Thread: Website Help... What Do You Think?!

Hello!

We're thinking of stopping offering the styling products and concentrating more on just the performance, suspension, wheels and servicing. What do you guys think?

This is the website at the moment...

http://www.dpmautostyling.co.uk/catalogue/

We would do away with the body styling, interior and lighting options and just have a more performance and suspension option visable on the homepage.

Seeing as the site is for you guys and a like, i thought we'd get your response about it... what do you think?

I guess you should promote the things that sell well and those that make you good profit.

It terms of website layout and design principles, I think you need to get away from trying to center align everything. My 2p.

Visually speaking I think there is too much text. People surfing the Internet are generally lazy in the sense that they don't want to have to spend time on sites having to read anything that's none related to their needs (think about it when you search on google etc, you look at the first few pages - very quickly you will scan the page, if the data is not there that you're after, it's back to the search and onto another page) - break the text down into more 'bite size' chunks - like mini adverts. Pick the key elements to your business and present them visually in a neat manner i.e: Performance | Handling | Styling | etc etc etc.

The site does not work great in an 800*600 resolution - the user is forced to scroll (making the text look even more like an essay). Many people state that nobody uses 800*600 (which is true), but they should still be catered for).

Of course these are just my opinions mate - it's brave of you to ask your customers/people in general as ultimately they will be viewing it! Also a good opportunity for some PR - ensure you ask on lots of sites

I'd probably agree on sticking to what you're best at. Anything else is good for a sideline.

Rob

Thanks guys, just trying to get as much feedback as we can to make the site itself better. We've been going for nearly 2 years now and the support and sales we've had has been great... we just want to keep it that way and hopefully make it better and get more!

Just really interested in and value all your opinions!

A bit more colour wouldnt go amiss IMO... you provide a fantastic service/great prices etc and we will all still use ya, but if you look at the sites of some of your "rivals" they all look a bit snazzier

http://www.thettshop.com/index.asp

http://www.awesome-gti.co.uk/

peace

When i saw that you had posted Silver i thought it was going to be some smart arsed comment but it's not, it's a constructive comment. I'm proud of you man!

No serious now, i agree mate and this is the type of thing that we need to know. At first we tried to make it very plan and simple to use to ease us into the scene but now as Silver says i think we need to jazz it up!

Thanks dude!

Keep them coming!

Yeah we were thinking of dropping the autostyling part, just DPM. Also maybe changing the address to dpm.co.uk.

I agree with Silver. Look at the 'rival' sites and see how much more visual they are - this is what I meant in my first post. Awesome have a 'good' site as they not only use visuals, but they also list all the models they cater for on the home page in a clever manner - search engines love this kind of stuff - an overall happy medium.

If I'm being totaly honest I think the starting point to a 'better' design would stem from your logo. To me it looks like little thought has gone into it - so many people/organisations without any identity think: "we need a website"...then the web 'designer' comes up with a layout and usually just throws in a design for a logo (I'm not saying that is the case here). It's bizarre as the logo = the identity of the brand. Therefore it should encapsulate the essence of the company. With this in mind it is easier to drop that into a design. I know that the business has been around a couple of years (well done) and therefore you may be hesitant to change the ID of the company.

Not meaning to sound rude there mate, at the end of the day the business is alive and there is potential for the website to develop. So things can only get better (as the old song goes)

No that's great, don't hold back.

As said above we have thought about dropping the 'Autostyling' part and just having the 'DPM'. This is where the idea for change has come and with a new logo comes a new website and as said above maybe a new image.

yeh, less text more pics... possibly some colourful prices? good luck.

Well I'm going to throw the feline amongst the winged rodents! I like the website pretty much as is (although admittedly a few more/larger piccies wouldn't go amiss!), it's nice and easy to find your way around which is something that a lot of other sites don't seem to have thought about (diy.com anyone?). I'd go for functionality over flashiness every time but whatever solution you come up with you're not going to be able to please everybody. Good luck!

Finally had a chance to play about with the homepage, any opinion would be appreciated people!

Thanks,

Damian @ DPM

not looked at new site yet,

old site is functional, does the job, i'd rather the web site be a bit bland but usable, and keep the costs of your parts low. rather than snazzy website but increased parts prices to fund it.

No price increases but hopefully a better website in the end. Just really had a refresh on the homepage at the moment, nothing major.

Damian @ DPM

Looks a lot better mate.... Just a thought but might be an idea to have the option of choosing your car make, model etc from the homepage then everything applicable for your vehicle comes up. At the moment it is a little annoying that you have do this a few times for different products

Yeah we're trying to do that but it seems to be difficult to run both product categories and vehicles categories together.

Thanks though!

Damian @ DPM