New Website info
bumppity
Originally Posted by dude
Shiv,
When are you going to finish days 6, 7 & 8 of the One Lap diary??? I'm sure you have nothing better to do with your time but it has been a great read thus far and I'm eagerly awaiting the rest of the installment.
Also, what fuel pump are you shipping with the new kits, walbro 255's or a denso old school pump?
Site looks good, one thing consumers might like to see would be a more detailed installation write up section (exhausts, cam gears, cams) and maybe even a little animated gif on the proper technique to getting the boost wire out of the factory ECU connector.
Not sure how much bandwidth you have but some MPEG's of customer car's running some 1/4 times (smog, EZ, et al) and some vids of the one-lap shop car (the 4 wheel drift come to mind) might appeal to those "visual" learners...just a thought, I know if you asked for it you could probably get customers to provide most of the above pretty easily.
Keep Brett working the phones (not sure if David is there yet) and make sure you get back to everyone that calls and leaves a message - I'd say customer service would be the one thing hurting your business the most right now. Product support is great with the Xede and Xflashes but it's just really difficult to get ahold of someone. A new or potential customer is easily swayed to give their business to someone else who answers the phone the first time and fills their mind full of garbage (a couple vendors spring to mind).
Hope the input was useful.
When are you going to finish days 6, 7 & 8 of the One Lap diary??? I'm sure you have nothing better to do with your time but it has been a great read thus far and I'm eagerly awaiting the rest of the installment.
Also, what fuel pump are you shipping with the new kits, walbro 255's or a denso old school pump?
Site looks good, one thing consumers might like to see would be a more detailed installation write up section (exhausts, cam gears, cams) and maybe even a little animated gif on the proper technique to getting the boost wire out of the factory ECU connector.
Not sure how much bandwidth you have but some MPEG's of customer car's running some 1/4 times (smog, EZ, et al) and some vids of the one-lap shop car (the 4 wheel drift come to mind) might appeal to those "visual" learners...just a thought, I know if you asked for it you could probably get customers to provide most of the above pretty easily.
Keep Brett working the phones (not sure if David is there yet) and make sure you get back to everyone that calls and leaves a message - I'd say customer service would be the one thing hurting your business the most right now. Product support is great with the Xede and Xflashes but it's just really difficult to get ahold of someone. A new or potential customer is easily swayed to give their business to someone else who answers the phone the first time and fills their mind full of garbage (a couple vendors spring to mind).
Hope the input was useful.
T'anks.
jcnel.
Evolving Member
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 464
Likes: 0
From: Livermore, Ca
Hi guys,
It's me shiv...logging in from Lambtron's laptop in Colorado.
thanks for the feedback on the new website. Well, I'll be the first to admit that i'm no website designer but if anyone has a better idea, let me know and we can barter website design for an XFlash
Shiv
It's me shiv...logging in from Lambtron's laptop in Colorado.
thanks for the feedback on the new website. Well, I'll be the first to admit that i'm no website designer but if anyone has a better idea, let me know and we can barter website design for an XFlash
Shiv
Account Disabled
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 56
Likes: 0
I feel 100% the same way, when I can look at dyno charts, watch video of cars, and have a idea what's in the works and when it's coming out would also be great. I have not had to call Vishnu in months but I hope David can help out with the phone problem over there. Maybe have a link to what's coming out new with the xede and have a timeline. I know when my company sells products we have people that buy it because of what is coming out in the newest release, and our customer service rocks. Guess that's why we have 253 people and are a 1.6 billion $ company.
Originally Posted by dude
Shiv,
When are you going to finish days 6, 7 & 8 of the One Lap diary??? I'm sure you have nothing better to do with your time but it has been a great read thus far and I'm eagerly awaiting the rest of the installment.
Also, what fuel pump are you shipping with the new kits, walbro 255's or a denso old school pump?
Site looks good, one thing consumers might like to see would be a more detailed installation write up section (exhausts, cam gears, cams) and maybe even a little animated gif on the proper technique to getting the boost wire out of the factory ECU connector.
Not sure how much bandwidth you have but some MPEG's of customer car's running some 1/4 times (smog, EZ, et al) and some vids of the one-lap shop car (the 4 wheel drift come to mind) might appeal to those "visual" learners...just a thought, I know if you asked for it you could probably get customers to provide most of the above pretty easily.
Keep Brett working the phones (not sure if David is there yet) and make sure you get back to everyone that calls and leaves a message - I'd say customer service would be the one thing hurting your business the most right now. Product support is great with the Xede and Xflashes but it's just really difficult to get ahold of someone. A new or potential customer is easily swayed to give their business to someone else who answers the phone the first time and fills their mind full of garbage (a couple vendors spring to mind).
Hope the input was useful.
When are you going to finish days 6, 7 & 8 of the One Lap diary??? I'm sure you have nothing better to do with your time but it has been a great read thus far and I'm eagerly awaiting the rest of the installment.
Also, what fuel pump are you shipping with the new kits, walbro 255's or a denso old school pump?
Site looks good, one thing consumers might like to see would be a more detailed installation write up section (exhausts, cam gears, cams) and maybe even a little animated gif on the proper technique to getting the boost wire out of the factory ECU connector.
Not sure how much bandwidth you have but some MPEG's of customer car's running some 1/4 times (smog, EZ, et al) and some vids of the one-lap shop car (the 4 wheel drift come to mind) might appeal to those "visual" learners...just a thought, I know if you asked for it you could probably get customers to provide most of the above pretty easily.
Keep Brett working the phones (not sure if David is there yet) and make sure you get back to everyone that calls and leaves a message - I'd say customer service would be the one thing hurting your business the most right now. Product support is great with the Xede and Xflashes but it's just really difficult to get ahold of someone. A new or potential customer is easily swayed to give their business to someone else who answers the phone the first time and fills their mind full of garbage (a couple vendors spring to mind).
Hope the input was useful.
Newbie
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 21
Likes: 0
No/Optional Flash, Excessive JavaScript
Please make at least the basic site completely navigable and usable without Flash! Also (and not that you are necessarily doing it) please seriously limit the unnecessary use of JavaScript (i.e. no excessive DHTML floating pop-up super-sliding effect look-at-me! menus, etc.).
I could go on a long rant about why these are really a bad thing for a company trying to provide product information via their website, but I'll keep this post short.
-That kind of stuff is just plain annoying; I use the Adblock extension for Firefox to stop such crap for example;
-A reasonable portion of your user population might very well run an "alternative" OS (most commonly Linux, but there are plenty of other viable options, e.g. *BSD) or platform without a good, working version of Flash; the vast majority of these platforms do however, have modern browsers which will let them view your site just fine if you avoid this problem area;
-Your objective is to present information about your company, its philosophy, products, people, etc., in as professional/appealing as fashion possible, right? You want to reach as many potential customers as possible, yes? Obviously if you target the least common denominator you will have what the modern internet community will call "an ugly website." So you have to target the most reasonable lowest common denominator. That is where I think a Flash/excessive JS-free website falls.
I could go on a long rant about why these are really a bad thing for a company trying to provide product information via their website, but I'll keep this post short.
-That kind of stuff is just plain annoying; I use the Adblock extension for Firefox to stop such crap for example;
-A reasonable portion of your user population might very well run an "alternative" OS (most commonly Linux, but there are plenty of other viable options, e.g. *BSD) or platform without a good, working version of Flash; the vast majority of these platforms do however, have modern browsers which will let them view your site just fine if you avoid this problem area;
-Your objective is to present information about your company, its philosophy, products, people, etc., in as professional/appealing as fashion possible, right? You want to reach as many potential customers as possible, yes? Obviously if you target the least common denominator you will have what the modern internet community will call "an ugly website." So you have to target the most reasonable lowest common denominator. That is where I think a Flash/excessive JS-free website falls.
agreed with what DM said about gratuitous Flash
I am not as anti-DHTML/anti-JS as some, but keep in mind if your site requires JS to be navigated, it cannot be crawled by current search engines.
I am not as anti-DHTML/anti-JS as some, but keep in mind if your site requires JS to be navigated, it cannot be crawled by current search engines.
Beta Web suggestion
V,
I think using "stage" definitions is still better than the numbers on the beta website. Someone tuning in would immediately want to know are these hp, torque, crank, wheel, and what dyno. Ultimately over time they will lose connection to the hp and just become designations which are more cumbersome than stage 0, 1, 2. It's only the "zero plus"-type tween designations that get confusing.
Perhaps you could also have some sort of "how do you want to drive" section which connects the upgrade with the driving experience, gains and losses versus the stock experience.
Doug
I think using "stage" definitions is still better than the numbers on the beta website. Someone tuning in would immediately want to know are these hp, torque, crank, wheel, and what dyno. Ultimately over time they will lose connection to the hp and just become designations which are more cumbersome than stage 0, 1, 2. It's only the "zero plus"-type tween designations that get confusing.
Perhaps you could also have some sort of "how do you want to drive" section which connects the upgrade with the driving experience, gains and losses versus the stock experience.
Doug
Agreed,
Originally Posted by Doug Axelrod
V,
I think using "stage" definitions is still better than the numbers on the beta website. Someone tuning in would immediately want to know are these hp, torque, crank, wheel, and what dyno. Ultimately over time they will lose connection to the hp and just become designations which are more cumbersome than stage 0, 1, 2. It's only the "zero plus"-type tween designations that get confusing.
Perhaps you could also have some sort of "how do you want to drive" section which connects the upgrade with the driving experience, gains and losses versus the stock experience.
Doug
I think using "stage" definitions is still better than the numbers on the beta website. Someone tuning in would immediately want to know are these hp, torque, crank, wheel, and what dyno. Ultimately over time they will lose connection to the hp and just become designations which are more cumbersome than stage 0, 1, 2. It's only the "zero plus"-type tween designations that get confusing.
Perhaps you could also have some sort of "how do you want to drive" section which connects the upgrade with the driving experience, gains and losses versus the stock experience.
Doug
Evolving Member
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 123
Likes: 0
From: Solano County, CA
Yeah Shiv, I'm stuck over here in Iraq for at least another 7 months. Keep the site simple to understand, straight forward, and easily to navigate. Excessive flash slows down the pathetic bandwidth here. Yesterday in fact, they threatened to shut the whole internet down because too many people are trying to get online.
Gee, that would be great for morale, as if the mortar attack we had this morning wasn't enough...
So keep your site basic but filled to the brim with content. I care more about content and useful (accurate) information than useless flashy eye candy.
Can't wait to get back to order a stage something or a version something, um, I mean whatever I can get with about $3k of my hard earned combat zone pay!
The REAL Captain
CPT Evo...
Gee, that would be great for morale, as if the mortar attack we had this morning wasn't enough...
So keep your site basic but filled to the brim with content. I care more about content and useful (accurate) information than useless flashy eye candy.
Can't wait to get back to order a stage something or a version something, um, I mean whatever I can get with about $3k of my hard earned combat zone pay!
The REAL Captain
CPT Evo...
Looks like v-package designations are estimated crank HP on race gas.
I think that's actually a pretty reasonable way to denote packages if each package is successively more powerful than the next.
I think that's actually a pretty reasonable way to denote packages if each package is successively more powerful than the next.
Originally Posted by shiv@vishnu
Yep, we know our current website is outdated. So we've been working on a new one. Here is a link to the new site. Feel free to offer any suggestions or comments....
- Initial welcome page looks good ... need to get rid of the flash banner and IMO go with a smaller (thinner) banner, and some minor tweaks could have it looking great
- Evo pages ... umm ... what the??? ... that needs to seriously be cleaned up. If you keep all your pages looking like the initial welcome page, you'll be good as gold. I agree with the sentiment that the stage labelling system is better than the newer system. You should also have pics of the components that are included with each package (similar to what you had with the old site).
I've done a few websites over the years and there are a few things you should keep in mind:
1. easy to navigate - your menu system is good, but could be slightly improved (see attachment for a basic layout)
2. compatible with as many browsers as possible - (no flash, limited DHTML)
3. keep the bandwidth as low as possible (read: no flash, as few animations as possible)
4. the more information, the better ... video files, sound bytes, dyno sheets, faqs, articles, etc. Just make sure the video files and sound bytes are downloadable via a link instead of trying to display them right in the browser and make sure that your ISP won't rape you if you go over your monthly bandwidth allowance.
If you need/want help, lemme know. I work on computers for a living, so it's no biggie ... I'd gladly work in exchange for one of the new 'secret' items, or in exchange for Shiv tuning my car for a ...(gasp)... ARC or HKS intake, hehe.
l8r)