Website Review Requested - Non Motorcycle

Post by **Shaman** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 6:04 pm

I am doing this website for some fellow Mainers.
I am not a web designer and web design is not my business but they are on a slim budget so I did the site and I'll get a knife.

They are getting good feedback from their knife making buds, but are interested in how a larger audience sees the site.

The Store is NOT open and you can not currently buy knives.
This is NOT an advertisement and I am NOT trying to skirt the sponsor aspects of this site.
If Mods needs to remove this post, I understand.

Yes, it is simple.
They want to maintain it themselves, so no fancy Flash or Automation.

The website for review: Downeast Knife Company

Post by **iowabeakster** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 6:10 pm

Nicely done.

Post by **Caol** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 10:27 pm

Simple, easy to use, attractive.

Works for me!

Post by **Boxer** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 6:54 am

Very simple and elegant..Nice! I did catch a small mistake/typo. In the first line of Lamont Coombs bio it goes from third person to first person. Not a biggie. Those kinds of things just bug me. For an inexpensive shopping cart you might look into PayPal. I just installed one for our BMW club here in Georgia and it seems to work fine for a small store front.

Post by **Shaman** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 10:13 am

Boxer wrote:Very simple and elegant..Nice! I did catch a small mistake/typo. In the first line of Lamont Coombs bio it goes from third person to first person. Not a biggie. Those kinds of things just bug me. For an inexpensive shopping cart you might look into PayPal. I just installed one for our BMW club here in Georgia and it seems to work fine for a small store front.

They asked me to convert their bios from here:
http://www.tanguaycustomknives.com and http://coombshandmade.com

than you for catching it.. off to fix it.
I have a massive head cold and multi-tasking this in.
If I missed it, in correcting some more I found, please let me know.

I have a store set up that came free with the account they got.
It was a PITA to set up, but is looking pretty good.
For a preview you can go here: http://downeastknife.com/store/

Please do not submit orders (yet), we are ironing it out.

Post by **boxermania** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 10:36 am

Shaman

Nicely done, I find that a tastefully done add catches my attention and speaks for the company commitment better than one full of bells and whistles.

Kudos...and BTW, let me kow when it goes live, I would like to get one of their first run for one of my good buddies...he is a passionate hunter/fisherman.

Post by **sjbmw** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 10:39 am

I like it. Clean, and cooks in Firefox.
The product line is specialty enough to eliminate costly admin bells and whistles.

Good one.

Post by **Shaman** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 11:03 am

boxermania wrote:Shaman

Nicely done, I find that a tastefully done add catches my attention and speaks for the company commitment better than one full of bells and whistles.

Yea. It was nice that they did not want Flash Bang sites.

I had been talking to Scott about a knife for my brother in the AirForce and the link to my crappy home website was in the sig and he asked if I would do a website for the knife.. the TCK site.

I asked him what he was thinking and he just had a list of pages and content on his mind. But thankfully said, "I don't want animations, I dont want a flash into or flash navigations." I want something more simple.

Then he referred me to Lamont, who just gave me some pictures and said, Do what you want. Make it easy for people to se my work and contact me. So that one is very simplistic while being classy, I think.

On DKC, Scott asked me to more mirror Lamonts site. He saw after I did Lamonts what a nice page with 'Just Enough' information can do... as opposed to one that buries you in anecdotes and over explains things.

boxermania wrote:
Kudos...and BTW, let me kow when it goes live, I would like to get one of their first run for one of my good buddies...he is a passionate hunter/fisherman.

I will and they will appreciate it.

Post by **wncbmw** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 4:11 pm

Nicely done site. Nice knives too!

Post by **Shaman** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 2:52 pm

wncbmw wrote:Nicely done site. Nice knives too!

Lamont Coombs Jr. was published in this years "Art of the Knife".
In a way it is a cost effective way to get into an internationally recognized custom knife makers product. And then not feel bad about using it.

Post by **NoRRmad** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 9:51 am

There seems to be a general Overuse of Initial Caps in some of the copy.

Post by **Shaman** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 11:50 am

NoRRmad wrote:There seems to be a general Overuse of Initial Caps in some of the copy.

Yep.
But you have to let people get their way in some areas to get them to compromise in others.

Post by **Shaman** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 11:56 pm

UPDATE:

They provided, so I added, more details on the knife building process:

http://downeastknife.com/prototype.html

Post by **Shaman** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 7:44 pm

Lots more pictures of the process under Prototypes.
Product Pictures added.
Shopping Cart is now open with product pictures.

Thanks to all you gave advice.
The owners need to practice taking pictures... hehe
I don't live near them or I would do it.
But they'll get there.

I did visit them a week ago to get a sense of the knife and to show them how to update text on their website.

The knife is VERY good quality.
The laser engraving is neat. ODGreen and Orange lets the engraving stand out. Black was not suitable really and Tan seemed to look better plain. They did have an engraved version, but it seems to take away from the natural/tan look rather than add to it.

If I HAD a BMW, I'd go ODGreen grips and get the BMW logo.
It would look really good.

Alas, I'm going to get a Wolfs Head...
Long story about my childhood, my poor family, and a parents gift.

reidmct · Post by **reidmct** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 7:58 pm

I think it would be good to enable people to build and price their knives before going to the Cart or Checkout.

Many people want to browse before they buy. The setup at DK makes them sort of start the buying process.

FWIW.

Post by **Shaman** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 9:09 pm

reidmct wrote:I think it would be good to enable people to build and price their knives before going to the Cart or Checkout.

Many people want to browse before they buy. The setup at DK makes them sort of start the buying process.

FWIW.

Good thought, but they are not paying me enough in trade for that.
If/when they get successful, they can hire a full on professional to rework the site to allow customization like tirerack.com.

I'm open to suggestion though if you have a means by which to do it that is quick and easy.
I'm always looking to learn new things.