Busse Custom Shop Website

mamun1024 said:
Garth, the site doesn't load on an iPad or iPhone due to Apple's restriction of Adobe flash player. Any plans on making the site compatible from Apple computers?
Click to expand...

I second this. Well, not just to make it compatible with Apple devices, but to make it all HTML-based. I feel it'll be faster and less clunky. The way it is now, being Flash-based, it's also difficult to reference the images in the gallery (you can't just say, for example, "page 3 top row fourth picture"), and you can't link to them. And the gallery navigation is also sort of unpredictable--the "next" and "previous" buttons take you to nonsequentially numbered images sometimes, so I question the numbering in the first place. They can be used for referencing the images, but they're difficult to find among the gallery. The arrows on the gallery thumbnail page also transitions in a weird way that throws me off. Looks cool, but I have a hard time using it. The even rows go one direction one image, the odd rows go the other direction, so every time I shift, my eyes have to look left-right-left-right-left-right to see what's new... unless I click one direction seven times, but couldn't I just click it once?

Well, that's from a usage standpoint. From a content standpoint, I think more information on the knives would be awesome--what they're a variation of, what the variations are. Probably an exhaustive list of the available handle materials you have used, links to example images. This is kind of tedious data-entering though. Depends if you want to be encyclopaedic/cataloguish or more showcasey.

From an organization standpoint, I think separating them into small, medium, and large categories is cool, but I'm not really sure what special means or why Battle Pappy is in a separate gallery and why the Magnum Bear Cub has its own top-level page. Based on assumptions I can make only after having some experience with Busse, I would think the MBC is the current "production custom," sort of like what the Battle Pappy was when it was stickied in this forum.

There are some typos (I think), and I wouldn't mind proofreading all your copy for you. It's what I do for a living--it'd be great to do it with another passion of mine. For example:

Every knife produced is done with the inspiration of long known traditions but with the disadvantage of modern materials and hand-made techniques.
Click to expand...

That "disadvantage" is probably wrong :p and... uh........ just 'cause I'm a bit compulsive about this, "long-known" should be hyphenated.

I also find it weird that when I click and drag on a text field (about us page, history page, etc.), it draws a line.

Also, if you're viewing an image in the gallery, I feel clicking the Gallery button should bring you back to the thumbnail page. Instead, it just stays on the current image. A "back" button would be nice, too, because every time you go to an image, you lose the spot you went to on the thumbnail pages. It's the same with the Magnum Bear Cub if you're viewing one of the images, too.

Also on an image page, it's odd that if you're looking at a Magnum Bear Cub image, the bread crumbs show "Gallery / Magnum bear cub / Magnum bear cub" but clicking "Gallery" brings you back to the "Magnum bear cub" top-level page; meanwhile, if you're looking at an image in the gallery, the breadcrumbs read "Knives / Small / Active duty," with Knives instead of Gallery, as the navigation suggests it should be named.

Oh, don't forget to change favicon.ico :) maybe Rob can make an icon out of his Special Forces Skull :)

And the Lightbox-style popups when you click the bottom-right corner links (Guarantee, Ordering Info, Privacy Policy, Links), I kind of wish just clicking out of the box would close them instead of having to click the X. They do have a cool minimizing thing that makes it inactive and reactivates the background, but I'm not sure how I could use that with the rest of the site.

... sorry, and another obsessive thing of mine... the underline does not extend to the right half of the last "m" in the email address: customerservice@bussecombat.com
 
Last edited:
Never knew this website existed... wow, maybe I can have that old Badger Attack made that I've missed ever since I fellow HOG, snagged it from me :)...
 
Man Love this new site!!! Like Garth said a great way to get the custom designs and materials out ther for all to see. Way cool:cool:
 
I think the site is a cool one, but like someone else said- more descriptions for each knife would be good. Especially for what each handle material is if the gallery is a showplace for all the different slab types and contours. Also describe what "g-rex" and "handshaped" is for those handles as well.
So when a buyer contacts the custom shop they can at least speak the lingo.
Since that site is standalone, one can presume most aren't making the leap from this forum so more information is definitely better.
Also, instead of arranging the blades by Small- Med- Large. Why not go by blade length instead? something like 3-4, 5-7, 8-10, etc. might be better for a noob.
Last criticism, when scrolling through the blades and coming to the last one- it automatically leaps to the last picture instead of just stopping which I feel is annoying.

All that being said I think it's about dang time the custom shop got their own site. Thank you for doing it!
 
Demonic1 said:
Last criticism, when scrolling through the blades and coming to the last one- it automatically leaps to the last picture instead of just stopping which I feel is annoying.
Click to expand...

It doesn't actually do this per se... it's that the navigation arrows appear and disappear over the first and last pictures of the thumbnails. So here you are, clicking clicking clicking etc. to get to the last "page," when suddenly the arrow disappears and you accidentally click the image instead. But you can't go back to that same page anymore... you have to start from the beginning, the first "page" of those thumbnails, and click all the way back there again. Slowly. To make sure you don't click the thumbnail again :p
 
Ummm Flash sucks. Welcome to 2002. Love the knives but c'mon why pay your Flash guy forever and just use a CMS? Listen to or better yet hire Gary.
 
So do they have all the model slabs available that are on the site for custom or do we still have to call and check for model blank availability?
 
Tenptation made me look,,big mistake,now i find myself e-mailing Garth,,

Respect
A fool and his money,
Gary
 
Boy, am I late noticing this.

Especially embarrassing because quite a few of my knives are pictured in his gallery!!:o
 
It's nice to have a reference page for the type and style of some of the custom work ... I say "some" because it appears that not all the knives done are included ... I did'nt see any Nuclear Zilla's ... and did'nt see any MOABS ... but likely these could be added or is it the case that these are no longer "on the menu" so to speak ?

The technical comments by some are beyond me .... :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top