Zugg Software :: View topic - Suggestions for improvement of the SlightlyMorbid home page

Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 7:57 pm

I've been looking at the home page and come to realize that I've looked at it too many times myself and am no longer objective. Part of me thinks that there is just too much text on the page and that people are not going to bother reading any of it. While it's great that there is so much information and a very complete FAQ help page, most people only spend a couple of seconds looking at a web site to decide if it's interesting for them. Asking them to read so much text is probably a turn-off for many.

So what can be done to improve the first-impression of the home page? How do we make it more interesting to get people to move from "that's an interesting idea" to "that's great I want to buy this!".

Now, I'm not going to do a fancy "flash" site with tons of video/graphics/etc that takes forever to load. And I'm not going to implement any of those annoying marketing gimics that give a popup when you try to leave the site, or anything like that.

I just want some help on how I might reword the home page, or what other graphics I might add to make the page more interesting. I've had a hard time coming up with "appropriate" graphics for the site.

So, let me know what you think. I can't promise to make any specific changes, and I know some of you have been reading the site as long as I have. But I'm hoping that some fresh input might help. Thanks.

Wizard Joined: 14 Aug 2004 Posts: 1269

Well you could move all the text except for the first and 2nd last paragraphs to a "How does it work" page and a Cost page respectively (or even the same page). Dunno if that's any better though. There is quite a lot to take in on the home page, but at least you don't have to hunt for the information, and it's all good so it's good for people to read it so I think it's OK to have on the home page.

I think you might want to think of creating a fun cartoon or comic strip to illustrate what the site is for. Maybe put that on the home page near or at the top (depending on how good it is!). I was thinking of sort-of recreating your story in a brief form, or a similar one, as a comic strip. (i) One person (or animal) says to other person 'Have you seen X?'; Other replies 'No, not for weeks - I wonder if anything has happened to him!'. (ii) etc.

You could use diagrams to illustrate how the service works too.

Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 5:26 pm

Seb, I liked your idea about putting a "diagram" on the site. So last night I spent some time with my graphics software and put together something that I think turned out pretty nice. Take a look at the www.slightlymorbid.com page now and everyone let me know what you think. By putting it in the second section describing how the service works, it helps force people to scroll down. Hope everyone likes it!

Wizard Joined: 14 Aug 2004 Posts: 1269

Yeah, I think your diagram illustrating how the service works is very nice. One suggestion on making the animated gif more user-friendly (because the transitions are quite fast when looking at it for the first time) is to maybe have a little Step 1, Step 2, Step 3, Step 4 toolbar at the bottom which forces the page (via JavaScript) to display the appropriate non-animated gif so one can 'freeze' the display by hovering the mouse over the appropriate step (highlighting the 'button' you are hovering over to show it is 'pressed'). You'd also want to preload these gifs. Or take the four gifs and put them up separately like a comic strip. It's easier to understand the service if you can see all the steps at the same time.

Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 5:24 pm

I tried the comic-strip idea but it just took up too much space. And the images get harder to read if they are made any smaller.

The Step 1,2,3,4 links with Javascript to load fixed images is an interesting one, although I'd start to worry a bit about the total amount of images being downloaded. An animated gif takes a lot *less* space because it only stores the differences between the images I think, compared to having all 4 images downloaded. But I'll look into it.

I'm assuming you are talking about using Javascript to change the image from the animated to a fixed image, right? Not some magic way to tell an animated gif which frame to show?

I could also slow down the transitions a bit more. Or, what I've found is that you can just watch a few cycles to get the hang of it. The nice part about it being animated is that it does draw your attention down the page compared to a static image.

Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2008 4:37 pm

I really like the graphic. It quickly and effectively told me what the site was about without having to read the text. It was a great addition.

Beginner Joined: 09 Aug 2005 Posts: 17

I would pay someone to create a real logo for you and get rid of your current site header.

The rest of the site is decent (but I'd probably change the color palette), but that header just gives off an amateurish impression. If I'm paying up front for a lifetime service as well as going through this hassle of sending friends certificates and telling them to store them someplace safe, etc., I want to feel like the site I'm doing that for actually has some financing behind it and is going to be around in the future.

You can get a decent logo created on elance, etc. for pretty cheap or you could choose to go with a service like 99designs.com which is a pretty neat crowd-sourcing concept which can generate a ton of options to choose from.

Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2008 3:47 pm

I don't want some boring "serious" logo. Honestly, I've dealt with so-called "professional" designers in the past and have never been happy with the results. The purpose of the logo is to be less serious, which goes with the site name. Maybe this turns off some potential customers, but for the younger crowd I think it conveys the correct impression.

What would you specifically be looking to change in the graphic?

We've also used the same graphics on our SlightlyMorbid business cards, which we have shown to dozens of people, including local business and press people. In *all* cases we have gotten positive response to our logo and graphics. In conveys exactly the kind of impression we are trying to make. It's memorable and different. Just like the site name.

The color palette comes directly from the sunset graphic, and was intended to give a "Halloween" kind of color scheme. You can't find *any* color palette that will please everyone (that's why everyone has different favorite colors).

As far as whether we are going to be around in the future, anyone who is interested in that should click on the About Us link and learn that we have been in business for over 12 years. We aren't going anywhere. The SlightlyMorbid service doesn't require huge bandwidth or costs and easily supports itself. Our reputation and past business record speaks more than any so-called "professional" graphic would in my opinion.

Maybe I just haven't ever found a good designer. I consider myself to be more experienced than most of the people I have seen who claim to be a designer and all they did was take some class somewhere. Well, I've taken classes too. I have an art background, and a strong background in calligraphy.

I respect your opinion on the site, but look at the old http://mylastemail.com/ site that has been linked elsewhere in this forum. That's exactly the kind of "serious" look that we are NOT trying to have. Looks like a site run by a bunch of lawyers or something. Just throwing up pictures of people sitting around a desk doesn't necessarily make a site "professional" in my opinion.

They probably paid a "professional" for that site design, and it's full of problems. I personally don't like it's color scheme (again, a subjective opinion). Their default font size is too small. They have an ad for some "Internet monitoring" software that has nothing to do with their service. Their site produces 67 errors from the W3C Validation. It's just a messy site. In my opinion, our site is cleaner and easier to read, and targeted at a younger audience of online gamers.

Wizard Joined: 14 Aug 2004 Posts: 1269

Wizard Joined: 14 Aug 2004 Posts: 1269

Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2008 7:50 pm

cmurphy54: I actually apologize a bit for the tone of my response above. I didn't mean for it to come across that strongly. My problem is that I was burned by a "professional" designer many years ago who wanted to charge $3000 for redesigning our Zuggsoft logo. Saying "you should have your site/logo designed by a professional" comes across a bit insulting to me because I consider myself a professional and because it doesn't actually say anything specific about what might be wrong about a site.

But I apologize because I responded before I actually took the time to look at the 99designs.com site that you mentioned. I didn't really know how that site worked, and didn't realize that there are actually some good quality designers on that site and that the prices are much less than my typical experience with professional designers.

I'm still going to stick with our own graphics for the SlightlyMorbid site for now because we have gotten so much positive feedback on it. But since I've been bored with our standard "mountain" graphic on the main zuggsoft.com site, I might test the 99designs.com site with that banner first just to see what kind of results I get. If I have a good experience with them, then I can move to site like this that have a broader audience.

So, thanks for the good link. I knew about elance.com but I wasn't aware of 99designs.com and it looks like a potentially interesting site.

Seb: Sometime this week in the evening I'll take a look at the image loading, especially if I can find a good way to do it in the background after the rest of the site has loaded. Right now I'm back to working on the CMUD mapper rewrite during the day and doing my graphics "tweaks" to this site in my evening time. The combination of the animated image along with some buttons below it to display a fixed image might work well.

Wizard Joined: 14 Aug 2004 Posts: 1269