Website update

RocketMusic · #1 08-09-2011, 11:23 AM

Over the weekend, Danny tweaked the colors on our website pretty seriously. We used to have white backgrounds with black text, now that's reversed.

I've found that on quite a few of the computers here, if you've previously visited the website before these changes, then you end up with black text on a black background. In other words, it looks like a lot of text has disappeared from our site.

All you have to do is refresh the site in your browser to clear the cached black text and replace it with the new white text.

Hopefully that's obvious to everyone how to do, but feel free to ask for help if you're experiencing problems with our site!

Darkstrike · #2 08-09-2011, 02:24 PM

Digging the new look.

RocketMusic · #3 08-09-2011, 02:31 PM

Thanks! It's a small move in the direction of making the website color scheme match the intended color scheme of the new building. Our Interior Design professor friend from Radford Univ. is really making some nice suggestions like that. There won't be any orange here, so we killed most of the orange that was on the site.

I'm sure it'll change more before it's all said and done. We'll eventually have black, red and dark grays here in the building, so they'll work their way onto the site eventually. Once we've picked the final colors... sign, we need drywall first... sigh, we need a building permit before that... sigh... double sigh...

**nostatic** · #4 08-09-2011, 03:39 PM

I'll be a contrarian (but with studies to back it up). I hate black backgrounds for any site that I actually need to use. Yes, it looks cool, but readability and usability suffers. There is a reason the major eCommerce sites aren't white text on black background.

IMHO if you want to have a "cool" look then you can use black background header or block elements, but the main content should be over a light color that doesn't fight with the text. I prefer a light gray background.

The reason most websites looking similar isn't because the designers aren't creative - it is because myriad usability studies have shown what works and what doesn't.

And don't get me started about font choices...

RocketMusic · #5 08-09-2011, 04:32 PM

Yep, usability is definitely one concern, but it's not the only one. Danny's initial response was "if the text is too hard to read, then we probably have too much text."

The thing is we're not trying to sell the same $150 digital camera that umpteen thousand other websites are also peddling. We're selling (for the most part) one of a kind works of art that happen to also function extremely well as instruments. We want the feel of the website to be warm and inviting as well as drool inducing, so we don't want too much techy/wordy content. We're playing more to emotion, vibe, etc. than we are to readability. We want the online experience to be as close as it can be to stepping into a really nice boutique store (like Atlanta Bass Gallery or G Guitars, and hopefully Rocket Music's new store one of these days).

That's our theory ayway... we'll see how that pans out.

Danny's going away to ponder for a bit... it'll be interesting to see what he comes up with, maybe he'll manage to bridge the two view points tonight?

Thanks, as always, for the excellent input, Todd!

VroomVroom · #6 08-09-2011, 04:35 PM

FWIW....I dig.

**nostatic** · #7 08-09-2011, 04:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RocketMusic

Danny's going away to ponder for a bit... it'll be interesting to see what he comes up with, maybe he'll manage to bridge the two view points tonight?

Thanks, as always, for the excellent input, Todd!

bah, I'm just a crumudgeon

fwiw, this page just doesn't work: http://www.rocketmusic.net/cgi-bin/c...listcategories

Now I know this is a "work in progress" so there are other ways to slice/dice the information. And in general I agree that less text is a good way to go. But you have to have some text and the less legible it is, the harder it is to have the site be sticky.

Our eyes really appreciate "white space". And "black space" isn't quite the same because it's like....black.

Also you have a challenge when much of your product is black: Rocket Music - Genz Benz Bass Amps - all

And while I'm nitpicking, your dynamic menus on the left side should stay exploded while you're within a category. For instance when I click on Bass Amps I get the list of companies you carry. But when I click on Bergantino the list collapses back up. So if I want to see Genz-Benz I have to click on Bass Amps again and then GB. That's 100% more clicks than I should have to perform. Don't make me work...I'm lazy.

You might have guessed that I used to study this as part of my day job

**nostatic** · #8 08-09-2011, 04:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RocketMusic

We want the online experience to be as close as it can be to stepping into a really nice boutique store (like Atlanta Bass Gallery or G Guitars, and hopefully Rocket Music's new store one of these days).

Totally down with this. Do any of those stores have black walls with a bit of color accent? I'm willing to bet they might have one wall that is a dark color but the others are lighter and they get the "nice" vibe from the choice of accent colors and how they distribute. Walking into a room with all walls painted black makes me look for the bong and the velvet Elvis painting

KsPiNeSh · #9 08-09-2011, 05:24 PM

And environmentally friendly to boot.