Professional Opinion of my website

[Jenny1]

I asked for an expert opinion from a "real" designer.
The reply is as follows, my comments in parenthesis:

1. the design is too plain.
(i kinda like it simple)

2. not mobile responsive
(i did notice that it did not display properly on my tablet, but many things don't display properly on the tab)

3. web speed is super slow

4. condo prices are not aligned properly

5. no footer.

6. no contact us page.

7. too much images.
(i'm not sure what the problem is with images? my goal is to be visually rich and everybody is doing slideshows on real estate websites)

recommendation: redesign the whole website.

(WoW! OK, let's see, where should I start? )
http://www.clarkcondo.com

[steve.ledger]

Tell the 'ex-spurt' to take a hike. Looks great to me.
The alignment of the prices is clearly deliberate and looks OK to me.
It's not slow on my connection and a contact page is purely optional.
There is a footer - ask the ex-spurt where they left their glasses.
Images are fine on todays web and Xara will optimize on export. So again, tell 'spurty to take a hike.

Only two things come to mind.
[1] Think about creating a mobile variant
[2] Create a Favicon

[jon404]

Don't change a thing. Immediately, I know what you are selling, and where. And how to get more info about any property. And how to contact the agent.

The photos are just fine. The more the better... but I'm having no trouble seeing the homes. What else could you do? maybe a link to walk-through videos on YouTube, which would give you something extra, and quite valuble, to sell your client.

I'm with Steve, above, re the mobile variant. Here in San Diego, for a customer whose website sells cars, we are seeing 40% hits from smartphones, the rest from tablets-laptops-PCs. More and more people are using that stupid little phone screen as their primary info-getting source, can't ignore it for products like yours.

Anyway, your website is just fine. FYI, this comment is coming from a professional web designer... making websites since 1997... and ALWAYS with a focus on selling the product, as you are doing with yours. Good work!

[roly]

Hi Jenny 1, good job

Ciao

Roly

[pauland]

Jenny, it's good to go.

A "contact us" page would be nice, but not essential.
A mobile friendly version would be nice but not essential.

It does the job.

[digitalphaser]

...
recommendation: redesign the whole website.

(WoW! OK, let's see, where should I start? )...

The reason for the bad performance of the website are not only images.
Xara’s sites differ massive code. The browser interprets the website line by line. This is a very broad theme. I can name more by 10-40 shortcomings. But not in this life.

But there are some general points

1. Navigation
This is the worst thing that exists - JavaScript graphical menu.
For search engines, this important part of the site does not exist.



Search the Internet for the CSS menu generator. Generate the code and paste as placeholder.



2. Headlines
Never convert a header or text to image.



Use text styles of Xara.
Heading1 = h1
Heading2 = h2 etc.
The page should have one main headline h1. The rest are secondary h2,h3,h4...

Do you want to find your site in search queries (google & co.)?

3. Text
Xara wraps each textline into separate span tag.
It is real torture for the browser.



Create text blocks. Ask other users how. I do not use the webdesigner features.

As for the design.
I was already called the troll at this forum. If I tell that your site is magnificent. It will calm you? If not. Read below.

I appreciate any design as excellent, ordinary or bad. Your site design as personal site is ordinary, as commercial site is bad.
Believe it or not believe it. It's your business.

Use the gride system for layout.
Carefully select the images. Correct perspective and lighting. This is advertising.
And, and, and ...

Look at the resources where they sell the website layouts (like Themeforest). There you will find the latest trends, ideas and inspiration. And do not get carried away with animation.

[folivio]

Jenny, the site looks really good. Ignore the person with the bad review.

[pauland]

Jenny, don't be alarmed by digitalphaser - his empathy switch seems to be permanently 'OFF' and while there is truth in his comments they aren't things that should really alarm you. I completely understand that after reading post #6 you might be heading straight for web design hell - you aren't.

Most of the things that digitalphaser points out are what a professional web developer would do while hand-coding. He has pointed out how to achieve the same with Xara. If you don't follow these instructions, your website will still be fine. Who cares if Xara makes a browser work a bit harder?

Technical issues aside, digitalPhaser comments on the design.

The design is workable, it doesn't follow the very latest modern trends, but that's OK. digitalphaser seems to think that all websites have to follow the very latest trends - I don't think that's necessary.

Going forward, be very happy with what you have now. Take digitalphasers advice about web trends - check out the best of the competition worldwide and use that for inspiration.Find the websites that make you think "wow" and ignore the bad ones.

Don't take digitalPhaser's criticism to heart.

digitalPhaser. Captain Kirk often told his crewmen to put phasers on 'stun'. I think yours is stuck on 'kill'. How about turning the phaser to 'off' and engaging in a dialog which encourages people to do better and doesn't just kill any enthusiasm or pride they may have? You raise interesting points, but none of them - absolutely none - are such that would prevent this site from being successful.

[Acorn]

Jenny, digitalphaser has identified a number of useful tips that would allow you to enhance the site's performance.
They can be incrementally adjusted as you get to understand what the shortcomings might be.

CSS NavBars are very, very useful in the hard work of rendering across different browser sizes and types.
i have never been a fan of Xara's approach but it works.
With the inclusion of CSS effects in XWD11P, you can achieve better impacting and more cleanly coded

I agree with digitalphaser that your headlines (which I have not checked all) should be text and not images.
This improves search engine hits and improves download times.

http://www.clarkcondo.com/index_htm_files/4316.png
This should be created as test, cloned and the copy put to the back and given a light get fill. Then soft-group both.
The mixed-use ODE County Complex heading is Heading 2 an is therefore perfect.

Back to NavBars - the use of text soft-groups and CSS effects (If you have XWD11P) would be better than the current images that are generated by the application.

http://www.clarkcondo.com/index_htm_files/5797.png could be changed in this way. There is no need for a CSS generator until you start wanting drop down menus in your NavBars.

All your textboxes result in lines of SPAN tags that allow for pixel-perfect positioning.
There is a kludge in Item 5 of this link: http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthre...anced-features.
This changes text blocks to wrapped DIVs.
The main advantage this gives is when the end-user changes the browser magnification; the SPANs sometimes fall onto the next line and overwrite that line.

Again digitalphaser has some suggestions over the merits of your site.
My personal view is that there is too much on each page - aim for Executive Homes and use layers in pop-ups to present more detail.
I think you have done a great job with the carousels. I find them too large as they dominate the page.If the user has to scroll down to reveal your "sell", you are going to lose custom.
I would lose the rounded corners and thick border: http://www.clarkcondo.com/index_htm_files/4646.jpg

These should be ungrouped as they occupy a large download size and delay.

Again, digitalphaser's suggestion of the use of grids is not too far off. Xara applications use way more sophisticated Guide layers.
At the bottom of the Clark Hills page is an example where your image alignment is askew. A Guide / Grid would make this self-evident.

Good luck with any changes you may go for.
TGers will always be here to advise.

Acorn

[Acorn]

I was already called the troll at this forum.

digitalphaser, you are not a troll.
I appreciate the interest you are taking in helping others.

Acorn