ugh...boss wants a marquee

[pandathorax]

I've been tasked with building our companies website. Using a template. I've learned a lot about css/html, but I'm still a novice.

Our company has been around for over three decades, and we've got TONS of testimonials. The owner keeps asking for them to be presented in a marque, but I think they look bad and can be counter-effective. I've made one using CSS.

See my website work so far. The marquees are below the slider, and I left one of the testimonials columns as it was.

He's worried that if I list 10 testimonials and then have "continue reading" link that people won't click on it.

A few questions:

Is there a better, tried-and-true way of presenting lots of testimonials and getting a higher read rate (pulling terms out of my bum here)?

Have any tips on how to convince him to just list them?

If I use Javascript instead, will that make it look better?

Thanks

 

[Phreaddee]

oh no! thats really bad. sorry, I do feel for you. tell him he's a f*cking idiot and he should listen to you... its not movie credits. (and it goes too fast to read it).
the one you left is actually readable, in the users own time, not defined by when it scrolls past. people arent going to wait to read a testimonial. if people want to click read more they will. that idea tho is bad. He's not a designer, he shouldn't act like one...

 

[CaldwellYSR]

As a user... scrolling text is EXTREMELY annoying. There are many better ways to get all of your testimonials out there but in the end they really aren't going to get read anyways so don't worry about it too much. What I usually do is show a random testimonial everytime the page loads. Then maybe put the continue reading link on there. What I would never ever do is scrolling text. Very 1990's looking you may as well make the text be on fire while you're at it.

 

[Phreaddee]

you may as well make the text be on fire while you're at it.

and don't forget a traffic counter!

 

[CaldwellYSR]

and don't forget a traffic counter!

maybe we can go back to myspace days and have the letters that make up the testimonials fall into the page like rain! That's cool right?

 

[Phreaddee]

Myspace! man I nearly forgot about that thing.

that lost all credibility the day they allowed users to customise their layouts.
almost every myspace account would fail WCAG...

seriously though, if you guys have been around for long enough to have a swag of testimonials then only pick the good ones. no one is ever going to change their mind with

"oh yes it was fantastic!" ~person A.

"definately use them again, thanks" ~person B

quality over quantity, and then display them in a tasteful way.
3 really great testimonials typeset well would do so much more for the business than 30 sub-par testimonials crammed in there (or worse still placed in a marquee...)

 

[pandathorax]

Great responses. Thanks everyone.

 

[pandathorax]

Follow up question:

What are your thoughts regarding using a carousel/slideshow to present the quotes? The boss has also mentioned them.

 

[CaldwellYSR]

I don't know how well it would fit into the layout you already have to be honest. It would look alot better to have a slideshow where each slide shows a place you've been or a picture from a show or something with a testimonial on it, that said I don't know how well it would fit because you already have that accordian style section under your navigation. Up to you, would look alot better than the marquee but it would take some doing to make it fit.

 

[chrishirst]

If I use Javascript instead, will that make it look better?

NOTHING will EVER make a marquee look "better"

Follow up question:

What are your thoughts regarding using a carousel/slideshow to present the quotes? The boss has also mentioned them.

Still annoying and distracting. Testimonials should never take precedence of the document copy or the product. Showing potential customers some "testimonials" is fine once you HAVE their attention and you want to tip the balance towards a conversion.
Having "things that move" distracts them from your REAL call to action, take a cue from toreadors, they wave a "red flag" at the bull to distract the animal's attention AWAY from their body.

To get the best use of testimonial is to have a link to the adjacent to the call to action, worded something like " Not convinced? Click Here to see what our customers say", and make sure there is a "one click route" back to the previous URL, and/or that the same call to action appears prominently with the testimonials.

 

[chrishirst]

I just had one question for clients who wanted some dumb "feature" adding to their website, and that was...

 

[chrishirst]

... so why are you paying me then??

 

[pandathorax]

Update

Good news...sorta.

I showed the boss man the awful marquee, and even read him some of the feedback you guys had. He's changed his mind. NO marquee! (rejoice!)

He's still interested in the slideshow, and he also said a sidebar of testimonials might work. So next question:

Currently the site is 960px wide. Should I just jump on the 1366x768 bandwagon? Am I going to get in way over my head if I try to maintain the current look, and add that right sidebar? I'm not currently familiar with javascript (which the template uses), but I could figure it out with some time.

I expect to have to adjust some sizes proportionately. The width of each testimonials column currently on the site is 290px. Is there an easier way to accomplish this task?

If it matters, I'm using Dreamweaver, but I can do the code work too.

Thanks again.

 

[Phreaddee]

I never knew there was a 1366px bandwagon, but if there is I wouldn't jump on it at all.

however the responsive bandwagon is gaining speed, it might be worth your while to at least check it out.

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/responsive-web-design/
http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-mediaqueries/


the only javascript I can see is some jQuery, which is for (I'm assuming) the accordian panel...

 

[chrishirst]

Dunno about bandwagon, but the Stella Artois brewery was founded in 1366 so there may have been the odd ox-cart carrying barrels that might have been worth jumping on

 

[Phreaddee]

well that would be a bandwagon worth getting into...

 

[pandathorax]

That's an interesting link. Once I get a working version of the site up and running then I'll start considering making it responsive.

That slider is the only javascript I kept from the template. Didn't need the rest. Thanks.

 

[Roddy]

Using a responsive design you can divide the testimonial sidebar into two blocks so that they fold down and sit side by side on tablets and then return to a column on smart phones.

You can also make one, or both, completely disappear on smart phones using media queries.

Anybody who believes testimonials must be kind of simple minded and, on a mobile website, they are just a waste of battery power.

 

[pandathorax]

Hey guys. I've been wrestling with this sidebar since about 3am this morning. I tried starting from scratch and putting all the pieces back together in the 1366 format, but resizing things has been really frustrating.

Goal: To add a right sidebar that begins under the header and stops above the footer. FYI, the nav bar won't be included in the header. I'm even sure I need a nav bar (but I can decide on that later).

The sidebar width: 290px, but that could change if needed.

Originally the body held all the separate divs. The current state of my experimentation has the sidebar and the original site as separate divs inside the "everything" div. Everything is in the body.

body
everything
sidebar1
/sidebar1

originalsite
/originalsite
/everything
/body

The test site is http://standupexperts.com/rose2.html

The stylesheet is too large to post here, and I'm not sure what the best way to present it to you is. I've attached my style sheet: "roseannelayout2.css". View page source for the html.

I'd be very appreciative if someone could suggest a solution.

Thanks.

 

[pandathorax]

Is there a more appropriate place that I should have posted this?