Website Review and Suggestions

**Whathadiv** · 02:49 PM

Hi everyone reading this post

I am the President/CEO of Smack3 Studios as well as the lead designer and I would like to take this opportunity to introduce our new website, and see what all of you think about it.

It has been a long hard road getting this website off the ground, mainly due to road blocks having nothing to do with the site itself. Maybe my expectations are too high but we just released the site yesterday and noticed that even after creating a little hype, we only received 42 unique visitors within the first day, none of which converted into customers or even potential ones. This is probably a really high expectation, to convert visitors in the first day.

However, we are professionals in our fields and offer a wide range of services while specializing in corporate/small business branding. We would like the input of our fellow designers & developers about the new website, Smack3.com as well as the blog, Smack3 Magazine on a few factors:

1. What is your first impression?
2. Does the design follow trends well or have an interestingly enough design that trends don't matter?
3. Is there enough reason to want to stay on Smack3.com or want to keep checking back?
4. Please add your own factors and comments not listed here.

I greatly appreciate anyone who takes the time to review our sites and would like to offer a free custom logo design to the 100th person who signs up for our forum and makes a post to help us get started.

Note: I apologize if this offer is out of line for this thread and would like to request the deletion of this part of the post if that is the case.

**mlovet1** · 10-05-2010, 03:22 PM

Quite frankly, your portfolio is impressive; however, your 3d "dude" logo with the hair and glasses is incredibly cheesy and does not scream "professionals designed me" at all. The background with the red and blue "explosions" is very 90's-ish. If first impressions are what you're worried about (as you should be) then overhaul the theme of your site.. not the content, but theme. Its childish.

As for not converting any first time visitors to customers on the first day, don't feel bad about that. Even with the most professional site on the web it still takes time to build confidence in viewers before they hand over their money to you.

**Whathadiv** · 10-05-2010, 04:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mlovet1

The background with the red and blue "explosions" is very 90's-ish.

Funny that you mention that cause I grew up mostly in the 90's besides the first 8 years in the 80's but that's a mere haze in my memory bank. I do however greatly appreciate your comment but the cheesy guy is my mascot and has a lot to do with marketing strategies.

I kind of figured also that not converting in a day or two is a bit much to expect.

Thanks for the comments

**mlovet1** · 04:49 PM

Strategies are supposed to be flexible and not written in stone. I mean personally, I find all markets with mascots kind of annoying (geico gecko for example) but maybe thats just me. I think a well designed logo would work just as well if not better for you(less cheese factor at the least).

You guys are talented tho, don't get me wrong. The mascot reminds me of some fast food chain mascot from my childhood. Most companies using cartoonish 3d models are targeting kids (most, not all), which in the fractions of a second that I see one, I categorize the company or product as being for kids, certainly not for professionals seeking business marketing help.

**Whathadiv** · 10-05-2010, 04:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mlovet1

The mascot reminds me of some fast food chain mascot from my childhood.. I'll have to go research that and show you.

That's funny, you're right that it all has to do with taste because there are lots of people that think our mascot is an awesome attraction and then there are those who don't. I guess it depends on what your market is and what they might think about it.

There is a company called MindSmack based in New York, it's the second largest web/graphics agency in the United States but they only deal with super companies it seems. Anyway, their mascot is pretty similar to ours excepts theirs is more space like or futuristic. Based on the fact that they've had their mascot since day one and are as successful as they are, then I don't feel so bad having one. It gives people something to relate the company too. Mascots aren't for all companies though, like I said, it depends on your market and how you want to be perceived.

Personally if I was an outsider and looked at our website for the first time, I would think it's some sort of site about gaming, but that was sort of our goal.

Your comments are intriguing however and makes my mind wander. I appreciate your helping light a fire under my short-sightedness, keep'em commin'. If you need any help or suggestions, just let me know.

**mlovet1** · 10-05-2010, 05:38 PM

Ok, so after experiencing that eye-orgy of a company's website, I can see why you'd want to emulate them as much as possible. However, they have the flashy effects to backup that stupid mascot (haha, sorry I think their's is dumb too - I don't discriminate). Theres so much eye candy going on that it makes you forget they even have a mascot.

Imitation is the highest form of flattery, but it doesn't mean automatic success for your venture. Try to be original. Tribute/cover bands only get so far, you know what I mean?

**Whathadiv** · 10-05-2010, 06:23 PM

Well my idea wasn't to copy MindSmack and their mascot, it was actually coincidence and I don't want to be a cover band. Actually in comparison to the thousands of generic sites on the internet, I think our is pretty unique.

That's exactly what their site is, an eye-orgy. I can completely understand what you mean though, their mascot isn't overused as ours might be. Yes, our mascot is everywhere on the site which would be fine if there was an equal amount of flash effects to distort the focus maybe, but flash isn't great for a lot of things in my opinion. Flash is only for big companies, games, movies or anything else that already has a profound presence on the public.

Do you like the front page slider and do you like the site? I'm not sure if I am perceiving your comments correctly on whether you like the site or not.

**mlovet1** · 10-05-2010, 06:40 PM

Everything below the top header art is great. The explosions and mascot logo are distracting in a negative way, in my opinion. And you're right, flash is usually not utilized correctly on sites. MindSmack for example, had horrible load times because of their massive flash files.

To be honest, I didn't even realize you had a slider (doesn't stand out enough to make me think its an image carousel) until I stayed on the main page longer than 10 seconds (which I don't want to because the artwork is so unflattering).

The content and your work is good like I said, its just the theme is not conveying a message that I agree with. I wouldn't want that theme representing my company and I wouldn't want to hire a design team that does. Again, this is all subjective and just the voice of one viewer, I'm sure you've encountered many who love it.

**Whathadiv** · 10-05-2010, 07:19 PM

Use firebug, take out the bg and make it black, then tell me what you think. Some colleagues have just told me that it changes the perception of the site large enough to not make it a distraction anymore.

**mlovet1** · 10-05-2010, 07:33 PM

Looks a lot better. I'm not saying you need a complete removal of the background, perhaps use one that not so abrasive and distracting. Also, your Contact Us and Client Area text are spilling out of the button area. Did that in firefox and safari.

**Whathadiv** · 10-05-2010, 07:41 PM

huh, can you send me a screenshot of that? I don't see it in any of my browsers. I have all browsers, so maybe a screenshot will help.

**mlovet1** · 10-05-2010, 08:01 PM

I'm on a macbook at 1280x800 resolution. Hope that helps

**Whathadiv** · 08:47 PM

hmm, im going to have to experiment with some different resolutions then. I usually optimize for 1024x768 as I did for this site.

Take a look at the background now, I pushed the bolts to the top and it makes them more subtle. Every opinion counts to me so I made this adjustment and it works out nicely, thank you for your input

Update: I just tested all resolutions and found nothing overlapping like you said. I'm wondering if you're on a widescreen monitor or not. Better yet though you may have adjusted the font size using the font adjusters as tried that and it came out exactly like your screenshot when I enlarged the font.

**mlovet1** · 10-05-2010, 09:13 PM

No, I'm not on a widescreen monitor, just a small laptop. I had my settings on Actual size for text. When I zoomed out twice, the text fit.

**Whathadiv** · 10-05-2010, 09:23 PM

well that's interesting because I used 3 different computers, 2 pcs and a mac in that resolution and didn't see it without increasing the font size.

Anyhow, thanks for the conversation. If you need any help with anything, just let me know.

Reviews and suggestions are still wanted, so anyone who would like to comment, please do.

**mlovet1** · 10-05-2010, 09:46 PM

Not sure why the text was behaving like that..

I've got a site review up if you wouldn't mind giving it a review.

http://www.webmaster-talk.com/websit...ping-site.html

Thanks, I appreciate it.

**Whathadiv** · 10-07-2010, 01:26 AM

*Bump*

Still looking for reviews and suggestions for www.smack3.com

Any comment is a good comment.

**Martin977** · 10-07-2010, 09:32 PM

There is far too much going on in the header (and by header, I mean the top 600px of the site). It looks more like a gaming site than a site offering web design services, in my opinion.

It would look better if the fuzzy line underneath the navigation were removed, for starters. Next, your site has 231 validation errors in its HTML which is not going to give people confidence in your statement that you build sites with valid code.

**Whathadiv** · 02:32 AM

Thanks for the kind advice, I'll take that into consideration. That is the first response I have had about the header being too busy. Most people do think it's a gaming site, which is probably why some of our current clients are in the gaming, poker and other related industries.

After some 100 reviews or more from here and elsewhere, we will make adjustments. Again thanks for the kind words.

Please rate our site on LinkedIn @ http://tinyurl.com/27ot3uz

**dagaul101** · 10-11-2010, 11:29 AM

Looks professional, has the look of a game the target audience will love, like how the features are at the bottom, well done