new IOT website, thoughts please

[colonel5]

As of October 1st we've launched our new website for International Office Technologies. They specialize in HP, Xerox, Lexmark etc printer and copier repair and manufacturering compatible toner for office equipment for the Twin Cities Minneapolis Saint Paul Minnesota area.

it was created with css and xhtml and is validated with w3c.org (minus some outgoing links to other sites that are out of my control)


http://www.iotinc.com

Along with the new site is our new marketing campaign "get to know us" so the people you are seeing on our website are actually our people.

Let me know what you think. I'd love to hear thoughts to see if they line up with the things i want to tweak or if there's something i haven't thought up.

[CamarotaDesign]

I like it. Very navagational, color scheme works. That drop out menu for the brands is pretty sweet, I think I remember someone (if not, you) trying to figure that out a month or two ago.

I think I might make the quick links menu have drop downs for the sub links. It just feels like the quick links extend too far down. Also, I might make the "Hot deals on refurbished equipment" headline stand out a little more. Maybe add a photo or something to that section.

I'd also try not to use the same photos for different pages if you can.

Overall, looks great to me, excellent work!

[colonel5]

thanks

[KingVance]

couple things here

You do have some really great colors going on...and you have some nice fonts...

then all your contact information is just kinda stuck in between your primary and secondary top navigation...in just...black text....plain ole black text stuck between these really nice buttons and gradients...I suggest maybe creating a graphic for the whole bar in a font that is similar to the way the internationaofficetechnologies is written out...

i really really dig the 'get to know us' page....but why does the guy on the front have his 'helpful hint' while nobody else really does....that would be a WONDERFUL spot to actually put a sort of 'here is the common mistakes that you can easily fix and save yourself some money by checking' kind of thing....without actually insulting the customer(they need it at times)

and do me a favor...get the girls on there...i wanna see if you employ hottie techs to fix things

also...is there any particular reason that you have rounded corners on mostly everything except for the top navigation? I understand your 'brands' naviagation...it actually makes sense....but im not so sure about the top

all in all...i think youre dangerously close to having a really cool and fun site...which is tough to do with the subject matter as dull as office supply and repair work.

very professional...very clean...but still fun...you had a huge challenge but you worked it out.

[Andi Creffield]

The drop down printer menus don't work in Explorer for the Mac.

[ecsyle]

The drop down printer menus don't work in Explorer for the Mac.
Explorer for mac? You actually use it? It hasn't been updated in like 5 years.

[Andi Creffield]

Don't be stupid, I don't use it but I have to test sites in it that's the idea of web standards even have to test in Opera and even less people use that that Camino and Flock.

[Satchel]

Yeah ecsyle dont be stupid ;)

PS. I like the site... drop down brands thingy-ma-bob is very nice!

[KingVance]

personally i design to IE and Firefox...ill make an attempt at safari but im not going to kill myself over it

everybody else can just deal

[colonel5]

then all your contact information is just kinda stuck in between your primary and secondary top navigation...in just...black text....plain ole black text stuck between these really nice buttons and gradients...I suggest maybe creating a graphic for the whole bar in a font that is similar to the way the internationaofficetechnologies is written out...

that's a good thought, at first i attempted a few things but it seemed it was overdoing it, maybe i'll go back in a month or so and try again.

i really really dig the 'get to know us' page....but why does the guy on the front have his 'helpful hint' while nobody else really does....that would be a WONDERFUL spot to actually put a sort of 'here is the common mistakes that you can easily fix and save yourself some money by checking' kind of thing....without actually insulting the customer(they need it at times)

These are all coming, some of the guys came up with good ones, I need to come up with the rest, that part of our site is still in the beginning stages, we have a years with of things for this campaign.

and do me a favor...get the girls on there...i wanna see if you employ hottie techs to fix things

The only 3 gals we employ is the one you see on there and than another customer service/dispatch and my boss' mom who is our HR lady.

Thanks kingvance for all of your feedback, i really appreciate it

[colonel5]

The drop down printer menus don't work in Explorer for the Mac.

99% of our targeted users are on Windows machines using IE 5 and 6... it's also optimized for Firefox which is the other 1% of our users.

[ecsyle]

Fine. I won't be stupid. Let me just take a look at the traffic reports for 200+ sites for the last year or so and see how many hits come from mac/ie. I will bet that it is very low, practically zero. We design and code our sites for win/ie, firefox, safari/khtml, and opera, since the vast majority of the traffic come from those browsers and systems. Mac IE never makes an appearance in our reports. I was just shocked that someone actually said they used it. Safari is such a better browser for the mac. Firefox even. To willingly use an outdated, slow, and uncompliant browser such as macIE blows my mind. Seriously. Microsoft gave up on the project a long time ago.


INTERNET EXPLORER FOR MAC NO LONGER AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD

In June 2003, the Microsoft Macintosh Business Unit announced that Internet Explorer for Mac would undergo no further development, and support would cease in 2005. In accordance with published support lifecycle policies, Microsoft ended support for Internet Explorer for Mac on December 31st, 2005, and is not providing any further security or performance updates.

Accordingly, as of January 31st, 2006, Internet Explorer for the Mac is no longer available for download from Microsoft. It is recommended that Macintosh users migrate to more recent web browsing technologies such as Apple's Safari (http://www.apple.com/support/safari/).

[chris_bcn]

I don't know a single web developer or designer who still has IE/MAC on their browser list. Microsoft have officially stopped supporting it, so have I, so should everyone. Do you still test on NN4?

I've even stopped supporting IE5 (not 5.5 though)