Clientelevision 2.2

Based on your critiques and others' feedback, we have substantially revised our site design and would respectfully request your feedback on CLIENTELEVISION.com as it currently exists. Our goal here is to create a site that is easy, intuitive and engaging.

Overall i really like the layout, everything is easy to find. Loading times are very high though! Im on a 20meg broadband connection and it took a good 10 seconds to load. On a 56k connecting you would be looking at over 2 minutes loading time so you've already lost a lot of viewers.

Hiya,

I like the colour scheme and the layout, I think it works really well.

A couple of points though:

• I completely agree with AnsUK, the loading times are dreadful. I am only on a 2mb line at home (living in the country side has its trade-offs ), and it takes about 15 seconds to load the site un-cached. The problem is that you have about 95 requests going back and forth from the user to the server. You could probably shave off a couple of requests by unifying the CSS files into a few more manageable CSS files (I usually use 4 files, a global one, a tab and panel one and one or two page-specific ones to do all the jobs for my clients)
• Home page: "Advice on file" panel doesn't work for me usability-wise. The speed of the rotation is too quick, and you are not giving any indication how many there are (unless you fully watch it) or how to stop the animation to read more before making the decision of actually clicking on them
• "Search for solutions" panel: This is a grave usability issue, always have a "go" or "search" or "find" button following
• Business -> Personal guarantees (product page): I would strongly recommend to begin the page with an excerpt or introductory text about what you are going to see on the video. Since your pages are already slow in loading you may expect users to drop off if they have to wait for a video to load without telling them properly what it is about beforehand
• Left hand column: These are mostly external links and may lead users away from the pages. I would suggest displaying these on a right hand side panel as "related reading" based on the (product) page you are on as they may mislead to being seen as navigation within the site
• Page ads: most of your ads are site-internal ads. As such, are these really needed? I would suggest having a more functional footer instead, cross-linking information relevant to either the page you are on or the section you are in. This would also save your loading times
• Same goes for the "featured on..." graphic in the top right. I would keep it only on the homepage, as it doesn't improve your credibility.
• Product categories: I am not sure if the 2x2 layout of the pages works or if it was better to feature more products on one page and reduce the amount of pagination. In general, a user usually does not venture past the 3rd or 4th page to see if the product / item is available on that website before giving up and going elsewhere. Plus it makes your site look unprofessional as if you wanted users to go through so many pages so you can cash in on the ad-revenue (if you were to exchange your internal ads with google ads for example)
• Accessibility issue: You are not making (much) use of alt-tags and heading styles
• Contact us: this should be a full page and not a mailto: link

I hope this helps, there are a number of usability issues you may /should need to think about.

Kind regards,
ALEX

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Alexander Rehm - Web Architect
Portfolio | What was I thinking?

I really appreciate these comments and will do my best to incorporate them into the next wave of modifications. I am encountering some difficulty in optimizing the images so that the page loads faster; some of the multiple CSS links result from the use of various modules within the Joomla CMS, but I suspect that the images are the main culprit. This also accounts for why I limited each of the thumbnail pages to four, hoping to avoid too many images per page.

My only comment is that the appearance is not as professional or as serious as it's subject. It looks like a website of a tv series, no offense. Just giving some insights.

From a viewer perspective, initially the site looks vague or undefinable to me. I needed to click around and see what's really behind those videos before understanding it's content.

Though look-wise or graphic-wise it seems good, there should be an introductory page to what the site has.

Alex have had listed those usability issues, so I have no more to add. Just the loading issue is what bothers me most.

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Web Design & Development

Thanks for the feedback. But I have a follow up question: Have you ever seen a site with an "introductory page"? Doesn't one always have to click around to discover what kind of content is available? Isn't the better question whether the visitor should want to click around and investigate?

If not, do you know of other examples where an "introductory page" or some form of verbose intro worked?

Hiya,

Pretty much every site you come across that is offering products or client services uses its home page as an introductory page.

I think the question is what you define as an introductory page. Usually when I begin lecturing at a new university or for a new class I define a website's homepage like this:

A home page is the first thing a visitor or potential customer sees, it is the means for the client to display his services or featured products and to give the visitor - the potential customer - an overall idea about the company, services and products before committing to a purchase or enquiry - Alexander Rehm, Web Architect

Yes, the user has to click around at some stage to learn more about your business, your sevices and products, but without giving them some sort of introductory infromation they are likely to go elsewhere, where information is more readily accessible.

Hope that helps,
ALEX

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Alexander Rehm - Web Architect
Portfolio | What was I thinking?

Thanks Alex, I understand what you are saying, but can you suggest a couple of sites that actually convey the type of introductory information you are talking about? Without that as a guide, it's hard to envision just how to put it into practice.

Good examples of an introductory home page to me would be:
http://www.atomicdesign.co.uk/
http://www.travelbound.co.uk/

..or two sites I helped revamp recently: http://www.netizen.co.uk/ and http://www.adventurecompany.co.uk/


All of these show a number of informative and product aspects and routes deep into the site structure while giving information about the business and its target market

Does that help?

ALEX

__________________
Alexander Rehm - Web Architect
Portfolio | What was I thinking?

Hi!

OK, going on previous comments I will tell you what I think you should do with the home page:

Remove the animated banner in the middle, it seems to serve no real purpose.

The search area near the top is a waste of space (as in, there's too much unused space around the search box) - move this to one side.

OK, now that we have some space, create a familiar layout that the typical user can relate to - put navigation on the left (can use the same tab style, just a vertical list instead of horizontal) and use the remaining space for introductory text - fill down over the two case files - in fact, pictures speak volumes so here's a screen grab of what I see when I load your page, with my suggestions on it... hope they make sense!

Also I think your main heading is too small, it's almost like an apology. You need to make it about three - four times the size and more central, with bold contrasting colours (so that it stands out from the background - grey on grey is a dodgy colour scheme at the best of times). Remember to include Alt tags otherwise if your images don't load for some reason then people will just get a little red cross or question mark that means nothing.

I know those Joomla things can be difficult to work with at times, but if a job's worth doing it's worth doing well

Attached Images

clientelevision_changes.png (371.3 KB, 7 views)

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My other iMac is an iMac.

Jonny,

I appreciate your comments, particularly the effort and thought put into them. I am concerned, however, that the suggestion to "create a familiar layout" really a recommendation to use the same tired old templates everyone does. I'm not all that fond of scrapping the site's file cabinet theme so that we can create a standard template.

It probably just comes down to style. When I went with a more marginal search bar, many commented that it should be more prominent and much wider as a focal point of the site. Ditto for extremely large graphics proclaiming the name of the site. So I guess you can't please everyone. If I moved the search to the margin as you suggest, I run right back into the same critics that wanted it right smack in the middle.

Hi again,

Hmm, I see your points. To be honest I didn't get the filing cabinet thing at all, I just saw a row of typical web page tabs. If the search is to be made more prominent then why not make it really stand out and place it right next to (an enlarged) heading? This would make it prominent and free up the current space it takes up both at the same time; also make the box larger, with larger type in it, say about 14pt (or 1.2em at a guess).

I don't like tired old templates myself either, but they do suit certain types of website and can be made more interesting with original graphics and a bit of creativity. I think that different or creative layouts that actually work well for business or information websites are hard to come by.

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My other iMac is an iMac.

Hiya,

I know what you mean with that. But remember both jonnymorris and I have brought up almost the same layout suggestions due the fact that both of us have a similar tried-and-tested approach to the industry.

In my (work) life time I have brought to life just over 80 websites, out of which all are live and performing well over the estimated targets, both for number of unique and repeat visitors but also for new and repeat business.

Obviously what you do in the end if your choice, the options are many, you follow a best-practice / tried-and-tested approach to the home page, which may impact on its unique feel, or you could stick with what you have - or try something new! Everything has their advantages and disadvantages. Who is to say that using a best-practice approach means you have to follow the exact same idea? At the end of the day, what you are doing is taking a usability / information architecture blueprint of a best-practice approach - but you give it your own spin: make use of a bigger header, a more functional footer, wider panels, narrower panels, the possibilities are near endless on that one option already, and your own art direction, art work and style will play an important role in both creating something easy to use, yet unique, and something that ties in well with your brand. If the cabinet theme you are already going for is something you don't want to scrap, then what is to say you cannot go and sit back and look at it again, re-jigging bits here and there?

At the end of the day it is up to you, I am just here to give you an honest opinion and trying to give suggestions that may help turn your site into something that converts and gets a lot of users, and all that for free. You, as the designer, as the user, as the client, now need to have a think and form a clear action as to where you want to take the site's home page.

With kind regards,
Alex

PS: Might I just suggest - to save time and work - that if you want to redo the homepage here and there to attach jpeg versions of the home page layout instead of making the changes on the live site? It would certainly speed things up for you

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Alexander Rehm - Web Architect
Portfolio | What was I thinking?

You did not see that it was a file cabinet. Hmm, that's a problem. Not sure what to do on that one. Even the login is placed where the key would go and the search bar is placed where the drawer label goes; again, opening up our files to those seeking guidance on our site.
Maybe there's a better way to go in terms of tag lines. Currently, it's "Ignorance is no longer an excuse," which is designed to convey the fact that we provide understanding of topics that have long been too difficult to understand.
We want to unlock information that has been filed away for far too long. Perhaps that is what I need to say up front; ah, but how to do that without being too verbose and ugly on the home page???

Perhaps the reason why I didn't get the filing cabinet theme is that I don't work with filing cabinets? They are a thing from 1960's crime thrillers and 1970's James Bond, after that people started keeping their main database on computers... well most people anyway

I'm certainly not saying that you should just scratch the idea all together, but with a bit of intro text which opens with maybe a question asking the viewer if they need help opening a file on some thing or other, and make reference to the fact that you have a big filing cabinet full of solutions. A simple line explaining the theme is all it needs, and it might just make it click in people's minds.

Perhaps if you placed a bit of intro text where the two files are (below the search), and made the search box larger with the 'Search for solutions' in one of those label slots above it instead of just floating underneath, then it would be something to work from. It's worth trying different things out in some test area just to see if they look and work, then get feedback on them. It's amazing what a few little tweaks can do for a page.

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My other iMac is an iMac.

Gotcha. Actually, I have been having some difficulty on browser compatibility. The Search for Solutions is in the label slot on all browsers except Safari, which, for some reason I can't comprehend, puts it below the slot, causing it to run into the drawer handle.
I think what I'll do it use a tag line that deals with cabinets...I had tried "Your Cabinet Advisor" where the Ignorance tag is now, but someone commented that they didn't get that either.
I think most people, even if they don't work in an office environment, are familiar with the fact that professionals like lawyers, accountants, financial planners, insurance agents do work in offices with file cabinets and have a file on just about everything they do. Because we provide "professional advice"-oriented content, I thought it would be a natural fit.

I'm going to take your advice and create a quick mockup incorporating your suggestions. Then, perhaps we could see if we've hit it the right way. Thanks again!

Okay, it's an idea based on your suggestions ... not a finished product, but just to get your thoughts on one possible approach to the issues you've raised.
Thanks again for your feedback. This is a great help.

Attached Images

mockup.jpg (40.5 KB, 5 views)

Hiya,

It certainly stands out a bit more. Is "Stranger than Fiction" another tab? If so then it would need a similar tab-treatment to make sense.

ALEX

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Alexander Rehm - Web Architect
Portfolio | What was I thinking?