A new website

Nostrodamus

Nostrodamus

Well-Known Member
Joined
7 Mar 2011
Messages
3,659
www.cygnus3.com
Part of our wintering meant redesigning the old website from the ground up.

I still have a lot to add to get it up to date and also to convert some of the older posts to the new format.

If anyone has the time or inclination can they give me their views on the new site.

I need to know what works and what does not.

Thank in advance for any help

The website is

www.Cygnus3.com
 
It is VERY, VERY slow in loading.

I am not a fan of the fancy front page, stops me from reading what you have to say. I don't want to scroll down to open it. I want it there in front of me quickly as there are a zillions of other web pages I could be reading.
 
Thanks Camelia... i did toy with the idea of putting the blog on the front page but it is only a click away.
I destroyed my last remaining two brain cells trying to work out that front page. For someone with no IT skills what so ever it was not easy. I have to do something over winter but I do value your opinion and thank you for taking the time to reply...

The speed should improve with use of the website because of the way they are cached and served. They may be a bit slower as I only put it up today.

Camelia said:
It is VERY, VERY slow in loading.

I am not a fan of the fancy front page, stops me from reading what you have to say. I don't want to scroll down to open it. I want it there in front of me quickly as there are a zillions of other web pages I could be reading.
Click to expand...
 
Nostrodamus said:
If anyone has the time or inclination can they give me their views on the new site.

I need to know what works and what does not.

Thank in advance for any help

The website is

www.Cygnus3.com
Click to expand...

The new look is a bit 'in your face'.
At first glance it looks very impressive, but I am afraid the novelty will wear very quickly.
Was rather slow to load earlier, but seems faster now.
Also, I did not find the site all that intuitive to navigate.

I've been following your blog since you left. Your forte is your writing, which I rather enjoy (your sense of humour in particular).
However, I fear your writing could be drowned out by all the whistles and bells.

Anyway, just my opinion.
Offered free of charge - take it for what it is worth.
 
Front page just doesn't work for me, I'm afraid. Lots of scrolling even to find what the site is about. As OR4571 says, your strong point is words, whereas the weird Cygnus artwork lags a poor second. I would move 'A sea of endless possibilites' to the top, and maybe put the cygnus as a transparency over it.
 
Hi Nostro
Looks like a lot of work has gone into the site but as above I am not a fan of the home page, at first glance I am thinking of Black swan and Ballet why not use your own images then everyone knows straight away what type of site/blog it is.
While scrolling the text does not seem to "settle" and is past before you can read it.
I still enjoy your writing style though.
 
Looks good to me. Can't complain about the speed. One thing though Blue writing on black background is very hard to read.
 
Very well written, made me laugh out loud.
As for he site its not so clear straight away what your hosting, designers say 3 second rule to establish whats going on, home page is posh but may be better with your own pics as they capture the flavour and are more interesting.

Loads of interesting facts, love the content and extra bits and bobs. There seems to be a lot a scrolling about to get to the content, maybe not so necessary.

It's clear you have spent a lot of time on this and i enjoyed reading about your adventure, well done you guys.

Enjoy!
hope to see you out in the Med next year
 
Thank you all so much for the feed back.
It appears there is not many in favour of the front page and you are all probably right. I just wanted to see what I could do and went a bit far.
At least now I can change it easily in the background and add a new front end without anyone noticing. So back to the drawing board.
What I like is no good if it drives people away so I shall make it simple and to the point... a bit like me really.
Again, thank you all so much for the feed back. It does mean a lot and really helps.
 
Site still slow opening the front page, takes me 7 seconds and my Internet connection is very, very fast, by which time my grasshopper mind has moved on to another site.
 
Camelia said:
Site still slow opening the front page, takes me 7 seconds and my Internet connection is very, very fast, by which time my grasshopper mind has moved on to another site.
Click to expand...

Thank you Camelia. It shouldn't be slow but it may have been that I have been adding a lot more photos to the site. Thanks anyway. It gets a pagespeed score of 90 so it shouldn't be slow...
 
Slow to load, really disliked the navigation, No idea where I was where it was taking me too next or how I got back to anywhere that looked like a menu or site map. Sorry
 
Thank you for your replies.
Lady in bed.. got rid of the wall paper thanks.
One of the main problems seems to be in slow loading which I am trying to change at the moment.
Croak.. Can you tell me what you were viewing the site on ..tablet or desktop. The only time there should not be a menu on the page is on the front page but as soon as you start to scroll in will appear and be at the top of every page.

I got an interesting comment the other day. As no one seemed to like the front page a forumite showed it to her 22 year old son. He said "yeah, scrolling is the way sites are going but older people probably wouldn't get it".
The thing is that people on here are right and I am wrong. The website may be viewed by my friends and family but other sailors may also look at it from time to time. Sailors in general are older.. sorry but we are and want something simple, easy to follow and too the point. Nothing fancy, no scrolling but big click menus to get where they are going easily.
I am going to change the front page so if anyone has any suggestions what they want on the front page of a sailing website just let me know.
Once again I thank everyone who is trying to help me and gives feedback. It really does help.
 
Nostrodamus said:
I got an interesting comment the other day. As no one seemed to like the front page a forumite showed it to her 22 year old son. He said "yeah, scrolling is the way sites are going but older people probably wouldn't get it".
The thing is that people on here are right and I am wrong. The website may be viewed by my friends and family but other sailors may also look at it from time to time. Sailors in general are older.. sorry but we are and want something simple, easy to follow and too the point. Nothing fancy, no scrolling but big click menus to get where they are going easily.
Click to expand...

Nail on the head (IMHO).

No practical suggestions - when it comes to website design skills I'm nowhere near in your league.
You might want to install Google Analytics - gives you a pretty good idea of who your audience is.

I've found KISS is pretty much always the way to go.
I use sailblogs. Pick a template - upload your content & a picture - job done.
 
OR4751 said:
Nail on the head (IMHO).

No practical suggestions - when it comes to website design skills I'm nowhere near in your league.
You might want to install Google Analytics - gives you a pretty good idea of who your audience is.

I've found KISS is pretty much always the way to go.
I use sailblogs. Pick a template - upload your content & a picture - job done.
Click to expand...

I tried it the hard way and enjoyed learning. It is good that people give some honest feedback on here so I can learn some more and adjust things accordingly.
I am trying not to add things such as analytics at the moment until I can cut some things out to make the site faster.
I am also adding more blogs and images in the photo section.
These websites can be hard work.
Once again thanks for the feedback
 
I must say, I liked the scrolling! It was delightfully different, with an elegant shift of images.

But it wasn't immediately obvious how to scroll the page. Dull me had to puzzle and think, clicking on the pointing hand to find that didn't work, then finally ( . . . doh!) realise it was the usual scroll tab on the right that had to be pulled down.

I think the pointing hand is perhaps a distraction . . . which actually exaggerated the (only slightly slow!) loading effect.

Ideas:

(1) put a little instruction box top right: "pull down for more" - or words to that effect, pointing to scroll tab. Better still, replace scroll tab with an unsuitable picture (pull down to reveal more)

(2) use the Google map method where a hand on the page with left click pulls the fast page layer up

What you can do will depend how flexible Wordpress is - I'm not used to it, so I can't help.

On slow loading, I see that the <head> section repeats your Dyson Hoover intro five times for different purposes - keywords, title, description etc. May be worth checking how that arose.

I do like your humour!
 
jimbaerselman said:
I must say, I liked the scrolling! It was delightfully different, with an elegant shift of images.

But it wasn't immediately obvious how to scroll the page. Dull me had to puzzle and think, clicking on the pointing hand to find that didn't work, then finally ( . . . doh!) realise it was the usual scroll tab on the right that had to be pulled down.

I think the pointing hand is perhaps a distraction . . . which actually exaggerated the (only slightly slow!) loading effect.

Ideas:

(1) put a little instruction box top right: "pull down for more" - or words to that effect, pointing to scroll tab. Better still, replace scroll tab with an unsuitable picture (pull down to reveal more)

(2) use the Google map method where a hand on the page with left click pulls the fast page layer up

What you can do will depend how flexible Wordpress is - I'm not used to it, so I can't help.

On slow loading, I see that the <head> section repeats your Dyson Hoover intro five times for different purposes - keywords, title, description etc. May be worth checking how that arose.

I do like your humour!
Click to expand...

Jim,
Thank you for your comments and for taking the time to look. I know from your previous job you have an idea of what to look for.
As with everything including web pages they are constantly evolving and moving on. I just try to cope the best with what little knowledge I have and my trusty Sinclair ZX 81.
The scrolling has come about because so many people these days use tablets and phones so a small menu is often difficult to navigate with fingers. The scrolling on my front page can be done of tablets with the finger on the screen or on a laptop by just holding the mouse button an pulling it down. New laptops nowadays tend to be touch sensitive hence the scrolling.
As I alluded to earlier the sailing fraternity tend to be older and it is my fault for not taking this into account. I am sure you are all to aware of targeting the right audience.
My fault entirely and it needed the good folk of this forum to make me aware. That is why you would have done market research. I was more concerned about seeing what I was able to do.
Thank you for your comments... the repeating on the header is to do with this nasty thing we have called social networking which is a PITA.
Once again thank you for your valuable opinion and all those who have tried to help.
 
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