SG35 (SGpro) New Website Under Construction, Comments Welcome!!!
 

Hi,

Just uploaded the work in progress for the new SG35 (now SGpro) website.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/wayne.kinney/sg35.htm

Please let me know what you think, im looking for suggestions.

Hi Wayne, the page won’t load here (IE 6.0.29).

Hi Wayne, good to hear you're doing a pro version. Bad to hear cause I was trying to get money together for a unit for the 48 hour film project at the end of May, and you're not taking orders now :)

Some suggestions.

1) Intro - Remove it. I think website intros are annoying and just waste my time by waiting for them to load and then having to skip them.

2) Make the main page transition in faster. Takes about 8 seconds for it to finish. I'd say make it no more than 2, or just remove it.

3) Scrollers and short info window. Again something I don't like, especially custom ones like flash. The window with information is small and my window size has no bearing on what I can see, which I feel it should.

4) Transition between menu info. This takes too long flying off and the new one flying on. Make it instant.

Generally I think a web page should help the user and not hinder them by forcing them to wait for flashy animations.

I like the colours you chose and style. A little more vibrant than the other players who all seem to like that black industrial look to their websites.

Finally - need any beta testers? ;)

Keep up the good work. I'm really looking forward to your new adapter. I think you have sweet spot for quality versus price and I'm pretty much sold on getting one. The Letus seems to suffer a little from quality issues, the RedRock is very expensive for low end adapters. And the others like mpic, mini35 etc are just exorbitant.

Cheers
Aaron

Thanks Aaron,

Question, was your browser Explorer or Firefox. Does not seem to be loading in explorer for me.

Thanks for the suggestions, I agree with you totally. The site is designed and put together by a friend, he likes full flash webpages but im not a big fan.

I think ill take the design and make it more into html format with some little embeded flash for speed.

Once i get the prototype finshed, I can finalise the pricing and start taking orders.

I'd really like to see your page too but it's not loading for me either. I'm running Internet Explore 6.0. I'll try this through FireFox when I get home.

OK, looks like its an explorer thing...

Think ill get it converted to standard HTML

New Website
 

Hey Wayne,

I'm viewing in Firefox and it works just fine. The Flash is a bit much though. I had my speakers up way too loud and the music scared the crap out of me as it came blasting through. Is that the Fight Club soundtrack? The design is cool, but it does take quite a while to load each separate section. And what's with the lo-res image of the dvx w/ your unit? Maybe something's wrong with my browser... Also, in the window with the caption "SG35 - Image Converter Give a Professional Look to your Work," it might be nice to have some still grabs from your test footage dissolving into one another (if you are going to go for some flash (big F and little f)).

Anyhow, hope that helps. Can't wait to see the finished product.

Thanks Jason,

Yes i will certainly make these changes, your input is much appreciated.

Ok here with Safari (v.2.0.3) in Mac OSX (10.4.5).

Congartulations Wayne,
i hope the best for you and your new adapter.

Hi Wayne. I was using Safari; I'm a Mac man.

Cheers
Aaron

Hi Wayne...nothing coming up in IE, but works great in Firefox. The site is pretty cool, but I'm with Aaron on the KISS rule thing. Of course everyone will have their own opinion, but for what it's worth, your site is a bit like watching a commercial. Being that you're promoting a product, that's not a bad thing. It's pretty upbeat.

Thanks Dennis,

We are actually working on a different style now, will upload soon.

Wayne, I finally loaded this up on Firefox and unfortunately I don't have that much good to say about it.

The all Flash interface is of course a big negative as it means I need the plugin. Perhaps your IE difficulties have something to do with that as well.

The intro just gets in the way. If you MUST have an intro, make it much shorter. I have no statistics to say how long it should be (as it pertains to what message you want to get across) but waiting for each line to come up meant time out of my day. A reader can read much faster than that. The medium is not television, it is the Internet and people use the Internet to scan information, not be fed it like a commercial. Fortunately, you have the skip option. A happier medium is to have the 'commercial' play but within the context of your main interface. So have your main interface animate up and have the commercial play as the rest of the navigation loads.

That said, I found the intro design not as compelling as the main navigation. It looks rushed and not impressive. The font work is pretty stark.

Music: annoying. My workmate here thought it was taken from the series "Bones". I'm not familiar with it but if it is not licensed, I would be wary of that. I don't mind a driving techno intro but then have it fade out and not come back. I don't need music to make me feel something on the Internet. For that I have my iPod and iTunes which I would rather not be interrupted by some website's decision on listening tastes.

It looks like there are a few elements there that need greater integration and a visual flow.The negative elements that are glaring to me are the bare font work on the menus (need tightening up), the menu that is stretched across the entire interface for no particular reason, that rotating elipsoid animation on the left side that just seems to fill space, and the fact that your central message needs to be scrolled in order for the user to read the whole thing. The reader's eye is pulled in many directions at the same time. First the most compelling image is the camera but then there is the image of your actual technology which is pulled off to the right. Your message at the same time is straight down the middle while the "SG35 Image Converter - gives your work a professional look" again seems to just be filling space. So the user's eye is pulled in many different directions. You should ask yourself, what is the first thing that you want the user to do. What action do you want to influence the user to do? Then reform all of your visual elements toward this keeping in mind that the most usual visual path for western readers is TOP LEFT to BOTTOM RIGHT.

The image of the camera itself doesn't immediately inform me what your product is. Is it the camera? Is it the matte box? Here is where Flash actually might be an advantage. How about an animation showing where your product fits within the framework of the whole camera system? That way you can have your product image but also have the compelling image of the camera system. Your product image by itself is not really compelling but if you show how it integrates within a professional system then at once you grab the viewer with the whole sexy camera plus informs the user on where your product is an essential component. More informed customers who already know what your product is will also not have to hunt and peck visually to be confirmed in what they already know.

By the way, you have a link for "language setting" but someone who doesn't read English has no idea that it is the way they can click to get their own language.

When you click to select a new section the user gets it via a slow Flash animation. All this does is slow down the user getting that information. This must be avoided. You are not selling a Flash interface. You are selling your information and your product.

I suggest instead of "Our Product" that you use the subheading you already have once the user clicks into that section: "What is the SG35" because this is what I want to know at once after I get to your site. Always focus on what the user wants to know rather than what you already know about your product.

Of course the other disadvantage of adopting an exclusively Flash interface is that your text is not searchable, is not copyable, and each section cannot be linked to. So if I am interested in sending this onto someone via email or IM, I cannot simply cut and paste the URL. Nor can blogs easily reference a page on your site.

You need to include Euro and USD prices if you intend to service those markets.

Great input, many thanks.

We have got rid of the intro and the other sytle is much faster. I will post up soon.

Im sorry to say this but I didn't like this page at all. Way too flashy, too colorful and not that professional to my eyes. The intro is bad and so is the music. Yes, I know it can be turned off but why must it be there in a first place? Why would anyone want a web page to have music playing on it? If this was html not flash and there wasn't music or intros involved it would be OK.

Perhaps because SG35 looks so much like M2 I was waiting something like M2 webpages wich are quite cool. Yet I believe with some work this page can be made into something that works but like this it will just turn potential customers away.

Hi,
Yes your right, I think the design we are working on now is more pleasing to the eye.

I am with the others in the overuse of Flash. Flash in the use of banners (rotating of the product?) and secondary windows look good but other than that I am at odds w/ Flash. I would suggest get right to the point... your selling a product. Right now I am on a Mac G4 700mhz./512 Ram/ Firefox/ broadband/ and viewing at a resolution of 1024x768(using scroll bars) and it is moving slow on my machine, music a tad loud, and it by web standards it *should* be optimized for 800x600 resolution, call me crazy but there are thousands of machines running 500mhz and 800x600 and having to scroll bar around a site is the worst.
The idea should make it easy for the user and the less clicks the better!
Good Luck.

OK Guys,

Here is a new version we have just completed, taking into acount the comments made. Its a new style.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/wayne.kinney/sg35.htm

Comments welcome.

I never saw the first one (couldn't load it), but it seems like this one is much more toned down than what I have heard about the first. Looks good to me, although I am no web designer.

Much better Wayne.
Congratulations for your work.

Thumbs up Wayne. It looks professional.

Looks great, the interchangeable metal mounts is a great touch.

Wayne, Looks great, Just ONE advice, lose the NTL homepage address, if you are serious (which you are) then you can not only look the part but have to sound like the real deal, so get your self a new registered domain name, and step up to the pro level :)

Good luck !

Anhar Hussain Miah

Thanks,

We are in the process of registering an address.

www.sg35.com is available - It can be bought cheap at www.godaddy.com

Thanks Glenn.

Although I will be going for a different domain name.

Wayne,
much better, cleaner, without the Flash interstitials. From this foundation you can slowly bring back a bit more style. A good clean basis that informs the visitor much better. That said...

Banner title - a bit plain. You need more sex in that top part. Also, "leave the hard work to us!" as a motto doesn't tell me much about what you do. That could very well be the motto for a car dealership, realtor, etc. I don't mind the grid pattern below everything but I don't think you can combine it with that dotted line pattern at the same time.

Against that suppressed blue-grey color you could very well use a bright color for your banner text and word-logo to break it out of the background. As it is, it seems drab.

I don't believe you need a black border around the whole square as the blue-grey shape already makes it stand out against the white web page background already.

Menu - I don't think having the menu at the bottom left is optimal. Western readers read from top; left-right. This means that the position of your menu is in a bad region. The user then is forced to 'learn' how to use your website. Instead, I think it is better to go back to top-left, top or middle. If you must keep the bottom-left menu then I suggest having redundant links for the most important destinations. Have a small text menu for Home / Order / Contact at the very top.

Product graphic - These seem begging to be clicked on. When I see this, I want to click on each of these hoping that they will take me to a page telling me more about it. Think about this idea.

A minor quibble, when these graphics are chopped off at the bottom it looks a bit abrupt. I suggest feathering out the bottoms. If that is the real bottom of the product, how about a dropshadow.

Body text - Why is this Flash? As far as I know it still is limited then by not being searchable, not being copyable. This also means it is harder for someone on your team to change it who is not the Flash designer.

Section title - This is too small. The reader needs to be informed right away where they have landed.

Gallery - when I click on this menu item, not only does it go to a page that does not exist but for some reason my Internet Provider pops up with a warning that I have a browser / internet connection problem. What funny business is this I wonder?

Order - I like the graphic / anim of the product. I think it should be actually combined on the front page with your actual product shots. This will give the user more of an idea up front what your product is about.

Keith,

Thanks very much for your comments. I will pass all this onto my web designer and chat with him about each point you made.

One other idea. How about a graphic describing what you mean by the DoF. Some people may not 'get it' even by reading the text. Like a 'before and after' or side-by-side comparison graphic of an image with and without your product?

Yes true, an image says 1000 words after all.

They're just my opinion. I'm no design guru; I just have a few years under my belt making similar mistakes. Your designer should feel free to reject any of them.

One day my boss handed the phone to me and asked me to speak to ... seriously ... the sister-in-law of one of the company's investors who just got out of design college. She asked me if I had been formally trained. I said: 'no, I'm self taught.' She went: "Hmmm" like it informed her of everything there was to know about me. Then she spent the next half an hour listing everything she hated about a comp of a box I had designed which my boss had forwarded to her for no particular reason. Never mind that it was a work in progress. I spent all that time doodling on a paper with the phone on speaker. At the end of that I said 'thanks' and asked her if she was applying for a job. She said: 'no, I'm taking a few months to have a baby.' I congratulated her and that was that. Later my boss asked me if I had found that phone conversation useful. I asked him what he thought about her comments? He shrugged and said he hadn't spoken to her (he'd left the room). He just thought it would be useful to hear from another 'designer'. Greeaattt... I have no idea who she is or what she's done. I don't know her; my boss doesn't know her. All he's done is knocked down my morale ten notches, wasted my time and this woman whoever she is had no particular goal, no context for the criticism. Did she want to work with me on the box? Was she angling for a job? Did my boss want to hire her? Did he want to fire me? Did the box bug him in any particular way? Nope. What she had noted was not anything that hadn't occured to me. There's always a need for a second opinion;just be careful how it is given.

The site's not bad, but it's not really great either.

I'd start by losing the flash; I despise flash websites... I have no idea why they are so popular.

I think that there should be some kind of navigation at the top, people with smaller screens may not see the links at the bottom readily.

I'd also say the content feels too seperated from the top and bottom.

Now, I'm not a real "professional" designer, but I have done several paying gigs, the latest sites being www.cybercopyusa.com (hate the color scheme but when your client pays you good cash, you do it the way they want) and of course Dennis Wood's site.

My own site isn't up at the moment since I managed to delete the database.

Thanks for your input.

My designer has just registered here so we can chat further. Really appreciate the ideas.

I totally agree with Joshua. Get rid of the flash and make it work with smaller screens. I had scroll the page to see the menus.

I don't either see any point in using flash with this (or with any) page. All that this page has could easily be done with html. There aren't even any flashy graphics here.

Wayne,

Nice looking product... can't wait to see some footage. The overall look of the site is clean and appropriate also.

The biggest problem I have with the site is having the navigation at the bottom of the page. It is problematic for three main reasons:

1. It is not where people instinctively look for it, and anything you do to make their lives more difficult hurts you.

2. It mandates that you limit the height of the scrolling text area, which annoys people like me who have the screen resolution to see all of the text at once.

3. That competes with the problem that the longer you make that area the more the risk of the navigation being off the bottom of the screen for people with low resolution - this requires them to scroll the main page to see or click on your navigation and that is a big nono.

Also, having the home button separate from all the other navigation buttons is confusing.

Good luck.

Thanks Barry,

All very good points. I do want to convert this to HTML format soon.

wayne, is the sg35pro gonna be flipped? and will it be able to upgrade to the sg35xl whenever that comes out?

thanks
jason

Jason,
No the SGpro is not flipped, as we believe the current flipping methods sacrifice too much on image quality and light loss. The aim and work of the SGpro is in the image quality and construction areas.

Development on flipping will continue after the pro is released.

We have no plans to develope an XL style relay lens at the moment.

SGpro - New forum up - Suggestions on sections welcome
 

Hello,

The New SGpro forum is now up. I am looking for suggestions on what to add.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/wayne.k...gproforum.html

if you had guests enabled to view your forum without signing up it would be allright i guess.