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Thread: Site Critique

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    Site Critique

    Hello all,

    I've been redesigning a website for my Uncle's garage/car hire business and would appreciate any comments on any aspect of it. It's my first one, believe it or not. I know it doesn't pass correctly as xhtml, but that's down to one of the scripts I'm using and am awaiting to hear back from it's author.

    There are also a few pictures missing in the car & van hire sections, as I'm waiting to get these. In general I'm interested in how usable the site is, are the colours too much/gaudy (mix of car hire firms and my Uncle's sign colours) is the layout clear etc.?

    http://www.elftronics.co.uk it's hosted on my own website for testing purposes

    Thanks in advance if anyone has a look

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    Re: Site Critique

    I get cannot be found

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    Re: Site Critique

    Odd, it's working for me both from the link I posted and typing it in manually

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    Re: Site Critique

    I got to the site OK. Went to cars for sale... £1 mill for a ford zetec?? I'm guessing it's a gold plated engine??

    Then accidentally closed it again, cos I'm a genius... More in a bit...

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    Re: Site Critique

    Quote Originally Posted by CJ View Post
    I got to the site OK. Went to cars for sale... £1 mill for a ford zetec?? I'm guessing it's a gold plated engine??

    Then accidentally closed it again, cos I'm a genius... More in a bit...
    Only cause it's my car and wanted to put anyone off, not unless you know of any rich idiots with a million to burn, if so I might be persuaded to part with it

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    Re: Site Critique

    Looks good.

    One thing I would do though is put the location in the header (under the number or something) or at the very least, the town the garage is located. This will let people see right away they have a local garage.

    Also on the Home page you have contact and location links twice. I would remove the three top links to EMAIL CONTACT and LOCATION and instead list the actual email (clickable) and address.

    Final thing (for now) the pictures you are using could all do with being sized down a little. The site takes awhile to load.

    Other than that it looks good

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    Re: Site Critique

    Nice car

    From a lay point of view

    Doesn't look gaudy and layout is clear

    I kept searching for a "back" button on the website (I know I can use my browser back button) although I'm not sure if that's cos I was having a peek around and wanted easy quick navigation.

    Would it be useful to have a "contact us" link under the hire T&Cs? instead of having the link at the top. I'm really used to hire websites where you can specify dates on the website and instantly check availability/book

    Last edited by HelenB; 23rd-March-2010 at 05:35 PM. Reason: thanks for the great excuse to escape from my report writing boredom :)

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    Re: Site Critique

    Thanks for the suggestions Lee

    The garage is located in a small town where pretty much everyone knows everyone else, so the location part is more for visiting tourists to know where it is easily. The main town is Fort William, the garage is located 5 miles away in Corpach, I didn't want it to be too off putting for any visitors, even though free hire vehicle pick up and drop off in Fort William area are available. I'm working on the googlemaps API, where I can highlight an area that collections are available, might make it a bit clearer.

    I was a bit unsure about whether to only list the email address at the top of the page. Mainly because it's a bit long "info@slipwayautos.co.uk" and include the contact form link as well, depending on how the website was being accessed i.e. your computer versus internet cafe etc. The email only option might be better though.

    I'm still playing about with image quality and have a bit to learn yet. Will get the thumbnails a bit smaller. Are the sizes of the images in the gallery itself acceptable? Do you have any suggestions for a good default size to go for that wouldn't be seen as too excessive?

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    Re: Site Critique

    Quote Originally Posted by HelenB View Post
    Nice car

    From a lay point of view

    Doesn't look gaudy and layout is clear
    Thank you

    Quote Originally Posted by HelenB View Post
    I kept searching for a "back" button on the website (I know I can use my browser back button) although I'm not sure if that's cos I was having a peek around and wanted easy quick navigation.
    I was trying to keep navigation and pages to a minimum so you wouldn't get lost pages down, would a bread crumb trail help? i.e. you are in Home>Vehicle Hire>Car Hire ? So you can click back to where you wanted to be a bit more easily.

    It used to be part of a larger online booking system from the hire company itself but that was stopped by the hire company. It would be useful but I doubt it'd happen as it would need to be something easy to administer for my Uncle who's, although a mechanic, is not really a computer person. His current website has not been updated in 5 years

    http://www.slipwayautos.co.uk

    Maybe something like a google calender link could work for vehicle availability. Something to look into and maybe persuade him

    Quote Originally Posted by HelenB View Post
    Would it be useful to have a "contact us" link under the hire T&Cs? instead of having the link at the top.
    Not sure, I was quite keen on having contact info, mainly phone number and email, prominent and easy to find at the top. It's rather buried away in the current site.

    Thanks for having a good look

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    Re: Site Critique

    If you want the site to be found by the desperate in urgent need of a repair and relacement then location info is vital.

    People start reading at the top left. I would have Vehicle Repair, Hire, MOT, Sales on the top of the page.

    Could you have a google map displayed showing local accomodation? You scratch their backs ... A customer with a breakdown may need it.

    http://seohimanshu.com/2010/03/22/op...al-web-search/

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    Re: Site Critique

    Quote Originally Posted by pmjd View Post


    It used to be part of a larger online booking system from the hire company itself but that was stopped by the hire company. It would be useful but I doubt it'd happen as it would need to be something easy to administer for my Uncle who's, although a mechanic, is not really a computer person.
    Ask yourself if it's worth doing an online booking system. Writing one from scratch is not easy ( I know!). How much will it get used? How many cars does he have for hire? How will the bookings be taken at his end? Will their be deposits and card payments? etc etc etc

    If only a couple of cars a month are hired out then it's not worth it.

    The way I would look at it is this....

    Would having online booking increase the amount of hire business he does to the point it would pay for the hours and hours of work in writing the code and maintanance?

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    Re: Site Critique

    Think about how your site looks to people with poor sight using phones to search Internet.

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    Re: Site Critique

    Quote Originally Posted by bigdjiver View Post
    Think about how your site looks to people with poor sight using phones to search Internet.
    Again, work out if it is worth spending the time and effort to do this on such a small site. You may be able to find stats on a control panel with the current webhosts that the current site is using, showing what percentage of browsers have accessed the site in the past.

    If it's a very small percentage and the site is only getting, say 50 hits a month, then I personally would not overly worry about mobile browsers.

    Having said that though, mobile browsing is becoming more and more popular.

    Just weigh it all up.

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    Re: Site Critique

    Quote Originally Posted by bigdjiver View Post
    Think about how your site looks to people with poor sight using phones to search Internet.
    If you have poor sight, what the hell would you use a tiny screened phone to search the internet - and for car hire too

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    Re: Site Critique

    Quote Originally Posted by Lee Bartholomew View Post
    Having said that though, mobile browsing is becoming more and more popular.

    Just weigh it all up.
    You also need to look at the competition
    if you are the only garage with a phone friendly web site, you should pick up all the enquiries from smart phones

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    Re: Site Critique

    I like the site and can't add more than has already been said other that a little tweak to the language maybe here and there. For example on the contact page it says:

    'Fill in the bits below and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.'

    Which is fine, but 'Please complete the details below and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.' just sounds better IMO.

    Also on that page you have a 'wil' with only one 'L' '..will only be stored by us and wil never be passed or sold on to any third parties.'

    Little things, but overall it looks good!

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    Re: Site Critique

    Quote Originally Posted by Dreadful Scathe View Post
    If you have poor sight, what the hell would you use a tiny screened phone to search the internet - and for car hire too
    Your car breaks down in the back of beyond ...

    Look at the world through your customers eyes.

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    Re: Site Critique

    Quote Originally Posted by bigdjiver View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Dreadful Scathe View Post
    If you have poor sight, what the hell would you use a tiny screened phone to search the internet - and for car hire too
    Look at the world through your customers eyes.
    You wouldn't see very much!

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    Re: Site Critique

    Quote Originally Posted by bigdjiver View Post
    Your car breaks down in the back of beyond ...

    Look at the world through your customers eyes.
    well, i wouldn't expect partially sighted people to even own such a phone - what would be the point? I think perhaps such a person would possibly use the phone as a...phone!

    and ditto what Gav said, he got that joke in first

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    Re: Site Critique

    Quote Originally Posted by Dreadful Scathe View Post
    well, i wouldn't expect partially sighted people to even own such a phone - what would be the point?
    Does anyone else the the irony of a person whose eyesight is so poor that they can't see their mobile screen, looking up car breakdown services?

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