VOIPo Website

Hey Guys,

I've been working with our web designer the last few days to get our main site design wrapped up and wanted to get opinions here.

Take a look at this shot of the homepage design and let me know your thoughts. Keep in mind that this is a Photoshop image and so the text may look a little grainy, but all the text for the most part will actually be converted to real text and the images all sliced up when we are happy with the design and ready to turn it into html.

There are two versions with the nav bar positioned differently.

http://scripts.hostgator.com/~gator/voipo/html/1.html

http://scripts.hostgator.com/~gator/voipo/html/2.html

Which do you like better? Do you like neither?

Here was the original draft that we started with:

http://scripts.hostgator.com/~gator/voipo/html/

First thing I see is a most confusing toll free number layout. Perhaps the standard xxx xxx-xxxx. It's difficult to list the VOIPo and translate it to real numbers.
I wonder if the local number is necessary..


I wonder if the 9-6 specialist hours will be interpreted as support hours as well.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by burris

First thing I see is a most confusing toll free number layout. Perhaps the standard xxx xxx-xxxx. It's difficult to list the VOIPo and translate it to real numbers.
I wonder if the local number is necessary..


I wonder if the 9-6 specialist hours will be interpreted as support hours as well.

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Thanks for feedback.

The main reason we need the local number is for international customers who can't call toll-free.

For the first phase of the public beta launch, those will be the hours of operation since it's very difficult to leave new staff members alone until there's been a few months of training so they're able to actually help. This gives us a concentrated group to work with and then we can stagger those people out and move it to 24/7 over time. This makes more sense than putting brand new people alone on the phones at night and makes sure we deliver a consistent CS experience.

Pretty basic, nothing jumps out at me. The typo on 'Advanced Callling Features Included' made me chuckle. I'm looking forward to the free adapter when I sign up :)

I prefer the navigation bar at the bottom of the block, purely for consistency [for the orderly mind ;-) ] with the rest of the layout. I prefer the dot-delimited phone numbers.

I'm also glad I don't have to buy any of that fancy "equiptment"... I'll stick with my cheap equipment with fewer letters to buy.

Out of the 3 choices, I prefer choice 2. Lays out better with the buttons at the top for 1 click access.

Not crazy about the original.

the ideal test is to use tobii's eye tracker with a wide range of audience
many well known web based retailers have made use of this gadget

2 things. 1st; as for the numbers; novelty numbers like 1-800-get-voip or whatever, are catchy, but you should put in parenthesis the real number. Don't make people look it up.

Next, unless you have lived overseas, most Americans aren't accustomed to seeing DOTS in between the numbers of a phone number. They are use to seeing dashes. If your main customer base is in the USA and Canada, I suggest putting in dashes. Doesn't matter if some of us LIKE Dots better or not, the American consumer doesn't. It looks foreign to them and they WILL instinctively believe the website to be an OUT OF COUNTRY website and country. That's the way it is. Americans may be arrogant, but that's irrelevant. That's the customer base.


From a purely MARKETING standpoint, I choose html/2. The reason being is that human nature on websites is to try and do 2 things.

1) Read the page like a book. Left to Right and Top to Bottom. In this case, you did great. Nothing worse than making Columns on a Web page. Sometimes it can be gotten away with, but only if each column is a different subject, product, service, etc.... In that respect, you did well.

2) People instinctively look at what is "Interactive"; in the case of a website, "clickable"; and concentrate in between the beginning and the end of the interactivity. This is basic psychology in advertising. That's why they put a lot of legal disclaimers that they don't really want customers to notice where they do. By having your click on links at the TOP; as well as the click on info links like "Contact us", "Term", etc... at the bottom; the human mind will concentrate on EVERYTHING in between. Because these are the 2 places the customer can interact with. They therefor has to go through everything in between to get from the first to last part of interactivity. If you choose the html/1.html then many people will subconsciously overlook the advertisement that you put in place. In this case the unlimited local and long distance calling and 20 features. Their mind will look and find what is "Clickable". They will then look for the next "Clickable". They will then concentrate on what is between these 2 places.

Anyway, that's my opinion. Look at many other websites. You will see the "Clickables" at the TOP and the Bottom. The human mind has gotten conditioned to see this. Check out forums, websites, and especially those trying to sell something. You can try and condition the human mind to see it differently, but they will subconsciously overlook any advertising you may put in prior to the first clickables. Later.... Mike......