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WebSite...Last time before going live PLEASE. — Parallax Forums

WebSite...Last time before going live PLEASE.

hmlittle59hmlittle59 Posts: 404
edited 2012-07-05 09:56 in General Discussion
Hello All,

Made suggested changes and tried to fix other problems. Seems to work with all Browsers that I could get a hold of. Even works on my SMART phone.

Last change to be critical , Flow/ Price/ concept/ ideal. You can even place orders to a certain point then cancel, to make sure you get the proper flow back to the proper page.

Thanks

Howard
www.garagedoorvalet.com

Comments

  • TtailspinTtailspin Posts: 1,326
    edited 2012-05-20 19:27
    A garage door valet, Great idea Howard.. :thumb:

    Since you asked...

    Your home page suggests I can get one for $4.95, and that will have enhanced firmware too...
    (see recent news) I know that is not what you want to charge for the whole kit.
    I suggest placing the price of each item, under each item...

    If you don't want to sell individual accessories, don't put prices for them.(see accessories)
    it says "not sold separately", and I don't think I need to know that...
    I may be confused as to what you want to sell me, but I guess that is what you are asking for help with. :)

    I could buy and build one of your kits, but my sister could not.
    In other words, some descriptions are a little technical for a layperson. (see GDV controller, and Switch_Board)

    Also, will these be available "fully assembled"? or is the intent to just sell only in kit form?
    My sister would not want this as a kit... :)

    Just some observations from a perusal of your website, Please take these as helpful hints, and not some sort of attack..

    Again, I love the idea, Just make sure I know EXACTLY what it's going to cost.
    Including shipping and necessary accessories...


    -Tommy
  • ElectricAyeElectricAye Posts: 4,561
    edited 2012-05-20 19:50
    Ttailspin wrote: »
    ...
    In other words, some descriptions are a little technical for a layperson....

    I agree with this statement. Perhaps you need to provide a better layman's description of what this device does and how it does it. For example, when you say it can close a door just like pushing the button, what exactly do you mean by that? What is the scenario under which it will do that task? Does it automatically close the door via a timer if it senses that it wasn't closed? or can it close it via your mobile phone if given the order? or via wireless remote? And if it's based on a timer, what prevents the timer from kicking in and closing the door on the day you're working on your car with the garage door up? You need to provide the operational scenario up front, rather than requiring the customer to dig around in the technical details.

    Anyway, that's just my take on this after glancing at your home page. I'm just presuming that most potential customers will land on your website with the same lack of background that I have. So I guess a lot depends on to whom you are marketing the thing.

    I hope that helps and wish you the best of luck with it.
  • davejamesdavejames Posts: 4,047
    edited 2012-05-20 20:23
    Howard - blue lettering on a gray-ish background is kinda hard to read.

    Maybe take the blue to black?
  • RDL2004RDL2004 Posts: 2,554
    edited 2012-05-20 20:40
    That background image with the diagonal lines is just too dark to use with darker colored text.

    I don't get the blue text anyway, why have two different link colors?

    edit, okay now I see, white is "visited". I would still change the blue to something more readable.
  • FranklinFranklin Posts: 4,747
    edited 2012-05-20 21:06
    Take the personal / history and put it all in one place like a blog. Don't admit to failures or nonworking parts in the sales pitch nobody wants to hear the thing they are buying doesn't work as designed and you are still selling it to them. Tell them what it does do and leave it at that, Your tabs don't seem to work in a logical way, several tabs have dropdowns that take you to the same page with multiple links. I wouldn't go live until this site is working better than it is now, you want it to be perfect and then fix the parts you missed anyway. Don't settle for good enough, it will reflect on your image and the trust people have in your product.
  • xanaduxanadu Posts: 3,347
    edited 2012-05-20 21:23
    You need to get the visitor on the most direct path to the buy button. To me it seems like you have to click all over your site to figure out what is going on. That's going to result in a low conversion rate guaranteed.

    It's a great site, and awesome product, but you need to streamline it. Get the visitor all the info they need in one or two clicks. Pretend like you have no idea what your site is about and you'll see what I mean.

    Definitely setup a color and font scheme with a couple fonts and standard colors. Some of the text is the wrong color over your background, it's too contrasty in my opinion. The blue text over the striped background is hard on the eyes to some people.

    Instead of this "!!!" use this "!". Or better yet, stay away from anything but periods and commas.

    Ditch all the coming soon stuff, do not advertise what you don't offer at the time. If you must, setup an email notification where people can be notified when something is available. Few people will come back to see, and most everyone requires instant gratification online.

    "LittleHM,LLC will NOT support in hardware" there is no reason to use capital letters here or for that matter anywhere else on the site it makes it look like a squeeze page. Italics is a better option.

    I could continue to critique your site and point out things that most web designers would never do, and you'd probably end up with a boring site. So find a nice happy medium. There are a ton of online resources for doing that. http://www.w3.org/ is awesome.

    If you really want to rake the sales in, get a shopping cart and take more forms of payment than PayPal. A real shopping cart will pay for itself, so will consulting a graphic designer. I would consider replacing some of the photos with high res photos from istockphoto.com or taking them yourself.

    Otherwise I wish you a very successful launch! *Very* few people get this far. With your technical expertise it's not expected that you create the 'perfect' web site and it will certainly go through evolutions before you get what you want.
  • SRLMSRLM Posts: 5,045
    edited 2012-05-20 21:36
    You don't need the text "All pictures are for reference only and are not actual size." People browsing to your website don't expect it to be actual size...

    Smaller paragraphs makes it easier to browse through the text.

    I would also buy a domain. You can get a domain through google for $10 a year, and it comes with the Google Apps services. It looks much more professional than "xxx@gmail.com".

    It also doesn't render correctly for me on Chromium.

    Edit: Also, 30 days is IMHO too much for returning a product. Modern consumers are used to two day shipping (Thanks Amazon!) and returns that are just as quick. If it takes more than a week on a return I'd probably not buy from that company.
    garagedoorvalet.jpg
    1024 x 746 - 132K
  • SRLMSRLM Posts: 5,045
    edited 2012-05-20 21:40
    Also, you should look to selling your product through Amazon. They will warehouse and ship your product for you, and their website is very good.
  • xanaduxanadu Posts: 3,347
    edited 2012-05-20 21:51
    SRLM wrote: »
    Also, you should look to selling your product through Amazon. They will warehouse and ship your product for you, and their website is very good.

    That might be the best advice for someone starting out. You should definetly parallel that with your own site, Amazon fulfillment services will get you sales.
  • hmlittle59hmlittle59 Posts: 404
    edited 2012-05-23 04:42
    Hello All,

    Made changes...Thanks again for the feed back. More change to be made. Had to re-install my Firefox Browser, because one of my PDF files would not load up properly, all seems well now. Different Browsers seem to display colors (links) differently (Safari, Chrome, IE8, Opera 12). Anyway, Thanks again on the feedback.

    Howard
    www.garagedoorvalet.com
  • dmagnusdmagnus Posts: 271
    edited 2012-05-23 09:00
    " just like you where their pushing the button" Should be just like you were there pushing the button
  • ScopeScope Posts: 417
    edited 2012-05-23 09:18
    To anyone like me (& maybe I'm not the typical potential customer), the web site is way TMI.

    I would like to see only 3 items:

    #1 --> What does it do? (if explained well, the reader will know why it's a needful item)
    #2 --> Convince me it's easy to install (I saw just the opposite)
    #3 --> Order now

    Although the website has tons of great information, is it really necessary to publish it? The website clearly represents lots of work from one or more very intelligent sources but you have to ask yourself this simple question: Am I going to appeal only to electronic guru's or the rest of humanity?

    I know this sounds harsh but . . . well I've never had any friends so why would I want to start now, eh?
  • FranklinFranklin Posts: 4,747
    edited 2012-05-23 10:09
    Still not quite there. When you click on Resourses there is a drop down, select tools needed and it does not take you there (it should) the main page is still overly busy and the navigation is confusing. Keep working on it.
  • RDL2004RDL2004 Posts: 2,554
    edited 2012-05-23 14:16
    The text on the diagonal striped background has gone from hard to read (blue) to even harder to read (dark red). That background is just too dark. Consider getting rid of all the background images - they seem to aggravate the overall "too busy" look.
  • xanaduxanadu Posts: 3,347
    edited 2012-05-23 18:39
    Couldn't help but ask, are you paying your technical contact listing Avanquest Software (Brian B.) to make the site?

    Or are you using WebEasySite to make this site?

    It looks better.
  • hmlittle59hmlittle59 Posts: 404
    edited 2012-05-24 00:55
    Hello All,

    Once again ya'll are brutal. Thanks. The site / product is for the Tech. person and has always been that (more on that later). I've made 98% of the changes and will do my best to make the rest of them. Some I could not duplicate (Bad links...Tools Needed...worked) even with my cell phone. Next and Previous Arrows will walk you from 1st page to last. Each product has a drop down that gets you to its related parts. Clicking on that product will bounce back to were it came from (some may have additional listing). There is lots of PDF's with instructions / PCB / Sch. / DEMO code / and more. Colors have been toned down...a bit. The HOME PAGE information has been change to help someone understand what it will do and that its a kit. This is a KIT. Some parts are not sold separately because the parts are intended for the kits only. Makes it easier on me. Also boards can be bought alone if you already have parts like most of ya'll may have. All prices are listed and the basic Firm Ware is free to down load. The Enhanced FW has more feature. All of this is on the Web.

    Thanks again for all your feedback.

    Howard
    www.garagedoorvalet.com
  • hmlittle59hmlittle59 Posts: 404
    edited 2012-05-24 22:10
    Hello xanadu,

    Not sure I completely understand the question? WebEasy 8 to now 9. All me with call in's to the tech. desk and iEasySite help videos.

    Howard
    www.garagedoorvalet.com
  • xanaduxanadu Posts: 3,347
    edited 2012-05-24 22:17
    hmlittle59 wrote: »
    Hello xanadu,

    Not sure I completely understand the question? WebEasy 8 to now 9. All me with call in's to the tech. desk and iEasySite help videos.

    Howard
    www.garagedoorvalet.com

    I guess I was poking around, to see if you had a budget and were paying anyone or purchasing software for your site. If you're spending money on it I was going to say you can hire people relatively cheap and in the long run it can pay for itself. I'm definitely not saying to hire someone if you want to do the work yourself it's a great learning experience.

    One thing I forgot to mention earlier that you could do to help your visitors is to make a video all about your product, then embed the video on your site. The real beauty of this is, whoever you use to host your video (Vimeo, Youtube, etc) will get you traffic as well. It's also a great way to show people what they're getting and how it works without writing a ton of literature.
  • hmlittle59hmlittle59 Posts: 404
    edited 2012-05-25 17:20
    Hello xanadu,

    Have a budget, but once I got started on the ideal/concept of what we wanted, we could not stop. Will be setting up a E-Store front also at IEasySite.com with other items. Video is in the works.

    To be noted once again, different browsers are giving very slightly different results at some locations. ex.: Opera does not scroll "Credits" properly.....double text from the bottom to mid screen. Every link has worked and all pictures are displaying. Opera is "INSTANT" with ALL picture (WOW), even the pages with four (4) different pictures. If he other browsers are written in BASIC, then OPERA must be written in ASSEMBLY Language. Was going to switch from Firefox until the "Credit" box issue, we'll see....


    Thanks again for the feedback.

    Howard
    www.garagedoorvalet.com
  • RDL2004RDL2004 Posts: 2,554
    edited 2012-05-26 01:15
    The "mouse over" color for links is blue, this is the only blue I saw anywhere and it's a bit out of place. Maybe try changing this to a light gray color (since the text is black).

    It looks like the (diagonal stripe) background image may have been lightened, because the contrast with the black text looks a little better, but it's really still too dark. I would still recommend getting rid of all background images (other than the one at the top of the main page), as they aggravate the over-all "busy/noisy" look and don't really add much (unless you are actually going for a 90s look).

    The bright (and dark) red and yellow colors that are used in many places are completely out of place. You have an overall green/gray/black/white color scheme, you should try to stick with that. The turquoise color used for the titles on the main page title is a bit iffy.
  • FranklinFranklin Posts: 4,747
    edited 2012-05-26 07:18
    The boards layout will support a Super Cap.(SC) (trickle charge) from a DS1302 Chip as a backup power source should the main power fail or be removed. But it should be noted that LittleHM,LLC could not ever get this part of the design working as projected. The trickle charge from the DS1302 chip would never charge the (SC) enough to keep the clock chip running after the main power was removed.
    Things like this should NOT be on the website if you expect people to buy your product. Also as others have said the colors between pages should be consistant and somewhat muted. The site is still overly busy and confusing to navigate.
  • Mike GMike G Posts: 2,702
    edited 2012-05-26 07:25
    How do I purchase a GDV? How much is a GDV? What do I need to make this thing work?
  • hmlittle59hmlittle59 Posts: 404
    edited 2012-05-27 21:24
    Hello All,

    Thanks Mike G., I'm addressing your point. Also making changes to back ground (stripes) also.

    Tough crowd, tough crowd....Rodney Dangerfield.

    Thanks again

    Howard
    www.garagedoorvalet.com
  • hmlittle59hmlittle59 Posts: 404
    edited 2012-07-04 09:10
    Hello All again,

    Thanks for all the feedback, I've made all the changes that I could and will be making more. Please, if you have any more suggestions feel free to express them. This is up and running and things are going great. I'll be in touch and now off to working on another design.

    Thanks again and Happy 4th of July.

    Got the Stars and Stripes displayed again...Had to get a stronger bracket.

    Howard

    www.GarageDoorValet.com
  • FranklinFranklin Posts: 4,747
    edited 2012-07-04 10:29
    MUCH better and more professional looking. Keep us up on how it goes over with customers. Good Luck!
  • RDL2004RDL2004 Posts: 2,554
    edited 2012-07-05 05:06
    Still has legibility problems with dark colored text against dark backgrounds. Mouse-over highlight color of blue against dark green and dark grey backgrounds is also not very good. Good luck though...
  • SRLMSRLM Posts: 5,045
    edited 2012-07-05 09:56
    Better...

    -On the highlights section be sure not to capitalize unless it is necessary. For example. "Motorized Garage Door" should be all lower case.
    -The search isn't really useful as it is (besides being in the wrong location). You can improve it by using the Google "site:" option
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