feedback on our new redrental website...

[laguun]

.... would be highly appreciated.
http://redrental.de/

its still beta (and includes clumsy english)....
... so before launching it at ibc 07, we would be pretty interested in the feedback of our fellow redusers...

[PaulClements]

Hi Laguun,

Firstly is http://redrental.de/redrental.htm going to be the homepage? Obviously the one at the moment isn't complete and this reads more like it should be.

My first suggestion for you is this. Make all the text into actual text, not as images.

Next make all the images (even if they are not buttons) have alt tags, that give a description of the image or of the products in general, don't be afraid to stick in a whole line of information there.

Next include in the <title> details about the page and the contents of the page. Then produce meta tag data for keywords and description of the page.

Doing the three points above will make your website far more search engine friendly and get you higher placing on Google.

Design wise it's good. It's clean and pictures tell a thousand words so those who go to the site will know what they are looking at from the get go. I've seen prettier websites I won't lie (though very few in the cine rental market!), but simple functionality and the facts are what people want, get straight to the point and don't hide stuff just as you are, good job.

Hope this helps a little.

Paul

[laguun]

Hello Paul,


Hi Laguun,

Firstly is http://redrental.de/redrental.htm going to be the homepage? Obviously the one at the moment isn't complete and this reads more like it should be.

My first suggestion for you is this. Make all the text into actual text, not as images.

Next make all the images (even if they are not buttons) have alt tags, that give a description of the image or of the products in general, don't be afraid to stick in a whole line of information there.

Next include in the <title> details about the page and the contents of the page. Then produce meta tag data for keywords and description of the page.

Doing the three points above will make your website far more search engine friendly and get you higher placing on Google.


thanks for your friendly input.
Yes, you are right. It is in that state right now exactly because we don´t want to have it found by search engines until the site is out of beta.




Design wise it's good. It's clean and pictures tell a thousand words so those who go to the site will know what they are looking at from the get go. I've seen prettier, I won't lie but simple functionality and the facts are what people want, get straight to the point and don't hide stuff.

Once more, thanks for the feedback.
Yes, we decided to go with a unfancy, very solid content.
What would you recommend to make more pretty? Any special shot?



Hope this helps a little.

Paul
Absolutly!
Have you spotted some extraordinary clumsy english? As we don´t have any native speaking folks from us/uk/oz/nz here we are a little bit worried about our german based english...

[GrafxLvr]

Yes, you are right. It is in that state right now exactly because we don´t want to have it found by search engines until the site is out of beta.

-- To prevent search engines from crawling your site, enter the following in a Robots.txt file in your web directory:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /




What would you recommend to make more pretty? Any special shot?

-- The main image looks bitmapped. Overall the site needs a more polished look... but, overall, the content looks good. I would create a dedicated section for each camera manufacturer.

[Curran Giddens]

In the "monitoring" page it should read "Sharp Aquos"
Also, in the "contact" page it should read "for your own personnel"
There are also a number of instances where there should be a space between words or a hyphen.

[laguun]

In the "monitoring" page it should read "Sharp Aquos"
Also, in the "contact" page it should read "for your own personnel"
There are also a number of instances where there should be a space between words or a hyphen.

Thanks Curran & Graphxlvr!

will be fixed.
regarding the bitmapped look - we wanted to go "gritty hightech" style.
is it over the top in your opinion?

[GrafxLvr]

regarding the bitmapped look - we wanted to go "gritty hightech" style. is it over the top in your opinion?

-- No it's not over the top. However, IMHO, to me, it looks like a small image was resized a little too much... If you are looking for a "gritty hightech" look, I would not shy away from pushing the limit of PS filters--to force the gritty-hightech look.

Nevertheless, it looks good!

-m

[martinnoweck]

looks good,
martin

[futurereduser]

Yeah laguun, I rented One Of your RED's (Remember Me) and when i got it on Location i Found out Not all the "Features" had been Activated.What's Up?

[laguun]

looks good,
martin

Thanks Martin, hope to meet you at IBC.

[laguun]

Yeah laguun, I rented One Of your RED's (Remember Me) and when i got it on Location i Found out Not all the "Features" had been Activated.What's Up?


Huh? Is this a joke i don´t get?
We won´t start renting out reds until nov/dec, that is if there is no production delay.

[Ed Watkins]

Hi Laguun,
Nice site, just a few comments on the user interface (feel free to ignore, just suggestions):

Because of the top 'black glass' style navigation bar, all the item headers (also styled like black glass) look like they should also be clickable buttons. This could be a bit confusing to visitors. Personally I would try and find some way to differentiate the two.

The layout feels a bit tight, I feel like there isn't enough space around the images or text. (have a look at the spacing on the RED's site http://www.red.com/lenses ). Don't be afraid to make visitors scroll down a page to see all the content.

[laguun]

Hello Ed, thanky for your feedback.


Hi Laguun,
Nice site, just a few comments on the user interface (feel free to ignore, just suggestions):

Because of the top 'black glass' style navigation bar, all the item headers (also styled like black glass) look like they should also be clickable buttons. This could be a bit confusing to visitors. Personally I would try and find some way to differentiate the two.

i see - in the final version, we want indeed to have detailed product information on the item headers.



The layout feels a bit tight, I feel like there isn't enough space around the images or text. (have a look at the spacing on the RED's site http://www.red.com/lenses ). Don't be afraid to make visitors scroll down a page to see all the content.

Yes, hm, we were afraid of that - however we decided to do it so tight, as i many office-pcs still have only 800/600 or 1024/768, and some customer aren to familar with computers :)

[Friedrich Moser]

Hi Laguun,

sent you a PM. Regards, Friedrich.

[Priyesh P.]

Hi Laguun,
did you order the B4-mount? If not maybe it could be nice to separate HD, Film and Red cameras with their respective accessories/lenses. This way people won't confuse options that may not fit on the other cams. It's just a little thing that confused me from time to time at other houses with a combined list.
But after you're done with the other suggestions from this board your site looks pretty good!

[laguun]

Hi Laguun,
do you order the B4-mount?

I am not decided yet - i would love to, but i want to examine the quality before i do. We have several DPs who really like our Angenieux 2/3 Zooms, and urge us to order it, but i am still sceptical about the quality of the adapter.

If its good, or even excellent, we will 100% order it.



If not maybe it could be nice to separate HD, Film and Red cameras with their respective accessories. This way people won't confuse options that may not fit on the other cams. It's just a little thing that confused me from time to time at other houses with a combined list.

Yes, and we indeed have customers who want to have the 25-250 (which is 35mm PL) on the HDCAM (which is 2/3 B4) - however, that is one of the few things we won´t change, as i like to show our preferred gear at one glance.



But together with the rest of the suggestions from this board your site looks pretty good!
I appreciate it. We will implement all the feedback we got here (thanks guys!) pre IBC and overall, it seems, most people like it.

P.S.
Kalone, if you want and have time - we could have a mini-berlin-red-user meeting to celebrate that red indeed delivers now, and you could convince me to add a xsi seat :)
i am strapped to the DI here until ~24h today and until 22h tomorrow, so if your up for a a glass of hot milk with honey or even a beer, we could have a "Prosit auf Red" somewhere in mitte/pberg at one of the usual watering holes.

[laguun]

Hi Laguun,

sent you a PM. Regards, Friedrich.

Hello Friedrich, i didn´t receive your pm - something went wrong.

[martinnoweck]

Thanks Martin, hope to meet you at IBC.


hi laguun,
i will be there just friday 7th - how about you?

hope to see you there,
martin

[ericyoung]

.... would be highly appreciated.
http://redrental.de/

its still beta (and includes clumsy english)....
... so before launching it at ibc 07, we would be pretty interested in the feedback of our fellow redusers...

Here's some thoughts on the beta site...

1) Home page:
a) redrental is one word, all in lowercase; which is inconsistent with the rest of the navigation bar which is both upper & lowercase.
b) Typo - "welcome" not "weclome".
c) "prototype - under construction" right margin out of alignment with text rows above.
d) email javascript link at bottom of page not working.
e) main image can be "gritty hightech", but the contouring/banding just looks bad. Try adding some noise dithering or grain?


2) redrental page:
a) Welcome to redrental looks like a clickable button, but isn't. It doesn't need a fullstop at the end.
b) Think second paragraph should read:
Since 1989, we have completed, co-produced or serviced hundreds of projects - from large scale multi-million euro feature films to skeleton crew low-budget artfilms.

c) Think third paragraph should read:
Besides our services in Production, VFX, Animation, Film Recording and DI, we offer our gear for rental.

d) Fourth paragraph:
On this website you can find a selection of the equipment we offer for rental and for co-productions.


3) Camera page:
a) Bit hard to read - the first column has an HDCAM camera, with two unrelated cameras squeezed under it in the same column. Maybe have three page columns - Red One, HD cameras, Film cameras - don't split those columns further ie have additional cameras below, not next to another.
b) Lots of inconsistent use of uppercase and lowercase again, missing spaces, missing fullstop in one place, unnecessary fullstops in others, missing plural "s". Too many to list!!

4) Lenses page:
Same comments as for Camera page. Inconsistent use of "mount" and "lock".

5) Monitoring page:
Same comments as for Camera page.

6) Recording page:
Same comments as for Camera page. Background image too "busy".

7) Light page:
Same comments as for Camera page.

8) Packages page:
Same comments as for Camera page.

9) Contact page:
Same comments as for Camera page.
a) Think it should maybe read:
"finding redrental"
b) Think times should read 10am to 8pm or 1000-2000?
c) Think it should maybe read:
"For answers to any questions, contact Mr Jan Yorick von Krogh" or
"If you have any questions, please contact Mr Jan Yorick von Krogh"
The "feel free" is a bit redundant - do customers normally feel reluctant to ask questions?! ;-)
d) Map?
e) Directions by public transport and by road?
f) Distance from nearest airport?

General comment:
On pages with many items, can be slightly confusing whether text refers to picture above or below. Suggest some subtle box outlines to keep pictures and associated text tied together.

It's helpful to have some sort of highlight on the navigation bar buttons to indicate which page you are currently on. OK, most pages are obvious, but perhaps the Packages page isn't? And both redrental and Contact buttons are highlighted by being red in different ways, but not for the same reason - again inconsistent!

Background images - some are black & white images, others tinted, two have full luminance symbols, some pages have none - inconsistent. To avoid pages getting too visually cluttered, would suggest more subtle background images (maybe low luminance & blurred) or just keep it to the text pages, and not on any pages with other images.

Text size too small in places.

Really every page on a site should feel like it has followed the same design criteria.

Hope comments help.

Regards
Eric

[Priyesh P.]

Hi Laguun, I've sent you a PM,

Gruss