Pick this website apart.
Sonorous
F@H Fanatic US Icrontian
My current employer only started operating a few months ago and they recently got a website live. I know there are some issues with it but I wanted some more opinions on what needs to be changed and fixed incase I missed something. I thought Icrontic would be the perfect place to have the website put under the microscope for some great constructive criticism
http://jravs.com/
Be as brutal as you want, but I don't have access to make the changes myself so it has to get passed on.
http://jravs.com/
Be as brutal as you want, but I don't have access to make the changes myself so it has to get passed on.
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Edit: Upon further inspection of the logo, the "A" and "R"s have the same issue.
Also, studies show those slideshow type things do nothing but waste space. People see the first slide and don't care about the rest. I'd replace it with the video. I'm too lazy to google up these studies for you.
Social media icons should be in the top right of the header.
Services page is too wordy, you have about 1.5 seconds to explain to people what you do on the services page. Big title with a matching picture for each service should do it. Learn more links if they want the verbage.
"Request RFP Now!
Whatever we want goes here..."
I don't understand that
In your open graph data you have:
"A full-service audio visual rental company serving the Tidewater area of Virginia"
That's the perfect description that will help you.
I think you should replace
"James River Audio Visual Services is a full service, Audio Visual equipment rental company with more the 25 years of service experience."
with the open graph description, people care about location first experience second for this type of business (I'm assuming).
Next that description needs to be legible. It's dark text on a dark background and nobody is going to read it, leaving them confused as to what you do and where you are other than an audio visual company thanks to the logo.
Finally, assuming the website is marketed to local businesses/event managers a map with a marker on it showing where you are would be great. I realize your address is in a few places, but people don't read.
First impressions:
Too much totally useless empty space up at the top. This is about the size I usually have my browser window, and for most sites it's sufficient for showing the pertinent information right when it loads. the entire page could easily be fit into this space (there's even more empty space below it).
It's not on this picture, but you have a whole massive region dedicated to your three social media buttons. Those really should just be situated small somewhere in plain view, but not in their own big, titled section. People who use them know what they are and what to look for.
The pictures scrolling at the top are horribly low-res (like the one showing in this shot) and make the site look very unprofessional all by themselves. Picture bars are cool, especially when they show deals and have links to useful and interesting things. When they're just used to show off some crappy low-res photos your boss took with his camera, you'd be better off having a media section somewhere you can hide them in, or better yet just leave them off the site.
Again with the space, you have room to put the testimonials in a side-bar or something. Would be a better use of the room, and would keep them visible yet in their own little section. People aren't going to click to see what you decided to show of other peoples' opinions. You need to have them displayed right there so people will see them, but off to the side so they're not the main focus and don't detract from the more important part: your services.
Speaking of your services, there's a section down below with all the others titled Our Services that can't be fully read without clicking the "read more" link. That's some of the most important information you could have on your website, and like the testimonials should be displayed prominently (at least general synopses) without any need to click through to get a good overall idea of the various things you can do. A sidebar would be a good place for this as well. If someone wants to know more details about a certain specific aspect of your business, that's when they'll click.
Speaking of, this is awful. Writing out a long paragraph people have to read to get an idea of all the sorts of things you can do for them is just asking them to close the window and find someone else. People don't want to have to slog through sentence after sentence, word after word. This sounds silly, but it's true. A few short blurbs, maybe text with graphics, a list, etc, are the sorts of things people will be able to parse quickly.
In general, the less effort visitors need to put forth to obtain information from your website, the better. What you don't want is for people to have to make a conscious decision to learn about your company. You want them to have learned about your company before they even realize they've read anything.
I accept payment in the form of beer currency.
That was at work, but here's at home. Couldn't fit it all on the screen, so
and
(I may have upgraded my work rig from 4gb to 8gb a while back just to avoid having to develop tab discipline)
@Sonorous Hope it helps