Taylor's New Website Q&A

[BigSkyTaylorPlayer]

....BTW, has anyone seen the new Martin website?

Yes, they sure swapped it quick today - I was there this afternoon and went back later and wham - all these changes.  Again, it looks like a work in progress but since the changes are here to stay what can you do.  Maybe they are consulting the UMGF...as it's slow, slow, slow.....

Signed, old cronie who doesn't like computers that much but has learned to live with them....

[michaelw]

i feel that the information/specs could  have paralleled the content of
the previous website a bit more initially, which much has now been added &
http://www.taylorguitars.com/guitars/acoustic/614ce

i believe that there is also a point to where the decision has to be made to go live & then make
additions & adjustments from there (it happens in operating systems & other products as well) -
imho, is one thing to allow something that has inherent problems in to be released regardless &
quite another to continue to make improvements based on input from various sources that will
make up the most complete coverage of 'the big picture' as possible, as it constantly changes &
if i recall correctly, this is 5th major revision to Taylor's site (98-00, 01-03, 04-06, 07-11)

perhaps these ideas/suggestions have already been mentioned

having the tool bar at the top on the opening page could
go a long way, imho, in terms of site navigation consistency

a greater number of guitars, albeit with smaller pictures, shown on each page, especially
when the shape or wood search is used, so that there are fewer pages to scroll through
(i.e. GA - perhaps 18 per page & 3 pages, rather than 9 per page & 6 pages)
http://www.taylorguitars.com/guitars/acoustic/shapes/grand-auditorium

having all of the series on one page, rather than the 5 selection
horizontal scroll window (4 clicks to get from one end to the other) -
the baby/big Baby could  be combined & all 24 put on a single page

non-Taylor website content -
i was able to get on Martin new site today & granted the speed in loading was a bit slower
(& i feel that it is more due to the limitations of my laptop & economy ISP), but having the toolbar
at the top, the operation of the mouse-over window & getting to the info works quite well, imho -
the Custom Shop configurator is not up & running yet & i haven't seen a way to directly
compare models, which i can't remember if it was an option on the older site & i've done it
manually in the past with earlier versions of IE, by opening the site in 2 or 3 windows,
getting to the specs & adapting the window sizes to allow them to be viewed side by side

Jim's website, i believe, is currently geared toward the guitars that he sells the most of -
the quality of pics is vastly improved & i especially like the zoom feature allows a hi-res
movable area view, without having to download a huge picture & having to scroll the edges

not to get further away from the Taylor site discussion, but i feel that
this site, in terms of navigation & content, works particularly well -
http://www.daddario.com/DaddarioHome.Page?ActiveID=1740
2-window vertical scroll main page, tool bar & mouse-over window at the top,
2 clicks to get to a specific product, all specs & comparison window are there

ymmv

[Gary0319]

not to get further away from the Taylor site discussion, but i feel that
this site, in terms of navigation & content, works particularly well -
http://www.daddario.com/DaddarioHome.Page?ActiveID=1740
2-window vertical scroll main page, tool bar & mouse-over window at the top,
2 clicks to get to a specific product, all specs & comparison window are there
ymmv

+1.........That's how its done. Taking into account that D'Addario most likely has way more string catagories than Taylor has guitar catagories, this is an amazingly good design. No muss, no fuss. Click on "products" and you get everthing at your fingertips. Don't know what is right for your acoustic, just click on "Acoutsic" and in a few seconds  you can get to the right string for you.

D'Addario's baseline design is clean, and obvously was designed by someone with a good understanding of the D'Addario customer. I fear that the underlying design of the Taylor site may be  flawed and no amount of tweaking is going to bring up to the standard of the D'Addario site.

[DeputyDawg]

I like the new web sight except the electric guitar configuar doesn't work correctly. I can't see the selections and there not a  way to scroll down.

[BigSkyTaylorPlayer]

I was just at the site for 2 reasons - to look at the Taylorware - and to look at the schedule of events for Road Shows and Find your Fit.

I had to wait for the main page to load and scroll down to get to the menu bar - please move that to the top of the page - then I clicked on Events, All Events, and had to scroll thru 5 or 6 pages after waiting for the graphics to load - the lists begin at about the half way mark of the page - to see everything BC there were only about 5 events listed per page.

This was very tedious - is it possible to just present things in a list format, using a line or two for each event and not have to wait for the graphics to load each time?

[Greenheart]

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.

I think Ted might be on to something here. It has now been a few weeks and a dozen or so visits and I'm starting to get used to the new layout, in fact I think I'm getting used to the new site faster than I got used to the old one. Is it possible that the new site might be more intuitive? 

[Jim]

Hi Shannon.

So where did you hide the 2012 List Prices of the guitars?  It used to be on older versions of your website, but I can't find it anywhere on this new one.

Jim

[greg947]

I have been finding list prices at the top of the "specification" list for each guitar.  I always go to Guitars>All Guitars then a particular model. I haven't found a list of all prices in one spot like you might find in the Guitar Guide in "Wood and Steel".

Greg

[Jim]

Thanks, Greg. 

The Taylor website used to have an all of their guitar MSRPs/list prices in one place.  It was a very useful webpage because you could look at everything in your price range all in one place so you could know all of your options that are affordable to you personally of their many guitars.  It did not adversely affect any of their dealers since they were free to give whatever discounts from the official list prices they wished.

If this handy page of all list prices is still on the redesigned webpage I am not able to find it, and I would like to ask how to find it if it is there, or if not to ask that they put it back on their website.

Regards,
Jim

[Shannon McGlathery]

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.

That's great. We specifically developed the "All Guitars" page for powerusers like you so you could easily get to specific guitar models.

Let me ask you, do you feel like "All Guitars" is a good description what the page is?

[Shannon McGlathery]

If this handy page of all list prices is still on the redesigned webpage I am not able to find it, and I would like to ask how to find it if it is there, or if not to ask that they put it back on their website.

Good point. We are going to put up a PDF of our price list. I'm curious, if you were going to the site to download it, where would expect to find it?

Thanks

[Shannon McGlathery]

We added more specs and adjusted the default sorting for the By Shapes, By Woods, By Series and By Category views.

Are there any specs missing you guys are craving?

[Herb Hunter]

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.

That's great. We specifically developed the "All Guitars" page for powerusers like you so you could easily get to specific guitar models.

Let me ask you, do you feel like "All Guitars" is a good description what the page is?

I think, All Current Guitars, would be a good description. Without the, current, qualifier; one might expect to find discontinued models like the Liberty Tree Guitar, the Cujo Guitar, the Pallet Guitar or the Turtle Guitar in addition to the current models.

[Shannon McGlathery]

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.

That's great. We specifically developed the "All Guitars" page for powerusers like you so you could easily get to specific guitar models.

Let me ask you, do you feel like "All Guitars" is a good description what the page is?

I think, All Current Guitars, would be a good description. Without the, current, qualifier; one might expect to find discontinued models like the Liberty Tree Guitar, the Cujo Guitar, the Pallet Guitar or the Turtle Guitar in addition to the current models.

Eventually I think all guitars, currant and legacy, would be listed there. But there would need to be some distinction between current and legacy on the page.

Do you think "Guitar Index" or "Guitar Model Index" would be more intuitive names for the page?

[Herb Hunter]

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.

That's great. We specifically developed the "All Guitars" page for powerusers like you so you could easily get to specific guitar models.

Let me ask you, do you feel like "All Guitars" is a good description what the page is?

I think, All Current Guitars, would be a good description. Without the, current, qualifier; one might expect to find discontinued models like the Liberty Tree Guitar, the Cujo Guitar, the Pallet Guitar or the Turtle Guitar in addition to the current models.

Eventually I think all guitars, currant and legacy, would be listed there. But there would need to be some distinction between current and legacy on the page.

Do you think "Guitar Index" or "Guitar Model Index" would be more intuitive names for the page?

Yes. Guitar Index, is better than, All Guitars. Why didn't I think of that?