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Concept Reviews
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I like the simplicity of the site (always a fan of straight & to the point!). There does seem to be something lacking, but I think that could be remedied with some work on the banner/logo area. You mentioned that you aren't paticularly smitten with it either, so here are my suggestions:
Logo/Banner - Experiment with different fonts - Get rid of the outline fonts - Maybe play with the idea of making it look like a bumper sticker? - Make the caravan silhouette more defined. I couldn't tell what it was at first. - Do you need ".com" in the name of the site? My opinion is you could drop that since you will be using it in all of your other branding efforts. - Use color variations, or different colors to differentiate the text.
Large Photo "Slideshow" I like the idea of the photo slideshow to highlight the functions of the site, but think it needs to be a little more OBVIOUS. - Use more coloful photos - Use photos that have to do with the function - ie a "For Sale" sign, handshake, etc. - Make text at the bottom of the slideshow different from that in the body of the page and the short description - Add a header on each slide that will describe what the function is.
Attached is a VERY ROUGH idea. I'd even try and work in the "Fast Payment, No Hassle Collection, Quick Valuation" as a tag phrase.
Just suggestions and hope they give you some ideas.
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I will refrain from giving design remarks in this concept but wanted to say something about the concept in general.
From the domain name and website title, it would not be fully clear to me what you mean with "I". Without your explanation in the description I would assume this is for people who want to buy a caravan, but it seems it is about selling caravans.
The concept seems as seen from the business owner, not the user. It could be of course that I am the only one interpreting it this way.
I do like your eye for simplicity in the concept so far, especially given the audience.
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Kurt Farrar commented:Thanks for the feedback. The idea was modelled from the "WeBuyAnyCar.com" that's advertised on radio and television in the UK at the moment, but my client had already bought the address before contacting me, on the basis that they were a single person buying the caravans and not a corporation (like webuyanycar.com) and the "We" version had already gone. However, that said, it doesn't mean that they can't buy another domain name, they're cheap enough, so I'll definitely be feeding this back to them.
In the future as the site expands, it would in essence become dual-purpose... for both the public to sell their caravan (either to other members of the public, or trade - IBuyAnyCaravan or others)... and for the public to find a caravan to buy, but this functionality isn't part of the initial launch.
Although it would better to rename in order to focus the aim for the launch period, it would seem a shame to later rename back to IBuyAnyCaravan.com (or something similar for the multi-purpose site in the future.
The multi-purpose site is expected to be within 3 - 6 months, so it's not 'that' far off.
Thanks again for the feedback, certainly a valid point, certainly valued.
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Hi Kurt, I cant believe this is your first concept ._.
Right now its a pretty mediocre design, but with a little more work it will look awesme.
I'll go top to bottom :D
- The logo definatey needs work, I didnt even notice the "I" why is it white too and now blue?
- The image you used is weird, i see like a grid or something in the background and words all over the place.. They MIGHT be watermarks, if they are, its fine then, if they are part of the image, get a new one. Also the desc is kind of confusing. how bout a big heading "no more hunting for buyers" then in smaller light grey text "submit your details ect."
- The testimonial on the side: The "" quotes.. they are icky, make them the light grey the text is and make the text darker,
- There is no navigation.. I dont know what to do.. how do i contact him? I want to know more about him, returns?
I think bringing in another color would look good. There is a lot of blue here.. also make the text lighter, I like light text, I dont know why, but black text on whitebackground bugs me.. its too contrasty.. :o
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Kurt Farrar commented:
I know! I've never had enough time between design and development to allow for anything to go on here, and wait for feedback. :)
It was originally all blue with 'Buy' in white on the blue background, but the I was even less noticeable in my opinion. That's the only reason I recoloured it to white.
The image is a draft from fotolia.com, the ones they allow you to use for concepts are watermarked, and also heavily compressed so they look much lower quality than the originals. If my client's happy with the concept, then I'll buy the full res. version for use in the site, and for use in any print media later. From past experience, I don't waste money on buying the stock images until the client's happy with what I've selected.
I'll change this later to see how it looks, fair comments... I'm not sure of the positioning of the text either. Centred doesn't look right, I may change this so that the quotes are leading characters in the block of text instead.
There is no option of returns, the only contact method is via the quote form, "Quote now" is mentioned a few times which will take the visitor to the Quote Form, and I expect that clicking the labels in the javascript scroller will also take the visitor to the Quote form. This bit is deliberate, however, it's valid that people may not trust him if there isn't enough information about him. IBuyAnyCaravans.com is a trading name for his caravan buying business, Triangle Caravan Sales, and I'll therefore make more empthasis of this and link to that website which has information about 'him'.
Given the age of the audience it needs to be high contrast, a large number of the people using the site will be 50+ so not sure about the light text, but will have a look at another complimentary colour, and even some alternative colours altogether.
There is no specific requirement for blue, and the obvious colour related to caravans is green however as the name is similar to 'WeBuyAnyCar.com' I don't want to risk any legalities of passing off as their brand (which is green and black), so green is really out for this particular site. I'll include some other colours to my client.
Thanks for the feedback, very much appreciated.
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Luke Marohn commented:Thanks for the kind words and taking my feedback into consideration, the text is fine black, it was just late at night and It wasnt to kind on my eyes ._.
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Hi Kurt,
I like the concept but it's poorly executed, in my opinion.
Here's the things I would change:
Home Page
- I would change the logo. I think it's too big and it's only thing you really see when looking at the page. It also looks amateurish. A logo can make or break a website. Depending on the budget, I would outsource the logo design.
- You need a tagline underneath the logo explaining what you do. I need to know within a few seconds what the website can do for me.
- I would merge the two left boxes into a single box, inside it have steps labelled 1,2,3 explaining what happens. At the moment it's quite hard trying to read everything and finding out what happens.
- Have quite a big call to action that takes you to the form page. Currently you don't have a call to action on the homepage (if you have, I've missed it). Name it 'Get A Quote' or something like that. A large green button would stand out nicely.
- I would like to see a navigation bar, with About Us / Why Choose Us etc. on it. I think at the moment, the site's too plain to be taken seriously.
- If there's an option to take away the 'Powered by' link in the bottom right, do it. I've never been too keen on those type of links and always pay to have them removed on a commercial site.
- The testimonial box. I like the positioning of this, but it needs to be modern and stylish. The quote marks are too big and to be honest too ugly, try to look for alternatives. Is there going to be a 'Read More' on the testimonials? The grey text on a light grey background might make reading difficult for your target market.
- I would like to see some statistics so I could see if it was going to be worth my time or not. eg. Our customers receive payment 14 days quicker than selling privately. Or something along those lines, not sure what. You could put that type of sales pitch in its own box. Probably put it down the right hand column.
Form Page
- Too much text in the first paragraph. Hopefully I already know what the site is about and I just want to fill out the form.
- Replace 'Your name' with 'Name'. 'Contact e-mail' with 'Email'. 'Contact telephone' with 'Telephone'.
- I would remove the right hand column on this form page. The less distractions the better. As I said before, they've already decided to fill out the form, don't distract them.
- Change the colour of the button, probably green and make the font size larger.
I'm looking forward to reviewing your next draft. Hopefully with a couple more revisions you'll have a great converting website.
Thanks,
Steve
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Kurt Farrar commented:
Hi Steve,
Thanks for the feedback.
Some valid points raised, there is a call to action in each of the slides, but I think it's clear from the feedback that it's not obvious enough.
I particularly like your points about the stats, I'll put something made up into the concept, but this will have to be something for my client to research.
Thanks!
Kurt
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Kurt Farrar commented:
P.S. The 'Powered by' link will be coming off when the site grows and they pay enough to cover the cost of a licence. :)
Hi Barbara,
Thanks very much for your feedback, definitely the most helpful so far. The logo is the bit that I'm least happy with at the moment, and I'm hearing resounding agreement from the reviews so far. I like the ideas you've given for the slideshow, I'm going to rework the design now taking into consideration the feedback so far, so hopefully you'll like like how I'm going to incorporate your feedback.
You're right about the .com, definitely not needed, and I think you might be right about the tag-line, at least it's as good a starting point as any.
Thanks!
Kurt