- Thread starter Big Poppa
- Start date
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AnthonyD
Well-known member
Ok BP - Here goes...
Paramount in high-quality Web Design is consistency. Menus, graphics, layouts etc. should all always be consistent - especially in a professionally produced product. Following consistency is content free from defects to best represent your business online.
General Findings:
Header and/or Margin shift - when navigating between pages, the top links (home-page and main page ink menu) shift a bit between pages. For an example of what I mean go back and forth from the home page to the Process page. It's hard to tell if it's just the header or if it is the actual page layout that is shifting. Either way, it should be corrected.
Also, the left most menu link is not left-justified, though the right most link appears to be right-justified. Not an error, per se, but an observation. This is unbalanced - I would expect the same spacing at either end of the menu bar, both indented a bit or both justified.
Additional commentary related to specific pages...
Main Page:
News link is broken
Dealers link goes to old site
The Process Page:
Mouse over the main/big picture indicates it's a link (pointer changes to hand) but clicking doesn't do anything
Logo Positioning on Pictures - The Process logo and detail appear in two places, either upper left or lower left. Within these two positions, there is inconsistency (the logo and detail are not always in the exact same place)
Jigging an Axis body for drilling the jack hole - there is a space missing after the hyphen
Attaching a Sting Ray preamp to the control plate - there appears to be an extra space after the hyphen
Prepping pickup lead wires - there appears to be an extra space after the hyphen
Link to News is broken
Dealers link goes to old site
History Page:
Picture navigation controls - the forward and reverse controls have a directional triangle and a bar. A move to the next page/image button will customarily have a only a directional triangle image, not a directional triangle and a bar which indicates moving to the "First" or "Last" page or image.
Logo Positioning on Pictures - The History logo is not always in the exact same place
Young Luke Picture for 1993 - Date and text is too dark
Line-spacing in main is inconsistent
Spacing before & after hyphens in main text is inconsistent
BFR Blog Page:
Music Man (Home Page) link is broken
Instruments link is broken
The Process link is broken
History link is broken
Artist link is broken
Dealers link goes to old site
Media Gallery link is broken
Contact Us link is broken
WordPress link at bottom of page should open in a new window since this is an "external" link (i.e. not to an alternate a Music Man website page)
News Page:
Music Man (Home Page) link is broken
Instruments link is broken
The Process link is broken
History link is broken
Artist link is broken
Dealers link goes to old site
Media Gallery link is broken
Contact Us link is broken
WordPress link at bottom of page should open in a new window since this is an "external" link (i.e. not to an alternate a Music Man website page)
Artists Page:
News link is broken
Dealers link goes to old site
Mouse over each Artist picture indicates it's a link (pointer changes to hand) but clicking doesn't do anything
There are no spaces before the any open parenthesis in the main text - I think there should be. e.g. "John(Bass)" should be "John (Bass)"
Media Gallery Page:
News link is broken
Dealers link goes to old site
All side video links go to YouTube - I would expect them to load in the Music Man media gallery player
YouTube link goes to YouTube home page - I would expect this to go to YouTube search results for Music Man
Contact Us Page:
News link is broken
Dealers link goes to old site
Coachella Office address - street abbreviation should be "St." to be consistent with road abbreviation of "Rd."
There is an unresolved asterisk on the Coachella fax number
Kevin Scoles email link sends email to Brian
Hope this is what you're looking for, and more importantly, I hope this helps!
The instruments page will be my next review later today!
Paramount in high-quality Web Design is consistency. Menus, graphics, layouts etc. should all always be consistent - especially in a professionally produced product. Following consistency is content free from defects to best represent your business online.
General Findings:
Header and/or Margin shift - when navigating between pages, the top links (home-page and main page ink menu) shift a bit between pages. For an example of what I mean go back and forth from the home page to the Process page. It's hard to tell if it's just the header or if it is the actual page layout that is shifting. Either way, it should be corrected.
Also, the left most menu link is not left-justified, though the right most link appears to be right-justified. Not an error, per se, but an observation. This is unbalanced - I would expect the same spacing at either end of the menu bar, both indented a bit or both justified.
Additional commentary related to specific pages...
Main Page:
News link is broken
Dealers link goes to old site
The Process Page:
Mouse over the main/big picture indicates it's a link (pointer changes to hand) but clicking doesn't do anything
Logo Positioning on Pictures - The Process logo and detail appear in two places, either upper left or lower left. Within these two positions, there is inconsistency (the logo and detail are not always in the exact same place)
Jigging an Axis body for drilling the jack hole - there is a space missing after the hyphen
Attaching a Sting Ray preamp to the control plate - there appears to be an extra space after the hyphen
Prepping pickup lead wires - there appears to be an extra space after the hyphen
Link to News is broken
Dealers link goes to old site
History Page:
Picture navigation controls - the forward and reverse controls have a directional triangle and a bar. A move to the next page/image button will customarily have a only a directional triangle image, not a directional triangle and a bar which indicates moving to the "First" or "Last" page or image.
Logo Positioning on Pictures - The History logo is not always in the exact same place
Young Luke Picture for 1993 - Date and text is too dark
Line-spacing in main is inconsistent
Spacing before & after hyphens in main text is inconsistent
BFR Blog Page:
Music Man (Home Page) link is broken
Instruments link is broken
The Process link is broken
History link is broken
Artist link is broken
Dealers link goes to old site
Media Gallery link is broken
Contact Us link is broken
WordPress link at bottom of page should open in a new window since this is an "external" link (i.e. not to an alternate a Music Man website page)
News Page:
Music Man (Home Page) link is broken
Instruments link is broken
The Process link is broken
History link is broken
Artist link is broken
Dealers link goes to old site
Media Gallery link is broken
Contact Us link is broken
WordPress link at bottom of page should open in a new window since this is an "external" link (i.e. not to an alternate a Music Man website page)
Artists Page:
News link is broken
Dealers link goes to old site
Mouse over each Artist picture indicates it's a link (pointer changes to hand) but clicking doesn't do anything
There are no spaces before the any open parenthesis in the main text - I think there should be. e.g. "John(Bass)" should be "John (Bass)"
Media Gallery Page:
News link is broken
Dealers link goes to old site
All side video links go to YouTube - I would expect them to load in the Music Man media gallery player
YouTube link goes to YouTube home page - I would expect this to go to YouTube search results for Music Man
Contact Us Page:
News link is broken
Dealers link goes to old site
Coachella Office address - street abbreviation should be "St." to be consistent with road abbreviation of "Rd."
There is an unresolved asterisk on the Coachella fax number
Kevin Scoles email link sends email to Brian
Hope this is what you're looking for, and more importantly, I hope this helps!
The instruments page will be my next review later today!
AnthonyD
Well-known member
Review of Instrument Pages...
Instruments Main Page:
News link is broken
Dealers link goes to old site
Some general commentary on this page - subjective, and I am not recommending any design changes, just pointing out areas to consider alternate content organization and presentation.
I suspect that a first-time visitor with little or no knowledge of the product line would find the presentation initially inconsistent relative to the instrument photos. On the surface it appears as if there is a "random" number of times a given model is displayed.
For example, at first glance it appears as if you have three different photos of a Bongo and a whole bunch of different photos of a JP guitar. As a forumite and an educated EBMM bass player I immediately recognize there's a Bongo, a Bongo 5 and a Bongo 6, but someone else won't - they'll just see "Bongo" three times in a row. Even as a forumite I was confused by why there were so many JPs (I am not that familiar with the guitar line).
To address this there could be additional descriptive detail on the main instrument page (e.g. Bongo, Bongo 5, Bongo 6, JP6, JP7, JP6 Baritone, etc.) or you could collapse the "like" instruments into one picture (e.g. one Bongo on the main page with the number of strings listed as part of the option detail), or a combination of both.
I don't understand why the lefty Silhouette Special is singled out for display (besides by Psycho decree). A new visitor may think this is the only instrument available in a lefty configuration.
Finally, to conserve screen real estate on the main instrument page, you could collapse the BFR instruments into one group (i.e. one picture link) similar to what you've done with the limited edition offering. The corresponding detailed BFR page could then provide the information about the program, the availability of the various models and pictures.
Just food for thought for your consideration.
Now to the what needs attention...
I navigated into and out of every individual instrument page to confirm operation of the the four large pictures and the links from each individual instrument page. I did not validate content relative to available options unless I noticed something blatantly obvious - I cannot identify the accuracy or completeness of available options or colors for example. Relative to all of the individual instrument pages I found the following:
News link is broken
Dealers link goes to old site
Product Registration link goes to old site, unless otherwise noted
Issues identified with the unique, individual instrument pages are noted below:
Albert Lee page:
Product Registration link is broken
Albert Lee BFR page:
Product Registration link points to the Albert_lee.zip download
John Petrucci 7 page:
Inconsistency - Title Bar refers to "John Petrucci JP7" but the Product Overview refers to the Model as "John Petrucci 7"
John Petrucci 6 page:
Inconsistency - Title Bar refers to "John Petrucci JP6" but the Product Overview refers to the Model as "John Petrucci 6"
John Petrucci 6 BFR page:
Inconsistency - Title Bar refers to "John Petrucci JP6 BFR" but the Product Overview refers to the Model as "John Petrucci BFR 6"
John Petrucci Baritone BFR page:
Inconsistency - Title Bar refers to "John Petrucci JP6 Baritone BFR" but the Product Overview refers to the Model as "John Petrucci BFR 6 Baritone"
John Petrucci 7 BFR page:
The Product overview content appears to reflect JP6 specifications
Inconsistency - Title Bar refers to "John Petrucci JP7 BFR" but the Product Overview refers to the Model as "John Petrucci BFR 6"
2008LE Page:
Second picture from top does not load into main picture
Luke page:
Inconsistency - Title Bar refers to "Steve Lukather LUKE" but the Product Overview refers to the Model as "Luke"
Luke BFR page:
Inconsistency - Title Bar refers to "Steve Lukather LUKE BFR" but the Product Overview refers to the Model as "Luke BFR"
Silhouette Bass Guitar page:
Inconsistency - Title Bar refers to "Silhouette Bass Baritone" but the image tag and the Product Overview refers to the Model as "Silhouette Bass"
Silhouette Special page:
Product Overview does not reference model or model name
Product Overview references "Albert Lee" models at the bottom
Diagram and Schematic link provides Silhouette_sss.zip
Steve Morse SM-Y2D Guitar page:
Inconsistency - Title Bar and the image tag refer to "Steve Morse SM-Y2" but the Product Overview refers to the Model as "SM-Y2D"
Whew! Hope this is helpful to the team. Overall great job on an improved site with lots of good info - can't wait until it's in production!
Instruments Main Page:
News link is broken
Dealers link goes to old site
Some general commentary on this page - subjective, and I am not recommending any design changes, just pointing out areas to consider alternate content organization and presentation.
I suspect that a first-time visitor with little or no knowledge of the product line would find the presentation initially inconsistent relative to the instrument photos. On the surface it appears as if there is a "random" number of times a given model is displayed.
For example, at first glance it appears as if you have three different photos of a Bongo and a whole bunch of different photos of a JP guitar. As a forumite and an educated EBMM bass player I immediately recognize there's a Bongo, a Bongo 5 and a Bongo 6, but someone else won't - they'll just see "Bongo" three times in a row. Even as a forumite I was confused by why there were so many JPs (I am not that familiar with the guitar line).
To address this there could be additional descriptive detail on the main instrument page (e.g. Bongo, Bongo 5, Bongo 6, JP6, JP7, JP6 Baritone, etc.) or you could collapse the "like" instruments into one picture (e.g. one Bongo on the main page with the number of strings listed as part of the option detail), or a combination of both.
I don't understand why the lefty Silhouette Special is singled out for display (besides by Psycho decree). A new visitor may think this is the only instrument available in a lefty configuration.
Finally, to conserve screen real estate on the main instrument page, you could collapse the BFR instruments into one group (i.e. one picture link) similar to what you've done with the limited edition offering. The corresponding detailed BFR page could then provide the information about the program, the availability of the various models and pictures.
Just food for thought for your consideration.
Now to the what needs attention...
I navigated into and out of every individual instrument page to confirm operation of the the four large pictures and the links from each individual instrument page. I did not validate content relative to available options unless I noticed something blatantly obvious - I cannot identify the accuracy or completeness of available options or colors for example. Relative to all of the individual instrument pages I found the following:
News link is broken
Dealers link goes to old site
Product Registration link goes to old site, unless otherwise noted
Issues identified with the unique, individual instrument pages are noted below:
Albert Lee page:
Product Registration link is broken
Albert Lee BFR page:
Product Registration link points to the Albert_lee.zip download
John Petrucci 7 page:
Inconsistency - Title Bar refers to "John Petrucci JP7" but the Product Overview refers to the Model as "John Petrucci 7"
John Petrucci 6 page:
Inconsistency - Title Bar refers to "John Petrucci JP6" but the Product Overview refers to the Model as "John Petrucci 6"
John Petrucci 6 BFR page:
Inconsistency - Title Bar refers to "John Petrucci JP6 BFR" but the Product Overview refers to the Model as "John Petrucci BFR 6"
John Petrucci Baritone BFR page:
Inconsistency - Title Bar refers to "John Petrucci JP6 Baritone BFR" but the Product Overview refers to the Model as "John Petrucci BFR 6 Baritone"
John Petrucci 7 BFR page:
The Product overview content appears to reflect JP6 specifications
Inconsistency - Title Bar refers to "John Petrucci JP7 BFR" but the Product Overview refers to the Model as "John Petrucci BFR 6"
2008LE Page:
Second picture from top does not load into main picture
Luke page:
Inconsistency - Title Bar refers to "Steve Lukather LUKE" but the Product Overview refers to the Model as "Luke"
Luke BFR page:
Inconsistency - Title Bar refers to "Steve Lukather LUKE BFR" but the Product Overview refers to the Model as "Luke BFR"
Silhouette Bass Guitar page:
Inconsistency - Title Bar refers to "Silhouette Bass Baritone" but the image tag and the Product Overview refers to the Model as "Silhouette Bass"
Silhouette Special page:
Product Overview does not reference model or model name
Product Overview references "Albert Lee" models at the bottom
Diagram and Schematic link provides Silhouette_sss.zip
Steve Morse SM-Y2D Guitar page:
Inconsistency - Title Bar and the image tag refer to "Steve Morse SM-Y2" but the Product Overview refers to the Model as "SM-Y2D"
Whew! Hope this is helpful to the team. Overall great job on an improved site with lots of good info - can't wait until it's in production!
AnthonyD
Well-known member
Title Bars and Consistency...
There's that word again!
I noticed that the "BFR Blog" and the "News" main pages do not conform to the title-bar formats of the other main pages.
All of the main pages have title-bars that begin with "Ernie Ball Music Man" (e.g. Ernie Ball Music Man Instruments), but the title-bars of these two pages do not.
There's that word again!
I noticed that the "BFR Blog" and the "News" main pages do not conform to the title-bar formats of the other main pages.
All of the main pages have title-bars that begin with "Ernie Ball Music Man" (e.g. Ernie Ball Music Man Instruments), but the title-bars of these two pages do not.
Ben always has that effect on you, huh Jackie?
Big Poppa
Well-known member
anthony take a breath and try not to get me pissed. BETA!!!!!
I think that I wont do this again. I will absolutely start makng fun of people who continue to be the 14th one to point out something.....
I appreciate it I really do but subjective ones just piss me off.
Im closing this anyway as there has never been more of a beaten horse here. I was just trying to give you guys a sneak peak...
I think that I wont do this again. I will absolutely start makng fun of people who continue to be the 14th one to point out something.....
I appreciate it I really do but subjective ones just piss me off.
Im closing this anyway as there has never been more of a beaten horse here. I was just trying to give you guys a sneak peak...
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