Vintage Website

Theron,
I see the Vintage Website has been redesigned. I'm assuming it's your handiwork; it looks really nice.
It's much quicker to load now without the "rollovers."
I think you and I agree that when it comes to good, basic website design - simipler is almost always better. And faster is best!
Good job on Kirk's new site.

Thanks John,
I am a firm believer in "simpler is better" and speed is the single most important factor. That's very hard to do with a site which sells cars, because you need large good quality pictures. Animation isn't all bad, but animated items should not be a key portion of the site. Just eye candy. Take a look at my site www.IDIDTHAT.com Simple and fast loading. The majority of the work in Vintage Speedsters site was carefully optimising pictures, many of which are less than 30k, but look like large high quality photos.

The less words the better. Some of my clients want pages of explanation, when they persist despite my better judgement, I have no choice but to give them what they want. Never has one of those sites made money. But I'm hired for my opinion and experience, if a client doesn't want to follow it, it's ok, I still get paid.

People today just don't want to read and if there are too many words, they won't read any. If you have a lot to say, it needs to be broken up into multiple pages with visual breaks. I call this the "Disneyland" theory. Ride lines at Disneyland can last hours, but they deliberately keep you occupied. From nowhere in the line can you see more than 10 minutes ahead and when you get 10 minutes ahead, there is 10 more minutes and plenty to look at so your distracted. Website visitors need the same thing in a durable goods sales site, they will take in all of the information, but only if they feel in control and you don't give them too much at once.

In any case, the thing that most web designer, programmers, etc. miss is that they design sites without understanding the human factor. The human factor is sooo important. That leads me to probably one of the best books I have ever read on humans and shopping.
Why We Buy by Paco Underhill
This guy us amazing, he explains retailing mistakes. As well as how simple things like lighting, smells and placement in a store can make or break a retailer.

I think this post breaks my own rules, with way too much to read... We'll see how many actually read it.
-=theron

(Message Edited 8/22/2003 6:19:49 PM)

Hey it would be cool if we had counters on posts so we to could know what you know....I only wish I had all the same power and ability you have....and yes, as I was reading your post it was ironic that you were talking about not making people read to much. I started to read the suspension article, but got tired and fell asleep...LOL