New website soon- please rip it apart first for me ?

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Toubab
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I've been working on this for a couple of weeks and the basic structure is there- I've just got to fine tune it and add a load of content.

As always though, having been so close to something, it's easy to miss typos and speelunk mishtooks, or on a more basic level, as I know how things work, not see that something is confusing or hard to use.

I'd appreciate any comments, criticisms or even derision about it- everything helps and I want to have this right before it goes fully public next week

CLICK HERE, HAVE A POKE AROUND THEN TELL ME WHAT'S WRONG WITH IT PLEASE

Buglist-
  • Doesn't work well with Internet explorer versions lower than v7
  • Doesn't work well with Linux based Safari
  • The cloud of links is off centre- buggered if I can work out why
  • There are some test links there that will be removed

As you'll see, some people have already been on and had an early poke, so many thanks to them (they're getting their mugshots up on a page at some point- 'crash test dummies' :D)

The idea BTW is that it's a live site, so on certain pages, people will be able to leave comments about a trip or a picyture for example.

It'll also have live reports, so those on a trip will be able to email and sms updates directly onto a page about that trup so that family and friends can see what's going on

There will also be (hopefully) some live bloggs from people on other trips- so for example, If you're on your own trip to Morocco or anywhere else, you can have your own page within it that you can post pics from a phone on to keep people updated as to what's going on.
(I'll be asking for some testers for this son so if you have a trip planned, gimme a shout)

There's a load more stuff to go up- content, some excerpts from previous trip reports (many thanks to Paul BHT and the original writers of the reports for permission to use those :bow) and a load of GPS info, mapping, routes, allsorts.

Thanks in advance and please don't hold back in the criticism, even if it's picky stuff- as a front page and live site for Moto Morocco, I want it to be as good as I can get it, and if you lot rip it apart first or try and break it, that will help :D

Cheers

Bill

EDIT- I'm updating and editing it live over the weekend so things will change as you look at it :thumb2
 
The idea BTW is that it's a live site, so on certain pages, people will be able to leave comments about a trip or a picyture for example.

The site looks good.

If it were mine (and I don't know 100% why) I would not have the facitility for people to post on it and (again I don't know 100% why) I may not give your team titles like 'Tour Director' & 'Tech Guru'.
 
Moto-Morocco run off road and road based motorcycle tours in one of the best countries in the world for Motorcycling.. Morocco has everything from snow capped mountains and breathtaking passes, deep gorges, forests, beaches and some of the best biking roads you will have ever seen.

In between these are great Imperial cities, buzzing bazaars, sights and smells that will leave a huge impression on you -from the souks of Marrakech to the tanneries in Fez, the Cedar forests of Khenifra with its wild monkeys and the vast desert planes of the Sahara.

Morocco is a wonderful destination and we can promise that whether off road or on road, it’ll be a trip you’ll always remember with a grin!

No capital M in motorcycling.

One full stop too many.

Why does imperial have a capital i? Capitals are for proper nouns. Imperial in the sentence is an adjective, I think. Similarly, you may like to look at the capital c in 'Cedar forests' though that may be correct.

Off road should have a hyphen, as should on road, except when you are saying something like, "We go off the road at.....". For instance:

"We can go off-road riding by going off the road at Fez....."
 
We Make Morocco Easy.

Why the capitalisation? The other heading's don't have them.
 
I like it, seems pretty usable, and I get the colour palette, sand n' sky etc and red for highlighting but there does seem to be too many text colours on some pages, wood from trees etc IMHO.

The keyword cloud is pretty dark and hard to read.

I would always have a footer on every page, just like a title at top, the footer frames the pages, even if it's just copyright blurb and maybe text links?

My 2 penneth :)
 
The thing about being able to post on it is because it is intended to be a 'live' site- it'll become more important when the live trip reports and bloggs go up.

I can enable or disable it for any given page- at the moment it's open on most but that will be changed when its live so that only stuff that I want people to comment on (like a ride report so that other s who were on it can add stuff for example) can post.

Before anything goes on, I have to authorise it specifically, and there are anti-spam measures in place too, so it can't be abused :)
 
It may just be my screen, but the dates / times under the replies are very feint, almost to the point that you can't read them.
 
Should read:

All Motto Morocco trips are fully supported by one of our well equipped off-road vehicles driven by our own staff members. We carry extensive an first aid kit, safety and recovery equipment (including off-road motorcycle recovery kit) as well as spare fuel, tyres, a well stocked tool kit and of course all your luggage….who wants to be riding with a bike heavier than they have to!

As another option, we can also arrange a hire bike for you to use on the tour. We have partners in Spain who can provide Yamaha Teneres, some models of KTM and nearly all of the BMW dual sport range from the HP2 down to the 650 GS. Please contact us for details and prices on this as we do need to reserve these bikes as early as possible for you to try and make sure we can get you the motorcycle you want to ride.
 
I like it, seems pretty usable, and I get the colour palette, sand n' sky etc and red for highlighting but there does seem to be too many text colours on some pages, wood from trees etc IMHO.

The keyword cloud is pretty dark and hard to read.

I would always have a footer on every page, just like a title at top, the footer frames the pages, even if it's just copyright blurb and maybe text links?

My 2 penneth :)

Thank you.
The text thing is a balance between having enough info without having too many clicks to carry on reading- I'll look at it though now you've said that :)

Keyword cloud does need tweaking- I'll have a little play with that in a bit :thumb2

Definitely agree with you on the footer on every page- I think it'll probably be the old logo from the original site, plus some copyright stuff etc :thumb2

:beerjug:
 
I had thought that pointing out missing punctuation might have been seen as overly pedantic, but I'd happily do that if you're happy to see what I find, IYSWIM.

E.g. : in Steptoe's bloggy bit,
"Since his first long distance motorcycle trip around Iberia in 1980, Neil has travelled extensively both in Europe and the Far East, and over the last few years has lead many successful bike trips in Europe as well as North Africa. Previously a Parachute and sky diving instructor, Neil is a lover of adventure and his sense of humour can lighten even the lowest moments that occasionally happen out on the road. (And he does like to shake his TicTacs!)"

"Lead" should be "led", I believe. Do you want me to play? :D
 
Site looks good on Safari - mac OS-10
Loads up quickly and is easy on the eye.

Nitpicking:

Pictures need to be larger
Have a separate page for photo gallery
A map page with routes marked ( presumably not too much info ;-))

page one half way down ;

should be "(as taken in the hotels in which we stay)"

page 2

there's a page break between the e and very of the sentence "..has covered nearly every country in europe.."

You staff photos could be clearer

a page of testimonials from previous happy customers
a page of "rough guide" type info of the beauty and attraction of Morocco - it's the nearest "far away" place there is type stuff.



good luck - may well take a trip some day soon with you.
 
Couple of things. As a first page I still think it's too long, there's an information overload of text. Could the "sample day" be on another page? And I assume the comments section at the bottom will be taken off? You never know what someone is going to post before your editing faery can get to it...

I also think the fonts/colours/centering/bold/not/bold need rationalising to make it look a bit clearer and cleaner.
The section on the right called "Moto Morocco Keyword links"... what's going on below it? All a bit random.

And I would replace the exclamation mark on your strap line with a full stop -
It's not a holiday. It's an adventure.

Certainly better than the original site though.

IMHO ;)
 
It may just be my screen, but the dates / times under the replies are very feint, almost to the point that you can't read them.

Does look ok on mine, but tbh I'm not unhappy if they're very faint- they are only there for reference really so aren't adding anything of value to anything- I might even remove them completely TBH, but if they're not intrusive, that's fine :)
 
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