Website Re-design Comments / Suggestions

MattCoops

new site design

any comments, suggestions
constructive criticism appreciated

http://www.cupantileandpaint.com

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Matt with Cupan Custom Tile & Paint of Lowell, Massachusetts
Design and installation of ceramic tile and natural stone for floor, wall, and countertops
(978) 601-8774 | cupantile@gmail.com | view tile pictures and more

PressurePros

My initial thoughts are
1) Could use a banner/header. I had to scan to figure out what service you offered.
2) The window is small and cramped. I wanted to not read on. This is obviously a subjective opinion.
3) Portfolio pics seem linked and take you nowhere. I'd like to be able to inspect them closer.

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Ken Fenner
Pressure Washing PA
Roof Cleaning Services PA

John S

I would have to agree with PressurePros, The ability to look at a larger picture to "showcase" your work is ideal. "Just checked again and I see it pops up another window. (I have way to many open at the moment)

I would also sugguest a little more color or a logo or something...

I personally don't like to have to scroll in a box to read all the details, pefer to have them on the whole page and scroll that.

I am currently in a re-design phase of my website as well, anyone's thoughts on it. (don't mean to hijack)
Cheers
John

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John
www.ready4rent.ca

Stone Mountain

Interesting idea with the writing superimposed over a background. However, it doesn't work for me. Too hard to read, for one thing, and the contract between the black letters and lime green background is not enough.
Having the whole thing scrolling inside a smallish window doesn't work either. Why not use the whole page?

You asked for opinions. I don't know you, so I have no reason to be cruel, but my honest opinion is that the site sucks.

Sorry.

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Residential Deck Specialist: Vist our Website
www.fenceanddeck.ca

MattCoops

we are working on an animated flash header to place above our content box

just wanted to keep the site sort of minimal and contained

and nice clean valid xhtml coding

__________________
Matt with Cupan Custom Tile & Paint of Lowell, Massachusetts
Design and installation of ceramic tile and natural stone for floor, wall, and countertops
(978) 601-8774 | cupantile@gmail.com | view tile pictures and more

AAPaint

The green is too bright!! People like black text on a white background. Ever wonder why that's all you usually see? It's the newspaper format, and it works. The links in black above the google ads look like they are google ads. I would get rid of the google ads completely. The little box is annoying enough to make me want to click away, and the navigation doesn't stand out. It's hard to tell where to go, and that makes me want to click the back button out of there.

These are just opinions from a novice....hence the reason I have a pro do mine, lol!

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-AAPaint

AA Quality Painting & Pressure Washing LLC
Jacksonville Painters
Jacksonville, FL.

MattCoops

hey guys,

worked on the image gallery in "Portfolio" section

they don't pop up in new window anymore

I think they are displayed a lot better now,
what do you think?

check out bottom two images in gallery of the exterior paint
there's a before and after
open either one and hove over image to left side or right to get next/prev image

kind of cool hugh?

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Matt with Cupan Custom Tile & Paint of Lowell, Massachusetts
Design and installation of ceramic tile and natural stone for floor, wall, and countertops
(978) 601-8774 | cupantile@gmail.com | view tile pictures and more

Mike Finley

WOW, are you really serious about what you did?

dw electric

the main thing i didnt care for was the shower pics. they seemed really shaky.

MattCoops

you don't like Mike?

was the old style better?

don't like white walls, wanted a little color
maybe a lighter shade of green?

didn't think that was too bright
it's kind of eggshell-y

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Matt with Cupan Custom Tile & Paint of Lowell, Massachusetts
Design and installation of ceramic tile and natural stone for floor, wall, and countertops
(978) 601-8774 | cupantile@gmail.com | view tile pictures and more

Mike Finley

Buddy, I can't see how that idea of the website within a website you have is going to do you any favors. That little scrolling window, what is with that? Your previous version was very user friendly.

MattCoops

were working on putting the most attentitive information in that content box,

and then have key links in there that will have more specific info pop up

sort of like the portfolio section


the reason behind it was the idea that people like to click around more than they like to scroll all over a page to find and then read a bunch of stuff

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Matt with Cupan Custom Tile & Paint of Lowell, Massachusetts
Design and installation of ceramic tile and natural stone for floor, wall, and countertops
(978) 601-8774 | cupantile@gmail.com | view tile pictures and more

lawndart

Aren't you the guy that claimed to do Graphic design?

MattCoops

none of my stuff is clip art lawndart

__________________
Matt with Cupan Custom Tile & Paint of Lowell, Massachusetts
Design and installation of ceramic tile and natural stone for floor, wall, and countertops
(978) 601-8774 | cupantile@gmail.com | view tile pictures and more

lawndart

That still doesn't make it look good Matt

POOLMANinCT

the green is tough on the eyes

widco

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DerrickVWS

MattCoops,

Here is my professional analysis.

Site Box
The Good
I think you made good use of color for your h1 header in content. It grabs my attention. The overall aesthetic of the content is good. White space is good, but could be improved a little.

The Bad
Everyone has a different idea of how to present their content and what visitors find the easiest to view and get what they want. The most important thing is to ensure your visitors get what they want FAST. I'd say your "site box" style is VERY limiting. It is frustrating that I can only see about 8 lines of text at once. Most website visitors scan a page and pick out what they want. The "site box" design forces users to view your content in a 217px high by 660px wide browser. Content is KING and you are giving more screen real estate to everything else.

Here are some interesting reads that support my comments regarding visitor page scanning:
usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-03-26-web-use-study_x.htm
useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html


Overall Design
The Good
The site feels very custom. It feels professionally created. The color pallete works very well and is very pleasing on the eyes. Your SEO and visible keywords all should help you in search engines.

The Bad
I can't get past the "site box" issue.
But other than that, I think the design is good.


Portfolio
The Good
I like the use of Lightbox to display full sizes of thumbnails. I can also highly recommend the "Highslide" viewer. I actually moved away from Lightbox and have started using Highslide more. However, I'm not sure how it would work inside your "sitebox".

The Bad
For some reason, your thumbnail images are HUGE in file size. Thumbnails should never be 120kb which they all are. You should create separate images for just the thumbnails. I'd say they should each be only 5 or 10kb each.


Random Technical Items

1. You probably are still working on the top nav, but the tabs don't seem to work right (I'm using Firefox and IE7). They swap in and out and don't highlight correctly.
2. The H1 header text for each page probably shouldn't include your company name. I'd stick to just using the actual page name.
3. I like that you aren't including the Javascript files on all your pages and only include them on your gallery page. This will help speed a visitor's first visit to your homepage since they won't have to wait for the javascript files to download until they view your portfolio.
4. Be sure to update the Title tag for each page to reflect the name of the page. Right now, it seems that every page Title tag is set to your company name. If you want to keep your company name in the Title, I recommend using this format:
   PAGE TITLE - COMPANY NAME

Once you're done, I think this site will be very unique and help you stand out in the crowd!

(Sorry, I can't post hyperlinked text so you'll have to copy/paste the links I provided. I don't have 15 posts yet.)

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Derrick Delliquadri
Vision Web Services | Contractor Websites

MattCoops

How is the site now?

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Matt with Cupan Custom Tile & Paint of Lowell, Massachusetts
Design and installation of ceramic tile and natural stone for floor, wall, and countertops
(978) 601-8774 | cupantile@gmail.com | view tile pictures and more

Second Look

The logo is displayed just above the bathtub. I use Firefox, but also checked in IE, so maybe that' how you want it??? It looks like a mistake, so even if that's how you want it you should know it looks like someone made an errror.

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Second Look home improvement www.SecondLookHome.com
Handyman and Home Repair Specialist in Rhode Island
RI Licensed Lead Safe Remodeler/Renovator, RI Registered & Insured Contractor