New Ukulele Design, New web site, looking for feedback.

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bordertownbrown

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Report to Moderator 9/27/2012 3:19 PM
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This is long overdue but I just loaded my new site to the web today!

It's been ten months since we moved from Texas to Arizona and I hadn't yet updated the site. With my wife out of town for a week it was the perfect time to set to work on this task.

I'm no pro, do all my own design, photos and sound clips and build with a fairly inexpensive software program. Personally I am pleased with the site but sure would appreciate your comments about ease of viewing and navigation.

Parts of the web site are still under construction including the "Five String & Banjo-Ukulele" pages but I hope to be adding more content soon!

My main concern was to get the pages for the new "LO-LO-MI Soprano Ukulele" up and running and those pages are complete.

Anyone who has viewed my old site recently may have to clear their browser if pages don't display properly.

http://brownbanjos.com


Thanks in advance!

Richard Brown
 
I like the site. Simple yet attractive, well organized. Good job
 
Good clean design and oh my god I need one of those. Time to start saving pennies.
 
darn nice workshop!

Site looks good too.

What program do you use to make/run it???? I've heard good things about 'Wordpress' .
 
Richard,

Your site looks really nice and is easy to navigate. :)

I'm not really up on web design these days, but have a few comments...

Your masthead, while nice to look at, takes up nearly 50% of the vertical real estate with my settings (19" widescreen monitor at 1440x900 rez and a larger text).

From an SEO (search engine optimization) perspective, it needs some work. It's not enough to have a nice looking site if people who don't already know about it can't find it via a search engine using key search terms.

Why are you cloaking the site in a frame that draws from another of your domains?

Here is the sum total of what google sees on your homepage:

<html> <FRAMESET border='0' ROWS='*,1'> <FRAME SRC='http://bordertownbrown.com'><FRAME SRC='blank.html'> </FRAMESET> </html>
Click to expand...
There is absolutely nothing there that can be indexed and your pages show up with no titles.

When I go to bordertownbrown.com I see very simplistic page titles like "Banjos", "About" and "Contact". Page titles carry more weight than body text, so it's in your best interest to use them wisely.You have no relevant meta tags. Image alt tags are another place you can add info to be indexed. Most of yours are empty and ones like "cedar" aren't very descriptive.

And on a personal note, I think Comic Sans should be obliterated from the face of the earth. Would a corporation use it for their annual report? Never. Should you use it on a resume? Not if you want the job. Should you use it on a website? IMO, a big resounding NO!
 
The audio files for your LoLoMi ukes are kind of quiet. Hard to really judge the sound when the volume is so low.

–Lori
 
Classic under-sell, Richard!

Your site tells a good story and is simple to navigate. Well done.

I second Lori's comment regarding the sound samples, but that's a pretty easy fix.

Good luck -- I hope it takes off for you.
 
itsme said:
Richard,

From an SEO (search engine optimization) perspective, it needs some work. It's not enough to have a nice looking site if people who don't already know about it can't find it via a search engine using key search terms.

Why are you cloaking the site in a frame that draws from another of your domains?

Here is the sum total of what google sees on your homepage:


There is absolutely nothing there that can be indexed and your pages show up with no titles.

When I go to bordertownbrown.com I see very simplistic page titles like "Banjos", "About" and "Contact". Page titles carry more weight than body text, so it's in your best interest to use them wisely.You have no relevant meta tags. Image alt tags are another place you can add info to be indexed. Most of yours are empty and ones like "cedar" aren't very descriptive.
Click to expand...

Good advice Richard- Although I wish i knew what is ment by meta tag and "cloaking the site in a frame that draws from another of your domains"
How do you better these things???

I have heard giving pics a good description is a good thing- mine are like- TenorTopFrontPurflingDetail

Dare I ask what you you think of my new site???

Cheers,
Beau
 
Nice site and beutiful ukes.
Thank you for not calling your round ukes Banjo-ukes. That drives me CRAZY.
Also welcome to UU!!
 
Lori said:
The audio files for your LoLoMi ukes are kind of quiet. Hard to really judge the sound when the volume is so low.
Click to expand...

I'll second this. Wearing headphones cranked I could still barely hear anything.
 
Thank all you folks for your input, I've been working most of the day trying to fix some of the problems with my site.

Beau, Thanks for your compliments, I looked at your site very nice and your instruments are beautiful!
I used "Serif Web Plus X6" to build my site, I also use several other software programs from Serif, they are easy to use and not expensive.

Lori & Conner013, I'm not certain how to boost the sound level but it can be controlled on the small player that pops up, by default it's set at 50%.

Itsme, thank you for the suggestions, I think I have corrected a few of them but am not certain as to how to add image alt tags. I hope you can take another took and let me kno if I did actually make improvements.

Thanks,
Richard
 
bordertownbrown said:
Lori & Conner013, I'm not certain how to boost the sound level but it can be controlled on the small player that pops up, by default it's set at 50%.
Thanks,
Richard
Click to expand...

You might have to re-record your audio at a better level/ or with better equipment. I had the sound turned up and it still sounded distant and thin. I would never buy a uke based on an audio like that, so if you are serious about selling your ukes, you need to get a real quality sound sample. For a uke with a price of $875, I would need to see larger photos too. Remember, this is the only exposure your potential customer may have to your handiwork. Pretend you are the customer, and try and provide what you would need to decide to buy.

–Lori
 
This is one of these site that is completely not my style, but I like it anyway. Consistent design (*), good atmosphere, easy to navigate.
The only thing I would change are the fonts, both on the menu (a bit 'weak' and on the small side), and the content (now it looks (*)inconsistent, too many different fonts and sizes, some of the bolds look out of place and make it busy). I really like it, but I think it could be even much better with a little more work on the fonts)
Just my 2 cts.
 
Lori said:
You might have to re-record your audio at a better level/ or with better equipment. I had the sound turned up and it still sounded distant and thin. I would never buy a uke based on an audio like that, so if you are serious about selling your ukes, you need to get a real quality sound sample. For a uke with a price of $875, I would need to see larger photos too. Remember, this is the only exposure your potential customer may have to your handiwork. Pretend you are the customer, and try and provide what you would need to decide to buy.

–Lori
Click to expand...

Lori, I have no problem with the sound level on my computer, maybe you need to invest in some $10.00 speakers, they make a huge diference. As for the image sizes, Did you click on the thumbnail? Images open in a viewer and are 800 x 600 pixels, larger than the ones on your own web site. If you are interested I can send images that can be viewed full screen but for the web it is not a good idea to use such large images as they take too long to load.

Richard
 
I think it's safer to assume that not everyone who views the site will have an enhanced speaker set-up. You have to assume the "worst" to make sure you don't lose someone. I second the point about the varied fonts.

I really liked the outdoor photos of the instruments. It gave a nice feel for them (and also provided nice natural lighting).
 
Your logo is really pixelated - looks like it was designed even smaller, then upsampled to a larger size, causing the fuzziness. Otherwise, a nice site!
 
Looks good overall, functional.. The logo could be sharper, more prominant. Not necessarily bigger, but 'catching the eye' more quickly at the initial glance to the page. The News section could be just a taste of the news, with a link to more news. The photos look somewhat dominated by the brown theme of the site. Sharper, brighter, more vivid, shots would 'pop' more. Good pics are important. Hire a photogrqapher to re-shoot your existing pics, or ask a friend who is skilled with a camera. Landing page could be a bit more impactful. Websites are almost never perfect at launch.

Good job!
 
I use Firefox, and there are no thumbnails to click on. When I go to "Banjo ukes", I get a picture with three instruments on the left, three headstocks on the right. Not even in frames - just one big picture.

Basically the same on the other pages.

Haven't even looked at the videos yet.


That being said, I think I've played one of the Brown Banjo Banjo Ukes. At the recent Old Songs Festival of Music and Dance in Altamont, NY, there was a gentleman with what is called "The Musical Petting Zoo", where he has nearly a hundred different instruments for people to play around with, from bones to didgeridoos to resonator guitars and Celtic harps, and I recall picking up a nice, sold, somewhat heavy banjo uke without a resonator, and enjoying the feel and sound of it - I think it said "Brown's Banjos" on the back, and I was going to look for the maker, but never remembered to, until now.

-Kurt​


bordertownbrown said:
Lori, I have no problem with the sound level on my computer, maybe you need to invest in some $10.00 speakers, they make a huge diference. As for the image sizes, Did you click on the thumbnail? Images open in a viewer and are 800 x 600 pixels, larger than the ones on your own web site. If you are interested I can send images that can be viewed full screen but for the web it is not a good idea to use such large images as they take too long to load.

Richard
Click to expand...
 
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