SITE REVIEW: telluriderealestate.biz

I've got my deflector shields up....come and review me!

http://www.telluriderealestate.biz/

- black is baddd try a lighter color oh and more colors

Agreed. Too dark, need something merrier
Look abit empty also

I'd like to see something a little more interesting in the bkgnd as well.

I think you've laid this out in a very straight forward manner and it's very easy to identify and get to the info.

There are a few things which I avoid that I'd like to mention, but they don't have anything to do with your overall scheme or functionality. First, I think you should pad the content block more. It makes the text look more comfortable in it's space. I would push you away from accentuating body text with drop-caps and highlighted text, with an exception for links. In interactive media, I just find it confusing for the user. Lastly, the roughened edges of photos are not a style I care for, but if your client is happy go with it.

Functionally, your front page is over 100k. I consider this bad form, especially if you expect dial-up customers. For my money, 40 to 50k is efficient. I think if you divided up the images that are in groups, you'd be able to shave some file size off.

Last point, and I'll shut up. The text links at the bottom of the pages don't read all that well. I think a great example of doing this correctly can be found right here at Ozzu. Just scroll to the bottom of this page and see what you think.

Best of luck. HTH!

btw: This site could do with some branding. If I didn't read the text, I'd have no way to know who the site was for.

Wow, this is one tough crowd! Hope your deflector shields are working properly.

I will study the entire site in the next few days, but I must say (sorry ) that I agree with the suggestions...especially about the branding, which is something I know a lot about from my professional background.

You have given me terrific suggestions about my site and I want to reciprocate. The changes that have been suggested about yours really are minor (in terms of the work you would have to do) because you have a solid foundation.

A couple of techie things: (1) The links in photos 2 and 3 don't go anywhere; (2) I like the Virtual tour shots. I went back a few times; a couple of times it loaded up quickly (I have cable) and a couple of times very slowly. I don't know if that can be adjusted. You may want to speed up the marquee a bit, too. Incidentally, what program was used to create the 360 shots?

Hang in there! (Wish I could ski...bad ankles and knees from basketball.)

Thanks for all the feed back....no offense taken....I was looking for good constructive criticism....and I'm getting it. I am not very good with the artistic end of web design.

I chose the black background because it made the photos seem brighter and more colorful....I had originally use a dark blue but then decided on black.

As for branding: I removed some of the references to Telluride Real Estate Agents because I thought I was tripping some SEO filter....my site went from top ten to #500+ in google. I OK in the other engines. The seo filter is not verifiable...I see many over optimized sites ranking high....so I will add my branding back.
FYI: This is a portal type site for my existing real estate customers. They get free access to the site because they host their personal sites on my servers....this way I can pull their listings from their DB to my DB....the site requires little/no maintenance.

Can someone suggest a color theme to try!

Page Size: Wow that's big...100k+ I've fallen into the land of broadband and left my modem users in the rear. I will look into better graphics compression to see if I can shrink those files.

Text: Cell padding on the block has been an issue all along...one little tweak and the whole page goes out of line...currently I think there is a one or two pixel padding. The drop caps and highlights were only aesthetic....I'll see what they look like in the new color scheme.

thanks again for all the feedback!

Oh Yeah...the broken links...thanks for the heads up...they are static and not driven by the DB...so I didn't realize that they had been sold...which is why the page loads blank.

Short of suggesting a color scheme, I can offer you a link.



http://www.pixy.cz/apps/barvy/index-en.html

...although, if you don't know anything about color theory, it may end up just confusing you.

One of my techniques in developing a color scheme is to take the primary image on the page and sample the color that stands out the most. Then I go to a color app and devise the rest of my scheme.

I hope that makes sense.

Hey DM...

Regarding the links at the bottom of the page: What's your opinion on using graphics vs text links for the menu items?

As a general rule of thumb, I try to use text, over graphics, whenever possible.

Faster load times and better for SEO?

both, and accessability, and for people who browse with images off. There are still some.

Hey Involved...

thanks for the feedback...

I'm using a free java plug-in called ptviewer to display the 360's. I created them using Canon's Photo Stitch...it's very good at sewing the photos together but it's not so good at blending the seams. It was free with my scanner. The photos are taken in sequence from right to left in a circle then I sew them together into one long photo...ptviewer does the rest.

Click below to see the photo on it's own http://www.telluriderealestate.biz/vr/images/tp1.jpg

Its nice, but it is so... chaotic...

And is dark. I agree with all other "observers". Contrast between bg (black) and text bg (white) is too big for me. It looks aggresive