, let me know.

-The A/V dictionary will be refined to make for easier reading.

Some things will probably be changed within the next couple of days. Others will be gradual.

Thanks for the help.

Paul in Canada · February 2006

I just had a quick look and thought the website look good and it was easy to navagate through. Is this a new business? It sounds like a nice way to make a living. Good luck. I will try to have another look tommorrow and make some suggestions. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.

MrNightly · February 2006

So if I am Mr Customer, and want to buy from you... what advantage do I have? Your website only refer's you straight to the "Polk Audio.com" or HK.com site... Are you just the middle man who after Mr. Customer buys, you help with install? Interesting.

Some thoughts: Love the three boxes (Red, blue and yellow) when you scroll over a tab. Nice touch. It seemed to have a lot of scrolling tho, if you compare say, HK's site, notice everything is right at your fingertips. Don't have to move your mouse that much to select the item... just a thought. People want it fast and easy. Also, try centering your fonts. That might look sharper. Is white the only background available?? Kinda hard on the eyes after a few mins...

Keep it up.

janmike · February 2006

Good Start. Some thoughts in addition to the other thoughts posted. (I agree with them all especially excess mouse clicking)
- Site Map
- Heading colors
- Any mailing adress
- References (good if you are staring out and as the business grows)
- I would strengthen the Mission Statement. You WANT their business.

If I think of anything else I'll add it in later. Good Luck.

michael_w · February 2006

I'd use some sort of background colour or texture. White in parts is good but not for the whole background. Even a slight off white or gray would spruce things up nicely.

I'd go for a san-serif font like verdana or arial. It would be easier to read that way since you don't have lengthy paragraphs or anything.

If it's possible with that template, it would be nice if you kept a consistant navigation bar either at the top or the side. Maybe one with sub headings that opened up as you explored further into the page?

I'd change the < title > tag to something more like Holcomb A/V Technologies instead of "home"

Also for the portforlio page use seperate, smaller pictures for the thumbnails. The ones you have now may only be 300 by 250 or w/e but they're still loading at near a mb each. Takes a while for clients and jacks all your bandwidth. If you want people able to view high res pics add some coding to let you click the thumbnail to open a window containing the full size picture.

okiepolkie · February 2006

Thanks for the suggestions so far guys.

Here is a little more background for the business.

I run a custom install business on the side, which I officially started in November of 05. Until that time, I had done several freelance installs, much like many of you, but decided I wanted to be able to sell products as well as install them.

Since I am now a local dealer, the agreement I have with my distributor, as well as several of the brands offered, is that I do not advertise specific products or prices online.

That is why I only have links to companies. I point potential customers to my website, they find items they are interested in, then I give them a quote.

As far as some of the suggestions, what colors would you actually suggest as a background?

I haven't been able to finagle the template to keep the same navigation bar at the top. If I change it for a subpage, then it changes the parent page too.

Eventually, I'll get a better website building program to do a complete makeover. Until then, I'll keep making incremental changes.

MrBuhl · February 2006

okiepolkie wrote:

Since I am now a local dealer, the agreement I have with my distributor, as well as several of the brands offered, is that I do not advertise specific products or prices online.

Q = Can you get around this like some of the big-boys do by doing an "add to shopping cart" option to see price?

As far as some of the suggestions, what colors would you actually suggest as a background?

A = Agree with everyone - the white background is a little too stark, a soft grey would add a lot to the sophisitication/appearance, especially since you are using a lot of blue/black graphic.
QUOTE]

Pablo · February 2006

I agree with most of the comments so far. It looks ok, but needs a little more umph. But the first thing I would start with is the text.

First, the font doesn't need to be that big. You also my want to considre a Serif font for the body, and a sans-sarif for the titles. But don't get fancy, it just gets anouying to read.

Next, all I got was a vauge idea of what you do. The three paragraphs are good (into, mission, contact), but you need to expand much more on what they say. Try to go with the basic 5 Ws of writting (who, what where when & why). Not that I am a writter (me english aint be no good), but the reader should know exactly what you offer and how to get it (and the fact that they need it).

For the scrolling, it looks like there is a line between each of those buttons (you should be able to remove them easily). But I do like the look of the buttons alot. You should keep that theme and spread it around a bit.

I'm actually a fan of white backgrounds, but a little color wouldn't hurt. You may also consider a graphical background.

I may make you some graphics if you don't mind (even if you do mind I make some since I am bored out of my skull).

Overall it really doesn't look bad. I hope you success. (Also, did you post your link before, or did I run into it while surfing the other day. I know I saw this already).

okiepolkie · February 2006

I did a few minor changes on Monday while I was off. Wtill couldn't figure out how to convert the pictures as thumbnails, where they can be enlarged like pics posted on the forum.
The following are some the updates I completed:

- Changed the background to a very light gray.
- Changed the font to Verdana (will probably change this again)
- Improved? the mission statement
- Centered a few items on each page
- Changed the <Home> button to <HolcombAVT>

Things I would still like to change:

- Move the categories from the vertical to horizontal below the heading
- Convert the <Products> link to a Dropdown Menu where the different product categories can be chosen from the index page. Same thing for the other main categories as well
- complete a site map (I think there is a way for the Frontpage to do this for me).

If anyone has experience with frontpage, let me know. There are a few little quirks I can't seem to work around. Powerpoint, excel, and word are no problem for me, but some of the features are not the same in FP.

I'm not trying to "get away" with anything like some other companies do. As far as business goes, I'm still working on making myself a credible source for electronics. If I violate any of the agreements, then I lose the right to sell their products. Even though there are ways around this, and some companies are more lax than others, I feel like my business is growing at a modest enough pace to follow the rules I've agreed to.

BTW, the link is in my sig, and I think I mentioned it in another thread a couple of weeks ago. Didn't get any responses on that one, so decided to retry it on its own.

Pablo · February 2006

I'm no expert, but I play around with FP enough to know stuff. To do the Thumbnails, just highlight the picture, and click the auto thumbnail button on the Pictures toolbar (check the help for more info). It will automatically create the thumb nail and a link to the large picture.

okiepolkie · February 2006

Pablo,

I'll check the thumbnail part this afternoon when I get home. Thanks for the help.

Pablo · February 2006

okie, let me know if you like these;

okiepolkie · February 2006

Both look pretty good to me. I'm thinking the logo my friend has done will look similar to the one you did. What program did you use to create it?

mogwai · February 2006

I think some more color would be nice. The background is still a little too white for me. You might consider making the contact info a little smaller too, or perhaps put it on its own page.

A store locator could be fun. . .;)

Pablo · February 2006

I did those in Paintshop Pro (v7). I'm really more of a Corel fan, but I haven't had a version of that for many years now (I did just pickup the latest version, but I haven't played with it much so I'm very quick). I just like to do these kind of things when I have nothing else to do at work (which is most of the time).

Pablo · February 2006

A few more pics (I'm bored).

MrNightly · February 2006

Pablo wrote:

A few more pics (I'm bored).

That forth pic looks sweet. Nice touch. It looks the most professional of all of them yet! Keep it up.

schwarcw · February 2006

Nice website Zach! You got quite a few good comments. The easier you make it to use, be attractive and have useful information, the longer people will stay on the site. Good luck!

Pablo · February 2006

Hey there okie, a couple more pics for you to ponder (still bored at work). Please let me know if you like any of these and would like to use any. I can make as many of titles as you need and e-mail them to you. If you have PaintShopPro, then you can easily update them (if you don't it may take a little work [I can explain if you are interested]).

(Also, I realized why most of your stuff may be double spaced. If you use Alt-Enter in FP, it will advance only 1 line instead of a paragraph).

okiepolkie · February 2006

Didn't get to play with it any last night. I might not be able to do anything else until the weekend. I'll do some copy/paste stuff in FP to see how your designs work. I don't have any paint shop programs, although I should probably get one sometime. All I've ever used are the MS Office products.

If I get really serious with the website, I'll just pay you, or someone else to design it for me. I would need to be able to update it regularly, but if we both had the same program, then it wouldn't be a big deal.

Thanks for the input and help everyone.

Pablo · February 2006

If you want any, just pop me a note and I'll make all the ones you need (it's easy to change the headings and make another).

gwh · February 2006

Under services it states you do calibration.....Sweet.
Next time you head west stop by and set up my BFD, Its been setting in its box for a couple months now. Ill write up a glowing review you can add to your site from an actual customer.

I hit 40 and got lazy.......Geeez the humility.:o

G

okiepolkie · February 2006

I played around with my logo this afternoon. I've been wanting to do something to this effect, but I don't know how it would look at different sizes. It also needs some more color or a little design refinement.

Pablo · February 2006

That's very nice Zach (much more professional looking than the first one). What did you make that in? It looks like you have the design skills, if you get yourself a good drawing program, there would be no stopping you!

okiepolkie · February 2006

Pablo,

I created it in powerpoint. I like design, which is what I initially started with in college, but haven't had a lot of oportunity to do much besides the website.

I'm looking at getting the adobe suite this year at some point. As a teacher, I qualify for the cheap($400) version of it. I can probably do just about anything I need to with it. At that point, my computer would probably be the hindering factor for me

With the first design, I was just trying to get something done, but now I'd like to update to a more professional one.

My main concern with a company logo, is that it needs to look good in any size, especially on a business card. My company letterhead will have it as well.

It also needs to be able to be in black and white for local newspaper adds.

Schris22 · February 2006

Not sure if you like it or not but instead of product names you could use their logos...

here is an example

http://bjorns.com/brands.html

except instead of all the brands on one page just do it by category

just a thought...

Chris

Pablo · February 2006

I lack a bit on the design side of things, but eventually I usually come up with something nice (I have a need to create, be it out of lego or wood). I think I have more of a nack of taking something that is already there and expandng on it a bit.

I cleaned it up a bit for fun (another boring day). But you are right, this may not size correctlly. You may have to remove the dashed lines, and the A & V may not come out very good in black and white (you would have to change the colors).

Pablo · February 2006

Here's one of my wooden creations (built it a few years back). As I said, it took awhile for me to come up with the design.

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37171

okiepolkie · February 2006

I never even noticed that thread.

This weekend, if time allows, I might copy and paste some of your creations into the program, as well as do a little more refining.

I'm also going to try something like Chris referred to in the link.

Pablo · February 2006

I would go with the corporate logos. They make it look more offical. If you need me to throw together more titles, just let me know and I will send you them. Have fun.

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