What do you think of my web site?

[RoyKelly]

Hi everybody I fianlly got my web site up and running, and am looking for other's input as to how it looks.

The site is Country Computers (http://www.countrycomputers.biz)
What needs to be changed and why
Does it load fast enough?
Anything else you can think of to make it better


Thanks in advance :D

[HAL9000]

Loads decently fast for me... could do without that green font on the fuscia background.

[mairving]

It's not the worst site I have seen but it could use some work. Here are some suggestions:

Logo - your site would do well to have a well designed logo. This logo should be on business cards, truck signs, stationary, etc. This will help brand your site. It also gives you a basis to start on your site.
Colors - are bad. Purple backgrounds with green text is just plain 'butt ugly'. Choose some colors that complement not contrast. Neon colors should be avoided as well.
Open space - too much open space between where your top image is and where your navs start. No reason for the open space that I can see.
Backgrounds - the purple fade backgrounds are very old school and don't do anything for the site.
Computers - you work on computers but nothing at all on the site picture wise reinforces that idea.


Again start with the logo. Have that professionally designed as it is the most import thing on your site. Once you get it done build the site around it.

[Jaggannath]

I agree 100% with mairving... definitely ditch the fuschia, it's corroding my eyeballs. But I think it's a very good starting point, you've done well. If I could suggest something, search through the forums for posts by sigmaseven (should be in the web development forum). He was designing a site, and he did very well, but needed a few pointers. His site was pretty good, and he had a very good logo to boot.

But as I said, you've made a good start, and obviously planned it out quite well. Keep up the good work :)

[Edit]
The Thread I Was Talking About (http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=98560)
Sigma Sevens Site (http://www.angelfire.com/dragon2/sigmasevencompany/Sites/UntitledFrameset-12.htm)
See how nice/bored I am :D

[Amazin Caucasian]

i dont like the rainbow logo, not a great catch phrase. Definitely go with other background colors, too bright and not bold enough. (just my opinion)

[David M]

It's good. Is it oriented towards women? Thats fine if it is. Just wondering because it seems to have a feminine touch. No offense intended.

[GaryRouth]

No problems with loading quickly.

Mairving's comments will probably have lots of folks agreeing. The contents of the site are a good first step, and provide potential clients with necessary information.

If you generated the look from a "Template", see if there's another that you can switch to with a more neutral color scheme. The "Country" idea might be hard to do from a template, and you might be better off generating your own, just like Mairving mentions, following a custom logo & it's color scheme & design ideas.

I think that the sound of the company name might just strike a chord with home and small-business customers - it has a pleasantly "local" feeling that these customers might find inviting. Sometimes a personal face, or a local setting (whether from a photograph, a PhotoShop-retouched or filtered pic, or folksy artistic drawing/painting) can add a level of comfort too.

Looks like y'all are ready for business, overall.
Good luck with it!
. . . Gary

[LA22]

I didnt really look to hard but it dosent say where the compnay is based out of. Is the company for the entire country? Or are you just operating in one state or city? If I searched on google and your site came up and if I were ineed of some sort of computer service I would like to know where you are from. Sorry If I missed it on the site.

[BIG jay]

colours in the big one for me, need updating, its very 60s style, but over all not bad,

[HAL9000]

It's good. Is it oriented towards women? Thats fine if it is. Just wondering because it seems to have a feminine touch. No offense intended.

You know.. nothing wrong with gearing towards women. I don't know about anyone else in the computer biz, but I always found it was the women in a relationship that was making the final decision AND cutting the cheque.

[Auriga]

At first glance the colours are really off putting for me, it just doesn't look like a site i would trust.

The banner at the top needs re-doing, you got all that space...use it.

Nothing seems to fit together nicely either as well, looks like a cut 'n' paste job or something.

You should also look into using CSS.

It's also not W3 Valid Code. (http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.countrycomputers.biz%2F)

Sorry if that seems harsh but if it's business you're after from the site then i'd re-do some stuff.

I would be happy to help with a design or anything if needed. No charge! ;)

[David M]

I said it was fine to orient a website towards women. Look at Overstock.com..they seem to be doing very well.

[RoyKelly]

Thanks for all the tips. First, like all sites, it is in development.

We will look at changing the colors to tone it down.

The logo IS on business card, vehicles, and letterhead. It can be changed, but why?

I believe I do have some computer pictures that I can put in. I also have some local pictures I can put in as well.

Yes it was designed by a woman... to get more women, because 99-45/100% of the time, it IS the woman who either approves the job or writes the check. If you don't belive me, just look at what you do and who gives you the money.

AS for where we are, at least once on every page, we say we service Southeastern Colorado, it in the title, alt text on every picture, and there is a map showing our service area.

I will look at CSS. Don't know much about it but can learn.


Thanks again for the tips. Please keep checking back and letting me know what you think.

[David M]

Smart decision orienting it towards women. You have distinguished your website from the others and focused your website on an important segment of the market.

[TwoRails]

Most of the cosmetics are already covered, so nothing new here. However, one of my peeves is when an online company does not mention or have a brick-n-mortar street address listed. I personally tend to stay away from such places...

Also, if you’re not a member of the BBB, then it is a good idea to become one, and place that sticker on your site. A member in good standing carries a lot of weight for a lot of people, including me. If I’m checking out new company (and our Forum members are not familiar with it ;) ), I will check out BBB before I check out places like resellarratings.com.

If I missed either, then sorry... but it shows that the info is hard to find.

[mairving]

The logo IS on business card, vehicles, and letterhead. It can be changed, but why?

Didn't suggest that you necessarily make a new logo since I haven't seen it. The idea is branding. Is the logo on the site? It is just good business sense. Of course, if your logo is just text then you should probably redo it.

[RoyKelly]

Got changes made... toned down colors a bit, took care of white space at top, put in physical address.... take a look and let me know what you think of the changes.

Our logo is on the site, mairvig, located here (http://www.countrycomputers.biz/Images/country_computers_web_page_bussiness_card.jpg). :rolleyes:

[HAL9000]

Any particular reason you're using a right justification for the text instead of left?

[Force Flow]

I'm with hal.

Also, you may want to increase the font a bit in some places. It's a little hard to read, especially some of the bolded text.

Also, about the little typing computer...that image has been overused to death. I'd suggest using something else that's more unique and up-to-date. When you stick that on your page, you're conveying that this is an old shop with old and referbished parts.

As for the logo, the multi-colored background says to me that the shop would look like a retor 60's and 70's classic rock store, rather than some sort of country store. Do some googling for country stores and take a look at the kinds of color schemes they use. They typically rely on spring colors.

[RoyKelly]

I'd better look again. Right aligned text? I'ts not supposed to be!

As for the computer, it was suggested that I have something that suggested we work on computers, so I used what I had. I will work on it.

I see what you mean about the font, especally on the home page. I will have to work on it tommorrow, it's getting late.

[mairving]

Still needs a lot of work. Your logo should convey something about you...Country Computers. Instead as FF and Hal mentioned I am thinking of 60's retro, Peter Max maybe. The page layout is better since you tightened up the top.

Things that still need some major work.
-Font size and styles. The key thing is consistency. Look at the home page. You have Tahoma as the default font which is okay although Verdana would be better. Text should be bolded for a reason. Whole paragraphs should not be bold text. The <p> is for paragraphs not <H2> . Some text is blue, some is bold, some is Tahoma, some is Arial. Just a mess on the text I wasn't able to find many pages that had consistent text.
-Stylesheets - this has to be a first because I have never seen javascript being used on a stylesheet. Just rife with problems.
-Color scheme is still bad. Neon colors and gradient backgrounds just aren't done any more. Thank God for that.
-I did mention something about using a computer on the site. Never mentioned anything about using a very tired animated gif on the site. It is distracting and makes it look less professional.
-Some layout - although the layout is better. I still have the impression that things are dropped and scattered on the site rather than placed. The site has no flow to it.

[Lamilia]

one thing I would do is look at some of the top websites like yahoo,ebay,amazon
etc. and make your site look like that without copying them.