Need some suggestions for improvement.

[Harold Mansfield]

I've been redoing my old site 1st Internet Media, which I put on a back burner to start using my name sake for business.

It's not totally complete, most noticeably is that it is set up to showcase multiple service providers and I haven't filled them yet.

There are some things in the backend that you don't see..

The support tickets are actually tracked and monitored by progress on the back end. Any associate can answer or work a support ticket.

There is a collaboration plug in that allows multiple people to work a single project, including sending estimates and billing.

It's buddyrpess ready, but I don't see a need to activate it for now.

Just interested in how it looks and flows. Every time I look at it , it seems like something is not right, or missing and I can't put my finger on it.

Are the colors too bland?
Do the images look stupid?

Need some fresh eyes..
Thanks
Link (http://1stinternetmedia.com/)

Oh, by the way, I won't be actually leaving the slides that say "Coming Soon" . I just have them there to fill the thing out for now.

[Spider]

I liked the bright colors and upbeat attitude. I'm glad I came.

Please get rid of those flying graphics - I thought I was going to get whisked of my chair with the velocity!

But what was it about? Not having found this site by searching for something, I have no idea why I would land there. Don't you need to tell visitors what you do? The first thing to read was to start a design project and call you. I don't know why I should call you, at this point.

Then we get, Open a support ticket. Support for what? Do I need support? Maybe I need support to stop getting blown about by those flying graphics! I always thought a support ticket was for contacting the service department of some company I had already dealt with and something wasn't working right. I don't know you and cannot see why you would support me. What has gone wrong in my life that needs your support?

But it sure looked exciting. I just wish I knew what I had wrong that you would fix!

:-)

[Harold Mansfield]

The point is that you don't need to be an existing client if you need help right now.
But what I am hearing is that isn't clear and I need to change the text so that it is. I also thought that I should be a little more direct up there.

Or that the slider images and text does not say plainly enough what services we provide.
I can work on that to make it crystal.

Rewriting the text is usually an ongoing thing with me, until I can get it idiot proof. It takes me some time to make things as simple as possible.

Probably won't change the slider. May slow it down, or change it to a fade, but I don't think you really thought that a website was going to make you slide out of your chair.
If it could do that, it would be one hell of a website.
Thanks Frederick.

Edit:
Change the wording at the top (and will probably change it again). My thinking for the support tickets was to create an urgent call of action. Opening a help ticket is one step closer to retaining them as a client, rather than going through the whole pomp and circumstance of making contact and going back and forth to get something done.

I figure if they open a ticket, they need help right this minute.

I got the idea from the amount of people that contact me that are having minor issues that can be handled in under an hour. I'd like to get those in, serviced, billed, and out quickly instead of taking days to get it contracted, done and billed.

[Spider]

That's better! You could make the "Need help now?" bigger, then embolden "immediate" in case they didn't understand 'now!' But you do need to know that you can respond PDQ. "Immediate" to me would be a call or an e-mail within a couple of minutes.

[Harold Mansfield]

"Immediate" to me would be a call or an e-mail within a couple of minutes.

During the hours stated, that is the plan.

[jamesray50]

I like your site. I'm not sure how soon A.S.A.P. is. Maybe a specific time frame would be better, like with 12 or 24 hours, except on weekends. Or something to that effect. Unless you have someone that monitors your mail around the clock and can fix problems for people anytime.

[Harold Mansfield]

I like your site. I'm not sure how soon A.S.A.P. is. Maybe a specific time frame would be better, like with 12 or 24 hours, except on weekends. Or something to that effect. Unless you have someone that monitors your mail around the clock and can fix problems for people anytime.

M-F 8-5. When you actually go to the support ticket page, you can choose an urgency level up to immediate.

[jamesray50]

Oh yeah, I see where it says Monday - Friday, and on the support ticket it also says M-F, but then right below it says Monday through Saturday and its highlighted. Are you opened on Saturdays too?

[Harold Mansfield]

Oh yeah, I see where it says Monday - Friday, and on the support ticket it also says M-F, but then right below it says Monday through Saturday and its highlighted. Are you opened on Saturdays too?

It's part of a complete sentence "Wordpress support is available Mon-Sat". The whole sentence is highlighted. Is it really that confusing?

[Spider]

During the hours stated, that is the plan.Then that is not necessarily *immediate.* I open a support ticket on Sunday morning and you respond 3 weeks later M-F 8-5 is "during the hours stated" but hardly immediate!

[Harold Mansfield]

Then that is not necessarily *immediate.* I open a support ticket on Sunday morning and you respond 3 weeks later M-F 8-5 is "during the hours stated" but hardly immediate!
Where are you getting this from?

Monday thru Friday 8 to 5 is pretty straight forward.
I don't think anyone who reads that will have a hard time understanding what it means. It's pretty much a universal way of expressing what hours you are open for business.

If you open a support ticket on Sunday morning, that's not Mon -Fri. You'll get a response on Monday morning after 8 am.
If something in there causes confusion, I don't see it.

[jamesray50]

It's part of a complete sentence "Wordpress support is available Mon-Sat". The whole sentence is highlighted. Is it really that confusing?

Is it only the immediate part that is not available on Saturday? If that is the case, then yes, it is confusing. If it is available, then shouldn't it all say Mon - Sat?

[Spider]

:D
Where are you getting this from?
.. Monday thru Friday 8 to 5 is pretty straight forward.
I don't think anyone who reads that will have a hard time understanding what it means. It's pretty much a universal way of expressing what hours you are open for business.
.. If you open a support ticket on Sunday morning, that's not Mon -Fri. You'll get a response on Monday morning after 8 am.
You really don't understand that from the posted hours?I'm getting this from your website --
If you need immediate help for an existing Website, or Wordpress installation... open a support ticket and one of our specialist will contact you A.S.A.P to help solve your issue. Mon - Fri 8 am to 5 pm (pst) Even if I get a response on Monday morning that 8.00am on the dot, that is not "immediate" if I opened my support ticket on Sunday Morning.

I'm not saying you should do this or that, but don't promise *immediate* if you are going to respond 24 hours later - 48 hours later if I open a support ticket on Saturday morning. Immediate is immediate, not up to 48 hours later. If you want to keep your response times to M-F 8-5, don't promise "immediate" - tell them "during working hours M-F 8-5.

[jamesray50]

: I'm not saying you should do this or that, but don't promise *immediate* if you are going to respond 24 hours later - 48 hours later if I open a support ticket on Saturday morning. Immediate is immediate, not up to 48 hours later. If you want to keep your response times to M-F 8-5, don't promise "immediate" - tell them "during working hours M-F 8-5.

I have to agree with Frederick here. When I see immediate I think of right away, even if it is the weekend and even if you are showing your hours. I would just assume you have staff to handle the emergency emails.

[Harold Mansfield]

Why would you expect a response on Sunday, when it is clearly stated that the hours of operation are Mon - Fri ?
I don't understand that one.

Why would you ignore:

We answer support requests daily Monday - Friday, 8 - 5 p.m.
Wordpress support is available Monday - Saturday
..and expect an answer on a Sunday?

You actually have to pass by Mon-Fri 2 times, before you even get to the form.

I don't know about everyone else, but if it's Sunday, and I see that a businesses hours are Mon - Fri, I don't still continue to tug on the door just because the hours say 9 to 5.
Days open, trumps hours of operation.

I appreciate the feedback on that, but for now, I'm going to assume that most people can decipher that until I see that there is a problem and people are expecting Sunday service.
If I'm that busy, I'll welcome addressing the confusion.
Maybe I'm expecting too much from people, but I'm sorry, I just don't see it.

[Spider]

Why would you expect a response on Sunday, when it is clearly stated that the hours of operation are Mon - Fri ?..Because you told me so. You told me if I want it now, if I have an immediate problem, you will respond... I have quoted your website already but I'll quote it again--
Need help now?. If you need immediate help for an existing Website, or Wordpress installation... open a support ticket and one of our specialist will contact you A.S.A.P to help solve your issue. Mon - Fri 8 am to 5 pm (pst) That is contradictory. M-F 8-5 is not now and it's not immediate, if I need you over the weekend.

[Harold Mansfield]

I'm going to go ahead and roll with it the way it is on that one. If it turns out that people don't understand what business hours are, then I'll change it.
But I think people are smart enough to understand that someone will respond during the hours posted.
Many support ticket systems are laid out exactly like this, and I haven't seen where people are misunderstanding what the support hours are.

If I have to, I'll just shut the form down on Sunday or send an automated response as a reminder of the hours.

If that's my biggest problem on the site, I guess I'm in good shape;

[Harold Mansfield]

Oh, you guys mean the first "immediate", not the one in the form! My bad, I assumed that you had actually gone past the first page.
Yeah, I could probably take that one out.

[Emeric]

Okay, I have to go to sleep; it's 3 a.m. but I wanted to quickly throw in a comment. I feel like the little thing that is off, as you hinted at in your original message, is the spacing and size of a few fonts.

The first thing I did was reduce the size of "Speak with us today about your Web or Wordpress Project! | 707-70-MEDIA" the way it breaks into the "Open Support Ticket" space is irksome. That was a really quick change that I made using FireBug and I thought it brought an instant change, opening up the page a bit more.

I would do something different with main Navigation. I feel like the rounded corners and the flat style isn't cohesive with the rest of the site. For me I personally don't like the combination of the Glassy Modern Style mixed with the Flat Art Deco graphics.

But I agree with you it is pretty much there. I'm off to bed.

[Spider]

Oh, you guys mean the first "immediate", not the one in the form! My bad, I assumed that you had actually gone past the first page. Yeah, I could probably take that one out.I didn't see an out-of-place 'immediate' on the Support ticket form but I did spot a grammatical error --

"For website problems you maybe required to provide FTP access, or hosting log in."

That "maybe" should be "may be" - they are not the same.

[Harold Mansfield]

The first thing I did was reduce the size of "Speak with us today about your Web or Wordpress Project! | 707-70-MEDIA" the way it breaks into the "Open Support Ticket" space is irksome. That was a really quick change that I made using FireBug and I thought it brought an instant change, opening up the page a bit more.

I would do something different with main Navigation. I feel like the rounded corners and the flat style isn't cohesive with the rest of the site. For me I personally don't like the combination of the Glassy Modern Style mixed with the Flat Art Deco graphics.

But I agree with you it is pretty much there. I'm off to bed.
I agree. I'm not crazy about the menu style or that text area at the top. But it's more than just the spacing, I don't like the styling.
That's something that I'll have to keep thinking about, but I agree that I can't leave it like that. I just don't have any ideas for it yet.


I didn't see an out-of-place 'immediate' on the Support ticket form but I did spot a grammatical error --

"For website problems you maybe required to provide FTP access, or hosting log in."

That "maybe" should be "may be" - they are not the same.

Got it. Thanks.

[Harold Mansfield]

Made some changes following your suggestions.
I also changed a few things that I was already tired of looking at like the images in the service boxes and colors.

If there's anymore keep 'em coming.

[501graphics]

I don't know if you're open to any suggestions design-wise, but your logo has a thin (single-pixel, probably) white border around it that's bugging the hell out of me. It surrounds your icons on the "Coming Soon" slides, too. Anyway, I would suggest getting rid of it all together, or making it considerably thicker. The single-pixel width makes it look inconsistent, as if it's not supposed to be there.

Personally, I like the speed of the slider. Then again, no one else seemed to like how fast mine was moving, including you. I really like your site. It looks good, and if I had designed it, I would be very proud of it.

[Harold Mansfield]

I don't know if you're open to any suggestions design-wise, but your logo has a thin (single-pixel, probably) white border around it that's bugging the hell out of me. It surrounds your icons on the "Coming Soon" slides, too. Anyway, I would suggest getting rid of it all together, or making it considerably thicker. The single-pixel width makes it look inconsistent, as if it's not supposed to be there.
Yeah, I've been looking at it the last couple of days. I don't really have a logo, I just threw that up there to fill out the space, so I will probably replace it anyway. But I do see the white line and it is kinda amateurish.



Personally, I like the speed of the slider. Then again, no one else seemed to like how fast mine was moving, including you. I really like your site. It looks good, and if I had designed it, I would be very proud of it.

Much appreciated. Means a lot coming from a designer.
For the record, it's not that I didn't like the speed of your flash fader...I just didn't like it as a showcase for your work. It's good stuff. I think your work should be in a static gallery so that people can get a good look at it. Maybe add a back story or some notes to each one. Use them as part of the sale.

[jamesray50]

I know I'm being redundant on this, but what is the difference between a support ticket being answered Mon - Fri and Wordpress being answered Mon - Sat? Is Wordpress support the only support offered on Sat and all other support issues including Wordpress are offered Mon - Fri? Sorry for making this so confusing.

[501graphics]

The Flash movie on my home page was more of a filler; my actual portfolio was static. Some people said the individual images (in the portfolio) were too small, though. That's all been fixed, but the landing page still has a slider. I considered adding project notes, and probably will in the near future. I'm glad you like my work; that means a lot to me.

Anyway, this isn't about me. Like I said, I think your site looks really good. It's nice to have other designers to bounce ideas off of, and to provide inspiration. I look forward to seeing more of your work.

[Harold Mansfield]

I know I'm being redundant on this, but what is the difference between a support ticket being answered Mon - Fri and Wordpress being answered Mon - Sat? Is Wordpress support the only support offered on Sat and all other support issues including Wordpress are offered Mon - Fri? Sorry for making this so confusing.

I'm changing all of that. From now on it will just be M-F. No confusion.

[jamesray50]

I'm glad I have been able to contribute in some way to this forum. But I hope you aren't making the change just because I have aggravated you to death about it.

[Harold Mansfield]

I'm glad I have been able to contribute in some way to this forum. But I hope you aren't making the change just because I have aggravated you to death about it.

Of course not. I'm stubborn. It's tough to set anyway since I would like it to be support for all kinds of troubleshooting, but I just don't have the people yet.
I change things frequently until I can wake up and not want to change it anymore.

[Spider]

Wording is now clear (no confusion about "immediate" being available M-F 8-5 only!)

I thought the larger "Freelance Web Professionals For Hire" worked better - maybe not as large as it was but not as small as it is now.

If "Freelance..." is slightly larger, "Wordpress Support" beneath it could be a tad bigger.

Have you changed the colors? The rest of the top wording is now too similar to the background color and is difficult to read. (Or are my eyes still blurry, this time of the morning?!)

It seems as if you have darkened the background color slightly because the page seems to have lost that "slap in the face" power it had before.

And what's with that 1940s telephone? Do they even make telephhones like that, anymore?

I'm sure there are some new-wave reasons for all this and my lack of design skill is showing - never mind me. I just like to talk!!!!

[Harold Mansfield]

Now see, I thought that the other colors were too bland and had no pop. Too me the blue on blue looked washed out and plain.
Yes, I did change them and some of the images in the content boxes.
I had to change the logo to add the phone number because it just wasn't working in the other area.

I put the description where it is because it's easier to change on the fly there, and eventually it will say "Freelance Web, Graphic Design and Wordpress Professionals for hire" and that wouldn't
all fit on the logo.

As far as the phone, I always imagined that you still had one on your end table next to a Life Magazine, and that it still works.:)

[Spider]

...As far as the phone, I always imagined that you still had one on your end table next to a Life Magazine, and that it still works.:)Well...yes! And I am deeply honored that you are designing your website to suit my sensibilities!

Actually, I was thinking the border round your flying graphics serves as a windbreak. The pictures don't seem to be likely to blow me off my chair any more. Is that intentional?

[Harold Mansfield]

Actually, I was thinking the border round your flying graphics serves as a windbreak. The pictures don't seem to be likely to blow me off my chair any more. Is that intentional?

No, didn't really change any settings on that. Just added some color to the border to emphasize it a little more and separate it from the rest of the page.

[Spider]

And there! I thought you were concerned about me getting hurt!