Could i have your feedback on my revised website?

[thekitchendesigner]

Hi all.

thekitchendesigner.com is having a re-design for 2006, and work has started! i would be most grateful for any comments you have on the new website, compared to the current.

some of the pages work but there is still a lot more to be added (content & pages). so feedback on the overall look & feel would be great:

current is www.thekitchendesigner.com

new is www.thekitchendesigner.com/new

Thanks!

[DarrenC]

I liked the old design, but the new design is excellent - love it .. modern looking.. eye catching.

[Coding Monkey]

Certainly looks a lot better! I'll give you some final feedback when it's all finished, if you want

[thekitchendesigner]

will do indeed!

should be finished sometime next week so i'll post again when thats the case (providing its not christmas day!)

thanks

[Coding Monkey]

Like Christmas Day will stop me ;)

[CaroCaro]

The new one definately, just looks cleaner and fresher. I need a new kitchen in April of next year, I will definately bein touch!

[thekitchendesigner]

hi carocaro,

sounds good, glad to help if i can!

[uksbc]

hi mark,

i do like the new site and it is crisp and clean. my only criticism and it is only something minor is the links (not the home page but subsequent pages) are simple text links which gives the site a bit of a "home made" feel about it. i would have used buttons or rollovers
like i said this is only a minor thing and other than that the site looks great. :D

good luck with it and, like most other people on here i will probably be available for comment on christmas day (i think we all worry about missing something)

:roll:

[odeniyi]

New site includes easier to read text, better structured and overall looks more professional in my opinion.

You could add some free information to help folks keep coming back to it. Perhaps also think about interactivity, perhaps a poll or survey or something. Both suggestions will help folks remain on your site for longer.

Can offer more feedback once links are fixed and blank pages populated.

[thekitchendesigner]

Hi Olu,

Thanks for your comments.

A good suggestion there, having some form of 'hook' to keep people there. what sort of application can be used to create a poll on a website? I was thinking about having a link to a blog which i can upload/change easily myself. what do you think?

[odeniyi]

Try these links....

http://www.proxy2.de/scripts.php

http://www.helpcenterlive.com/

http://wordpress.org/

http://www.phpbb.com/

Some need installation, configuration, customisation and integration into your current website.

For example phpbb could be customised to the look and feel of your website and be positioned as a place where folks:-

1. tell of their kitchen story horrors (folks like to get it out of their system)

2. ask for advice

3. a place where you demonstrate your knowledge etc.

There are other ideas ways of approaching this.

Good luck.

Olu.

[DarrenC]

In my opinion Wordpress is the best blog software - but I'm not sure a blog would keep people coming back and back.

Isn't there a tool you could get designed so that people come back to your site and use it over and over again - something to do with kitchen design?

Have a look at my free advertising thread in the marketing forum in here - you could write a newsletter to assist people thinking about installing or designing a kitchen.

[thekitchendesigner]

p.s.

dont forget the services are business to business, and people from the trade are the ones who will be looking

[thekitchendesigner]

anyone else want to comment??

hoping to get it finished in next few days so any more suggestions welcome.

Thanks.

[Admiral Collections]

I prefer the new one. The home page is much better. I didnt like the feeling of looking down on the kitchen in the first one. But I'm no web expert so ignore me!

Nic :wink:

[Urban Space]

Thumbs up from me! Much prefer the new site! Don't you feel so much better now that you've got my detailed opinion? :lol:

Liam

[thekitchendesigner]

thanks nic! no need to be a web expert, just after opinions from good ole honest people!

cheers

[thekitchendesigner]

Liam - i feel much better now, you're detail is immense!! ;-)

Cheers :-)

[Coding Monkey]

I think the grey is too depressing, especially at the bottom. Brighten it up a bit, the response people have to brighter colours will make them more cheerful. Happy people buy!

I'm also not a great fan of the font for "Working with you in Design" and the links colour. Again, too "boring" and not enough colour or variety to the pages. You might want to make your contact details appear on every page and be more obvious.

[thekitchendesigner]

hi tom,

notes taken, many thanks! the contact details will appear on every page, and there will be a seperate contact page with contact form also. i'll also have them enlarged to be more obvious

i'll consider more colours, but did want to keep it very modern so dont know whether too many colours would achieve that?

thanks again.

[Coding Monkey]

You could probably manage it with just keeping to 2-3 colours and having them perform really well together. That's the technique one of my designers always does. Just works on the colour scheme first and everything falls into place.

Just try something a bit more cheery than the grey.

Also, try the contact details somewhere near the top or on the sidebar, maybe adding a little icon next to them to make them stand out more.

Good luck