Hamish the Butler

[barry.hynd]

Hi Folks,

We've just put up our very own little butler to our site and we'd like to know your thoughts, particularly on the following:-

How does he generally fit the site?
Is the script ok?
Do you think it would work for us having him on more pages?

Cheers :D

[creative-keyrings]

It perfectly suits your website & is an excellent thing to help people navigate through your site. I know i take my time to listen to things like that!

I will be using sitepal with my new site when it is up

view my one at www.creative-keyrings.co.uk/talk.php


hope it will boost your sales!

Regards,

Callum.

[epiphany]

Very nice, particularly the voice! :D

[barry.hynd]

LOL. I really am laughing here!

I really should mention that Terry from Hot Igloo provided the voice. There is no end to this man's talents.

[LittleAcorn]

Love it! Especially how his eyes look awkwardly around the page once he's finished speaking.

The accent is great! Is that your real accent Terry?

I think it really adds to your site.

[www.sitepal.co.uk]

Really like the way you use the character, cool!!

I will put your site forward for SitePal of the week. With thousands hitting the SitePal website everyday i am sure it will help sales if you are chosen.

Don't forget the Artificial Intelligence feature of the product as well, it has just been improved to allow users to interact with SitePal characters by typing in questions such as

"How much does this product cost?" and getting back reasonably intelligent answers.

This technology lets users look for answers in a much more intuitive and enjoyable way.

Best

Tony

[epiphany]

It is indeed Little acorn, perhaps a little less high pitched in real life though :D

[Cornish Steve]

Here are my initial thoughts about Hamish...

1) When I first visited your site, Hamish began speaking. There is a certain novelty to having a 'talking head' at your site. He's a more human and acceptable version of the annoying character who prompts you for help in Microsoft Office applications.

2) When I returned to your home page, and also the second time I clicked on the link from your posted message, Hamish was silent. Worse, he kept looking around while silent - which is almost eerie.

I'm hardly an expert on web design, but I think you need two things: a well-defined role for Hamish the butler, and consistency.

What is Hamish's role? The butler motif could work well; right now, he's just an embrionic idea. A butler is understated, blends into the background, and provides help whenever assistance is needed or requested. In that light, I would expect him to provide verbal assistance as I navigate your site. I would like to control when he speaks and when he remains silent. I would like to hide him and recall him.

Hamish should be consistent. If he greets me on one page, he should greet me on other pages. If he is a navigational and information aid on one page, he should be the same on all pages. As with any 'new technology', Hamish needs to blend in with existing processes - not replacing them but improving them.

I hope these comments are helpful.

Steve
www.goldctr.com

[epiphany]

It's is a third party piece of software (sitepal) Steve so a lot of your points are limitations of the software rather than choices Barry has made.

[www.sitepal.co.uk]

Here are my initial thoughts about Hamish...

2) When I returned to your home page, and also the second time I clicked on the link from your posted message, Hamish was silent. Worse, he kept looking around while silent - which is almost eerie.

I'm hardly an expert on web design, but I think you need two things: a well-defined role for Hamish the butler, and consistency.

What is Hamish's role? The butler motif could work well; right now, he's just an embrionic idea. A butler is understated, blends into the background, and provides help whenever assistance is needed or requested. In that light, I would expect him to provide verbal assistance as I navigate your site. I would like to control when he speaks and when he remains silent. I would like to hide him and recall him.

Hamish should be consistent. If he greets me on one page, he should greet me on other pages. If he is a navigational and information aid on one page, he should be the same on all pages. As with any 'new technology', Hamish needs to blend in with existing processes - not replacing them but improving them.

I hope these comments are helpful.

Steve
www.goldctr.com

When I returned to your home page, and also the second time I clicked on the link from your posted message, Hamish was silent.

The option to limit speech to one play is a good feature of the product

Worse, he kept looking around while silent - which is almost eerie.

Again the option to stop head movement is a feature of the product

I'm hardly an expert on web design, but I think you need two things: a well-defined role for Hamish the butler, and consistency.

I agree with you although the use on the homepage is good for new users

I would expect him to provide verbal assistance as I navigate your site.

This can be done and works well

I would like to control when he speaks and when he remains silent. I would like to hide him and recall him.

Good ideas

Thanks

Tony

[barry.hynd]

Hi,

The purpose of Hamish is really to welcome people to the site. I dont want to go down the road of him talking non stop and people switching him on and off, it's not a microsoft puppet afterall.

Him talking once is configurable by me and to be honest was a concern of mine before he was put up so I will change this. Again him following you about is also configurable. If he's gonna talk each time you go to the site then it makes sense that his head moves.

I'm not ruling out putting him on other pages but I dont want to overdo it and lose it;s uniqueness.

[barry.hynd]

:D