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Okay, not sure if this should go here, or over in P&M... Or even on Dakka at all.

Anywho, I've finally pulled my finger out and updated my website. Please take a look at

http://www.winterdyne.com/

I'm not looking for feedback on pricing / paintwork, but I am looking for feedback on layout, and how the site flows, does it give enough information, that sort of thing.

Cheers all. :-)

The only thing I'd say is you repeat yourself slightly on the intro page and in the services and pricing section, and either the choice of thumbnail size on the gallery page is way too small, or there's an issue viewing the gallery on a mobile device (I'm on my iPad.)

The thumbnails on that image are the same small size on desktop Chrome as well. They also seemed somewhat slow to fill in, with lots of white boxes hanging out for about 7-8 seconds or so before they were all populated. Initially I thought it was just a derpy mobile device, but the behavior persisted on the desktop as well. I'm also not a big fan of the duplicated banner image from the landing page being near-identical to the pricing page. I would also personally prefer if each of those models was their own borderless image so you have the same overall effect on the page, but clicking on a model gives a bigger view of just that particular model rather than the entire set.

On the Gallery I'd recommend adding some section separators for each class of general showcase such as "Diorama" or "Unit" or "Character" and the like so prospective clients can see examples of the particular kind of work they want to get done more quickly. Also if you mirrored more in-depth galleries for each category on Facebook and you linked the separators to there that again would probably get prospective clients the information faster.

With the landing page there might be a typo with "why not checkout our Facebook" at the bottom; that might be correct UK English so I'm not sure, but in US English there would typically be the a space between the words as "checkout" is something you do in a store when you're buying your goods while you "check out" a thing that seems interesting. Could be down to dialect though, and if so the UK version would be the one to go with for obvious reasons.

Outside of that, decent website. Not the flashiest, but it gets the job done.

Good feedback! Alas the thumbnail size is something I can't do much about as it's part of the flash widget for the gallery. Other stuff I can definitely sort though!

Tweaked the gallery to a simple html one rather than flash. Is this better?

The gallery size is good now, I like it. It's a good mid-spot and I can click in if I want a bigger picture. I would recommend more breakdowns though, to include by model range and army. I also recommend splitting each of those categories into a separate page (like how battlefoam has their menus set up, or how your FB albums are).

I'd encourage, as much as a pain this is, you to continually sync your FB albums and your site. Otherwise I'd recommend just linking to FB for pictures. Looking at your website I go "eh, he's done some stuff, that's cool but I don't know that I want to do a commission", and it doesn't sell me on your breadth. On your FB page, however, I go "wow, he's done a lot!" (I also know you have done a lot since you post regularly on Dakka).

As a note, I've seen plenty of your work on here and would be perfectly content to have an army painted by you. I'm looking at the site through my "new customer without familiarity with your work" lens, which I apply any time I look at commission painter sites in those moments I contemplate commissioning work, then decide I want to be able to say I painted my own stuff.

Gallery is much better.

It doesn't resize well on mobile. The subheader text spills over onto a second line unattractively.

The services & pricing page could use a little more visual interest. The image on that page is the same image as the home page, but a different size, so it's jarring. None of the other pages have the same image, so I'd suggest making a totally separate image for the S&P page.

if you're using a capatcha here

http://www.winterdyne.com/contact-us-disclaimers/

you probably need an audio option for those with vision issues

also I'm pretty sure your paypal surcharge policy breaks their T&C since you're not surcharging for bank transfers

from the user agreement

You agree that you will only surcharge for the use of PayPal in compliance with any law applicable to you and not in excess of the surcharges that you apply for the use of other payment methods

and also from the (US agreement... can't find it in the generic UK one but it might be there its not searching for me at the moment)

No surcharges

You agree that you will not impose a surcharge or any other fee for accepting PayPal as a payment method. You may charge a handling fee in connection with the sale of goods or services as long as the handling fee does not operate as a surcharge and is not higher than the handling fee you charge for non-PayPal transactions.

Non discouragement

In representations to your customers or in public communications, you agree not to mischaracterize PayPal as a payment method. At all of your points of sale (in whatever form), you agree not to try to dissuade or inhibit your customers from using PayPal; and, if you enable your customers to pay you with PayPal, you agree to treat PayPal’s payment mark at least at par with other payment methods offered.)



and on the plus side the site looks good

and the gallery is working ok on IE and chrome, showing 3 images per line not the loads shown on Azreal13

All good points, thanks very much. I'm literally on the train down to salute now so fixes will probably have to wait till I'm back! Fixed the PayPal thing. It's an arse as the fees on PayPal are extortionate when it comes to large payments.

Have fun

Would he be able to instead do a discount for direct bank transfer?

I can't see anything in the text Orlando quoted that would prevent that, but the issue would be in order to achieve the same effect as a Paypal surcharge he'd have to raise all of his pricing to the net cost of his price + PayPal fees, otherwise he's paying fees on his current price if the customer chooses PayPal, then discounting his price for those that choose bank transfer. The overall effect being he cuts his income by ~9%.

or just say the preferred method is bank transfer, if you want to use an alternative method email to discuss it

its having it out there in public that's the issue as it clearly part of the business operation,

if it's only in private emails it just them doing you a favour behind the scenes (and less likely to be reported by a competitor or somebody else being a jerk)

Aye, best to suck it up through the base pricing. It's the same net effect (covering costs in the quote process), just less transparent.