Xotic PC Website Layout Re-design/Changes

[Justin_W@XoticPC]

Xotic PC is currently considering re-designing our webpage layout. We are looking for feedback on any recommendations that you may have in terms of website layout or easier navigation of the website/products that we offer.

We greatly appreciate any feedback/recommendations you can provide :smile2:

[Zatara214]

Well I noticed that there are links to gaming desktops... not sure why those are there... I mean idk if you guys at Xotic sell desktops or not but the pages are empty :)

I'll take a look around and see what I can find. Although in my personal opinion, especially if most of the people buying here are gamers, you're going to have a lot of moderate to advanced PC users coming through here, so I'd say it's 'simple' enough. Just gotta think of stuff to add if need be.

[Justin_W@XoticPC]

Thanks for your feedback Zatara!

Xotic PC used to build desktop when we started, but have since discontinued them. We did at one time consider getting back into building desktops again, but the laptop market is much more popular. We may remove the "desktop" link if we make the final decision to not offer desktop systems again.

Please let us know of any other recommendations you may have as you navigate the website :)

[robamb2002]

When switching between areas on your website (eg. Laptops/Desktops/Articles...) The top of the page stays pretty much the same for easy navigation, except for the forums page. going from the forums to the articles or support pages can be a little awkward, or atleast its not as intuitive as the rest of the movements on the website. If you could have the header on the forums as well it would be alitlle easier to navigate. If not, then maybe a prominant link to the homepage. Just a thought. :)

[OregonCoastGamer]

Fixing the search function is all I can think of off the top of my head...

[Justin_W@XoticPC]

Thanks for your recommendations robamb2002 (http://www.xoticpcforums.com/member.php?u=5245) & OregonCoastGamer (http://www.xoticpcforums.com/member.php?u=6130). We will look into this and see if we can find a way for easier navigation between the Xotic PC home page and the Xotic PC Forums.


@OCG,

When you say fix the search function, do you mean the search function on Xotic PC's webpage or on the Xotic PC Forums?

[Zatara214]

Well I've been paying more attention to the forums and site itself, and the single thing that I think could be changed is the session length in the forums. I like to keep a tab with the forums open at work, and I'll switch to it maybe once every half hour or so to see what's new. I'm not sure exactly how long the sessions last, but I think it may be around 15 minutes or so. If at all possible, I'd say extend that to a half hour or so... although I don't know if you guys have any control over the forums, because I don't know how vBulletin works. Otherwise, I don't see anything else that affects me in my site experience.

[VirtuaTekken]

I do have one suggestion to something I find rather inconvenient, when I tried to use price match, there's two buttons, "Go Back" and "Continue".

Once I filled in the everything plus comment box, I pressed "Continue" and it went right back to the page I was before (F8Va page), I expected to see something like "Your Price match request have been sent and will respond soon as possible".

So than I thought, maybe I pressed the Go back button, so than I submitted again.

I suggest maybe changing Continue to Submit and having a confirmation page that says the request was sent.

Thought that might help. :)

[Justin_W@XoticPC]

Well I've been paying more attention to the forums and site itself, and the single thing that I think could be changed is the session length in the forums. I like to keep a tab with the forums open at work, and I'll switch to it maybe once every half hour or so to see what's new. I'm not sure exactly how long the sessions last, but I think it may be around 15 minutes or so. If at all possible, I'd say extend that to a half hour or so... although I don't know if you guys have any control over the forums, because I don't know how vBulletin works. Otherwise, I don't see anything else that affects me in my site experience.

When you sign in with your user name and password do you have it setup to remember you or do you enter your information every time?

[Zatara214]

When you sign in with your user name and password do you have it setup to remember you or do you enter your information every time?

I had to reenter it every time until about a week ago when I finally figured out how to get past my work computers firewall and installed Firefox lol. Either way the sessions last maybe 10 - 15 minutes with no activity.

[Justin_W@XoticPC]

When you sign into your account on our forums, there is a little check box next to the login window which stands for "remember me". I've selected that and it never signs me out.

BTW I use Xotic Medieval WOW for my forum theme but, it shouldn't matter which theme your using.

[Zatara214]

When you sign into your account on our forums, there is a little check box next to the login window which stands for "remember me". I've selected that and it never signs me out.

BTW I use Xotic Medieval WOW for my forum theme but, it shouldn't matter which theme your using.

Well I have Firefox set to delete all temp files when it closes, so it wouldn't work permanently. It's a good fix for at work, though, as I never close my browser window. I'll do that, thx.

[-Drifter-]

Is there a compare option that I may be missing? It would be a great feature when looking for a laptop :)

[Justin@XoticPC]

Thank you for all your feedback We are working on a compare feature along with some other things. When looking at the laptops side by side, in your opinion, do you like to scroll horizontal (as it is now) and view all the laptops or have 3 or 4 per row and scroll vertical?

[-Drifter-]

Thank you for all your feedback We are working on a compare feature along with some other things. When looking at the laptops side by side, in your opinion, do you like to scroll horizontal (as it is now) and view all the laptops or have 3 or 4 per row and scroll vertical?

Scrolling Horizontally is a bit of a pain IMO. A suggestion would be to display them as a list with some key features to the right of the image (i.e. processor, GPU, RAM) and allow users to sort by price, and key features.

[kzap]

you shouldnt consider a redesign of the xoticpc.com website
just do it, it needs one badly
and reprogram it or organize it properly
it seems like it was built on a open source CMS.
things need to be cleaned up greatly
streamline the interface

dell, hp, etc dont have websites like that for no reason, theyre easy to use. xoticpc.com is well cluttered. also looks like mash of different scripts as the cart and ticket system dont seem to work together.

I think once you redesign you just need a more organized design and navigation.
You have a lot of old stuff or redundunt pages.
The focus is on the laptops since thats the main business so that should be the main focus of the website.
IMO these forums look a lot better than the website itself.

[kzap]

oh and upgrade vbulletin here before it gets hacked..

[-Drifter-]

Site revamping is starting to look nice :)

Another thought/suggestion:

Replace the Specs / Sale Prices button with the old Customize now since clicking on the image of the laptop already does that.

[sheaiiimef]

I would have the columns on the left roll up under the header until scrolled over or clicked to expand them or put them as drop-downs under the main header area.

When you get it cleaned up a little more you a could also look at adding an RSS feed for gaming, updates on computer components, etc.

I would also like to see a section where Xoticpc owners could post signatures for their websites, or put it in the forum, so that others that are looking at purchasing a system could see how previous customers have configured/painted their computers and what they are using them for. Kind of like a "Look what I did with/to my computer from Xoticpc."

Just my thoughts and Semper Fi.

[-Drifter-]

Another thought: Make the XOTICPC flash logo on the main page a clickable link to bring you to the home page.