What makes a good project website?

[Matt]

I'm getting ready to do a new personal website, and naturally the project camaro will be part of it. Just looking for some ideas on what you guys like to see on a project site.

[DarkBuddha]

Ok, assuming your not asking for opinions regarding careful choices of fonts, coloring, formatting, maintaining "brand recognition", etc., the one thing that makes me love a good project site is lots and lots of really good professional looking pictures and clear documentation about what has been done to the car, especially stuff you did yourself or is unique. Make sure the pics aren't too big and will load decently, even at 56k... no more than 5-8 seconds each at 56k is excellent and will be fast as hell on highspeed. Oh, and if the picture ain't cool, then it'd better be in there to illustrate something technical.

Oh, and I like a site that is easily navigable and the basic menu is on every page (meaning stuff like home, tech, links, etc...).

Hope this helps...

[nancejd]

I like sites that use thumbnails rather than loading the whole large picture, keeps loading times down. I also don't like sites that use a lot of fancy java, flash, etc. I run my machine on high security, so most of that stuff doesn't work, and I just move on.

[Martin71RS]

I like lots of info and pics, also tell about things you expierience, not just basic tech.
Pics should be max 100kb size for speed, anything higher will not give a much better pic on a screen anyways.
Be sure to make the page easy to navigate.
(I feel the same on too much flash and moving stuff....not easy to watch)

Feel free to have a look at my page and see what my interpretation of a good page is.

www.pro-touring.nl

(but I am biased)

Martin

[Matt]

I was talking more about content, I'm pretty well versed in web design, standards, and all that. Thank you for the input though, I just want something that isn't like the typical 'car domain' page, ya know.

[derekf]

"Good project website" is pretty subjective - some folks think their Car Domain page is the end-all be-all of websites, some folks spend hours writing HTML code in Notepad.

The best bet is for you to take a look around at the other project websites out there and decide which ones you like and which you don't (and see if you can't tell why), and use that as a starting point.

For me, I've got a few things off the top of my head:
1. Ease of seeing how recently the page has been updated, and preferably show me dates of the updates so I can go to the ones I haven't seen before.
2. No flash, animation, sound, etc. One of my machines at home doesn't have Flash (intentionally) so I may or may not be able to see it anyway.
3. Details - don't just tell me you've got product X, show me the installation.
4. No banner ads and definitely no popups.
5. Not so worried about pic size - I'm highspeed at home and at work so it's vaguely fast anyway, but pics need to be good enough that I can see what you're talking about. Thumbnails are still better so the pic doesn't interfere with reading.
6. If you did something out of the ordinary, don't just show/tell what you did - show/tell why you did it.
7. Spellcheck - if it's hard to read, I won't even try.
8. Frequency of updates... if you update once every few months, I'm less likely to come back and look than if you do smaller updates 2 or 3 times (or more) a month.
9. It's got to be a car I like - even if it were the ultimate car project page, I wouldn't spend much time on a page devoted to restoring a Yugo to showroom condition.

Hope this helps.

[Nine Ball]

I agree with all the points listed above.

User interface probably being the highest priority. Have the links in a logical order and keep them visible.

You can never have too many photos, just make them thumbnails so they load quickly and visitors can click on the ones they wish.

Here is mine: www.ExtremeG.net

[Steve1968LS2]

I agree.. keep it simple and THUMBNAILS.. also have it organized in sections..

I like to think mine is pretty well laid out

[Piet]

Navigation, Navigation...... Oh and Navigation. and Simple please.
Use thumbnails for the bandwidth impaired. Group in logical sections (Engine, exterior, interior, suspension, etc....)

One I like is from a guy on a corvette forum I am on... http://www.67HEAVEN.com
Lots of pictures... set out in a book format. (Chapters....) Well organized.

Good luck!

[Zefhix]

I pondered this alot before building mine and decided simple is better so it's a simple as they get. I don't have all my pics updated but they are small thumbs so viewing them is your choice and I'm not imposing anything. Also, I went for a amatuer flash intro to get people a little excited about the car although it does take a little long to load but I won't change it or get rid of it until I have an actual movie of the car.
www.zefhix.com

Camcojb's (Jody) website was one of my big reasons for doing so.

[Steve1968LS2]

Navigation, Navigation...... Oh and Navigation. and Simple please.
Use thumbnails for the bandwidth impaired. Group in logical sections (Engine, exterior, interior, suspension, etc....)

Hey.. that sounds like my site ;)

[boodlefoof]

I've tried to put my site together with as much info on "how to" projects as possible and have pictures for those projects when possible (i.e., since I got my digital camera). I personally enjoy seeing websites which give detailed writeups of how the owner did certain things to the car... makes it easier for the next guy to do it without as much frustration.