Lamb to the Slaughter... blueskymortgages.ie :)

DJB

Just launched a new site for a client. I'd welcome any comments, feedback, pointing out something stupid I've missed, anything really you might have!

www.blueskymortgages.ie

Thanks in advance lads and lassies!

Dave

grahamor

It's brilliant, very professional.

Especially like the blue and yellow on the homepage and the use of sifr

Also, the calculators page is nice too.

Do the couple on the contact page work for this company?!, they look so happy !!!!

forbairt

I'm surprised ... normally I can hit a site with a list of about 5 things I don't like instantly

Its nice ... very nice

but things I don't like ....
The kid at the bottom :P

Are all the keywords / descriptions the same ?

Bananna man

Yep, looks good. Nice and clear.

GoneShootin

I like it.

What CMS is powering the backend?

You've one dead link that I could see - http://www.blueskymortgages.ie/obtain-a-mortgage/

prospect

Superb.

Speaking from a potential customer POV, I would be very happy to see that website on a potential suppliers portfolio.

Well done.

squibs

Configured for 1024 width is the only thing. I still get lots of vistors on 800*600 resolution.

Very nice though - added to my "inspiration" folder.

DJB

@grahamor: Thanks! No, images are from iStockPhoto. I'm sure there's another reason they are so happy!

@forbairt: Cheers mate! Kid is part of corporate identity (in all offline adverts) so he must stay! I'm going back through each page to do their keywords... tedious job!

@Banana: Thanks!

@GoneShooten: Cheers... it's my own code powering the site. Not using any off the shelf CMS but some pages are run from the database. Other files are static and loaded using a combination of htaccess and a bit of magic!

@Prospect: That's good to hear! I'll be adding it up soon

Thanks again all... really appreciate your feedback!

Rgds, Dave

DJB

@squibs: after numerous chats with other designers on the subject and the fact that less than 3% of this clients visitors are at 800x600, we decided to go the 1024x768 route. You'll find a lot more sites going that way from now one. 800x600 is a dying breed.

DJB

Oh GoneShootin... cheers for the dead link... that page had been removed. Fixed now!

forbairt

DJB wrote:

@squibs: after numerous chats with other designers on the subject and the fact that less than 3% of this clients visitors are at 800x600, we decided to go the 1024x768 route. You'll find a lot more sites going that way from now one. 800x600 is a dying breed.

one of my more popular sites works at 800x600 .... kinda ... it gets .. hmm 7% of the hits to it ... at 800x600 ...

For a mortgage site I'd assume the majority of people are youngish .. in their 20's / 30's .. and would be semi computer literate ... so that'd mean most would have at least 1024x768 ...

I for one won't be making my sites specifically to work at 800x600 in the future ... here I'm using a 1650px width monitor and a 1280px width monitor ... 800x600 sites look kinda silly on that ....

PixelTrawler

I like the design. Theres very little wrong with it.

Kudos for going to the bother of adding title tags to your links. The only thing I can see is that you are still missing a lot of alt tags on your images which is an accessibility failure.

(There are alt tags missing on other pages too such as the calculator page)

This includes all of the company logos, and the pictures of the calculator, the "happy people" and the stop sign.

Also, as someone mentioned already, get rid of the kid at the bottom ;-)

Its testament to the quality of this site that I have to look this hard to nitpick! If you really want to make your site fully accessible, make the calculator form fully accessible by adding tool tips to the controls (although if my memory serves me correctly, screen readers such as Jaws can use the name attribute and yours are named very clearly)

Theres one other thing thats irks me a little, and this is in general, not just this site. Is there any need to have Web design by such and such in the footer?

I can understand people wanting to advertise themselves but it adds nothing for your client or the site?

(don't mind me Im just bitter - my design skills arent as good!)

The only exception to this I can see is where the design is a template where the designers wants a link back to other works.

Overall this is a 9/10 site. Well done.

EDIT: had a second look at the site and I just have to mention the exact shade of blue used with white is top class. Very good choice

kjt

Absolutly lovely website, it gels extremely well. It's one, if not the best site you've created to date. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy ha

Good job Dave!!

squibs

I'm seeing from 4.75% to just over 9% using 800*600 on my sites, depending on the site. I'll review again next year, but for now 800*600 will be my baseline as I can't afford to alienate such a large demographic.

Gordon

I'm seeing a lot more websites designed with the baseline of 1024. I agree that it is getting more prominent in the market but that doesn't necessarily mean that the max limits of your website should be 1024 as most users don't browse fullscreen, preferring to leave some space at the sides to access their desktop and other windows. Not everyone uses Alt-Tab.

Great looking site though

HashSlinging

Very nice feel to it, great direction and easy to use.

Only problem I can see is the tabs, when hovering the mouse over they seem too "flashy", IMO would be better to use a floating bubble type of tab rather than the flat one dimensional one your using, but I'm just fussy.

randombar

Class site, fair play! Good colour scheme! If i was to pick something (probably just for the sake of it) maybe the map on the branch locator page? Maybe the bubble could contain the exact address or a bit more info? The bubble is also expanding outside the viewable map?

dizzy

I really like that site. Especially fond of the three main blocks of info. Really easy to navigate. Well done!

daymobrew

Small visual queries.
1) The text sits on the Stop sign on my browser. Firefox 2.0.0.4 on Solaris. Does so regardless of whether browser window is maximised or not.
2) The white background of the section title (not title tag) looks funny against the grey background. You can see this on About Us and other pages.

Aside: The map to the Tallaght branch points to Cavan. It was the first I checked. The 3 or 4 others I checked were okay.

zAbbo

I'd echo the comments in stock photography, as well as a branding issue.

Most of their marketing material is with the wee chap at the bottom of the page, perhaps make that more prominent.

As a landing page, you could look to emphasise the companies they use, which is the basis and advantage of going with a broker instead of direct.

Personally I find the page quite cluttered, and using the same colors for CTA buttons as a Warning sign seems a bit odd.

DJB

Thanks all for comments so far!

@joebloggs: are you sure I'm still missing alt tags? I hand code everything and it's second nature for me to put in alt tags when creating img. Last night, I ran every page through the validators to check for compliance with W3C XHTML 1.1, CSS, Section 508, WAI AAA, Spelling, etc. Didn't pick up any alt tags needed. Although I could be wrong! The kid is part of the current identity and must stay for the time being. One reason for having the designer link at the bottom of page is to help send business my way, which most clients agree to. It also helps with SEO for my site! Cheers for the comments. Appreciated!

@kjt: I feel it's right up there personally! I is proud alright!

@squibs/forbairt: it is on a per site basis and your target audience. But even saying that, check out all the latest designs from the likes of www.cssmania.com and more and more are moving to designs greater than a width of 800. At one time there was a discussion to move from widths of 640 to 800, now it's 800 to 1024. Rock on I say!

@HashSlinging: Thanks! Just wondering if you could elaborate a little? I'm a tad confused. Got an example?

@GaryCocs: Cheers Gary. I wasn't sure there was a need to have the address there. The idea that they can jump into the page and have all information available to them was better I think. Plus we can track which branches are receiving the most visitors, etc. Can't do that by clicks on google maps (without some ajax magic)! I know about the bubble and I cannot for the life of me make it any smaller. I might have to revisit that but no matter what I tried, it wouldn't shrink. However, you can still see the information and link in the visible area so it still works. You've played with the maps on your site right? Any suggestions?

@dizzy: cheers!

@daymobrew: there's obviously some conflict with the css on solaris. I'll have to do some more testing. Good spot of the tallaght branch map. It's the only one that I don't have co-ordinates for! Thanks!

@zabbo: the kid is being filtered out. All new branding has that style as I have done in footer. Once again the warning signs, etc. are all part of an overall marketing campaign (online and offline). Can't deviate from brand management too much! Good comments though and nice idea about the banks... will look into that!

Thanks again all for your comments. Much appreciated!

heggie

valid, nice design, good work! only small gripe would be some of the stock images, but very good!

PixelTrawler

DJB

Weird I got no alt tags on about half the images at work today.

(IE7 XP SP2) however here at home (same spec) i see them. I'll blame it on my poor overworked under powered machine at work:)

I'll have to raise to 9.5 out of 10 so! Sweet job...

forbairt

Joebloggs4817 wrote:

IE7

there's your problem

PixelTrawler

Thats the common explanation alright but its not nearly as bad as what went before (and still does in our company which is pretty much an IE6 company - very large US multinational - and that sucks believe me:) . If theres the internet in purgatory then thats surely the browser they'll have:p )

daymobrew

Joebloggs4817 wrote:

Weird I got no alt tags on about half the images at work today.

(IE7 XP SP2) however here at home (same spec) i see them. I'll blame it on my poor overworked under powered machine at work:)

I'm confused - alt tags are part of the html. The browser would not have any influence over their presence. Please explain.

DJB wrote:

@daymobrew: there's obviously some conflict with the css on solaris. I'll have to do some more testing.

I have the Web Developer add-on on my Firefox Solaris browser. I can get some data from it if you need.

PixelTrawler

daymobrew
(I should have mentioned I only checked them visually in the browser, and not by reading the code. They are in the code)

Also I'd forgotten I looked at it with firefox at work (which shots the theory down its an IE7 issue then! And also, my memory is fading...:eek: ).

I switch between browsers a lot so I forget which i use sometimes.

Note: When I say "see" below I mean visually by rolling over with the mouse

Ok at work here this morning although the alt tags are in the code, I am not seeing all tags display here in firefox in 2.0.0.7

I do see all tags in IE7.

I also just checked in Opera 9 and its not displaying all the tags either.

Looking at the code though it looks fine and validates properly. Why they are not displaying in opera I have no idea. Perhaps its an opera issue and not the site.

In firefox I thought it might have been caret positioning navigation switched on but switching it off still makes no difference.

Just for the hell of it I cleared the cache, restarted the browsers and tried again. Same issue.

The only thing in both opera and firefox is its the same images not displaying alt tags and all are in the bottom half of the page.

zAbbo

To avoid all the confusion, Maybe try something like http://browsershots.org/ Dave

DJB

Ok, bit of confusion here over what alt tags are for. IE has created this confusion. IE uses alt tags incorrectly. Alt tags are used to display alternative text when an image is unavailable or the user cannot view images (or has them turned off). The correct tag to display a little tooltip text bit on an element is "title". I have used title in a number of areas of the site to describe links in more detail, etc. but not as a means of describing images. I may add some more in. I think I need them for the banks on the home page.

Hope that explains it well.

PixelTrawler

The joy of browser versions

randombar

Ya I actually switched to yahoo maps, better map reolution for small towns around ireland, and better built in icons (would fix the problem of big bubble)

I also have a map24 api in the site which actually gives you directions to the pub:

http://www.ratemypub.ie/directions.php?pubid=92

Might be a nice add on?

DJB

Google has caught up finally and released geocoding for Ireland. Check out my blog, i wrote about it a little while ago. I recently installed the directions thing on a property site. Works quite well too!

http://www.raymondpotterton.com/v2/detail.asp?l=934&o=1

Might add it to BlueSky!

randombar

Ya not sure if google has the resolution or the up to date maps that yahoo currently has:

I always use my home town Ballygarvan as a check, neew develpment there (well five years old) yahoo has it google doesnt:

http://maps.yahoo.com/broadband#mvt=m&trf=0&lon=-8.464258&lat=51.821827&mag=3

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=51.824426,-8.470201&spn=0.034376,0.080338&z=14&om=1

Seth Brundle

@ DJB - the design is nice but its no webpageireland.com!

GoneShootin

kbannon wrote:

@ DJB - the design is nice but its no webpageireland.com!

"Customer service with a simile " - T. Mooney, Dublin.

Best site ever...