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dr5.com

dr5chrome

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Dec 29, 2006
Messages
461
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Medium Format
We would like some suggestions on improving our website, www.dr5.com

There is much information we have to convey and is the main reason there is some confusion navigating the site. We don't get very many complaints, but any is of a concern.

We try to make it an information based site rather than some flippy flash site. We want to keep it a photo-minded based rather than geared to someone who doesn't understand film based photography.

Comments good, bad or harsh welcome.

regards
dw

www.dr5.com
 
The information on the site is great, particularly the "film review" section.

On the other hand, the site does look cluttered.

Is the animation on the opening splash page really necessary?

The main page--in fact all the pages--would be easier to understand if there were fewer fonts, colors, and logos. The black on purple 3D buttons are a bit hard to read. If you want the funky "ransom note" look, maybe save it for the titles, but the main information would be more digestible if it were presented in a simpler style.
 
It's interesting to me that you asked this. I was at your site the other day. I had some film dev'ed via dr5 a while back and loved it but haven't had the need until recently. I was checking my film and the current pricing.

Your site looks basically like it did a couple of ears ago. The things that annoy(ed) me or felt wrong are:
1) The opening screen is not contributing to anything except wasting time
2) you use many font sizes on a page and some are very small and difficult to read.
3) When I go to the film review page, the thumbnails of boxes are not very clear. It is difficult to locate films there unless you already know what the 35mm or 120 box looks like. Sheet film boxes don't look like that - should use text as well.
4) When you look at a specific film, it is not intuitive to run your mouse over a picture to go from B&W to sepia. And some films don't even have the option of 2 processes so the mouse over doesn't work, or it could still be downloading - ou don't know which. Why not just put the pictures on the page and leave them there for comparison at the same time?
5) Why can't the prices for a film be on the films page?
6) Why not have an overall evaluation page helping to determine that, if you want dr5 output, these are the films to consider in these situations and why. Now, you'd have to read (and comprehend) every film page sequentially.
7) Some of your descriptions of the films are not, to me, very clear.
8) too many colors used for emphasis so that the emphasis actually lost in the visual clutter.
9) Some links don't work. The one I recall is the Lucky film box. It has no clickable link so why is it in the list?


Thats what comes to mind at the moment. The 120 rolls out of a Holga a while back which I had done by dr5 were gorgeous. The sheet film I have now, J&C Pro 100 isn't listed anywhere and isn't their 'Classic' roll film, so I couldn't tell if I could use dr5 or not.

Cheers,
Richard
 
I agree with David about the site being somewhat cluttered and I also don't care much for the different text colors and font usage.

I'd also like to see a more standardized navigation. Simple, text-based menu/navigation-bar at both the top and bottom of each page. Users should be able to jump to any principle section (page) of the site from anywhere within the site. I'd also ditch the Back-Button (Finger). Stick with simple text but keep it consistent throughout the site.

In the Film Review section:
1. Get rid of the B/W screen scale (0-100%) - unrelated to film reviews.
2. Move the 'Under Construction' gif to a different location. Maybe even in the area of the aforementioned B/W Scale.
3. All of the E6 Film Tabs I clicked on resulted in broken links. This is entirely unacceptable for any site. If those pages are not ready then the links should be disabled and the user should be able to tell that they are disabled simply by sight. One idea would be to mark the disabled Tabs with a large 'X'. Another method would be to convert all disabled Tabs to grayscale, leaving only Tabs with reviews available in full color. A final thought would be to draw a colored box around the Tabs that are working.
 
Just to add a few thoughts, I agree about a more readable set of pages, though that would be mostly a change in fonts and colours. When opening up pages, like with film review, it would be nice to have links to other areas of the site on each page; that would alleviate the need to constantly use the back button on the browser to navigate the site.

To use an example, the Ilford Photo site is a very clean and easy to read website. Links are easy to follow, and it is easy to go from one content area to another. Rather than having their floating menues, it would be simpler to just use HTML clickable links; so no need for flashy (FLASH) usage nor javascript, nor even rollovers. Black text on white is the easiest to read, though other choices with good contrast can also be accomplished easily.

This week I had one meeting with a commercial client and showed them some medium format shots that had been processed at DR5. They were very impressed with the results, and now I have an option to write up in my proposal to them of shooting some B/W on location. Compare that to a contact sheet and negatives, and the past feedback, and DR5 has opened up some shooting possibilities for my work. Thank you.

Ciao!

Gordon Moat
Dead Link Removed
 
Not to disagree with or disregard all the fine suggestions posted already, but you really should consider going a little further upstream in your analysis. Most of the posts pertain to good visual design or functional design and should be considered.

What you may wish to do first is layout some goals.

Good design generally revolves around the intersection of three things:
  1. Your Business goal(s)
  2. Your customer's desires
  3. Available assets to meet/fulfill no.s 1 and 2


The look should reflect the stature, image and business segment of DR5. The flow should meet the business goals and user desires -- easy to order or find information, etc... Aspects of design as they relate to font size, colour etc.. should be dealt with as a function of the design process. The success of the site is going to be determined by how attainable no.1 is, how well you understand no. 2 and by how much 1 and 2 overlap.
 
I have to say it's a useful site with the film reviews and all. The improvements that come to mind are:
1. Publish a chart giving the shipping rates that you charge. It's an inconvenience to write or call before sending the film.
2. As previously mentioned, the film review section is a very good move on your part. Perhaps the most important move you could make is to finish it. I recall reading promises to post 35mm samples of the films. I also notice a few listed films (and all color slide films) don't yet have reviews.
 
Have the prices on the first page.
Honestly I spent ages looking for them when I investigated your service originally, and they just weren't in an obvious place at all. They should be on the front page or in a glaringly obvious place. I wont use a service if I don't know how much it will cost. That's the biggest input I have to offer, everyone's made a lot of good suggestions. You have more than enough content to be a great, useful website, the design is just ineffective.
 
I'd say have some fantastic images on the front page and give people a reason to want to try the process, and then have a link to the price schedule on a toolbar with other links to the main areas of the site.
 
dr5.com / revisit

Thanks for the suggestions and offers for our last post regarding our website.

I have actually been working on a remake for a few years, but can never seem to find the time. Our current site's core was made in '97 and we have added to it or changed or updated things over the years, the reason for all the different fonts.... Our limited html knowledge has hindered a remake and we don't have a corporate budget to have an experienced webmaster remake the entire content.

Nevertheless I will present a preliminary redesign.
http://www.dr5.com/mainA.html

Comments are necessary from photo & web people. This is only the main page, thanks again.

regards
dw

www.dr5.com
 
Kudos to you for actually asking consumers what they would like to see. Good Luck with your rebuild!
 
One thing I think would be helpful would be a chart comparing the technical characteristics of various films in developers 1 and 2. Information such as suggested speeds, dynamic range, etc. I know, for example, that HP5+ has a wide range in dr5. But is it more or less than FP4+? Tri-X? This sort of information, all in one place, could be very helpful.
 
pet peeve with your new site -
it's means it is - it's a nice day
its shows possession - give the dog its bone

add me to the list of customers wanting to find a price before sending my film. I wanted to send a check with my film, so I wanted to know how much it would be. Even with e-mailing, it wasn't easy or quick to get the info. What about a form that generates the cost based on the zipcode and film / service?
 
..we have a page such as this; http://dr5.com/Filmreview.html
this too we are working on so the info is more easily addressed.

regards



 
..wing; not quite sure i understand the petpeeve,, explain?

this shipping question has always been a problem for some, but only for a small % that we know of. we usually answer this question straight away. this function in a webpage is complicated to make, design ideas?

another issue we stress is we like to charge only what it cost us to ship the order and every order is a different weight. only the USPS offers a set price, so yes we will list these in the new site. fedex will charge depending on where you are, the weight, home delivery, fuel-charge, etc... it is not possible to guess what they will charge. setting a price will be a generic higher price and most of our clients appreciate the lowest price possible. i dont know any other way to approach this.

dw

 
There's a lot of "We'll test this next week" on the film reviews.
 
I think the new Design is a good step in the right direction, but I would get rid of the changing buttons on the left. One doesnt have a clue what they are about before moving the mouse over it... and people like me forget immediately after leaving the area again
 
I agree with robat. I found the new front page much better but the buttons on the left appeared unintelligible until I happened to mouse over them.

For me, there is no reason to hide what they stand for. Make the fonts smaller and spell out their meanings. It would add to the understanding of the site.

Good progress
 
My peeve is a grammar thing. In several places, your site (and many others in the world) has "it's" where it should be "its". It's something that bugs me when I see it used incorrectly. Same with "their", "they're", and "there." To me, it shows that there wasn't much thought put into the words. Yes, just my opinion, but we're all entitled to one.
 
..all you had to say is there was a typo.. thanks for the proof read.

dw


 
dr5chrome said:
..we have a page such as this; http://dr5.com/Filmreview.html
this too we are working on so the info is more easily addressed.

regards
Click to expand...

Yes, I know about that one, Dave, but I'm thinking more along the lines of a chart. HP5, for example, 400, 800 both work great, 12 stops of usable range, etc. And then all the other films, all on one page.
 
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