Redesigned my website check it out.

Burton Harruff

Burton Harruff

Joined
Oct 1, 2007
Messages
2,401
Hi everyone I have recently redesigned my website. Check it out and let me know what you think and if you have any criticism good or bad. I am working on some WIP pics and adding some info on the knives in the gallery. I really appreciate the feedback. Have a good one. -Burton Harruff

http://www.burtoncutlery.com
 
Great looking site! I like the pictures they're a good size. colors are good, type is easy to read.
 
Looks GOOD! It is clear, concise, easy to navigate, is pleasant to look at and show cases quality work. I don't know about other folks, but I enjoy seeing a photo of the maker somewhere. Perhaps on your About page while you're at work on, using or showing a knife?
 
Looking good! Often times, people assume that websites are simply cut and paste, but I've done it and I know that it takes a lot of work to put one together that is cohesive and effective. Nice job.
 
The colors are great, the photos are very good,the layout is concise and it showcases your overall talent. What more could you ask for?
 
Very nice!

A couple of minor suggestions:
- On most websites, clicking the logo takes one back to the homepage.
- Under "Available knives", there is a picture of a knife but no evidence that it is or is not available. It might be nice to tell people: sorry, nothing right now...
 
Thanks for the comments everyone. Tait good suggestion I added links to the logos back to the home page. I am going to add info to the available page soon. Phil thanks for your suggestion also. I have a youtube video on the about page did it not show up for you? I wondered because when I was building it showed on one commuter but not the other. I will have to see if I have any pictures or get a couple taken. Thanks again. -Burton
 
It has a very nice look to it, great job.

The only things I would suggest from a development standpoint is instead of having a mailto link create a contact page with a form that will mail directly from the page itself.

Also if you make your avbailable and gallery pages database driven then when you want to update all you have to do is make a new database record entry rather than editing the webpage itself.
 
Thanks Moon. Hughewil give me some more info on database driven pages. I know nothing about them. I built the site in Dreamweaver. I have watched many youtube tutorials to help me put this together.
 
The website looks really nice but... there aren't enough knives listed under "available knives" if you could give that a bit more content like the "gallery" section has and perhaps a link on each of the knives in there with pricing, specs, and how to order; that would be awesome.
 
Burton said:
Thanks Moon. Hughewil give me some more info on database driven pages. I know nothing about them. I built the site in Dreamweaver. I have watched many youtube tutorials to help me put this together.
Click to expand...

You have to do some coding to make the webpage connect and read from a database. The advantage is then you can update your page just by making new database records or adjusting existing records and don't have to actually open and touch the webpage file itself.

here are some tutorials on using ADO (Active X Data Object) in active server pages. This is classic ASP which is simple to learn and can be done in any web editor, you can even do it in notepad. You just have to be sure your web hosting supports ASP
http://www.domaindlx.com/databases.asp

Here is an example of connecting and reading from a database
http://www.planetsourcecode.com/vb/scripts/ShowCode.asp?txtCodeId=8558&lngWId=4

here is some sample code for using ASP to build and send a contact form
http://www.designplace.org/scripts.php?page=1&c_id=23

I know it may look itimidating but it isn't hard once you get the hang of it. I may be jaded though since I do web development for a living, but if you want to give it a shot PM me and I will answer any questions you have.
 
that is nice. be sure to put prices under every available piece. no matter how large it is, if i do not see a price, i will not even consider it. that means that it is either A. really expensive, B. unavailable, or C. a pain in the neck, and all of those are bad.
 
Thanks for the compliments and comments. I have added a contact page to keep the spammers away. Also added a pic of myself to the about page. Added info and price to the available page. I am trying to get a few more knives finished for the available section. Problem is right now everything I am working on is for orders so not much inventory right now. Thanks again for helping iron it out. -Burton
 
Overall I like the website.
My only suggestion has to do with the contact page.
I would list your email address and phone number.
The telemarketers and email spammers are going to find you anyways.
Sometimes making things more difficult for them also make things difficult for potential customers.

I guess what it comes down to is "What do you want your website to accomplish?"
If it is to build your reputation and share info, then ease of contact is not an issue.
If it is to make sales, make it easy for people to get in touch and spend their money.

Please don't take this as criticism, just a suggestion.
When I am searching for suppliers of wood overseas, many will have a contact form and no phone or email address. Over 3/4 of the enquiries I have made through contact forms have never been answered. My guess is that a lot of websites were built then neglected and not maintained over time. After a while I just started skipping over the sites that had the form as the only means of contact.
 
Point taken Mark. I added my email to the top of the contact page. I don't have a phone number that is dedicated to knives right now so that will have to wait. Thanks for the insight. -Burton
 
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