Website nearly complete, ideas please

[Pmagowan]

Ok, my website is nearing completion although I still have spell checking, grammar, some tidying and SEO tweaks to do. Some content is missing, in particular 'the chianti trail' and most of the gallery (which I haven't quite decided on yet). Of course we need the house complete before we can take the pictures for the gallery and we need to get out to Italy for some of the content. Calendar will most likely be PIMS in the end.

What I am really looking for is first impressions and general opinions on where I am going right or wrong. Anything that I should be doing more of or anything that looks bad.

All opinions welcome
Thanks
Paddy

[tavi]

Hi Paddy,

Is it just me or does everyone only see escape2tusca on the top?

I like the colours and the layout - stylish and understated. I'm not a great fan of the sliding header photos, they are slightly jerky....but the photos are atmospheric, - sometimes I'd like to linger.

Could you have a different static header photo for each page? (something I'd like to do on my own site)

All for now
Tavi.

[e-richard]

These may well be very personal comments but take what you like from it:

White text on dark grey looks very elegant, but is harder to read than the reverse. Therefore, I can say that your website looks smart, but cannot comment on the contents which I barely read (but then remember its not of relevance to my immediate needs !)

I have a pet hate for any animations on web pages.
I am also very fed up with the ubiquitous rotating gallery that appears on 498% of all websites.
Consequently, my immediate reaction was to scroll down to the real website.
Consequently I could not find the Menu.

Suggest the menu is below the images and certainly not on top of the pictures.

On the gallery, I did not quite understand the hierarchy you are hinting at. I appreciate its unfinished, but suspect you probably only need 1 level. And some of those pictures are really cool! Captions would be nice.

All in all, its on the right tracks, take what you wish from the above.

[Nemo]

I have a pet hate for any animations on web pages.
I am also very fed up with the ubiquitous rotating gallery that appears on 498% of all websites.
Consequently, my immediate reaction was to scroll down to the real website.
Consequently I could not find the Menu.

Ditto. I would categorically stop the rotating photos as I just cannot focus on any text whilst they are moving.

[PLF]

I like the photos at the top but can understand the comments about them rotating. To my mind though they are slightly too strong, I'd be tempted to make them a little transparent in order to place more emphasis on the menu buttons etc.

[Pmagowan]

I know, I know! I generally don't like animations but this is my one oportunity to get some decent big photos onto the site. I have slowed the rate of transition from 4s to 10s. Hopefully this is a good compromise. Still, I ask because I want honest opinions, keep em coming!

[lorca]

I have a pet hate for any animations on web pages.
I am also very fed up with the ubiquitous rotating gallery that appears on 498% of all websites.
Consequently, my immediate reaction was to scroll down to the real website.
Consequently I could not find the Menu.

Ditto. I would categorically stop the rotating photos as I just cannot focus on any text whilst they are moving.

Same here - perhaps you could use different heading shots on the various pages

I like the feel and design of the site very much - although the term "exclusive" irritates (to me it´s meaningless, just implies expensive, rather than quality). But from what I can see so far your place looks gorgeous.

From any site I want to know very quickly

Exactly where it is ( clear form your home page) and the nearest airport/s (on the home page please)

How many it will accommodate and facilities (fine)

What it looks like (I go straight to the photos/gallery so this should probably be number one).If I don´t love the look of it I won´t book. So far so good (presumably there´ll be more), but there is no easy way back to the menu once I´ve clicked on the gallery photos so you may have lost me.

How much it costs - will you have reduced prices for groups with fewer than 16??

[Pmagowan]

Thanks again everyone.

Tavi, do you know what browser you are using and did you get a pop-up suggesting it was out of date? The logo looks fine on every browser I have used do far (ie8 safari iOS).

I have just changed the gallery to a different style to see it that is better. I know the images aren't sized right yet. (all the images on the site need tweaked IMO)

Thanks lorca I now have a few things added to the list (that had been there but somehow got lost!) like how to get here (airports etc) which I will put on the main sidebar with the google map.

I use the term exclusive to suggest that the property is for the guests sole use. Guests will be completely alone, with pool gardens and half a mountain. We booked somewhere before that looked good but turned out to be part of a mini resort with shared pool (this is a complete turnoff to me as I go to Italy to get away from people).

We have not worked out prices yet. We are thinking that the set price will be for 12 and any more will be a supplemental cost. the figures on the site are just convenient placeholders.

I personally like the white on black as it stands out but I understand people's point of view. I think it also depends on your screen and glare. Black on white is easiest for text but I don't think the photos look as good. I might play around with this a bit more or adjust the site and ask for opinions.
What do you think of my things to do in Tuscany (needs more photos)? I was considering putting in an accordion to hide the large blocks of text and allow users to click to show it. this would make the pages much smaller to navigate. Anyhow, keep it coming. It is all good and valuable information.
Thanks,
Paddy

[Carl]

I'm going to disagree with some of the other comments and say that personally I think you do want/need an image slider. If you compare a well done holiday rental site that has an image slider against one that doesn't, IMO it makes the average static site look about as exciting as a housebrick (and even less interactive). However, I would limit the slider ONLY to the intro page. You could give everyone what they want - how about having the slider play at start with a pause button should they want to stop it - thereby giving the viewer control to turn it off if they want. I see that you are using Flexslider and it shouldn't been too big an effort to add this function (I have had a brief look at the functionality of this and it looks very straightforward). A quick change you definitely do want to look is regarding the images you have on your main page slider - ie corner of roof hidden behind trees, one side of house from below & chestnuts ((?)You don't want to be showing chestnuts on your main selling page/promo banner). You really really need to show the house off to its best on these photos and at the moment I'm afraid they don't. This main top banner is supposed to be selling the house.

Web loading speed is something that you should definitely be looking at on your site as it is quite image rich. I can see that you are making a lot of server calls for your style sheets and JS (try to incorporate the reused ones into as few separate docs as possible) as this is inevitably going to slow things down for you. Also, if you want to get very involved more deeply you could look at expires headers - this is not for the feint hearted if you haven't done this before as you are playing with your HTAccess file which can break things if you are not careful. However, what it can do is make your CSS, images, JS etc cacheable so it doesn't need to be called again as it will have been cached by the browser. Once other thing, are you using all three fonts that you are loading from Google APIs? Fonts seem to be particularly speed intensive IMO and the less you can load, the better - although I understand the want to have a standardised selection to make your site look the same on all browsers. There are other things you need to do, but you should see an improvement if you are able to do this.

To get round the menu issue mentioned by Richard, you might want to add a sitemap menu at the bottom of the page so you can access the different pages from top and bottom.

Hope this helps a bit.

[Carl]

Oh yes, & you need to design yourself a basic favicon.

[tavi]

Paddy, have discovered that my screen zoom was at 75% - at 100% I see the whole thing.

I'll get me coat.

[delilah]

Hello, for what it's worth my comments are about the gallery. I would personally ditch the building site pics in the garden, also any unfinished or cluttered bedrooms...Also, prof photographer will make what is clearly a beautiful place, look magazine stunning.

[Pmagowan]

Thanks again all. Lot's of useful info. Re the pics, I am working from my image collection and since the house and particularly garden is not finished the pics are very limited. Up to now most pics I have taken have been for the purpose of documenting building works etc. The only reason I have chestnuts in the slider is that I have very few good images of the house without scafolding, diggers, cement mixers, crane etc.

All the images on the site, with a few exceptions, are likely to change. They currently only act as placeholders.

Re speed; that is a different story. I have not been focusing on this at all. I have just been focusing on the content so far. I am relatively handy at whatever I put my mind to but I have no training in computers and any code I know is from developing this site to tweak the basic rapidweaver theme. I do have complete control through the webserver editing tools if I need it. I know next to nothing about CSS. There are some good online 'schools' and I may put my mind to this once everything is up and running to tweak things for optimal performance.

Thanks for all the comments. Keep them comming. I will adjust the site as they come in to try and make it better but I may take a little time.

Paddy

[Damien Meuzac]

Hi,

so from my experience on your website (using win xp and google chrome)

Depending on the pictures on display at the top, it's hard to read the menu. So either choose your pictures wisely, or place the picture below the menu titles

I'm not sure the choice of colors for "Book now" and "Check our FAQ" are a great. Difficult to read, and I'm young. Will be harder for 50+ people if they rent your place. I would suggest you choose something easy to read, a that pops enough to grab attention to the booking

The amenities list on the left is a bit confusing. Reception rooms:4? Loggia? what are those (I mean, if I'm asking the question, other people too, it's better to have as much clear info on the website (although in a none cluttered way) as possible

I'd suggest you put an email link or contact form straight on the homepage. Even better a phone number too. At the top side (right preferably) and at the bottom (for 2nd email/phone link)

And having another (smaller) menu at the bottom could be useful, so I wouldn't need to scroll back up (although not everyone agrees with a double menu option, so I'm not sure about this advice )

For the choice of pictures in the gallery, getting something professionally made (maybe in exchange for some free nights ) or from an arts school, with some staging is a very important and crucial investment so people get the best impression from your property! I also agree with the comment to get rid of the construction or unfinished room pictures, I don't think you want your renters to think that your property is still unfinished with the risk of noisy days!!

[newtimber]

On an Mac using Safari, the pictures in the gallery display do not occupy the same screen space as the original 4 pictures. This means that the photo you have to scroll down to see the bottom of the photo and at the same time can see parts of the other 4 pictures at the edges. You also cannot see the pictures there are in the groups without looking at every one of them with the "Next" button. With the menu slideshow playing behind the photo you are looking at, the screen looks rather untidy.

I would like to have a decent photo of the accommodation whose rooms look rather interesting and distinctive on the front page rather than the grapes and chestnuts.