Re: Nursery Home Page

Hello Gene,
I'm sorry it took me so long to get back to you; I was poking around to locate a couple of examples of the sort of opaque splash pages I meant. I have seen a few fashion design pages like that recently but couldn't recall a single one. So http://www.burberry.com/ is the best example I could come up with. The front page takes a long time, even on broadband, to load a full-screen image and presents no immediately useful links, just a choice of markets and languages. The subsequent page isn't much better.
Today I clicked on http://www.bbg.org/ and was impressed by the economy, clarity and usefulness of every piece of information on the home page. Two current exhibits are highlighted with images compact enough to load quickly, and the other text links have descriptive subtitles that make them easy to navigate. Address and phone information is at the bottom of every page, as yours is. No gimmicks or gratuitous animations are wanted or needed.
The latest thing seems to be pages with a lot of dissolving images and other things simultaneously in motion. Your current home page is a model of restraint. By the way, my impulse is to click on the exquisite image mid-page and find out what plant it is. I think if you have a picture in the body of your page, it should pay off for the viewer. 

Maria


Hello Maria,
	Can you give me a couple of examples that illustrate your
preferences for web home pages?
	I know that I have personal preferences when surfing, but to be
honest I am not "bothered" to any great extent by differing web sites. If I want to order I figure it out and order. So, since my web site is not about 
me and my preferences, it is for the customer and their use, I am very
interested in your opinions.
	

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-gardenchat@hort.net [o*@hort.net] On Behalf 
Of Maria
Subject: Re: [CHAT] Nursery Home Page

It's sort of like the difference between magazines such as
Architectural Digest, with its  name and little else on the cover, and
Better Homes and Gardens, with all of the callouts giving the reader
specifics about  what's inside. Splash pages with "Enter" buttons annoy
me; I want to see some content immediately when I open a URL, not wait
for a second page to load.

Maria in NE PA




Your site manager likely knows something I don't, but it sounds like
semantic gibberish to me to say you shouldn't have a home page. Your
first page will be your home page no matter what it's called. Which
means how it looks and functions and informs will be how most
customers come to think of you. I agree with you--plainly marked,
easily opened doors.

On Jun 5, 2009, at 3:56 AM, Gene Bush wrote:


Thanks, Jim
	Took a look at both. Was not familiar with Whitman. Never occurred
for me to use PDF. My site manager seems to think there should be no
"portal" or home page as such as it is just another step away from
real
contents. Wants to jump right in...lots of stuff up front. I feel
simplicity
and plainly marked attractive doors to open ... we will see.
	
Munchkin Nursery & Gardens, LLC
www.munchkinnursery.com
Gardener,Writer, Photographer



-----Original Message-----
From: owner-gardenchat@hort.net [o*@hort.net] On
Behalf
Of james singer
Sent: Thursday, June 04, 2009 5:46 PM
To: gardenchat@hort.net
Subject: Re: [CHAT] Nursery Home Page

What Judy said. But I'd add Raintree and Whitman Farm.
Main thing is the sites are easy to navigate, easy to find what you're 
looking for.

What Kitty said about pdf catalogs, I agree... but I understand why
nurseries use them. They seem unaware, however, that in pdf format the 
table of contents rarely matches the file; most annoying.

T

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Inland Jim
Willamette Valley
44.99 N 123.04 W
Elevation 148'
39.9" Precipitation
Hardiness Zone 8/9
Heat Zone 5
Sunset Zone 6
Minimum 0 F [-15 C]
Maximum 102 F [39 C]

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