Finished Or Only Just Started - You Decide (please?) ;-)

Get some feedback on your site or ad from other rental owners and techies. Also a library of online resources so you can make DIY improvements to your web presence.
LittleRiverView
Posts: 32
Joined: Tue Jul 05, 2005 11:56 am
Location: Horning, Norfolk Broads, UK
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Finished Or Only Just Started - You Decide (please?) ;-)

Post by LittleRiverView »

Hi All

Well after many a night staying up until 3 in the morning :shock: :shock: :shock: , I have finally "finished" the web site I am hoping to use to attract visitors to my wife's cottage in Horning, Norfolk Broads, UK as we are 99% decided we will go it alone next year and deprive the agency of their 22% + VAT + £29 booking fee GGRRRRR.

If any members can spare the time to give me some feedback on the site at www.littleriverview.co.uk I would be very grateful.

Things I am particularly interested in are:

Anything so obvious you can't believe I missed it out - for example half way through its development I had an enquiry from somebody asking how many the place sleeps as I had not explicitly stated it - just that it had a double and a twin bedroom.

The front "loading flash splash screen" is there only because the slide show on page 1 preloads the images before the page appears and this can take a while on a dial up connection. At least with the splash screen you get a screen saying the site is loading whilst the images are loaded so they are cached locally for the main site - do you think this is off putting and would I be better just reducing the number and quality of the images in the slideshow to make the main page load quicker - even doing that I'm worried its going to take too long for dial up users?

Is the picture gallery intuitive to use - is it obvious what to click for more picture pages and that clicking a small pic on the right of the page makes it appear as the large pic in the middle of the page?

Are the contents of the pages under the About the Cottage and About the Area menu items attractive enough to make you want to visit?

and of course anything else you think will improve our chances for 2006...

Many thanks
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marcus
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Location: Lot-Garonne / Dordogne borders
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Post by marcus »

Hi,

A couple of comments, a nice website with a simple clear background, a fair number of pictures etc

The menus are nice but don't disappear when you move the mouse away - they keep focus unless you select a menu item, which is a bit irritating and can block the text below

I am not sure that 'home' is the ideal heading for your first page, and guess that others here will tell you a heading should include a multitude of keywords

The internal videos don't do a lot for me personally (a bit gloomy) but it is a very good idea showing that you can see the boats going by from inside the house.

Likewise personally I would not have the intro screen, making the changes to the pictures etc on the homepage as necessary to avoid the need. The intro screen went on quite a few seconds on our high speed link and I imagine could seem excessive on a slow link.

The guestbook seems to contain no contents at the moment, although the text says 'read a few comments below'

The question of whether you can cancel your agent and use your own website is covered elsewhere on these forums - broad answer is that you will still need to spend on marketing of some form

All sounds a bit negative but not intended to be, its a very nice website.

Good luck
Marcus
Fraise
Posts: 2079
Joined: Sat Oct 30, 2004 8:25 am
Location: Charente Maritime and Middle England

Post by Fraise »

Hi.I liked the site.My only problem (apart from the couple already mentioned by others) was when I went to "see aerial picture here" there were popups,which were blocked-I always find this a turn off!That is usually literally what I do,turn off!! I didn't this time but didn't allow the pop up so I've no idea what I was missing! A very nice property and a site that matches!!Well done ,I hope you get lots of bookings :lol:

www.thepetitmanoir.com
LittleRiverView
Posts: 32
Joined: Tue Jul 05, 2005 11:56 am
Location: Horning, Norfolk Broads, UK
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Post by LittleRiverView »

Very pleased to see a couple of good constructive replies already - thanks very much...

marcus
Agree re the menus - not having it removed when you move away is not good - the other issues I have on the menu are :

1) It is only actually the text in a menu item which forms the hyperlink rather than the whole of the option - this means you can have the option highlighted and click it but it won't go anywhere as you aren't clicking the actual text - this is particularly a problem accessing options with a short title when they are under menus which have other "longer" options.

2) Its only the submenu items that are active - hence having the home menu option with an "unnecessary" submenu.

Think I need do some work to have a different menu system .... probably more of a long term one that with some testing reqd on some dummy pages.

Good spot on 'home' - that's a relic from laying out the pages early on and not revisiting it - will get onto that.

I do intend to improve the videos - it was a dreary day when I was there with rain clouds gathering - I am up on 19th July so here's hoping that the sun is shining and I can put together something a bit brighter.

I don't like the splash screen either so I'll have a look at optimising the images and reducing the number - all the pics from the slideshow are on the gallery page as well so I really don't think I need two pics from both bedrooms and can probably drop the village sign as well.

Guestbook - in my rush to get it up yesterday I've missed it - will get onto getting some of the comments from our book onto there.

Fraise - good point - I need to change that and will have a think about how to have that link as a nonpopup.

Thanks again for some great comments - I'll post something back here when I have made some improvements.
Clexane
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Location: Provence France
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Post by Clexane »

I really liked your site. It was concise and had many good pictures. It was easy enough to navigate though the menus are a bit tricky.

The part that did not work was the layouts. Each time I pressed on a triangle, I got a new page but the picture did not load. I am using Firefox so this may be a compatibility issue.

On a small note I would also have the rates easier to find. It is not obvious that they are under availability. After location cost is the next thing most people are looking for prior to wondering about availability.

Overall it looks good. I really liked it.
So you wanted a holiday home in france ...

www.villaemmanuelle.com
LittleRiverView
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Joined: Tue Jul 05, 2005 11:56 am
Location: Horning, Norfolk Broads, UK
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Post by LittleRiverView »

Hi Clexane

Thanks for the comments - downloaded a copy of Firefox myself and noticed the same problem - the code puts up the window with the image "box" sized correctly for the sreen res being used but no picture appears - I think it may be to do with using forward slashes instead of back slashes (or vice versa) when I specify the path and filename of the image - I'll have a look at it tonight and see if I can get it fixed.

Interesting comment re availability as well - I wonder if its worth just changing the Availability menu to read Prices instead and leaving the contents of the pages the same....
LittleRiverView
Posts: 32
Joined: Tue Jul 05, 2005 11:56 am
Location: Horning, Norfolk Broads, UK
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A few changes made

Post by LittleRiverView »

Hi All

Thanks very much for all the comments - I have taken them on board and with limited time tonight (plus its fast approaching a 2am finish :shock: :shock:) I've made a few changes after the suggestions I received - not been able to get round to optmising and reducing the images to remove the splash screen but will look at the hopefully tomorrow but changes I have made are:

Guest book comments now present

Changed the Availability menu to read Prices & Availability

Changed the title on the home page to something more informative than "Home"

The major change though is on the internal layout downstairs page (http://www.littleriverview.co.uk/intern ... ut_d1.html) - decided to try to avoid forcing the user to have a popup so put the pics next to the graphic and that updates when you click a different red triangle - you can still click the pic for a full screen size pic in a popup but don't have to now.

Likewise for the link to the aerial picture, that changes the pic on screen now instead of forcing a popup.

I have left the upstairs layout page the same for now (http://www.littleriverview.co.uk/internal_layout_u.html) and would be very interested in whether people think the changes are worthwhile.

PS Clexane - I hope I have fixed the problem with the full screen images not showing in firefox as well!!
Rgds
Clexane
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Location: Provence France
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Post by Clexane »

Very nice!!!

Internal layout downstairs is fantastic. Pictures load fine if click

Pictures still not loading on upsatirs layout. Why bother do the same for upstairs as downstairs which is great.
So you wanted a holiday home in france ...

www.villaemmanuelle.com
LittleRiverView
Posts: 32
Joined: Tue Jul 05, 2005 11:56 am
Location: Horning, Norfolk Broads, UK
Contact:

Post by LittleRiverView »

Hi Clexane

Thanks for the feedback (again) - you are right - I didn't touch the upstairs page last night and wanted to see what you thought of the new downstairs one but I also didn't correct the image path problem there and I should have done that at least. Will change the upstairs tonight to be the same as the new downstairs page assuming I finish my day job on time today!! Then I need to look at optimising/reducing the pictures on the slideshow so I can remove the front screen.

I appreciate your points regarding popups - I can't see too much alternative when I want to show a full screen version of a picture but I am very wary of them as well so am trying to change the site so any popup just a bigger version of what is already on the page so people don't miss seeing something - they just don't see the big version if they do not want to allow popups.

The firefox "no picture" problem was my specifying a path with backslashes instead of forward slashes which IE is OK with but not Firefox - I think IE is far too forgiving so I am checking new pages with both browsers now - lesson learnt. My web stats show 22% of my visitors are Firefox users so its important it works for them.

Many regards and any other comments from anyone else are more than welcome.
LittleRiverView
Posts: 32
Joined: Tue Jul 05, 2005 11:56 am
Location: Horning, Norfolk Broads, UK
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More updates...

Post by LittleRiverView »

All

Sorted out the upstairs layout page to match the downstairs one - all looking OK - added a view from the front bedroom as well - going up 19th July so hopefull will be able to get one on a sunny day then.

Also managed to get the menu working when you click on an option from the menu before it drops down - this means I have been able to get rid of having to have a drop down under the home menu called "home page" who's only purpose appeared to be to annoy visitors.

Also made each of the other menus activate the page on each of their first submenu choices if clicked.

Slightly improvement but still want to change the menu system for one that vanished when you move the mouse off of it and one where the whole menu bar is active rather than just the text in the menu bar.

Finally its only half past midnight here as well so looks like an early night :(

Any further comments gratefully received - thanks as always for all the help.
Fraise
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Joined: Sat Oct 30, 2004 8:25 am
Location: Charente Maritime and Middle England

Post by Fraise »

:lol: Wow!! You have worked hard,go to the top of the class ( teacher in another life!!!).An excellent site.The video clips were a bit dark but they did brighten up as they panned back into the rooms from the outside views. Have a lovely trip next week !

www.thepetitmanoir.com
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vrooje
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Location: Burgundy, France

Post by vrooje »

Kevin,

You've clearly worked very hard on this site -- well done!

I can lend my views from a Linux/Firefox perspective:

Image

The above screenshot is what the home page of the site looks like in Linux. We're a small market share. :)

I can navigate this site fairly easily, but the drop-down menus are overlapping the fixed menu a bit.

Also, on the inventory page, the cyan bullets are overlapping the text next to them.

Your floor-plan photo tour is fabulous! :)

And overall I think this is a very nice site -- the colors are appropriate, the contrast is crisp, and it seems you've thought of everything!
Brooke
LittleRiverView
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Joined: Tue Jul 05, 2005 11:56 am
Location: Horning, Norfolk Broads, UK
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Post by LittleRiverView »

Hi Brooke

Many thanks for the comments - I've shown them to my wife in my ongoing campaign to justify my many 2am finishes :shock: :shock: even later bedtime in prospect tonight as I am not at work tomorrow!

On the menu - thanks very much for letting me know - looks as though the text in two of the menu items is too wide and forced it onto two rows - maybe a minor font size difference in the two OS? I have two options I guess - to either force it onto two lines and adjust the vertical offset of the sub menus or widen those two offending columns and narrow a couple of others - gone for the latter option and put a test menu for the front page here .

If you have the time, could you let me know if that fixes it and if so I'll copy the new version of the script file in and the other pages will use it.

Thanks re the floor plan - I do want to have the "active triangle" a different colour as per the brilliant forum article on it thats been posted and if I remember rightly that uses layers that I need to understand first - will get round to that - I could just have a different floor plan image per page but then I'm loading more images and as has been played out for all to see :D :D I have enough troubles there already :oops: :oops:

Many regards and thanks again
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Garri
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Joined: Mon Jul 11, 2005 7:26 pm

Post by Garri »

Kevin, have you thought about doing away with tables as a presentational element and purely using CSS?

Tables should not really be used for presentation as they were designed for tabular data.

All these hacks will drive you mad after a while and it then becomes difficult to keep track of them as you build more functionality.

And yes, I know, my own site uses tables and iframes and doesn't look too hot in Firefox, at least not on OSX, but I had it designed back in the day when I knew very little about these things.

It is currently being redesigned in pure CSS.
LittleRiverView
Posts: 32
Joined: Tue Jul 05, 2005 11:56 am
Location: Horning, Norfolk Broads, UK
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Post by LittleRiverView »

Hi Garri
Garri wrote:designed back in the day when I knew very little about these things.
Mmm that will be just about where I am now I think :P :P

In all seriousness I had a look at CSS last night as every single paragraph of my text seems to have its font, size and colour specifed individually - that will be great fun to change when the Mrs says "I really like that font but...." in a weeks time. Getting rid of the tables will be a job though - Can I add it to my list of medium term things to do ? :D :D

PS - that splash screen is going today - I've copied the HTML page and the .swf file to a floppy disk which will be ritually sacrificed at sunset in the garden :wink:

Many rgds
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