Your turn!

HB

SGF, Supreme Grumble Framer
Joined
Mar 26, 2003
Posts
1,783
Location
Alberta CANADA
Business
The Framing Nook
Time to let fly the criticism - dish it out, the more the merrier.

Just finished the prototype - needs final proofing & changes.

Tok a lot of time to make the gifs - check out the mpg's too & all the thumbs etc

Hope you like it

Just remember to tell me what you don't like!!!

thanks in advance


Here it is:

http://www.framingnook.com/welcome.html
 
Quick look, very nice. But what are "stat" holidays that you are closed?

I quess I would prefer store hours and a phone number on the first page.

Really like the traditional look and colors.

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:
 
Wow!!! That is a wonderful web site. Very professional and clean. I really enjoyed the entire site, especially how you compared the BigBox to your store.:p The only drawback for me was the size of type for your menu at the left. I know it's time to have my glasses changed but I did have a bit of difficulty reading that. Other than that, very impressive.

Lori
 
Man framing sites are getting so much better. I've been critical how tradesmen who by definition are creative can have such uncreative sites. I think you've done a great job. This is only my preference but it gets wordy in places. I don't believe people are going read much about framing.

Your framing section is 704 words. I pulled up the Emancipation Proclamation and its 706 words. If Abraham Lincoln can free slaves with 706 words, surely we can introduce framing in 2 or 3 hundred. The commentary on archives.gov described that document as having “ expansive wording.”
 
I noticed that you have 'center' spelled wrong in several places. You have it as 'Centre'...Just Kidding...You can spell it how evre you want. :)
Whew - you just about had me riled - LOL
 
...Your framing section is 704 words. I pulled up the Emancipation Proclamation and its 706 words.

If I understand you correctly... I should at least add 3 words!!!

Just kidding - thanks Jay

Glad to agree - all that stuff on the bottom (about 400 words) on that page was slated to go!
 
... The only drawback for me was the size of type for your menu at the left..Lori

I was thinking along the same lines - seems like most Grumblers use minimum 1200 resolution but my research informs me (to my surprise) that most peple still use 800x600 giving them larger text.
 
...But what are "stat" holidays that you are closed?:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

In Canada everyone (as far as I know - correct me if I'm wrong fellow Canadians) knows the 12 or so "Stat" (statutory) holidays throughout the year - all but one is consistant across the country.
 
I took a quick look and I really like it. I like how you used texture on you backgrounds and it has a uniform "look & feel". Your colors also have that homely, cozy, elegant feel to it.
I also like the way you have your gallery categoriezed as Remember/Enjoy/Express
Now for the critics:
1) Your side bar menu fonts are a tad small and a liitle hard to read.
2) On your custom framing page, the headr picture has a person with the headr chopped off. I know the emphasis is on the mats & framing stuff but a headless person just throws me off a little.
3) In your gallery, you can implement a "lightbox" feature instead of just showing the pic. PM me if your interested & I can send you the code.
I'll look at it some more later, I got to build a jersey frame.

Regards,
Troy
 
In Canada everyone (as far as I know - correct me if I'm wrong fellow Canadians) knows the 12 or so "Stat" (statutory) holidays throughout the year - all but one is consistant across the country.

Thanks for the explanation. I was being a smart arss thinking you misspelled State. I did not know Canada had Statutory Holidays. Makes sense now.
 
Retake the picture on the contact us page. Your eye is drawn to your neighbors store because it is closer and there are no cars in front of it. Focus on your store front!


Tom
 
Lots of good stuff!

Brian,

A very nice website that is fully loaded. I really like many of the images and photographs you've selected.

I agree with Troy in that overall background/texture does give it a warm and homey feeling, but I think it's also a little heavy, too masculine and dark. Perhaps that tied to the small type font on many of the menu text emphasizes this feeling.

I did spot a couple of glitches...

- Your HOME link on the top horizontal menu takes the visitor to a parking lot page (Under Construction).

- You might consider removing the Art & Framing Council link on your links page as this is taking folks to a dead link as well.

See my PM shortly.

John
 
Very impressive, HB! Lots of great stuff.

Can you share with us how you went about creating this? Did you do it yourself or have someone do it for you? About how much will it cost you?

Susan
 
On the page Hanging Delivery and More:

If you are not happy with any aspect of this frame job or the way you were treated at The Framing Nook please give me, Brian Rypstra (owner/manager) a call at 340-1575. We hope you will enjoy your custom framing for many years to come. If at any time you have any questions about this framing job or any other, do not hesitate to give us a call.

You might want to add the area code as we are using 10 digit dialing now.....e.g. (403) 340-1575...



And I don't think the site is to masculine, but I am a guy and have been known to be wrong before, just ask my wife!:icon9:

James
 
oh, Lord..now I'm going to have to redo my web site.

very nice, a little wordy.
 
Very nice; very well done.

I especially like the comparison between you and the “Big Box” outfits. I will probably have to steal that idea, but make it a bit more lively like “Parking : ~1/4 mile from entrance”, “Ownership: anonymous offshore corporation”, “Craftsmanship: indentured trolls”, etc.

As John pointed out, clicking any of the “Home” links resulted in an “Under Construction” although I was taken to the home page from the Grumble link.
 
Working on my website as well so here some tips I followed/received:

Home page; list store hours and contact info

Retake your Contact us photo (it barely shows your business)

the photo with the head off bothered me as well, as did the starch white shirt. Was distracting to me.

In 'hanging and delivery' , like the photo but the bright light from the window shows too much. (I know since my home picture needs to be adjusted too, because of sun shine)

The overall look to me is masculine. Mainly because of the dark color. I had trouble reading some parts. I could read it but it took an effort.

Customers like to take a quick look and get an overall idea. I didn't get that from your home page and menu. Lots of text, not sure if anyone besides other framers will take the time to read through it. Personally, I like lots of clear pictures with some text thrown in here and there. I don't think I'm alone in that.

We are all so proud in what we achieve, but frankly, lots of customers probably couldn't care less. They want to see some framing samples and pretty pictures and make their decision to come into your store based upon that. I would post more pictures of your shop, inside, on your home page, along with some spectaculair frame designs.
 
... Your HOME link on the top horizontal menu takes the visitor to a parking lot page (Under Construction)...

Thanks all - that will be changed once the testing is done & we move the home page to the actual home page address
 
I did not know Canada had Statutory Holidays. Makes sense now.

Denny, they have a Statutory Tax also. Same as us in the lower 48, but down here we call it Statutory Rape. . . except in a couple of states where it's simply called "lovin' your cousin".

Excuse me but I now have to go hire me a Canuk to redo my web site.

hey Brian.... I've got a box of ATG down here...... :D

John, if he's taking down the link to the Council because it's defunct, he might as well take down the one to FACTS while he's at it; now that Don and Chris are both retired. :icon11:
 
Thanks to you all for taking a peak - I will investigate each issue raised!

Very impressive, HB! Lots of great stuff.

Can you share with us how you went about creating this? Did you do it yourself or have someone do it for you? About how much will it cost you?

Susan

I will when I'm all done - remind me if I forget Susan - for now though - I worked with a web designer - took a lot of wrk getting good pics, wording, images & gifs tho
 
Its Finished!

Its all done - for now. http://www.framingnook.com/
Thanks for the tips from you all!


...Can you share with us how you went about creating this? Did you do it yourself or have someone do it for you? About how much will it cost you?

Susan

Well, I guess it depends how much work you put in to it yourself, as far as design, & picture & word prep. For a site like mine, you'd be paying between $2000 & $4000.
 
Gorgeous layout and colours! I'm very impressed with the initial design. I'm glad to see you're taking w3.org criteria into account, as well as CSS. One thing you want to keep an eye out for is the special needs child called Explorer -- that doesn't like to comply with w3.org standards. My husband and I have had issues with Explorer when it comes to programming, especially in CSS and Javascript.

Before anyone asks, hubby's a web programmer and I learn by osmosis. If one is curious, Here is his site. Just a warning: he does do pin-up art so if you're easily offended by beautiful, scantily-clad women, you've been warned. (No, I'm not there. :p )

Content is good, actually. It's good to have a lot of text, actually, for search engines to find you.

The first and largest thing I'm noticing is the header. I'm running 1440 x 900 resolution, and the header takes up over half the page, even in Google Chrome. If I were to view this on current industry standard - 1024x768 - it would take up nearly most of the screen. Further, there are many people who are still using 800x600 -- I've just converted the boss's monitor at work to 1024x768 from 800x600 just before Christmas, just so he could view without side-scrolling. It doesn't look like you would have any problem with side-scrolling, though.

The "Strong" tag is becoming obsolete due to CSS.

Also, you might want to consider using a javascript tag for your email -- one of the problems with some spam spiders is that it looks for the <a href="mailto://.."> line in a web page, then sends the spam out that way.
This is the script we use for our site:

<script language="javascript"><!--
var first = "shop";
var second = "@";
var third = "theframemakers.com";
var fourth = "Email Us";
document.write('<a href=\"mailto:' + first + second + third + '\?Subject=From theframemakers.com&body=BODY">');
document.write(fourth + '</a>');
//--></script>

It's a simple script that confuses the spambots so you don't get spam.

Out of curiosity, are you using Dreamweaver? It's definitely not FrontPage, and for that I give you a big round of applause. :D

Susan, my husband is very competitively priced for web design, if you're interested. ;) As for our shop's website, Bill's getting a great deal: he's got this crazy tech kid on staff. (C'est moi!)
 
Loved the overall impression of the website.

One small area to check out.... I looked at the testimonials link (fantastic examples by the way) and clicked on the read and view more. The next screen opens in extremely large text & image when its loading -

then, when the image/page is loaded, the page quickly "jumps" to a reduced size like that of a book sized bookmarker with too small of type to read.

best wishes with your venture!
 
I really like your site! I'm sure it will get you a lot of business form locals who actually check out your site before they decide to come see you.
I am slightly bothered by the automatic line spacing (I can't remember what it's called - but it adds spaces to fill up lines so all the lines end up the same length.) There are lot of places in your site where this looks wierd.
Very nicely done!
 
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