feedback please

[marcus_oasisdjs]

Hi chaps,

I took the plunge earlier this year and got a professional website made!
Please tell me what you think, what its missing or W.H.Y.
I am still updating the gallery bit but everything else is near enough complete.

any feedback appreciated, don't hold back :beer1:

[Corabar Steve]

You forgot the addy

[JDB Entertainment]

You forgot the addy

:)

[Booche]

Guessing this is it http://www.oasisdjs.com/ ;)

[marcus_oasisdjs]

Guessing this is it http://www.oasisdjs.com/ ;)


thats the one! knew I missed something out! :cool:

[marcus_oasisdjs]

ok let's start again:

www.oasisdjs.com :)

[rob1963]

Hi Marcus,

The main thing I'd change is your contact page. As shown on the screenshot from your site, under the phone number it mentions email & says "See below" - but there's nothing below!

I would add an email link as well as a contact form, and if possible a landline number too.

Hope this helps.

:)

7015

[Marc J]

Where to start?

1) The first time I clicked your link, it timed out.

2) The slider is very badly chosen / implemented. There are far better options available (easyslider for Jquery (http://cssglobe.com/post/5780/easy-slider-17-numeric-navigation-jquery-slider), for example). There's a long delay with scrollbars visible while just an unavailable image icon and "loading" text is there for ages. This is probably because the images used in the slider are huge (307kB (http://oasisdjs.com/images/mainsite_28.jpg), 329kB (http://oasisdjs.com/images/mainsite-club.jpg), 4.5Mb (http://oasisdjs.com/images/lights.gif), 253kB (http://oasisdjs.com/images/wedding.jpg), 291kB (http://oasisdjs.com/images/celebrate.jpg) & 316kB (http://oasisdjs.com/images/asian.jpg)), a whopping total of almost 6Mb in images just for a (really very poor) slider efffect :eek:

3) It doesn't seem finished - especially the contact form, the design of which is vastly different to the rest.

At least they've used CMSMS, so I take it you're able to update it yourself? Or is that just for them?

I hope you haven't paid your "professionals". Seriously.

[discomobiledj]

Seems to me that Stuart Spice (Mr Site) is expanding his empire....

As Marc says above I also hope you haven't paid them....

Your site:

www.oasisdjs.com

Their site:

www.creativenerds.org/

See the similarities?

I'd be asking for my money back if you have paid them.

As for the site, pretty much as above. I take it you're doing the contact page as the CSS file seems to have disappeared!

[Marc J]

Your site:

www.oasisdjs.com

Their site:

www.creativenerds.org/

See the similarities?

I'd be asking for my money back if you have paid them.

Just to clarify, this wasn't the reason for my comment. Those two sites are different enough imho, besides unless unique design was part of the agreement (which it usually isn't) this wouldn't be an issue. The last thing I would do when looking for a mobile disco would be to visit their web designer's site to compare it.

My comment was more because anyone calling themselves professional web designers wouldn't even consider using images at that size, never mind handing it over to a client like that. Not to mention the javascript errors and general incompleteness of the site.

My advice remains - if you haven't already, hold off payment until these issues are resolved to your satisfaction.

[marcus_oasisdjs]

Seems to me that Stuart Spice (Mr Site) is expanding his empire....

As Marc says above I also hope you haven't paid them....

Your site:

www.oasisdjs.com

Their site:

www.creativenerds.org/

See the similarities?

I'd be asking for my money back if you have paid them.

As for the site, pretty much as above. I take it you're doing the contact page as the CSS file seems to have disappeared!

I used to have a mrsite which was dyer, and then I employed creativenerds.org

Whats wrong with similarities if you dont mind me asking? I liked the banner they had on their site, so I got one :)
Contact page has been sorted, I had a look at my service mail and it turns out the day I ask for feedback on a forum is the day my site moved server, hence the lack of css. anything good about the site mr discomobiledj? or should I change it all?

[Spirits High]

I used to have a mrsite which was dyer, and then I employed creativenerds.org

Whats wrong with similarities if you dont mind me asking? I liked the banner they had on their site, so I got one :)
Contact page has been sorted, I had a look at my service mail and it turns out the day I ask for feedback on a forum is the day my site moved server, hence the lack of css. anything good about the site mr discomobiledj? or should I change it all?


Marcus,

You came on here asking for feedback on your website. Feedback comes in many forms including both good and bad.

Forum members are more than entitled to their opinions, please don't get all narky and defensive when you get "feedback" that you've asked for ;)

[marcus_oasisdjs]

Where to start?

1) The first time I clicked your link, it timed out.
ok, how can I change that?

2) The slider is very badly chosen / implemented.
ok, i have reduced the file size, is it a bit better now?

3) It doesn't seem finished - especially the contact form, the design of which is vastly different to the rest.
server got moved yesterday morning, so a lil hiccup there. sorted now.

At least they've used CMSMS, so I take it you're able to update it yourself? Or is that just for them? I have access to it, so I can update it myself.

I hope you haven't paid your "professionals". Seriously.
well its a better attempt than my old mrsite one :D
thanks for the input marc j, anything about the site you like? haha

[marcus_oasisdjs]

Marcus,

You came on here asking for feedback on your website. Feedback comes in many forms including both good and bad.

Forum members are more than entitled to their opinions, please don't get all narky and defensive when you get "feedback" that you've asked for ;)

Hi, S.H, I apologise for sounding narky and defensive, I was just wondering what people liked about it aswell as what people thought could be better. No hard feelings, as everything said so far has been constructive and helpful. apologies!

[Jiggles]

I keep getting a DNS error. :confused:

[Spirits High]

Hi, S.H, I apologise for sounding narky and defensive, I was just wondering what people liked about it aswell as what people thought could be better. No hard feelings, as everything said so far has been constructive and helpful. apologies!

No problem , here to help and advise ;)

[discomobiledj]

After looking at it again, I have the following observations:

The scrolling banner takes the focus away from the actual site as it's so big, it's like the actual text has taken a back seat behind the banner and the animations on the right.

On your gallery the scrolling banner has timed out and has no pictures!

I personally don't think you need the set up/our equipment page, it means nothing to the general public.

[Vectis]

It looks to me like you've found a fairly good graphic designer who's trying his hand at websites and tripping over a few hurdles in the process.

It looks good (generally) but it doesn't work too well.

I second all of the criticisms raised already, but I have to say that on balance, it's better than a lot of disco sites. It would be good to hear some factual stats from you in respect of how well it works for you to assist with the long-running pro-vs-DIY debate.

[Marc J]

1) The first time I clicked your link, it timed out.
ok, how can I change that?

Get a better host ;)


2) The slider is very badly chosen / implemented.
ok, i have reduced the file size, is it a bit better now?

Don't know (see below)


) It doesn't seem finished - especially the contact form, the design of which is vastly different to the rest.
server got moved yesterday morning, so a lil hiccup there. sorted now.


Whatever excuse they gave you - a server move wouldn't have caused a problem on just this one page. It was unfinished imho. From what I remember it was just a css file incorrectly linked or missing.


At least they've used CMSMS, so I take it you're able to update it yourself? Or is that just for them? I have access to it, so I can update it myself.

Good :)


thanks for the input marc j, anything about the site you like? haha

Yes, as Vectis said they seem to be good graphic designers. But the web is different to print and they haven't made the transition very well! It falls down badly on the technical side.

For the record - it's showing as unavailable for me right now....so I'm unable to comment on any changes made since yesterday...

[Marc J]

OK, I managed to get the site 5 minutes ago so had another look.

Contact Us page is much better now, complete with the form....but there is no validation on this so it can be submitted with name and email address blank. Some fields also seem to be put into the message field instead of on their own (along with a duplicate request for name), which is a little strange.

The slider images are still way too large, averaging about 100Kb each and you're still using the massive 4.5Mb animated gif (http://oasisdjs.com/images/lights.gif). Ditch the animated gif (it's rubbish anyway), and use the images in www.loweringprices.com/oasisdjs.zip which average about 40Kb each - will give you a total of just over 170Kb for all the slider images together (which, imho, is still on the large side).

Other page elements like http://oasisdjs.com/images/advice.gif would be far better done in flash with a static image (or the animated gif, if you must) presented for users who can't view flash (use swfobject (http://code.google.com/p/swfobject/)).

One last point, if the visitor is unlucky enough to scroll the mouse within the slider area while it's loading (as you would, to get to the actual content) this knocks the slider position and it can't be recovered, resulting in something like the attached imaged.

[Marc J]

I was bored - clicky (http://www.loweringprices.com/oasisdjs/).

That banner is done using freely available software :)

[Pe7e]

I was bored - clicky (http://www.loweringprices.com/oasisdjs/).

That banner is done using freely available software :)

Big improvement

[Marc J]

Big improvement

The OP obviously thought so, as he has copied it...

A thank-you or at least an acknowledgement would have been nice :(

[discomobiledj]

You should have watermarked it Marc.

[Marc J]

You should have watermarked it Marc.

Nothing to watermark....all the images were the original ones, except for the shadow which I knocked up in 2 minutes....I was just showing the concept and the flash file is freely available.

Looking at the source they've used my example as a basis, which again is fine - it's not exactly rocket science. An acknowledgement would have been nice, though. If asked I would have given them the whole thing for free anyway...

[discomobiledj]

I know what you mean, just anything is better than nothing. Says alot about his graphic/web designer!