Please feel free to offer any advise for improvements to my website.
www.swallowdale-brundall.co.uk
Thanks.
Printable View
Please feel free to offer any advise for improvements to my website.
www.swallowdale-brundall.co.uk
Thanks.
Looks like a nice, solid site with a nice, solid offering. One suggestion: It seems that the holiday home is nicely situated so perhaps you could put on the home page an image -- perhaps even a partial panorama -- with a view from the deck.
Hi Boy,Quote:
Originally Posted by Boy
Thanks for your comments. The picture of the river on the home page is a view from the decking. I will have a look at taking a panoramic picture from the decking.
Ian, I meant a big picture that shows part of the deck so that people can imagine themselves already sitting there, having that great vacation that's on offer and only a few clicks away!
Ian, thank you for the offer - rubbing his hands.Quote:
Originally Posted by ianzzz5
General
The header and footer being the same colour seem to add to the pages being flat.
- Graduate the colours from sky blue (top) to a darker blue (bottom).
The broken underlining is wrong.
- An ending y looks like a full stop.
- An ending g has nothing.
- The descenders breaking the underline is
- some spaces between word do not have the underline.
- You don't need bold and underline together. Underlines are normal for hyperlinks so elsewhere are distracting.
The McAfee SECURE is neat.
Try and match the navigation buttons exactly to the links in the footer. I know some share a page. Typically, a repeat of the Navbar in text is one long line with a | separator
You social media is good. My gut would place them all close together in the bottom right footer area. It seems wrong to invite someone to leave your site immediately, let them read left to right and top to bottom first.
Your live chat is interesting. Is it effective in securing sales? It seems a lot of commitment for one holiday home, or it it shared?
Home
Balance the left and right margin.
The framed images might be better if only the picture without the frame opened in HiSlide mode.
- You can soft-group the frame and picture and only apply the pop-up choice to the picture.
The Review Bubble seems to point to Boat Hire.
Have you put a transparency frame over the main text and review? It serves no real purpose.
Gallery
Does the job.
Brundall
Would the heading "Brundall Holiday Home" be better as "The Swallowdale Holiday Home is in Brundall"?
Norfolk Broads
I had to really search for Brundall on the location map and Swallowdale is not marked. Perhaps some rollovers on the table to appear on the map?
Prices
To be consistent, the page should have a Title.
Availability
To be consistent, the page should have a Title.
Book Now
To be consistent, the page should have a Title.
here is no real difference between this and the Availability page so consider using just one.
Sitemap
No real purpose as the site is quite navigable.
Links
Let down with the lack of some graphics and poor alignment.
Mobile Variant
One of the better ones I have seen.
I don't like the hamburger menu being on the right though.
The footer split of L|R(U-D) is a better balance to the Main L|C|R, which I think would be better as U-D(L|R).
Acorn
Hi Acorn,
Thanks for all your suggestions, I will work through them and make some changes.
The live chat is a pain and I rarely have it turned on, when it is off customers can use it to email and 99% of the time they use that rather than the ‘Contact Us’ page, so I have left it for that reason.
Home
I don’t understand about the review bubble as when I click it goes to the ‘reviews’ page.
Norfolk Broads
I like the idea of rollovers but how do I set them up?
Book Now
Totally agree ‘Availability’ page is the same and not needed but I kept getting customers contact me asking if I had availability and a couple complained that I didn’t have a page showing availability, so I added the page and since then do not get customers asking.
Sitemap
Agree not really needed. Will delete.
Links
This page is only there for links to other sites that require a link on my site so I can get a backlink from theirs. I’ll have to have a look at it to try and improve it.
Mobile Variant
I moved the hamburger menu from the left hand side only yesterday because on a small phone the menu and social buttons were all so close together and difficult to select. Moving the social buttons to the footer will solve this and I can move the hamburger back to the left.
Thanks,
Ian.
Ian, I was only suggesting the bubble pointing down was quite emphatic that the "speaker" was Boat Hire.Quote:
Originally Posted by ianzzz5
Ceate a number of Layers, named for each placename.
On the map put a target or lightly coloured transparency over the placename.
Either change the table image to text and then link a row as a rollover to that placename layer or add a 99% transparent rectangles, the size of a row and rollover link them.
Acorn
I can see what you mean about the bubble now.Quote:
Originally Posted by Acorn
Will give the rollover a go.
Thanks.
Ian, the thanks is for you allowing your site to be reviewed.Quote:
Originally Posted by ianzzz5
Acorn
Hi Acorn,
I have made some of the changes that you advised, when you get a minute could you have a look at them please and see what you think.
Have changed footer to a different colour
Have removed all underlines on headings on all pages.
Have changed navigation menu on footer to text with | separator.
Have moved social media icons to footer.
Have balanced left and right margins on all pages.
I can't get the 3 small pics on the home page to pop-up without the frame using soft-group. Any advise would be good!
Have changed bubble on home page to a rectangle, the colour should be blue but changes to grey every time I save it for some reason.
Have made changes to 'Norfolk Broads' page, adding rollovers on the table and a location of our property. I don't like the 'Hover Over Place Name With Mouse' text, but can't workout a better way to show this.
Have removed Sitemap page.
Have moved Hamburger on mobile site back to left hand side.
Thanks,
Ian.
Ian, it seem fresher throughout.Quote:
Originally Posted by ianzzz5
Well done,
Acorn
Thanks for your help.Quote:
Originally Posted by Acorn
I can't get the 3 small pics on the home page to pop-up without the frame using soft-group. Any advise would be good! - Add the Pop-up photo option to the image alone then soft-group.
Hi Acorn,
This still does not work. This is what I am doing:-
Un-grouping my image and frame and removing and un-ticking pop up photo on both.
Ticking pop up photo on the pic only and setting the width to 750, clicking apply then OK
Selecting the frame and pic then going to the Arrange menu and clicking Apply Soft Group
Save then publish.
The result is the pic and/or frame cannot pop up.
Ian.
Ian, try my example file here:Quote:
Originally Posted by ianzzz5
Attachment 120406
Acorn
Hi Acorn,Quote:
Originally Posted by Acorn
Something is really weird here. Your example works fine, I have checked and double checked all my settings and they are exactly the same as yours.
What version of WD are you using?
I'm using 15 and when I open your file it says it was made in an older version. Could it be a problem with version 15?
Ian.
Ian, I've run the file in versions 11, 12 & 15 in XWDP and XDPX - all work fine.Quote:
Originally Posted by ianzzz5
Acorn
Hi Acorn,Quote:
Originally Posted by Acorn
I've worked out whats happening. Attached is an example.
Pic 1 - the picture is in front of the frame - this pic works
Pic 2 - the picture is behind the frame where it needs to be to look right - this pic doesn't work
Pic 3 - the picture is half behind and half in front - the half behind doesn't work, the half in front does
I still don't know how to resolve the problem though.
Ian.
Attachment 120417
Ian, I assume you want the top inner and left inner to display a shadow. If you use a frame with a cutout and a shadow this can only end up on the top so the image is underneath and will not be accessible.Quote:
Originally Posted by ianzzz5
A PNG, through transparent in areas, is this there is is over the image. You therefore have to think out of the box (or frame).
The construction from bottom to top is:
- Frame with cutout and shadow.
- Image with pop-up active.
- Top inner shadow.
- Left inner shadow.
- All soft-grouped.
The inner shadows are just thin rectangles with a Feather or Linear Transparency.
Attachment 120424
i have overemphasised the inner shadow colours on purpose.
Acorn
Hi Acorn,Quote:
Originally Posted by Acorn
I have managed to get it to look OK without the top and inner Shadows.
Thanks again for your help.
Ian.
Ian, offsetting and shrinking a tad also works.Quote:
Originally Posted by ianzzz5
Acorn
Yes. and less work!Quote:
Originally Posted by Acorn
Thanks.
And here was me thinking you were a perfectionist!Quote:
Originally Posted by ianzzz5
Acorn