Fresh Eyes needed - DESIGN CRITIQUE

[Jace]

I did not do the design, and I am not working on the design, but I am working with this guy on other various things

http://www.magicmotorcarsusa.co.uk

it is a UK based business that imports cars into the UK from the USA

His traffic is there, but the response has been crappy. while he is well aware it is a slow time for importing cars right now, he can't figure out why the response to this site is such low quality and the other sites he runs have good quality response

everyone that is here, critique this design...pull it the fuck apart, and give me some shit to shoot back to him

[TheEnforcer]

I like the design. The only thing that I might suggest changing about it is the menu bars as for some reason the words on the bars look just a tad "fuzzy" with that light blue background. Otherwise I really like it.

[Jace]

I like the design. The only thing that I might suggest changing about it is the menu bars as for some reason the words on the bars look just a tad "fuzzy" with that light blue background. Otherwise I really like it.

yeah, I really like the design too, I think they did a nice job on it. It is colorful and not to graphics heavy, or not so much that it hurts your eyes...LOL

Something is going on though, because he is getting at least 400 targetted search engine uniques a day, but they are all shit repsonses

you can go to google UK, type in AMERICAN CARS, and see his competition, http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=american+cars&meta=cr%3DcountryUK%7CcountryGB

the other sites are not nearly as nice, and informative, that his is....so we just can't figure out the lack of response

[Jace]

times like this I wish I could look over the shoulders of his competition and see if they are scratching their heads too....because if everyone is doing it, then it is just a lull in sales..

[selena]

I'm not big on the design, though I really can't lay a finger on why.

As for the actual ads, I'd suggest several more shots of each car.

[nastyboy]

Hey bud! The design looks pretty good to me..and you know how design is..you ask 100 people and get 100 opinions. The only suggestion I might offer up is this: Either in the design or the text make it STUPID clear what the service / product is. you mentioned " it is a UK based business that imports cars into the UK from the USA"

Honestly I struggled to determine that at first glance...just my 2 cents.

and...what keywords is he trying to rank for and how is he ranking for those keywords?

[SirenaRose]

My first thought with the car listings is that if you are a visual person, not necessarily reading...your eyes stay in the same place. Personally, I'm a fan of having the pictures zigzag - one be on the left side, the other be on the right side, of the text. Since my eyes stay in the same place, I only really scan through for the picture, which might not directly reflect what I want to buy, as the pictures look like they may be the stock pictures. I know I'm not a huge successful person and I haven't been here long, but that was just my original impression of the lists of cars.

Also, the banner looks good -- Once it loads, and it takes a lot longer than I'd really have the patience to load if I was cruising 4 or 5 other sites for what I want.

The next thing that might not be doing him one bit of a favor is that if you click on the category of cars that you're looking for, and scroll down to whatever type of car you want...For example, a Ford Mustang -- it takes you to the ford motor company's website in the same window. Like someone pointed out to me, with my links to affiliates on my site, it should open in a different window, while keeping mine there -- or maybe atleast put things in an iframe or something, so that the customer has the contact information for your friend's company while they're perusing through the Ford website looking at the styles and options that they might have.

I'd also think about having a way of sorting what is currently in stock and looking specifically at that -- Some people would rather impulse buy than wait the whatever length of time to get one imported in custom, and want to know, before they make the trek to the actual showroom, what they might be able to expect. I would assume that the company actually has a few vehicles in stock at any given time, as they have a "What's coming" and "used vehicles" etc section. If I'm specifically looking for a mustang, I don't want to have to scroll through a list of hummers, escalades and trucks to find my sports car. I want it on demand right then and there....I just now see the link to Magicmotorcars.com, where they have the lists, but again, that's taking you off site, and you don't know what to expect there, as you're already on a magicmotorcars site...

When on the "contact" page, I personally am a "form" type person. I don't like the mailto: code. That means I have to wait for my email program to load, I fret over "well, am I really contacting the right department?" and never know what to say, or what information the department needs. Perhaps it's just me...Or maybe it could come from having gone for so long using webmail programs and not even setting up the mail program on my computer (I even know many many people who have the programs uninstalled/unavailable, so it just gives them an error message!). I'm lazy. I don't want to have to go through the whole loop of putting the stress on me to know what information I need to give and to whom.

Erm, I think that about covers my initial thoughts on the site. Hope this helps! :)

[Jace]

wow, thanks for some awesome help you all...I passed all this along to him, most of which has been excellent feedback and also things I have been telling him all along

the #1 thing I keep telling him is to dump that flash top and make it static graphics, that this is almost 1mb, and I am sure people have left the site before it even loads if they aren't on a nice solic connection