Criticism Wanted Here

Matt,

Add a cookie to the home page so that if someone returns to the home page they won't have to listen to the voice over again. It could be worse, it could have been a MIDI file! Add a way to turn the voice over off, too. I surf at work alot and leave pages immediately if they have sound.

I think overall that it looks pretty good. You need to go to the individual house listings pages and compress the heck out of those pictures. Some were in excess of 100K.

John

1) The logo looks really nice, but there is too much space to either side of it. Not much else I can say about that. It would just look better that way IMO. I like the logo on the sub-pages though.

2) On the main page there isn't enough space between the left menu bar and the main content area. Same goes for the right menu bar. Put more space in between.

3) Shouldn't it say 'Contact Us' instead of 'Contact Me'? It would be more professional, and true for that matter. I doubt just one person is building on the whole 800 acres

Nice...

Thanks for the pointers y'all....
The photos are the customer's postings. I have tried teach them how to compress and shrink pics, but to no avail. I set up the site with a back office so they could enter the written content, lots and houses.
I'll have to have some way of turning the voice over off. I just have to make sure not to piss these folks off. That is one of the few things on the site they were very specific on.
Again, you are right about the "Contact Me" button, but it is per the customer's orders. It can get very frustrating working with non-computer people sometimes. The person in the picture is actually the only agent there full-time.
I'll go back to the logo and widen it up a it. It does leave too much space....

Thanks again,
Matt

It looks pretty plain to me, but you've got a very nice logo.

Explain carefully to your customer that people do NOT want to wait long for information .. someone else is one click away. Show them their site using a 2-year old PC with a 28.8 modem and no plug-ins installed.

They hired YOU as the expert, and when their site gets no traffic beyond the interminable front page they will blame .. YOU.

And, once you have got them to agree that the flash is a turn-off or drives people AWAY, get them to understand that thumbnail images should be used (linked to larger pix) instead of the full size pic with smaller dimensions.

BTW - one of the things I am always interested in when looking at houses is the price. I can't see those anywhere.

it's a nice looking page. but as other people have already mentioned: if a page has a voice-over background that can't even be turned off, I'm outa there!!

Actually, my first reaction--whenever a sound starts--is to hit the back button and leave the site in the dust. I don't even care what's on there. As a matter of fact (being an analyst at one of the "big" sites) I know that the majority of people online will do the same thing.

Try to suggest to your customers to put a button below that guys picture that says: "Hear my greeting"

If I were you I wouldn't be so much afraid of pissing them off than having to keep this site out of your portfolio for being too annoying...

G

Altho I do appriciate the constuctive critisism, I would like to put this voice over thing to rest. I HAVE explained to the customer that the voice over sux. I HAVE explained that people get anoyed by that sort of thing (myself included). The customer is a stubborn 50+ yr old man who is convinced he has to be talking to everyone that comes to the site. PLEASE do not post the "voice over sux" messages. I am not a 'net newbie. I just could not convice this man that it was a bad idea. When his customers complain about it, then I will be able to change it. Until then....

I should prob'ly explain a few things. The area (rural Mississippi) I am working in is not computer savy. In fact, we are about 4-5 yrs behind the rest of the country. When I got this job, these folks wanted a site they could post pictures of the houses but, despite my best efforts, they do not seem to understand how to reduce the file size. They know just enough about the internet to be dangerous, but do not comprehend the way it is being used around the rest of the world. They do not want to post prices because they don't belive anyone might want anything more than to glance at the pictures. I find myself trying to educate people around here just to keep from making absolutely horrible sites. If you only knew the things that didn't make it into the site...... A perfect example is http://www.fordrlty.com/ This is the kind of site people around here pay good money for. Once again... I DO appreciate the constructive critisim, but please keep in mind that I am a missionary to the "unwashed" down here.

That Ford Realty site is 'awesome' in the sense that someobody would pay money for it. Oh well, maybe we should all move to Miss ... http://www.drbukk.com/gmhom/park.html

lol...pretty pitiful eh Andy.... that site is what is considered a "good" web site around here. Made using FrontPage... The site has been up for a couple of weeks now... I am hoping they will let me change the voice over now. Maybe they are tired of it by now.