Need Honest Input

MrOblivious

New Member
Hello, I need some honest input of my website. Good, bad, and why it is good and bad. If possible how and/or what to change.

I did have some one say something about the flow and how "unexciting" my website is.

Thank you for your valuable time in helping me.

Brent aka Mr. Oblivious.

ungawamagic.com
 

krymson

Member
It's... OKAY... it is lacking that eye pleasing feeling. For example, your images are rough. If you look at the edges you can see the pixels, like they're not smooth. Not a great choice in colors. You're promoting an entertainment business. If a potential customer comes to this site they need to get the feeling that you're going to be entertaining. Please don't take this the wrong way but looking at this site makes me feel as though it's dull and boring. Your web site is there to sell YOU, and if your web site comes off as boring then your potential clients might think you're boring. GRANTED i did Google up some magicians you're site is by far not the worst but it could be better. A different color scheme and get rid of those navigation buttons, because they're old school and not in the good way. Magicians are seen or portrayed as always wearing tuxes. So although it sounds boring black and white is the way to go. but using black and white you are going to want some good quality images. it's hard for me to explain its better if i actually did the design.

But to end this you are off to a good start. Clean up the images, in my opinion i would change your navigation up, and change your color scheme.
 

rickidoo

New Member
Hi MrOblivious,

First, I watched a few minutes of the video. The kids were having a marvelous time! It made me laugh to hear them laugh they way they did.

OK, now onto the website.

Two important points, and then one subjective comment.

1. I see you do shows for private audiences like the kids listed shown in your demo video. I assume you fly anywhere in the US, and possibly beyond? Or alternatively, I assume you are so far away from where I live that there is no way I'd be able to hire you.

I have to make these assumptions because you did not have this information on the website - or if you did it was out of sight.

So, my real comment is this. If you are indeed limited to one town, region, state, or a few states etc, think of an easy way to express this in the header of the page. That way, if I am in your service area, I will know it instantly.

Bonus points - you want prospective customers to call you or email you? If so, make this accessible on every page, not just the contact page.

2. I think, at the end if the day, its the video that will sell you more than anything you could possibly put on the site. If I were you, I pop that video to the top of the page above the body text and have an invite to watch me in action. Its dangerously below the fold now on some systems. (I know I know you are probably thinking "but if they are interested they will look around and find it". Wrong way to think about it. Show them the video to make them interested.

3. Subjective comment. If this were a website for selling luxury diamonds, I'd be much more concerned about having a sharp look to it. I think the menu buttons and header are sufficient.

4. Minor comments:
a. make the logo clickable to the home page. Defacto standard.

b. I'm guessing there's no way to get rid of the "GigSalad" graphic, upper right? If you can, get rid of it or subdue it or change it to something that goes with the website.

c. I won't go into a lot of details, but you need to structure and tag these pages much better for the search engines. Start out with having a unique browser title for each page up top. But there is much more to it than that. Beyond the scope of this post.
 

Phreaddee

Super Moderator
Staff member
maybe you have, but the comments posted here still stand.
the header image is boring as shit and needs some serious work, what is it optimised at 10% compression? really not clear at all. plus the big black bar behind does absolutely nothing to it, except show that you havent adhered to any form of grid.

the photographs are jpgs yet have gif like compression artifacts on them? this is pretty perplexing, not only that they are completely random sized as well...

the ticket menu I also dont like, but I do seem to have an aversion to menus made with images.

MOVE THE VIDEO TO THE TOP! I cannot stress how much this video is the key selling point of your website, and on my screen all I can see of it is the fluoros...
 

ronaldroe

Super Moderator
Staff member
It's an odd coincidence this was posted here. One of my current clients is a magician/illusionist in Grand Rapids, MI (PJ Weber).

With that out of the way, the kids in the video laughing their asses off make me think of my kids laughing their asses of...at you. So, ditto on moving the video WAY up towards the top. Hell, make that video the centerpiece. If you have more similar videos, post them and make them prominent.

I like the ticket idea in the navigation, but images aren't the way to go. Make a blank ticket the background and overlay actual text on top of them.

Images in place of text? Please don't. Use @font-face.

Guestbook? I don't even know what to say. It's gotta go. Completely.

The header truly is boring, and the color scheme is bland. Magician/Illusionists are mysterious, right? Dark colors convey mystery, especially dark purple and black. If that's not your thing, at least lock on to the idea of "dark colors". My suggestion? Don't separate the header from the rest of the site. It will flow better if it's part of the whole. Maybe build on the ticket thing...

Image quality is imperative in any design. Make sure you're optimizing your images at the best image size that allows an acceptable quality level. If you're using Photoshop, select "save for web" or "save for web and devices" (depending on the version) and save using PNG-24 or JPEG at a quality above 80. Though, for your graphics, I'd go with PNG any day.
 
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omglookitsagoat

New Member
rickadoo has some good suggestions. I can't watch the video on my computer because the sound doesn't work for some reason, but if it is more attractive to your target audience than text, you should put the video at the top and the text under that instead of the other way around.

I think the nav on the left side of the screen could be a little better. Do you have photoshop or something similar? it would look better if the background of the tickets on the nav matched the background of your site. Also, change the color of the links if you can. Blue on blue = not good contrast. It would probably be easier for some people to read if you changed the color of the links. Maybe white would be a good color?

You need to find a good color scheme.

If you are not plural, don't say about us. say about me. On your "about us"/about you page, don't have the text centered. You should have the text formatted more like the way you do on the home page. or the FAQs page.

The arrangement of images on the right looks a little disorganized. there is not pattern or format to the way they're arranged. maybe you could have them lined up neatly instead.
 
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ronaldroe

Super Moderator
Staff member
Much better. Still need a better consistency with those photos. Maybe crop them to the same size and line them up side by side at the bottom.
 

MrOblivious

New Member
Images are re sized, but not at bottom. Should it be at the bottom? I think it looks nice like that, but what the heck do I know.
 

krymson

Member
If you want I can come up with a rough design for you to start on as far as color and cleaning it up. But only if you want to.
 

Phreaddee

Super Moderator
Staff member
Maybe thin boarder?

while you are at it, maybe some flashing and moving text.

use borders sparingly save it just ending up looking like a table.

what you need to do is step away from the computer. sit down with a piece of paper, and with your wife/partner/friend, or anyone, just start drawing your ideal layout.

once you've done that, jump online and try and find a website that has done something similar. also find one that you like the colour scheme of.

grab another piece of paper, and try and doodle up your logo.

get a friend to take some hi-res "professional" photos

then try and piece it all together. the more you just take little jabs here and there, the more messy your website will end up. trust me, its the same when I have to do a client redesign, its all in this prototype phase and it gets messy when you dont sit down, work out your assets, work out your style guide, and then approach the build systematically and methodically.
 

krymson

Member
Sorry Mr. Oblivious, client web site contract just started, but i will come up with something in photoshop and annotate it for you with the hexadecimal colors for you and help you out that way
 

krymson

Member
Here's something that i came up with within 5 ,inutes, its basic but it will give your site more character and a more eye appealing look, its your prefference to use it.
 

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MrOblivious

New Member
I do like it. I use yahoo siteBuilder and I am not sure how to do a back ground like that except put the 272727 as the background color and the other two as objects or images. But better than what I have.
 

ronaldroe

Super Moderator
Staff member
Here, set this image as the background for that header. Set it to repeat on the X axis (repeat-x). Same colors, but it's smoother.
 

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