New Website! - Can I get some feedback?

Mharris · #1 04-07-2011, 07:00 PM

We just launched our website! Airstream Safari - Official Website - Home

Please, check it out and give me your thoughts, your HONEST thoughts. I would love to hear what you guys think.

Thanks for your time!

caffuchino · #2 04-07-2011, 09:09 PM

Looks really good, just takes awhile too load, unless that's just my internet being slow. The thing is, right away I looked at the red text with your reviews, and it ruins the "colour" theme of the website, you know. Otherwise, logo and everything else looks really really good.

zachoff · #3 04-07-2011, 09:30 PM

don't play the music right away.
Put the links to cdbaby, facebook, etc not at the top of the page. Home page should show info about the band at the top... not links to other band sites. Music page should show your music first... Not where you can buy it. People will find the links if they're into the music... that sort of thing.

The good is that you left no stone unturned and you have a lot of good content. Just need to put the applicable content at the top of the page and not auto-play the music.

bassplayarob · #4 04-07-2011, 09:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zachoff

don't play the music right away.
Put the links to cdbaby, facebook, etc not at the top of the page. Home page should show info about the band at the top... not links to other band sites. Music page should show your music first... Not where you can buy it. People will find the links if they're into the music... that sort of thing.

The good is that you left no stone unturned and you have a lot of good content. Just need to put the applicable content at the top of the page and not auto-play the music.

+1

Kbone_ATL · #5 04-08-2011, 09:28 AM

+1 to not start music on load. The music isn't like metal or anything that would scare off co-workers at the office, but never know when it starts playing, it means you are not working

Also, the font on the top banners is a tad hard to read... well at least the "O" since it is filled in.

I like it, very simple and don't need to scroll.

MNAirHead · #6 04-08-2011, 09:35 AM

How do I contact you? Should be written out on every page.

Rockmusician · #7 04-08-2011, 09:44 AM

Site loaded quickly and was easy to navigate. Don't like the fact that the middle of the home page contains link to social networking sites. I would rather see information about the band first and the links at the bottom of the page. Promoters and club owners are not going to spend a lot of time looking for information. If it's not right in front of them as soon as they click on the site, they will move on. Don't really care the font design or color. I would change it so it stands out more and is easier on the eyes. The shading in of some of the letters makes it difficult to read. For example, on your video page, the "D" in "Devil" almost looks like a shaded in B. I think you have a good foundation for a great site but it needs some tweaking.

mambo4 · #8 04-08-2011, 10:04 AM

Very good band site overall, but I'll echo the 2 comments :
-Don't play the music automatically -make it easy for me to choose when and how I hear it.
- the social network buttons should be shrunk and moved to a less conspicuous place.

Also not sure about the footer-embedded player. I had no headphones one at first and never noticed it. Visually the player should be where the icons are and vice versa , maybe.

But overall a nice band site.

MNAirHead · #9 04-08-2011, 11:02 AM

No auto player... overall time bomb.

onestring · #10 04-08-2011, 12:27 PM

Really nice site, but Nthing the no autoplay the music.

That's a serious drag for anyone who is at work or has a slow connection speed.

Lovely logo. The social networking things are crazy huge, but let's face it, that's where most of the action will be for getting the word out so maybe that's not such a bad thing.

I dig your band.

Sizlack · #11 04-08-2011, 01:51 PM

Not sure if you built this yourself or used a service to build it...but if at all possible make the top nav bar (links to bio music pics ect.) scroll with the page.
If you can't do that I'd make it slightly larger and definatley move all the social networking stuff to the very bottom as it's big bright and detracts from the rest of the page.

Mharris · #12 04-08-2011, 02:30 PM

Thanks for the feedback guys. I really appreciate it. I stopped the auto-play on the music player and put the icons at the bottom. As far as someone asking where they can contact us... that seems super obvious to me... the "Contact" tab in the navigation bar. Is it really that hard to find?

Keep the suggestions coming!

p-lo · #13 04-08-2011, 02:50 PM

I would take a look at putting a little more space between the two columns you are using for the majority of your content on the home page, they almost run together in places.

Overall it looks good. Moving the social media stuff to the bottom made a huge difference in overall visual appeal.

skwee · #14 04-08-2011, 03:52 PM

I like the site a lot. One thing I'd like to mention is your bio (Please take what I say with a grain of salt, but I have written bios for composers, performers, and ensembles in the classical, theatrical, and jazz worlds).

The bio currently reads like a review, but when you get to the bottom, you realize that this isn't a newspaper or blog write up.

The band biography doesn't come off as professional as you sound. It's great that you've recorded, gotten a fanbase, and gotten better at your instruments, but that's not great fodder for your bio. Those things will be assumed by your fans, and expected by anyone booking you. Tell us a bit more about each of you as individuals or as a band--let us get to know you. Let us know what your band's artistic priorities are, either through saying what you are trying to do, or what others are noticing about you.

Do you have more press or fan quotations available? The other paragraphs in your bio are strong, but might be better as statements about what you are trying to do, or what you believe your music does in a personal voice, rather than 3rd person. Alternatively, you could have someone write up that bio, but have a by-line.

On a technical note, the photo gallery scripts aren't resizing exactly to the parameters of the photos.

good luck to you guys.

MNAirHead · #15 04-08-2011, 05:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mharris

Thanks for the feedback guys. I really appreciate it. I stopped the auto-play on the music player and put the icons at the bottom. As far as someone asking where they can contact us... that seems super obvious to me... the "Contact" tab in the navigation bar. Is it really that hard to find?

Keep the suggestions coming!

In marketing, always assume that your readers are sheep.... it isn't the most brilliant thought pattern to think that you're important enough to have folks sifting through pages to find your contact information...

I like lots of things about your marketing...

Mharris · #16 04-09-2011, 01:33 AM

I've got a question.

My band's frontman and manager, who also happens to be my good friend and roommate, doesn't want our contact email address on the contact page of our website. He says that there is a contact form and if someone wants to get in touch with us they can fill it out and send a message. I make the argument that we should have both. I think options are key. Not everyone wants to fill out a form on the page itself, some would prefer to use their own email clients, to save messages sent and what not. Someone looking to book us might be scanning the sight for an email address they can right down for whatever reason.

Who do you think is right?

PhiDeck · #17 04-09-2011, 01:55 AM

Loads quite slowly. Host somewhere with a fatter pipe and/or faster servers.

My 59 year old eyes hate the headers font. Give me well defined fonts that are neither too bold nor too thin, and that contrast well with the background.
The contrast requirement applies to all text, not just headers. For example the first Press paragraph has lousy contrast.
I am not a fan of black or dark backgrounds, but understand that they appeal to a certain demographic, not limited to Goths.

The words "its" and "it's" are not interchangeable:
- its: belonging to it (think his, hers, its)
- it's: contraction of "it is"
Since many have problems with these two, the simple solution is to always spell out instances of "it is". In which case any instance of "it's" is an error.

See 2nd Press paragraph for the misuse I spotted (there may be others). If you are accurately quoting an article which you cannot edit, insert a "(sic)", so people will know that you know better.

Note: OP has since corrected the "it's" error on band's Web site.

RadioactiveGuy4 · #18 04-09-2011, 02:34 AM

Not a big fan of the header font its just hard to read

BogeyBass · #19 04-09-2011, 03:04 AM

Overall its a good site.

The only thing i didn't like was the home page.

Its just a busy blob of words, with too many different colored fonts
I think the home page should be straight to the point....It should have a picture of the band...and under the picture should be songs you can play.....i understand their is a music page.....but maybe have your best 3 songs under the photo.

I think the info should be stacked in a column....in this order on the right.....Download the album, Press, News, Twitter

and on the left side should be the photo of you guys standing on the airstream, with 3 songs you can play under the photo..
and then all the network buttons.

I dont mind the black background...but white copy really stands out on some monitors on top off black....An old trick is to make the copy ever so slightly grey in tone....so it still appears white, but does not pierce and glare at your eyes... High contrast will make copy appear blurry and can be hard to read for people with bad vision. Same thing with glaring white copy that is too small.

I guessing you turned off the autoplay? I didn't hear any music when the page loaded. and agree with the other comments to not have autoplay.

Mharris · #20 04-09-2011, 03:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RadioactiveGuy4

Not a big fan of the header font its just hard to read

I'd like to know more about this. A couple people have said that it's hard to read. Can you define hard to read a little more? I realize the obvious, that the E is disintegrating and that the As and Rs are filled in. What I want to know is if your not able to make out the band name or if it takes you a second to actually tell what it says or what. Just curious. We've messed around with a lot of fonts and we're trying to decide on one before we go on tour because we're going to have posters and lighters made and those will probably feature the same font for the sake of branding and continuity. I feel like using a font for a band name is a little different than using fonts for something not pertaining to art. I'd like to have the font contain some character, you know, like the music. I'd prefer to stay away from fonts too over used or stale with simplicity. I want to have a balance though, because we are partly a "business" I suppose.

Anyway, all your feedback so far has been really helpful! Thanks!