Angie Gibson said:
A colleague of mine is having this website built, (URL below), but I'm not
happy about the way it looks or navigates, but would appreciate some
opinions from the people here as to what could be improved, or changed
before it progresses further, so I can advise them more accurately.
Thanks, Angie,
The URL is
http://www.bristolyachtbrokerage.com
While I am a fan of js in this case it is probably best to
avoid.
When the window is resized the text disappears (in the js)
Boat brokerage site visitors tend to be (mainly) non
computor savy people who generally use their browser out of
the box.
They are also likely to look for, be most familier with, and
know how to use, links that are the simplest underline in
standard colors.
The main things they are looking for is
Easy to find listings that meet their criteria - price, loa,
type and use
Lots of picturse - thumb-nails they can enlarge in a
seperate pop up is good
Table style layout with consistant pattern.
To meet the above use tables for layout - get rid of the
frames - have a single option in the top menu (no js) and
put a side menu to the left.
Do not have the main page an info (about us) type. Most of
your visitors wont care about that until later (maybe) What
your visitors are looking for are boats! On the front page
have a Boat of the week / month / latest listing etc. Wet
the whistle as it were.
Most 'useful' boat sites have a strong multiple search
facility that gives a selective result. They are also fairly
basic from a designers point of view and generally quite
wrong from a purist view of. Ignore any negative comments
you may get about using tables etc. Tables work perfectly
for this type of site. More important, they work for the
sort of visitor this type of site attracts!
Suggest you have a look at some of the top brokerage sites
in that regard.
http://www.apolloduck.com/ is a good one.
If you want to check out some sites in the best yachting
country in the world then
http://www.yachtfindersglobal.co.nz/
http://www.boatsforsalenz.com/
All have in common a basic (ugly) tables layout but get
right to the point for their visitors which is 'show me
pictures and specs of the boat I am looking for.
Looking at what you have done so far I am sure you can do a
lot better than those I have linked as far as looks go. Add
in the searchable db, get rid of the js and frames and your
on to it!
By the way - I am not a designer but I do frequent yacht
sites as a boat owner and a looker for that special boat