[Project Complete] Consumer Website - Pepper Spray - $250 [Archive]

SkyCastles

11-01-2004, 07:56 PM

(Admin code added by Michael - CY254011L)

Company name: A to Z Pepper Spray

Company profile: Pepper Spray Manufacturer

Domain name: www.atozpepperspray.com

What is the scope of this project?: Redesign

Who is the intended audience?: Consumer market, Women

Mood or tone?: Easy One-step navigation, Professional, Advatorial, Search Engine friendly.

Color psychology?: We are open to color combinations. We have no logo, and we don't want a logo to dominate the layout in any way.

Links to include: We want people to easily find all of our products, sign-up for our home protection course, be able to order a catalog, find our store policies. "How we do this" is why we have come to you for a redesign.

Current Graphics/Template: We have no graphics other than some product shots. Please either create your own or use anything not copyrighted.

Dynamic: We want at the end of the project an html template using the most basic of HTML. We want a consistent header and footer that we can use on all of the inside pages.

In the same industry are: http://www.peppersprayinc.com (nothing to write home about), http://www.safetygearhq.com (shows an attempt at design), http://www.udap.com (has crazy scary home page rollover picture :-( ), http://www.safetyrus.com (Let's blink alot at you.)

Design Notes:

Here is what I like as far as feel goes. See http://www.halopepperspray.com I want this website to appeal to women. We want our content all the way reaching to the top or very close to the top of the page. Use a left column if you feel the need for more graphic presentation.

I am looking for a simple Two page design. Page 1 will be a 'front' page, (http://www.atozpepperspray.com) which I would like flexiblility to add new product articles to without affecting the layout.

Page 2 would be the detail or product sales page. (Use http://www.atozpepperspray.com/pepper-spray-pen.shtml) as your detail page mockup.

+++++

We are avid testers and all designs will be A B Split test against the current design. We are not really interested in aestetics as much as we are interested in conversion. Pretty is nice, but making money is better.

Search engine friendliness is also at the top of our list in design. This website is being built to win in Google. Google is not fond of sophisticated code or <H1> tags. Other than these comments we suggest you have fun and be creative. Only designs that we think will convert will win though. We are also very likely to buy more than one design as I said we are avid split testers. Our plan is to buy the three best designs.

Lilja

11-01-2004, 11:10 PM

Whats the prize and deadline?

Thanks,
Lilja

SkyCastles

11-01-2004, 11:18 PM

I was just reminded that I forgot to specify what the prize was and the deadline. First, we will discuss the prize.

The prize is $250.

The deadline is a contest in itself. Since I plan on buying more than one design, the first person that comes up with what I consider a workable design will probably win. This design might not be the best of the bunch, but if it's workable, I will probably go ahead and use it as the first of the split tests.

Now don't take this as I plan on awarding the prize to the first person that finishes a design. I do plan on awarding the first prize to the first person that presents a workable design though.

The second award will go to the next useable design, and of course the third prize award to the last and probably best design.

V + E + R + T

11-02-2004, 08:44 AM

Originally posted by SkyCastles
I was just reminded that I forgot to specify what the prize was and the deadline. First, we will discuss the prize.

The prize is $250.

The deadline is a contest in itself. Since I plan on buying more than one design, the first person that comes up with what I consider a workable design will probably win. This design might not be the best of the bunch, but if it's workable, I will probably go ahead and use it as the first of the split tests.

Now don't take this as I plan on awarding the prize to the first person that finishes a design. I do plan on awarding the first prize to the first person that presents a workable design though.

The second award will go to the next useable design, and of course the third prize award to the last and probably best design.

So to clarify, the prize of $250 will be each be awarded to three designers? Or will the prize of $250 be split up among the three designers?

BrianDove

11-02-2004, 09:21 AM

Will try something in a few minutes :)
Best Regards,
Brian Dove

BrianDove

11-02-2004, 10:55 AM

Here is my entry:
Search Engine Optimized
tried to include lots of "pepper spray" phrase for the search engine bot, everything is text based, colors, style etc are done with CSS, so very few html tags, tried to put the products on top of the page, very simple html page, with simple header.

Tell me your thoughts about the template,
Best Regards
Brian Dove

SkyCastles

11-02-2004, 12:52 PM

To the person who asked about the prizes. There are 3 prizes of $250. I am buying 3 designs.

SkyCastles

11-02-2004, 01:04 PM

Brian, the text following and surrounding the links on the original page was quite deliberate. Google favors pages with extensive text. Google most often hates links that are part of any kind of <ul> type tag.

We have proof that they don't count these links as well for backward links, even internally.

The girl is a little hard to see against the black background. The white text a little hard to read against the lavender. The design is a bit blocky (too many rectangles.

I would like to see some irregular shapes and broken straight edges.

You also don't want to overuse pepper spray either.

These are my first thoughts.

Ken

V + E + R + T

11-02-2004, 03:43 PM

Here is my entry: Click here to view. (http://www.mcdowgill.com/do/azpepper.htm)

In regards to the usability concerns, I went with a simplistic approach by using very minimal images, but livening it up with the feminine color scheme and a few aesthetic elements. I tried to implement a more direct means of allowing the visitor to choose their pepper spray product by having the navigation at the top and taking up the most real estate.

Let me know what you think, thanks. :)

SkyCastles

11-02-2004, 04:07 PM

So far the first two designs have tried to simplfy the page by removing the text. What I am trying to express here is that we are selling situations and not products. We will need to more text for each of the links to do this.

We could probably get away with the simplified versions that both Brian and V+e+r+t have designed for the Protecting Yourself and Self Defense Spray Items, but for the personal defense situations we are going to need more text to set the right mood here.

Plus Google loves text. For Google the more the merrier.

Lets see if we can do less streamlining and more old fashioned story telling designs.

I love the way you are setting good color moods. See if you can help me a little on having a place to set the situations.

I am happy with the enthusism you are exhibiting so far.

Club69Clothing

11-02-2004, 11:10 PM

Hi,

Here is my initial idea. It is very lightweight and can be done with only 6 images plus the logo. An additional graphic/photo can be easily placed in the left bar area if needed.

http://blurpoint.com/atoz.gif

Thanks,
Cary

Squad

11-03-2004, 06:58 AM

Hello, choose me as a winner, or i'll spray again! :)
Non graphicaly aproach, easy to navigate i hope.

Looking fw for your feed-back.

Thanks.

heathersmith

11-03-2004, 12:08 PM

edit

V + E + R + T

11-03-2004, 01:18 PM

[edit]

V + E + R + T

11-03-2004, 01:20 PM

Here's my revised entry with the spider food (a.k.a content text) included. ;)

http://www.mcdowgill.com/do/azpepper2.jpg

I tried to keep everything above or close to the fold-- To obviously minimize the long scrolling that is associated with lots of text.

SkyCastles

11-03-2004, 06:49 PM

Club69Clothing

Hi Cary,

A nice use of space. My fault here for not mentioning that a lot of those things that you have so thoughtfully featured at the top actually belonged at the bottom.

1. The "Buy Pepper Spray" link actually goes to the website site map. We hate the phrase "site map" and it's really just for the search engines anyway. I guess we should just call it "site map" and avoid the confusion.

2. The "Policies" link. Useful information but no barn burner excitement.

3. The "Who's Featuring Us" link. Well this one is a nice way of saying "Who has made us give them back a reciprocal link". Once again we detest the link phrase "links". Although it sounds like an important place to go, we would rather not send our traffic there if we don't have to.

4. And then there is "Home". Well I guess they probably could have figured that out if we hadn't told them. On this page the button is a little bit redundant as there would be no place for them to go if the clicked it. On a lot of our other websites we try to avoid the phrase "home." When you have a text link that says home you are actually competing with all of the real estate websites, NASA, Microsoft, and some others. The text link determines the linke reputation of your home page. Maybe "Defense Sprays Main Menu" might work or something similar. A lot longer I know, but the search engines will like it better.

5. I like that we have a little open space underneath the opt-in box. In reality it takes a lot more text then "Sign up for Free Home Protection Course" to convince someone to give up there email address. On the page that you modeled I didn't have much text, but that was a mistake on my part. We should plan to have a small paragraph here that will tell the subscriber what they are actually getting as a benefit that is worth taking a chance of losing a little more of their privacy. Maybe a place for some text also under the "Subscribe Button" for the statement of "We never sell or release your email address to any 3rd parties." Read our privacy policy here." I know this gets wordy, but it does make a difference.

6. I will have to trust you on your color choices, as I am not a female. The gray color looks very professional, but I wonder if it will cast a gloomy feeling on a gloomy sort of product. Your call as I am definitely not an expert on figuring out what women like or don't like.

Overall I like the design, a tad boxy, but clean. If you could find a way to add an odd shape here or there I wouldn't complain. Maybe you could do something with your three colored boxes. Just a thought.

SkyCastles

11-03-2004, 07:18 PM

Hi Squad,

Thank you for participating. I appreciate that you weren't afraid to go for a scrolling page. They say so long as there is something interesting, a vistor will keep scrolling.

1. About the colors, well my wife was standing behind me and made some comment about it looking institutional. She called that a hospital green. The font is an interesting choice also. It kind of reminds me of the style used for the credits in the old horror films.

2. Things I like that you did is used the left column in sort of an AdSense kind of way. Believe it or not, but the left column has the second highest click-through rate except for the use of inline ads, which the center of your page kind of looks like.

3. In some website usability studies I have read they say that continous dotted or dashed lines across a page create natural stops, and often keep visitors from scolling past them. According to the the study they say that visitors feel compelled to stop whenever their is a breaking line. I guess it kind of like not stepping on the cracks in sidewalk.

4. I like that you incorporated some small graphics of the products. I like the open hand with the pepper spray and the hand with the finger on the pepper spray button. What I like best is that they appear as irregular shapes on the page and add interest. Is there a way for you to add more irregular shapes to this design and keep it from appearing to be on such a grid pattern.

Even though my critique may seem harsh, I would definitely like to see a second version from you. I need an alternate approach with a least one scrolling web page version. You were the first to take this vantage.

Thanks again for participating.

Club69Clothing

11-03-2004, 07:43 PM

Originally posted by SkyCastles
Club69Clothing

Hi Cary,

A nice use of space....

Hi,

Thanks for the feedback. I will work on revisions tonight and tomorrow for you.

Regards,
Cary

SkyCastles

11-03-2004, 07:50 PM

Hello HeatherSmith,

Before I make my comments about your design, I want to leave a message to all of the designers that I appreciate it when designers defend their designs and tell me when they believe me to be wrong about something.

I am definitely not a professional designer although I have been making websites steadily since 1993. I am more of mechanic though, and never to be trusted with a paint brush.

Ok, I know this might seem mean, but did you just come from doing your laundry with a box of Tide, or are you suffering from post Halloween candy let down when you when you decided on these colors? ;-)

Actually the color scheme does go together nicely, but I just can't get the image of a Tide Soap box out of my mind.

1. Here is what I like. I like that you went with blue link text. Blue has always signified something that is clickable. Actually that is blue text with underscores. I miss the underscores for the link text. When visitors don't see the underlines then they are unsure that it is a link. I don't think we want to make them guess.

2. The logo is a little to super hero Kazaam it think for our femine audience. I do give you the points for breaking out of the rectangle way of thinking. I would have once again like to see more interesting shapes other than parallel lines.

3. Your color selections shows you have an eye for color elements. The right things on the page stood out, and the other elments took the appropriate levels of importance. I like your use of the left column.

4. Let it be known that I am not a fan of gradient bleeds. They never come off on a web page as well as they do in graphic images. I do like clever shadowing that lifts and gives depth to a web page.

I hope you continue and give me a second design.

SkyCastles

11-03-2004, 08:14 PM

There is something that I need to tell te designers about this project that I failed to mention in the beginning. If this contest seems a bit peculiar, that's because it is.

The prize money is real, and I am really buying three differerent designs here. It's the reason that might come as a small surprise.

What I am doing right now is testing the Design Outpost system. The A to Z Pepper Spray website is actually a test website. Although we would like it to make money, it's reason for being is to teach Internet marketing concepts. In this case we are teaching and testing website template split-testing.

The surprise is that we are also testing the Design Outpost system as a viable source to get competitive designs in a short period of time. There are literally 100s of website owners following the progress of this test at http://www.internetmarketinglaboratories.com and at http://www.lifetips.com.

About two weeks ago we interviewed Palmer about using his service to do this kind of work. Hundreds of website owners have listened to that interview and are now watching to see if this test is a success or not.

I have used this service once before to have a design made and I was happy with the result even though the client chose a lesser performing design that he thought was prettier. He foolishly went company image over profits. Only time will tell if he made the right choice.

The Internet is changing and website owners are wising up to the fact that pretty websites do not always cut it on the Internet. We are rapidly teaching website owners to split-test their designs and to choose designs that sell products over ones that are pleasing to the eye.

At first I wasn't going to say anything, but then after thinking about Heathersmiths average design, I thought I should clue you in that your future clients are watching and this is a good time to show your best work. Design Outpost along with tons more websites sell a lot of really nice $56 dollar templates. I told the world that they could get something better at Design Outpost. And now they are making me prove it with this test.

Thank you for your participation and I welcome your comments.

SkyCastles

11-03-2004, 08:31 PM

Jeffrey,

I am enjoying your work so far. You have not disappointed me in the slightest.

A couple of small comments, and a couple of particular challenges.

First, you are now the front runner for having the first accepted design out of three. Second, if you do win one of the three spots, it doesn't mean you can't come back and compete for the other two. The only rule is that you would have to come up with something entirely different. By reading my other comments you will be able to tell something other directions I am interested in. Thrid the name of the company is "A to Z Pepper Spray".

Now here are two challenges. First challenge is that the design is crying out for some sort of illustration or photo in this design. Where I am not sure, because it is so clean so far.

The second challenge is that the opt-in box is important to us. Only about 2 to 3 percent of visitors purchase right away. It is important to us to get the email addresses of the other 98% so we can try them on another day and see if we can get them back.

With the opt-in box on the bottom, I am concerned that our opt-in rate will be very low. Do you think you can do anything about these challenges. I am not quite so worried that the visitor might have to vertically scroll a little and I am not saying that the art would necessarily have to be above the fold either.

I would love to hear or see your thoughts on this. Thank you for participating, you are doing a great job.

Ken

BrianDove

11-04-2004, 01:19 AM

Another entry from me :)
Brian

Squad

11-04-2004, 02:29 AM

Hello,
here is another variation. i'll be out for the next 3 days, so i think another version (if you will require it) will come up monday. May come tomorrow, depends on how fast you come up with the feed-back.

All the compliments to your wife.

V + E + R + T

11-04-2004, 05:42 PM

... Looks better on the white bground. :D

V + E + R + T

11-04-2004, 05:47 PM

Here is the revised entry:

http://www.mcdowgill.com/do/pepper3.jpg

I was thinking perhaps that the top opt-in mailing form could "float" according to where the user scrolls (e.g. http://dhtml-menu.com/menu-demos/demo657.html). Could be somewhat of an annoyance though.

Let me know what you think, and if I worked the design correctly according to your requests. :)

SkyCastles

11-04-2004, 06:59 PM

Designers, great job.

Three of you are ready to go onto the detail page. Remember this is a two page deal. Here is the page to base your designs on: http://www.atozpepperspray.com/pepper-spray-pen.shtml

As you see this website will have long text associated with each product. We will need consistency with the product purchase block. Each detail page should retain the opt-in section for gathering email addresses.

I would like to see the product pictures not lay flat on the page. We will keep the product pictures the same dimensions, but we don't necessarily want to have to do a photo treatment to every picture. The product order section will need to be consistent.

The three designers that are ready to go on to phase two potential designs are:

1: Brian Dove
2: Squad
3: V+E+R+T

I would still like to see another front page version out of Club69Clothing and HeatherSmith.

Thanks hanging in there. If the winners like, I will tell you how your designs do in the real world after we start testing them. If I was a designer, I think it would be fun to know how my design did as compared to the guys I was competing with.

I look forward to seeing your detail pages.

Ken

SkyCastles

11-04-2004, 07:14 PM

You did a great job with your next design. I have seen the floating boxes before and they can be quite annoying. I think the direction we will go is try it straight, then add audio and then a 160x160 video clip.

Thanks for playing.

Club69Clothing

11-05-2004, 05:30 PM

Hi Ken,

Here is my revised template with full content, but still maintaining a very clean look:

http://blurpoint.com/atoz2.gif

Thanks,
Cary

DesignGeneral

11-05-2004, 05:52 PM

I can have something here if isn't too late :)

Let me know.

Cheers,

Adrian

SkyCastles

11-06-2004, 07:37 AM

Adrian,

Jump right in. Read all the previous posts and do not dally. Most of the designers are moving on to page two. I would still love to have you. Nothing's over until the Fat Lady Sings.

Ken

SkyCastles

11-06-2004, 07:41 AM

Cary,

Go ahead and start on your page 2 detail page design. I am keeping an open mind on this. Eventually the visitor will decide the ultimate outcome.

That's the great thing about split-testing designs. My opinion really counts for very little. The Internet visitor votes with every mouse click as to what is good and what isn't. It's a marvelous thing once you can let go of your own ego.

Ken

DesignGeneral

11-07-2004, 03:19 PM

Thanks Ken,

I'll have my entry tomorrow.

Cheers,

Adrian

V + E + R + T

11-07-2004, 04:25 PM

Here is the product detail page:

http://www.mcdowgill.com/do/pepper-inside.jpg

SkyCastles

11-08-2004, 07:08 AM

The design looks clean and consistent, but 48% of the market are still looking at web pages in 800 x 600 mode and I think this design pushes the main copy too far down the screen and will appear below the fold.

It is the web copy that sells the products. I don't think we can afford to hide it out of sight.

Ken

BrianDove

11-08-2004, 11:44 AM

here is my second page try :)
Rgds
Brian Dove

SkyCastles

11-08-2004, 01:27 PM

Brian,

Very creative second page. I was a little unclear on how to exactly buy one of those products within your design. I think you will need to clear up the purchasing steps a little bit. I personally know how it works, but as a visitor I think I would have been a little unclear about the whole process.

A note to all designers: All designs will have to work nicely within an 800 x 600 screen resolution browser window.

It is also alright to try a left side or right side column sales area.

Ken

Squad

11-09-2004, 08:34 AM

Hello, you can see the template HERE (http://www.squadmedia.com/do/pepper/product.jpg)

I kept the 2 columns layout because of 2 reasons:
- to keep the consistency of design
- people don't read long line paragraphs. (i know the theory says 50-60 chars per line is ok)

I added some small text on the left to make it more persuasive, and to reduce the hight of the page.

I added on the bottom the box with product because people will read and probably will be more convinced to pay after they read the text, not before.

And i added the copyrigth because i saw everyone put it on the bottom (this was a silly joke).

Thanks.

BrianDove

11-09-2004, 09:24 AM

Ok, here something a bit different I was thinking of :)

Feedback will be welcomed :P
Brian Dove

DesignGeneral

11-09-2004, 01:15 PM

Hi Ken,

Here is my entry :)

http://www.designgeneral.com//DO/pepperspray/

Cheers,

Adrian

SkyCastles

11-09-2004, 08:12 PM

Brian,

Your design looks good. My only comment is that you have the same problem that VERT originally had. Since they have to pick one of the three or maybe four colors, your shopping cart design won't work and the visitor won't understand what they have to do. Try to look around and see if something doesn't inspire you as to how you might solve this problem or come up with something totally original and awe inspiring.

Work out this little problem and there is probably a place for you in this contest. Go back to http://www.atozpepperspray.com/pepper-spray-pen.shtml and see how this works in real life.

=====================

Squad,

You're done. Start planning out your HTML final. Congratulations you are the first of the three designs to be selected.

=====================

V+E+R+T,

I am just waiting to have you make a vertical readjustment so that we don't force the copy too far down. I hope too hear back from you.

=====================

DesignGeneral,

Well your first design was a little plain Jane. Brian and Vert have a good headstart jump on you here. They still have to fix a minor problem each, but if they do they will be players 2 and 3. You can still play. Who knows, if I see a fourth design that knocks my socks off I might buy that one too, or not. Your choice if you still want to play.

I guess you can keep monitoring here and see if we hear back from Brian and VERT. I appreciate you coming in on a late start.

=====================

Ken

Squad

11-09-2004, 10:40 PM

Thanks!
Good news to start a very rainy day.
HTML is on his way.

Club69Clothing

11-09-2004, 10:51 PM

Hi,

Here is page 2:

http://blurpoint.com/atoz-page2.gif

Thanks,
Cary

SkyCastles

11-09-2004, 11:12 PM

Nice job! Now you are going to make this a hard decision for the last two spots. You are definitely in the running here. I will wait for Brian and VERT before making a final decision.

DesignGeneral

11-10-2004, 02:20 AM

Hi Ken,

Thanks for your feedback. You are right, it was kinda plain. I realised last night but I was too tired to play with it.

What do you think about this?

Left aligned.

http://www.designgeneral.com//DO/pepperspray/index2.htm

Center aligned

http://www.designgeneral.com//DO/pepperspray/index3.htm

Cheers,

Adrian

V + E + R + T

11-10-2004, 03:03 AM

V+E+R+T,

I am just waiting to have you make a vertical readjustment so that we don't force the copy too far down. I hope too hear back from you.

Will be posting the revision later this afternoon. Thanks for your patience. :)

BrianDove

11-10-2004, 05:44 AM

Ok,

Working on a new design now :smirk:

Best Regards
Brian

Club69Clothing

11-10-2004, 06:00 AM

Originally posted by SkyCastles
Nice job! Now you are going to make this a hard decision for the last two spots. You are definitely in the running here. I will wait for Brian and VERT before making a final decision.

Thanks...glad you like it :)

BrianDove

11-10-2004, 07:34 AM

Here is my new entry. Because each image is a bit big together, here is a screenshot of both, and you can view the complete real size template on my server:

Front Page: http://brianstudio.com/monreve/front_page.jpg

Interior Page: http://brianstudio.com/monreve/interior.jpg

Note: Templates optimized for 800x600, you might see the scroll bar on the templates above, this is due to the margin.

I tried to keep it simple, and played a bit with the contrast for a cleaner page.

Hope I'm nearer to your expectations,

Brian Dove

V + E + R + T

11-10-2004, 12:32 PM

Here's the revised layout with a nice chunk of pixels cut out from the vertical height:

http://www.mcdowgill.com/do/pepper-inside2.jpg

SkyCastles

11-10-2004, 09:16 PM

I want to thank eveyone for playing.

I am picking Brian Dove and VERT as the last two winners. You may now contact Palmer and go into immediate HTML production.

I want to make sure every one writes exceptionally clean HTML code.

A special note for Club69Clothing.
========================
I liked your design ever bit as much as the two I just chose. I chose them because they were a bit quicker, not better.

I put out a a special offer to you that is a little bit unusual. If you would be willing to give your design in HTML for testing against the other 3 designs that I purchased, and if your design beats theirs, I would be happy to give you at least as much as I paid the 3 winners.

This means a little risk on your part. At the very least I will give you the statistics of how your design did against theirs so that in the future you will be able to design better templates that convert better which will mean more money in your pocket.

As a bonus, I will give you a two month membership in my very private membership website where the members pay $300 a month to receive this kind of information from me.

Your choice, I will respect any decision you make. I want to thank you for participating.

Sincerely,

Ken Giddens

Club69Clothing

11-10-2004, 09:22 PM

Originally posted by SkyCastles

A special note for Club69Clothing.
========================
I liked your design ever bit as much as the two I just chose. I chose them because they were a bit quicker, not better.

Hi Ken,

Can you tell me what you mean by quicker? I'm not sure I understand.

Thanks,
Cary

BrianDove

11-11-2004, 04:58 AM

Ok, I have done the HTML pages. I did some modifications for a simpler HTML code.

Pages are about 80% formatted by CSS ( colors, background, paddings, links, hover colors, text indent etc... ).

Obviously, some changes need to be done, add the meta keywords for exemple.
( If there are any errors, please tell me, I'll try my best to repair it asap. )

I tried my best for a fast loading template, and also tried my best for a good search engine optimization :blush: (names of images, headings for important "key" words, clean/short html with the help of CSS, not many html tags, you can check the code. There are only 2 images that loads, and about 4 as backgrounds, not many images at all :yes: .

Anyways, here we go :P

Front Page: http://brianstudio.com/portfolio/clients/atozpepperspray

Interior Page: http://brianstudio.com/portfolio/clients/atozpepperspray/interior.htm

Hope to get some feedback, and we can get this rolling !

Best Regards,

Brian Dove