Taylor's New Website Q&A

[Herb Hunter]

You unintentionally bring up a great point -- if the Taylor website has fallen behind what Martin is offering, there's a problem.

As far as I'm concerned the Taylor website was never ahead of the Martin site. Sure the Martin site is not as flashy but it has always offered more information than the Taylor site and that is all I am looking for from a manufactures website.

I have an opposing view. I much preferred Taylor's old website to that of Martin's. I had no difficulty finding what I needed on the old Taylor site but finding certain Martin pages was so tedious that I finally bookmarked one of the them I needed for occasional reference. I also found the way the information was presented on the old Taylor site was more readable, comprehensible and esthetically pleasing than the style and layout of Martin's website.

[Tammany Tiger]

You unintentionally bring up a great point -- if the Taylor website has fallen behind what Martin is offering, there's a problem.

As far as I'm concerned the Taylor website was never ahead of the Martin site. Sure the Martin site is not as flashy but it has always offered more information than the Taylor site and that is all I am looking for from a manufactures website.

I have an opposing view. I much preferred Taylor's old website to that of Martin's. I had no difficulty finding what I needed on the old Taylor site but finding certain Martin pages was so tedious that I finally bookmarked one of the them I needed for occasional reference. I also found the way the information was presented on the old Taylor site was more readable, comprehensible and esthetically pleasing than the style and layout of Martin's website.

I agree with Herb. The Martin site has always been cumbersome to me and a little overwhelming in the way information is presented. Model specs, for example, are buried in one place and listed by shape with exception after exception for no conforming models of the same shape.

[Shannon McGlathery]

One thought on the dealer feature would be to present a map of the dealers so one could get an idea of the locations of said dealers......

We are working on a dealer and repair center locator with Google maps integration at this very moment. We hope to roll it out soon.

[Shannon McGlathery]

Shannon, with all due respect, what kind of feedback are you expecting on a forum with only a dozen or so members logged in at any given time? Wouldn't it be more productive to solicit feedback from a few hundred of your employees or even on your Facebook page?

That's a very good question.

When you develop a site like this you have to take into account all kinds of users. It needs to work for the total novices who know nothing about guitars but are thinking about starting to play as well as the experts who know our guitars and old website inside and out.

In terms of sheer numbers there are way more of the novices than the experts. But both groups are very important. So it becomes a balancing act to meet the needs of both.

The fans on our Facebook page are generally more in the novice and casual category. We've asked them for website feedback before. We did get some good feedback but we also got a lot of answers involving "free guitars".  Heh heh

The folks who hang out here definitely skew more toward the expert end of the spectrum which is why I started this thread. You'll notice a lot of feedback about guitar specs here. The specs feedback is totally valid but it's something experts care about way more than casual fans.

BTW, we're working on adding more specs.

[Gutch]

Hey Shannon, tell me more about these free guitars...   

[michaelw]

Shannon, with all due respect, what kind of feedback are you expecting on a forum with only a dozen or so members logged in at any given time? Wouldn't it be more productive to solicit feedback from a few hundred of your employees or even on your Facebook page?

That's a very good question.

When you develop a site like this you have to take into account all kinds of users. It needs to work for the total novices who know nothing about guitars but are thinking about starting to play as well as the experts who know our guitars and old website inside and out.

In terms of sheer numbers there are way more of the novices than the experts. But both groups are very important. So it becomes a balancing act to meet the needs of both.

The fans on our Facebook page are generally more in the novice and casual category. We've asked them for website feedback before. We did get some good feedback but we also got a lot of answers involving "free guitars".  Heh heh

The folks who hang out here definitely skew more toward the expert end of the spectrum which is why I started this thread. You'll notice a lot of feedback about guitar specs here. The specs feedback is totally valid but it's something experts care about way more than casual fans.

BTW, we're working on adding more specs.

cool
perhaps the additional specs might be in a 'complete specfications' link,
rather than having it all 'right there', because to someone that is just
starting to look around, something like this could  be a little undaunting, imho

                      specifications

shape                           bracing (pattern, material, width)
type (6/12 string)     finish
back &sides                color options
soundhole rosette      sunburst option
neck                             cutaway
fretboard                   electronics
fretboard inlay          left-handed
headstock overlay      body width
binding (purfling)       body length
bridge                          body depth
nut & saddle                overall length
strings                         string spacing
scale length                tuning machines
truss rod                     pickguard
neck width at nut       case
number of frets          U.S. suggested
fretboard radius         retail price

i like having this kind of detailed info,
but to others it could be a little

[BigSkyTaylorPlayer]

....We did get some good feedback but we also got a lot of answers involving "free guitars".  Heh heh...

What, we get a free guitar for our thoughts......    I'll take a Koa BTO please, oh and if it's not too much trouble you could throw in the new uke if you have one lying around.

Seriously, thanks for soliciting our feedback - we all do love our Taylors here.

[leeasam]

Personally I like the older site better. Always thought it was easy to get around and find what you wanted.  on another forum that seems to be the feeling too.

[Shannon McGlathery]

Personally I like the older site better. Always thought it was easy to get around and find what you wanted.  on another forum that seems to be the feeling too.

Hi leeasam,
Can you be more specific?
Thanks,
Shannon

[Cindy]

Personally I like the older site better. Always thought it was easy to get around and find what you wanted.  on another forum that seems to be the feeling too.

Hi leeasam,
Can you be more specific?
Thanks,
Shannon

I can't speak for leeasam, but the other day I was searching for the burst colors but gave up after coming up empty-handed. The old site was just much easier to navigate...almost intuitively if that makes sense.

[Shannon McGlathery]

Personally I like the older site better. Always thought it was easy to get around and find what you wanted.  on another forum that seems to be the feeling too.

Hi leeasam,
Can you be more specific?
Thanks,
Shannon

I can't speak for leeasam, but the other day I was searching for the burst colors but gave up after coming up empty-handed. The old site was just much easier to navigate...almost intuitively if that makes sense.

Hi Cindy,
Can you elaborate? What were you expecting to find? Where did you think it should be?
There is no wrong or right answer. I'm just curious to know how you think bursts should be on the site.
Thanks,
Shannon

[Ted @ LA Guitar Sales]

Hi Shannon,

I honestly haven't spent that much time on the new site but things like full specs of the guitars seem to be missing and I think customers would want to know what options are available for each model such as different finishes and materials that they can chose from without having to go to another page. I would also think a super duper modern website would have sound clips of the guitars, but I'm sure you will get to all that in time.

BTW, I had my first website built back in 1995 and one thing I noticed was that anytime I made a change it would lower the hit count. People hate change regardless if they admit it or not so you should take some of the comments with a grain of salt. Overall it's an awesome website that I'm sure will keep getting better and better. A big thumbs up for the Taylor staff.

Ted

[Herb Hunter]

I had wanted the newness of the replacement website to wear off before commenting on it but as I think about it now, I'm finding it difficult to describe what characteristics the old site had that made it easy to find whatever information I needed. I suppose it is because the site was intuitive. One could find things naturally without giving it any thought. Of course that virtue made it very frustrating use competitor's websites that were much less intuitive. On the other hand, those sites made me appreciate the old Taylor site even more.


I've been using this page as my default page in order to make it easier for me to find things on the new website:


http://www.taylorguitars.com/guitars/all.

[Ted @ LA Guitar Sales]

I don't think the old site was any more intuitive Herb, I think you were just used to where everything was. Every once in a while Helene will re organize the kitchen cupboard and I will stand there with my hands where the peanut butter used to be asking her where it is now even though it's only two inches from my hand. It's just how the human brain works.

BTW, has anyone seen the new Martin website?

[Herb Hunter]

I don't think the old site was any more intuitive Herb, I think you were just used to where everything was. Every once in a while Helene will re organize the kitchen cupboard and I will stand there with my hands where the peanut butter used to be asking her where it is now even though it's only two inches from my hand. It's just how the human brain works.

BTW, has anyone seen the new Martin website?

That is a possibility I considered which is why I chose to wait awhile before commenting on the new site. I wanted to allow time to familiarize myself with the changes. That I was sensitive to that possibility and gave myself time makes it rather unlikely that I mistook familiarity with intuitiveness. I wonder how I might have given you the impression that I'd be inclined to confuse the two.