VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

Fran McClellan · Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2015 8:42 am Post subject: Old vs. New (yep, another one)

Hi Everyone!

I had been debating whether or not to take my web design and maintenance back in-house for awhile and finally decided it's time. Nothing against my current web designer at all. I've just missed having control over my own site for the past 2.5 years and it's high time for a change Smile

I'd love some input, if you've got the time to take a look! I'm hoping the changes I've made are an improvement and not a "downgrade"

The current site is http://fmvoiceovers.com

The new one I'm about to "release" is http://fran-mcclellan.squarespace.com (the other domain will eventually replace this one).

Please keep in mind that the colors on the Voicezam player will change once the move has been made (can't do it yet since it will affect the look of the live site).

Thanks in advance!
Fran
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Bish · Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2015 10:34 am Post subject:

Fired up the old one... it's cute & I like it (if somewhat basic). I'm not sure if the animation would get old or not though.
Fired up the new one... It made me smile. I like the video matrix and you know I'm a user of VoiceZam... so I like that. I think it works well and speaks to who you are.
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bobsouer · Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2015 1:26 pm Post subject:

Fran,

I really like the look of your new site.
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Fran McClellan · Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2015 2:16 pm Post subject:

Thank you both so much! I've looked at both sites so much that I've lost all objectivity, so it helps to get some outside opinions Smile

. I've gotten some feedback about moving my contact info up toward the top, so I may play with that a bit.
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Back into the murky lurk from whence I came
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"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." - John Lennon

juliaknippen · Club 300 Joined: 25 Nov 2012 Posts: 348 Location: NYC

Fran, I love the new site. The header image made me smile instantly Smile

I agree with moving the contact info up to the top - maybe into the header area? I also really like the look of the vimeo video gallery. Have you thought about showing a brand or title for each video? It might be helpful if a prospective client is looking for a certain product type sound (if that's even a thing).

Great job!
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Her Voice Will Grow on You

Bish · Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2015 3:50 pm Post subject:

Fran, I don't know if you know it, but you can set your Vimeo videos to have a particular frame as the title frame. For example, in video #2, rather than a generic picture of a computer screen, you can select the frame that shows "WeLiveSecurity" as the placeholder. Likewise with #5, you could select a screen that says "Ironward" or "The Red Solstice".

Drop me a note if you want any help with it...
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Smoke me a kipper... I'll be back for breakfast.
I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls.

Lance Blair · M&M Joined: 03 Jun 2007 Posts: 2281 Location: Atlanta

Love, love, love the new site!

I was trying to get the Vimeo gallery to work on my site, but it would open up in Vimeo on the same tab. Got to figure that out.

Congrats!
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and now, http://lanceblairvo.com the blog is there now too!

Fran McClellan · Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2015 8:54 pm Post subject:

Thanks, Julia (and for your help on FB as well!). I thought I could program the titles in Squarespace, but it looks like that option is only for images, not videos Undecided

. I will check it out on Vimeo and YouTube in the AM and I may take you up on your generous offer of help, Peter Smile

. Thanks again!

Lance, thank you Smile

. What are you using to build the site?
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Back into the murky lurk from whence I came
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"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." - John Lennon

Lance Blair · M&M Joined: 03 Jun 2007 Posts: 2281 Location: Atlanta

You're welcome! Smile

I'm using a self-hosted wordpress site with the free Exclamation

'Make' theme. I'm going to purchase the fully customizable theme in February, but I wanted to see how much I could get out of the free theme first.
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Skype: globalvoiceover
and now, http://lanceblairvo.com the blog is there now too!

Jason Huggins · Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2015 10:08 pm Post subject:

Love the new site! Great match for who you are!

Monk · Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2015 7:53 am Post subject:

I'll toss in my vote for the new site as well!
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Fran McClellan · Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2015 8:41 am Post subject:

Thanks guys! I took your advice, Peter, and changed the thumbnails. Julia, I also moved up the contact info, but still couldn't figure out how to get the titles to show up (you can do it on the images, but not video for some reason Undecided

). Still tinkering with it (which is one of the cons of me doing it myself...I will never be satisfied with it...lol!). Thank you all for checking it out and your suggestions!
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Back into the murky lurk from whence I came
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"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." - John Lennon

kevinpowe · Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2015 6:19 pm Post subject:

Hi Fran - love the site! This feedback is only me racking my brain for possible tweaks:

Consider putting the social media icons with the email & phone number - that way, all of the ways to find you are grouped. Although I do get that the phone & email are the primary contact points for clients. I didn't know about the 'tel:' URL - I've learned something today!

Also maybe link the font used in the header for "Relax, I got this" to the same as what's used in your logo, to tie them together? Or if you stay with the same font, maybe use bold - on tablets or phones if the layout puts some of the text over the white flower (which is what's happening on my screen) it may be hard to read.

Hope that's helpful.
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Fran McClellan · Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2015 8:22 am Post subject:

Thanks, Kevin! I've been meaning to play around with the font a little more on that header line. On mobile, it does look like it's fading into the background a bit. I do like it on the desktop site though so hopefully I can find a happy medium Smile

. I'll be trying some different things with the social media icons as well. For some reason they don't show up on older versions of Safari.

It's live on the main domain now (yay!)...so I'll have to restrain myself from making any more huge changes Laugh

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Back into the murky lurk from whence I came
--
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." - John Lennon