REW Custom Design - Join me in creating the next LEC

Woah that ended up being REALLY long just for the introduction - change in plans, I am going ot create a "category" for this project in my blog, and break the phases of the development down into more digestable chunks for my readers.

Ok I have created a category for this project called "Designing the LEC" located here http://www.realestatewebmasters.com/blogs/morgan-carey/designing-the-lec/ (You might want to bookmark it or send it to a friend if you or they might be interested or if you want to blog about it, you know link bait type stuff )

Note to self for kickoff meeting with designer - Let's go to church http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/galleries/best-church-websites/ (A few examples of cool CSS elements for inspiration)

So George (from Seinfeld) wanted to work for a web design company?  I thought he was into import/export.

Huh? What are you talking about lol -

Another note to self, must decide on vendor feed to code IDX around, consider SOCAL, MRIS, or Sandicor for ease of access to data.

Sorry, I couldn't resist.  Vandelaydesign.com.  On Seinfeld, George used to make up professions.  One of them was that he worked for a company named Vandelay Industries.

Ah Ok, obscure - but more than acceptable, this is supposed to be fun and educational

Hi Morgan and the REW Bloggers Symposium,

My name is Jamie and I will be your designer for this publically shared experience of designing the next REW LE custom website. In order to get a feel for what you want the site to look like, I have prepared a couple of questions below for you to answer at your convenience.

Note: Some of these questions you may not be able to answer due to the nature of this project - but I left them in there anyway.

Your Business:

1. Is this site being designed for a specific geographic area/location? If So Where? and would you like the theme/design to reflect that.
2. What would you say makes you/your company stand out from the competition?
3. Does your company have a particular specialization that you'd like to draw attention to or promote? (Relocation etc.)

Design Specifications:

1. Describe the site's desired look and feel. ("edgy, up-to-date, crisp, modern, corporate, traditional" etc.)
2. Describe the feelings you wish your site to evoke, and the brand attributes you want it to convey. (Feelings might include: warmth, friendliness, reassurance, or comfort. Brand attributes might include caring, professionalism, intelligence, sophistication, reliability, and trustworthiness.)
3. Do you have a particular color scheme for the site you would like us to use as a reference?
4. List (re-arrange) in order of importance: Search functionality (links to IDX search pages - by city, by MLS etc.) | Area Information | Buyers Services/info | Sellers Services/info | Blog | Quick Search | Featured Listings | Market information

Site Considerations:

1. Do you know of any other website(s) which you will be competing with?
2. Please list a few websites which you felt were well designed and some that are not. (Consider - look and feel, usability etc.)
3. What did you like and dislike about these websites?

Hello Jamie,
Great to have you on the design team for this project.

To answer some of your questions -
My Business

1: Seeing as we are a new MRIS Vendor (The largest MLS Board in the World), I would like to design this website with our potential MRIS customers in mind. MRIS covers 25 MLS boards / Associations across 5 states - Including West Virginia, Maryland, DC, Virginia and a small part of Pennsylvania. I would like to avoid Washington in my example, perhaps we could look at somewhere in Virginia?

2: The ease of use, robustness and wow factor of our websites along with the most impressive access to available inventory and tools available in a local market. The idea here is to create an online experience that builds loyalty with visitors - they should be so impressed with the usibility and tools available at this website that they will bookmark it (Social or browser) and use it exclusively for their real estate searching needs.

3: Let's keep the specialization generic in a sense - the website / company will generally focus on the resale of residential real estate (Homes, condos, lofts etc) with a secondary focus on commercial and other less trafficked property types. Visitors will be coming from search engines via (Area real estate) type keywords, as well as from traditional marketing efforts (Post cards, business cards, radio, television and press). The customers will be a mixed bag of those looking to relocate, and those looking to purchase from the local populace. Showcasing up to date and complete area information, listings and vital statistics is essensial as well as presenting the services of the brokerage in a positive and prefessional way.

Design Specifications:

1: Crisp and corporate are two I would pick from your list. I don't want it to be "modern" in the sense that it feels like it is over designed, I care about clean and clear access to inventory and information and professional presentation of the brokerage. Other decriptive look and feel type phrases might be web 2.0 or whitespace.

2: Some feelings I want to convey. I like comfort and warmth for sure (I would hate this website to make it's visitors feel cold) and in terms of brand attributes - this one is all about the web 2.0 real estate company (If that makes sense) so corporate and professional, while at the same time intellegent and sophisticated.

3: I do not have a particular color scheme in mind, however I know what I want to avoid. I do NOT want to have light / white text on dark / black background. So light / white background for content areas with dark / black text is essensial for readibility. I want to ensure font types, and sizes are selected so that they can be read by any reasonable aged consumer (Between 20-80 years of age) so please no very small fonts. You may use these blog comments as a guide for font sizes. Other than that, during the mockup phase, colors are up to you - once I see one, I can make some specific recommendations.

4: List in priority - I know for a fact from feedback from customers and our terabytes of traffic statistics that the majority of our website visitors care about "Access to available inventory" - This means the IDX search features (Quick search, advanced search, featured listings etc) must be a primary focus. This would likely be followed by area information (For those not quite sure where they want to start looking) Then Market information (Kind of the same thing) Then the company / blog information (All are important of course - but you said list in priority.

Site Considerations:

1: Yes - On a local level we will be competing with other agent / broker websites. We will also have to content with national real estate directories and searches such as Trulia / Zillow who lack up to date information, but have some VERY robust tools and very large budgets. We not only want to outrank them, but want to showcase the fact that we are local, have complete information and local expertise.

2: Sites that are well designed? Pretty much anything in REW's custom portfolio ;-) - As for non REW sites, these will need to be broken up a bit. Sites like Trulia.com, Roost.com, Estately.com, Redfin etc all have the absolutely wrong "homepage" model as they are set up like search engines, however they all have qualities within their actual property searches (Listings and details) that I admire. Out of that list, overall I feel that from a "design" (Look and feel) perspective redfin.com/buy-a-home/tour-homes?src=homepage is the closest example to what I am looking for - but there is a lot about that site that I also do not like (Cartoony characters, floating small left navigation, I don't dig the footer etc) - Definitely do NOT want this to be a redfin or anything close to it, just a good example of body content area usages such as font types, sizes etc and well broken out cals to action. I had referenced a portfolio of church websites earlier on in this thread and there are also some examples of sites there that have elements that I like (And that I do not)

Probably my favorite of the bunch is http://www.stonebriar.org -

What I like - Really my list is from the sub menu below the flash and up -

Specifically - I really like the balance (space used) between the CTA stuff on the left and the flash on the right. I also like the fact that there is some shape to the flash (Curve on the left) which just seems to make it feel more integrated. I also like the fact that it does not feel "flat".

I like the fact that it has the helpful links under the flash AND the main links above the flash (Although my top links would have suckerfish) I like the height and readability of hte top navigation, but I feel the onstate could be improved. I like the overall header height, logo placement and the ministry index

What I do not like about this site:

Remember I said I didn't want something that felt overdesigned? This website is that for me (Below the header area) - I do not want gradients or anything else that will interfere with the readability of the text or calls to actions on the page. I don't like the gradients, colored dark text on a dark bg, I don't like embedded bg image photos smack dab in the middle of my main content area, I don't like the right navigation at all. I don't like hte keyword search, I think the contact us in the header could be improved significantly - I'm torn I suppose - Overall I think this designer did a great job - Is it my site? Absolutely not - but do I think this church should be satisfied with the website they received - I think they should give their web guy a raise.
 

Cool beans! All looks very exciting

G

Morgan,

Thanks for your detailed response to my questions. Based on your anwsers I have a couple more questions for you and then it'll be on to the research and mock-up stage.

Firstly, I love the listings and search functionality of Roost.com - very slick!

• I wondered if you can give me an example of a site(s) that emcompass what you are looking for - Crisp, Corporate, Web 2.0 look and feel that isn't over designed or flat? I just want to make sure that we're on the same page with these desciptions.
   
• I also like the Ministry Index on http://www.stonebriar.org/ and was thinking that it would be cool to do something similar with the area information maybe even an Area Index.. Thoughts?
   
• Also, do you have any preference for the layout (two column, three column etc.)? My preference would be three column but they can make a site feel crowded.
   
• And lastely, for the elements that you listed in order of importance... which of these must be above the fold?

Thanks for response:

Example websites - always a tough one, if I were to provide an example, view this page (Not the homepage, which I hate) http://www.redfin.com/about/redfin - I am not out to copy Redfin in any way, I just provide this as a "style" reference.

Area index (Featured areas kind of thing) - I am all for it brother, go for it. Perhaps Areas listed with property types or price ranges as indented links? Something like that.

Not a huge preference here, although I do feel that three column provides more opportunities to organize and showcase - so let's work off the 3 column for now

As for must haves above the fold - Phone number, logo, quick search and listings as well as the index should we come up with something cool for that.

Hit me up with any other questions you have - looking forward to seeing a mockup - if you could upload the final (Obviously no PSD) comp for viewing in a directory lec2.rewdev.com that would be awesome.

thansk

Hey Morgan,

Sorry this is a little late (i should have given you an update at the begining of the week!). Anyways, I've made some progress on the home page design and should have something for you to see shortly - Probably EOD Wednesday or early Thursday.

Also, a couple of things came up that I need answers to...  Firstly, Do you have a company name and logo in mind for this site or because of the nature of this project are we just adding the "Your Logo Here"  text?

Secondly, Do you want to have a standard image slideshow on the home page and sub level pages - or - would you prefer to go with a slideshow with "calls to action" that highlight the sites features? (My preference is to have 3 - 5 calls to action that promote the sites features eg. Search features, User Account, Email Listings etc.)

Let me know your thoughts.

Jamie

I like your idea (Start with 3) CTA's on the homepage - I would liek the slideshow to NOT be there on internal pages (Or better yet, design the internal template so that it was flexible enough to turn it on or off, then I could set a flag in the CMS muhc like a wide hack to let the cusotmer control this on a page to page basis.

As per branding - Use the REW Logo (Get original from Phil) and pretend REW is a brokerage (Please don't build off the REW colors, you can change the logo to match your color scheme - our tagline can be something generic like "Excellence In Real Estate" - I think this would help our audience visualize their branding instead of just "Your logo here"

Don't you agree?

Yep, completely agree.. An actual logo will help complete the look of the site. I have "Your Logo here" in the header right now and it's starting to bother me.

As for the slideshow - I was thinking of having a toggle button that uses jQuery to show or hide the slideshow... maybe combined with a cookie to remember the users preferences for the internal pages!? (I'm not sure how to set up the cookie or how that works - but that's where the programmers come in.)

You da man, if it's based on the jquery library don't think we should have an issue.

There is one concern though and that is, this is an LEC - doing custom CTA graphics for a slideshow per client is not included in the purchase price so each one would require extra design time know what I mean?

Hello Morgan,

My name is Jesse and I will be your programmer for this REW LE custom website. To begin this project I figure we should begin by getting a CORE IDX up and running, and then continue from there. I have a few questions for you, which you may answer at any time.

1. What would you like the administrative email and name to be for your IDX. This administrative name will appear on most emails that our sent out from the IDX like the saved searches emails, while the administrative email will be the email address that is notified of newly registered users.

2. Could you provide me with a list of cities that you would like to use on the search form. If you require a list of available cities support in the MRIS datafeed just let me know and I'll send you a list via email.

3. On the map search, what city would you like to be the default city. The map search, when a user first arrives to this page, will center on the specified city, and search for listings within that city.

4. Regarding the details page. What fields would you like to see? Fields include things such as bedrooms, price, address, photos, etc. If you require a list of available fields for display just let me know and I will send you one.

5. Would you like registration enabled or disabled. With registration disabled users can search listings, view search results, and even view the details page of listings. With registration enabled however, users can do everything listed above, except they will be required to register before viewing the details page.

I believe that is all I have for the time being. If you have any questions or concerns just let me know.

Hey Morgan,

So here goes!! This is what I came up with... http://comps.rewdev.com/REW-Limited-Edition-Custom-2/rew-lec_comp1.html

The colors may need adjusting a little as I just checked it on two different monitor from the one I designed it on and the lighter colors look a bit dull.

I went with two main columns on the home page and will add a third for navigation on the interior pages.

Anyways, let me know what you think and if there aren't too many changes I can also mock up an internal page.

Nice site. Really welcoming with that stock photo. Maybe I should just forget the template I have never completed and jump in with this one in my area. A turn-key site.. how nice is that! LOL...

Nice job so far, Jamie and crew.

Jamie,

Thanks for the update - I think it is a great start, and I truly appreciate you implementing most if not all of the features and functions that I want (featured listings, quick search, branding elements etc)

In order to move forward on the homepage mockup - we are going to need to change the colors, I absolutely hate them (Not trying to be harsh, I just know me, and if I color issues are getting in the way, it will really distract me from my true objective focusing on the function (Yeah yeah, I know we always say form before function)

So let's get you some real feedback - top to bottom. (Going to remind you I think it is a GREAT start)

Top bottons - (Call Us, Local Area Index and Contact US) once again, you nailed the concept, and I imagine jquery slideopens for the local area index (With a list of all areas served) as well as a contact box with a form and the contact info on it - I can see the elements now - but what I just have to change is the tabs, it might be the color, it might not, but I am not digging those tabs in their current form.

Top Navigation - I like the placement, the size and the readiblity of the buttons, but I do not like the fonts (In fact I do not like the fonts used in most of the site) - Probably just a style preference but those fonts with their accents and curves kind of take away from my clean, web 2.0 objective, at least for me. Note the fonts you have used in the tabs for the quick search (City, Subdivision etc) Those are more of what I was looking for. Tale a look at what Phil and I have been working on for the new REW at http://dev.realestatewebmasters.com I would like you to use the same fonts (Both size and type) for the paragraphs - But for the headings feel free to take some liberties with padding, type, colors and spacing as I am not quite pleased with the REW H tags yet either (I like your H tag spacing better than what I have at REW) - Just keep in mind, I would like the size and type of fonts that I have in the new dev REW paragraphs on this LEC (But black on white - classic, easy to read.)

Quick search - I absolutely love it! - Not going to harp on the fonts, you already know that - but the way the Find your next home by lines up with main nav, the tabbed searching options for hte quick search, the icon giving it some depth and dimension - Obviously as you change out the buttons in the tob, you will change out the buttons throughout (Not a fan of the search button, go button etc, they all need work) but overall - I don't want you to lose the concept of this quick search, as it is an awesome element - probably what I am most please about in this mockup.

The you are here and toggle slideshow - I am not sure what you were planning there, but in it's current form, I would just as soon not see it there, I think it is just bit to much clutter for me - there is already a lot goign on here (Which is in a way what I want) but I just don't want to jam things in every single space - Let's get rid of that for now.

Branding area - Man do I dislike people sitting down looking at laptops - I really like the spacial relationship (I like the height and width that area is occupying) but I do not like the people - Reserve that area for "something that does the same thing" but we are going to have to do it in a different way. Take a look at the style of photo / text combo Rackspace uses on thier home page - (I don't really like their site) but I do like how they do their homepage features for testimonials http://www.rackspace.com - It's kind of old school macromedia (If you remember that site before it was bought out) Once again, just reference the style, do not change the spacial relationship of the QS and the feature as that part is good.

Featured Listings - 4 across looks great, I like the photo size, I like the border, I like the price - I am not totally sold on the stuff floating beneath it - (What happens if I have a really long city name?) Needs a little work, but 4 across is the way to go, it will evolve as we work out the other elements.

My account - I TOTALLY want to have this there - I just don't like what you have done with this one, it seems a bit out of place, and the clipart dude beside the text I would just as soon never see those kinds of things on any of my sites. If we are going to use little iconic images within text (Which if done right I do like) I don't want them to be microsoft icony type things, I would prefer they were custom designed very subtle arrows, or something like that - know what I mean? We have a new control panel coming out, and we want visitors to truly feel like the customer area that they are logging into is a main feature of the site, not the IDX searches red headed stepchild little brother which it has been in the past Location good - just needs some work.

Featured Communities - this will kick butt for interlinking, and SEO - but I worry once again about city name size - I would like to see it work in two columns like that, but I really don't think it will - let's stay with the alternating odd even white / shaded deal, but lets go 1 community per line (Not two colums) and perhaps a little supporting graphic to the left.

Split content on the homepage - This is sweet brother. I already commented on the fonts - but I really like the fact that we can have content all the way across and we can have content broken down into two colums - we will create a special div class for the site and stick it in a sample snippet so customers can do this on any page. Btw I don't think we will need (Nor do I want) to go 3 column with this site - I think what we have as a starting point for layout is just great

Recent Blog posts - Here I do actually like the stock icons (Book and conversation bubble, and rss feed) I would like you to mock up the Recent Blog posts with a Title (Hyperlink) and a short snippet of the blog article below the title - for SEO reasons, and I think it is more compelling to users if they can get a teaser of what the article is about. Great start though.

Footer - Return to top, Email, Print, Bookmark - I like the concept again but I don't like the icons (Email is ok I guess) don't like the other two, to cartoony.

Web 2.0 Footer - It's in there, but not what I want it to be "yet" once again, take a look at the dev.realestatewebmasters.com footer - see how we have the address and contact info on the left (Required of all brokerages btw) and then the links on the right? It gives it a little more diversity, which I like. http://www.jimolenbush.com footer I like less, but emphasizes the same concept.

 

Overall Jamie (And I am not surprised at all) you have done a great job for mockup one - (This is why I picked you for this assignment) - We have a ways to go, but lots of hours to do it. I look forward to revisions.

For all of those watching this thread and thinking of becoming custom website customers at REW, or are existing customers - I want you to take note on the feedback (A large reason for this blog post concept)

Some might think I have been overly detailed, critical etc - but this is the kind of feedback you need to give your designer if you want to maximize their efforts and reduce your billable hours. There is nothing wrong with saying you absolutely hate something (They need to know, and they do have thick skin) but of course, you want to temper it with complimentary elements so a nice balance of both what you don't like in a mockup, and what you DO like in a mockup - be as detailed as you can - Responses like "Meh I'm not really digging it, do it in blue" will ensure that you waste a lot of hours, and the next revision you see you won't be happy with either.

Hope you are enjoying our little trip down custom design lane so far - I am really excited - thanks Jamie!

Drew seemed to like it!!!

-----------------------------------------

Thanks for your feedback Morgan. I'm sure once the colors and fonts have been changed it will start looking better. I'm going to digest this and start working on comp two.

Also, The site examples that you use to back up what you like and dislike are really helpful.

I'll have more questions for you a bit later.

Will the LEC maps have local amenities like  http://www.nashvillebuyers.com/idx/map/ ?  This seems like a great custom feature.    

I really like the new design so far.  It will be interesting to see the final product. 

Probably not as a standard feature - the reason being, is that ammennitites data is not available for all areas, whereas the LEC is available in all areas. It is a feature that can be ordered however, not just for the LEC but for all REW IDX powered websites - if it is available in that area, it can be accomplished.

Hey Morgan,

I'm currently working on the color for the site and have put together 4 different combinations for you. (Hopefully you'll like one of them!)

Here's the link:- http://comps.rewdev.com/REW-Limited-Edition-Custom-2/color-combinations/

Please let me know which one(s) you like.

If you don't like any of them... Maybe you could suggest at least one color you'd like to work with.

Thanks.

Very hard to tell with such a basic pallet, but I would probably say I gravitate towards http://comps.rewdev.com/REW-Limited-Edition-Custom-2/color-combinations/color-3.html the most - however, they all seem kind of "dark" to be (But I totally understand that implementation of design and whitespace will lighten it up big time - so unless you have any objections, let's go with that color (#3) and implement some of my other suggestions / feedback and see how she goes

Thanks REW Design

COMP 2....

http://comps.rewdev.com/REW-Limited-Edition-Custom-2/rew-lec_comp2.html

Morgan, I'm pretty sure I've made changes to everything that you outlined in your earlier post. Let me know what you think of version two!

Thanks.

Hey Morgan,

Here is COMP 2a...

http://comps.rewdev.com/REW-Limited-Edition-Custom-2/rew-lec_comp2a.html

I wasn't entirely happy with comp 2 after looking at it in the browser for a while - so I made some adjustments.

Thanks Jamie,

I see you changed the photo out, thanks for that, I really wasn't digging that photo at all, in fact to be quite honest, I am not digging this either - I am just quite simply not a fan of stock photos of people and computers, or boxes or standing outside of houses etc - I see this as one of our biggest challenges - but for now, let's just leave the photos out, or use a nice area photo that is complimentary to the color scheme (See how the photo makes jimolenbush.com pop?)

Now in terms of other feedback on this mockup there are a lot of areas I think you have made huge strides on (Great improvements)

Things I think we are moving in the right direction with

Recent Blog posts - What an improvement, it's almost perfect the only thing I want to change is the fonts for "Recent Blog Posts" I know I already asked you to change them, but honestly I think I may have been wrong now that I see these fonts, the font style you had in the first mockup I think I like better, please change it back.

Footer - you are going in the right direction again, I am not sold on it yet, but much better than the first mockup - I do think there is a little to much space between the footer links, and the logo.

Local Area Index and Contact Us at the top - a little better, but I am not satisfied with those yet, let's keep going - they are not as flat as the first mockup (Which is a good thing) but I think now they have to much contrast / shape - it does not feel like they fit the site.

The my account - wayyyyyyyyy better than the first mockup - Just liket he blogs, we will probably have to adjust the headline font to the old (Or a different font) and I would like to remove / change the arrow that is pointing down (That is confusing) but other than that a great step once again in the right direction.



Things I think we went in the wrong direction with

Heading and top navigation fonts - you were right, I was wrong - I don't like what you changed them to, I think the top navigation (Home Sellers, Buyers) looked way better (As did the quick search) in your first mockup I would like you to put the fonts (Sizes and types, but not colors) back the way they were, or trying something else.

Quick search - even though I hated the color of hte first mockup, (and maybe this was the fonts talking) I really do not like whatever has changed in this new mockup with regards to the quick search, that was one of the thigns I was most happy with in Mockup 1, and I think we went backwards here. I am going to post a screen for reference below - I REALLY do not want to go away from what is in the screen.

Here is the screenshot of the top I liked http://www.realestatewebmasters.com/_img/topIliked.png

And you know what, in looking at that screenshot, I actually really like the original color scheme you did - what I did NOT like is the red (Like in the top buttons, go buttons etc in Mock 1) I probably should have just had you try something other than red - but hey, that's why we have the budget we do for this site right.

Alright, you probably want more feedback than this - What else -

The featured communities doesn't work in it's current form. I did really like it in two columns, the way you first had it, but I am still worried about long area names, and what that would look like. Any suggestions here?

Featured Listings - Once again, I am concerned with area names, what I would like you to do is REMOVE The City / State (Which will push the other 2 up) but I do not want to loose the height, so where the third line used to be, I would like to see a "view property" button.

Magnifying glass on quick search - not sure where you were going with that, but please get rid of it. It is completely out of place in this site

Suckerfish Dropdowns (Can you include a sample in the next mockup with one of them colapsed and it's hover state please?) I really like the style of Zend's dropdowns http://www.zend.com/en/

Photo slide commentary - I think we totally missed connecting here when I referenced Rackspace.com and you came back with stock photo people. I would like to give you a couple more references to help you understand the "style" of photo I am going for but I am taxed for time tonight, Zend had one I thought was "sort of" the style I was looking for static.zend.com/topics/hp-main-studio-eclipse-training.jpg but not quite (I don't want squeazing lemon photo's just referencing a style) - Keep in mind, these slides need to be easily changed out, as this is after all an LEC, and we don't want to get hung up on this item for each customer.

Thanks for the feedback Morgan.

Sorry that this second comp wasn't much better for you. What i'll do is merge what you like about each one into a new comp and go from there. I'll leave the slideshow until the end - any more input on this would be helpful.

As for your concern with the length of city names, I think the column is wide enough and don't think this should be an issue. However, I'll add some longer names to the list to see how it looks.

Thanks Jamie, and absolutely no need to appologize brother - this is what custom design is about, sometimes you have to try things to find out they aren't actually what you don't want.

Also, there are a ton of positive moves forward, and I really think you took "exactly" what I said to heart and made a great attempt (With the exception of the slideshow photos).

I am REALLY stoked about this site - aside from the fact that both comps already look amazing (I would take either of them if I was a broker) the functionality is going to make this thing a conversion monster.

It's rare that we get the kind of budget I have given you for this site, hence why I don't mind using every hour to get it "perfect" - so don't get me wrong, I am super pleased thus far.

Comp version 3...

http://comps.rewdev.com/REW-Limited-Edition-Custom-2/rew-lec_comp3.html

Morgan, we're back to the original color scheme (with a few  alterations). I've replaced the slide show with an image for now, we can still work on the slide show if you'd like but  I had to change it as I was fixated on it and unable to move forward with anything else.

I added some very long place names to the featured communities list for you to see how they look. 11px is the largest we can go for the font and still keep it two columns.

I added a "view" button to the featured listings and deleted the state. I kept the city name because I changed the listing layout/design a little bit and think that there's plenty of room for the city name even a long one.

And lastly, I moved the logo in the footer up but am not sure what else to do with this area.

I haven't added the suckerfish drop down example yet because I wanted you to see it like this first.. I'll add a drop down shortly and upload another comp.

Let me know if we're back on the right track...

Jamie

Awesome job my friend!

I really think a placeholder with that nice area shot was a good call, that way it is not distracting us from the rest of the design (They are always a pain in the ass huh?) - Ah well I kind of like the place holder to be honest - Where they heck are we? We are damn close that's where we are, and I am very excited.

Some feedback:

Top area - looking way better than mock2 (Probably should have listed to you in the first place, but had to spend the hours to prove myself wrong, ah well) - In terms of the very top right (The local area index, contact and phone number) I still think it could use some polishing, but I think I am comfortable leaving them as is until the build as they will likely come alive a bit when we start building the html, CSS etc - let's keep em for now. So let's assumed that this screen is what we are going to approve and take to the build http://comps.rewdev.com/REW-Limited-Edition-Custom-2/morganscreens/approvedtop.jpg - any polishing we can do during the build. Rockin dude, great job

Featured Listings - Approved as is (I am assuming we will be making the Featured listings headline an H2 (Search engine readable) so that if someone wanted to call it "Featured Atlanta Listings" or whatever, they could change that, as it could be a snippet. (I have some cool ideas for programming on this, but let's talk when we have started the build).

The body content area - 2 column, and single column formats are both approved as is. (Might tweak a tiny bit during build)

The Recent Blog posts is also approved (Reminder consider during build to make the entire content area per post summary clickable

Featured Communities also looks great - Build it

I really only have 2 main areas that I would like to tighten up just a bit more and I would like your advise as to whether you think we should start markup now and change them during the build, or modify them during the build phase?

The 2 areas are #1 (Search button under quick search to the my account) I am really not sold on the search button, and the my account is so freaking close to right it ain't funny, something about it's height or the way it lines up - Here is a screen of the very small area I would like to continue to improve there. http://comps.rewdev.com/REW-Limited-Edition-Custom-2/morganscreens/sidearea.jpg - Looking at the screenshot itself, I am a much bigger fan - it's just the advanced search seems kind of forced in there, the amount of space between the work "search" and the icon - I don't know - I posted the screen so that you know the area I am talking about, but I only really notice the issues when I look at the comp as a whole.

The last piece is the footer - Screen here http://comps.rewdev.com/REW-Limited-Edition-Custom-2/morganscreens/footer.jpg - This is EXACTLY what I asked for, you have done a great job. That being said, I just think we can get a bit more out of it, if I have to increase my budget to focus some serious hours on the detail work so be it, but I am just think there is "something" but I don't know what it is.

Some ideas.

Icons beside links - Check out what I did with the icons beside the syndication & TOS in the footer of the new REW http://www.realestatewebmasters.com/ - sure it's a tiny little thing, but might be a concept to play around with -

Map Icon - Could link to an internal page with a Google map of the office location? (This I am not crazy about, just brain storming)

Contrast of headings (Search listings etc) against bg - the headings seem to muted - I think there should be a bit more contrast (Darker beige on dark beige know what I mean?)

Some sites with killer footers:

http://www.realestatewebmasters.com (Already referenced)

http://www.jimolenbush.com - I "think" what makes this footer stand out for me is the fact that has some texture to it "BG image) not sure I want to go there though, as I want this thing lightning fast - but it is an idea if it doesn't create to much overhead.

http://simplebits.com - I don't know what it is I like about this site (Besides everything) but thier footer concept is cool - note the different "types" of elements - some links, some iconic / images, some textual.

http://wordpress.org - not even sure if I would call this a footer due to it's height, but again, I like the mix of 1,2,3 and textual based elements.

http://www.cssaddict.com - I absolutely love their footer - Could it be that we need little icons beside our links (note checkboxes, and plus signs, we could go with a sideways triangle in a box type element to stay consistent with search icons etc - btw Vicky Gourgouri I absolutely love your work if you ever get a chance to read this

That should be enough examples for now - and now that I have been going through all these great footer examples, I think I'm off to work on some concepts for that crappy footer I have on the REW forums lol

Thanks Jamie, great job so far - let's kick it into overdrive and get this puppy rolling!

Btw - how are we doing for hours so far? Budget is no object I am just curious, as I am sure those reading this post are as well.

Thanks dude have a great night.

This is great Morgan - I like seeing approved everywhere. I hope you do actually like it and I haven't exhausted you into submission

I totally agree with you and think the best way to proceed is to start coding and then I'll come back to the items that we're not 100% happy with. Having the functionality working will help generate more ideas.

This is not something I would usually ask the client... but, could you assign me a dev site for this project. I'll start coding once this is set up.

As for the hours.... the total so far is 111.5

Your dev is already installed my friend - http://dev190.rewtemplates.com - also, I have arleady programmed the CORE IDX in anticipation of this build you can see the non skinned version here http://dev190.rewtemplates.com/idx/ - I will need to program both a subdivison and a school search, but should not be a problem with MRIS data.

Let's do it!

Hey Morgan,

Now that we are ready to begin the build, lets start with your subdivision and school search. Any ideas on how you would like the functinality to work? What steps the user needs to take, and how to limit the schools/subdivisions if at all.

Thanks

Comp Update...

Morgan, I've changed the header part of the comp. The "local area index" and "contact us". I think it looks much better and fits in with the design - but let me know if you like it or not.

http://comps.rewdev.com/REW-Limited-Edition-Custom-2/rew-lec_comp3.html

How come the links I post aren't clickable?

Because you are posting a comment in someone else's blog - hyperlinks are a privelledge for the blog owner only in REW Blogs - stops others from being able to link spam

REW Design - Top bar changes approved with one comment - although I like the way it looks, I know agents and brokers (And although it actually looks really good this way) they are right when they will ask for a slightly larger phone number - it's one of the most commonly requested changes by agents - Should we leave it as is and change upon request or should we be pre-emptive and change it now in the comps (I really don't want to loose what you have done here as I really like it)

Morgan, I just wanted to give you an update to say that I started building out the site (Home Page). I had a few set backs trying to get the JQuery Effects to work in the header - which has eaten into my time a little. I'm going to continue with the rest of the page and come back to the effects later and also upload the page some time today so that you can view the progress.

Sweet Mr Design Sir! - I am technically off today (For a week, cause I'm getting married) but I will be around in my home office and would LOVE to see an update posted to the dev today. Thanks for the update, you just reminded me, I owe programming some feedback as to what I want the IDX to accomplish. Let me know if you run into any roadblocks that you need assistance with.

Thanks

Hey morgan, The site is starting to come together but I ran into some additional problems and it will take a bit longer than expected before I can upload.

I had a question about/idea for the "My Account" area... I was thinking of having the new account registration form slide out from behind the my account area using javascript instead of it taking you to a new page. But I don't want to go overboard with the JQuery effects. What do you think?

We'll never know unless we try - give it a shot - if nothing else we can use the source for a different element (Perhaps even here at REW blogs

http://dev190.rewtemplates.com/

Nearly everything is working on this page... I wanted to upload it so you could get a feel for how everything will look and work. Still to do... Suckerfish Menus, Area Index, Contact Us, some of the Quick Search and the My Account Form feature that I mentioned above.

The "still to do list" will not take long as everything is working and has been cross browser tested. This will be done early next week - then I'll add the CMS code so you can start adding content pages.

Then it's on to the IDX design. Do you have any ideas or examples for this? and would you like me to mock up sample listing and result pages?

Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuddddddddddeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeetttttttttttttttttttttttt

I need some time to digest this deal and start thinking about IDX architecture but damn man, I am one happy kid right now!

Hey Morgan,

I got some concerns regarding the homepage of the LEC.

• My Account login: Just wanted to confirm that you want the login to work based on name and email address? No passwords? If so would this be first name and last? Also should the IDX login be changed to match this?
• Quick Search: When searching subdivisions on the IDX users must first select a city. When searching schools school type and city is required. I need to know how you would like these quick searches to work. There doesn't seem to be enough space to add the required fields needed like city and school type on the quick search so we'll need to do these two searches using a different method than the IDX search, or make room for the required fields.
• Any idea how you would like the featured listings to be pulled?

Thanks

Tampa, I removed your review of the website from the blog entry and reposted it on the active thread in the forums for website review of LEC 2 located here http://www.realestatewebmasters.com/showthread.php?t=27093 just to keep it all in the same place.

thanks

Programming, great point - in the REW system I beleive email address is the username is it not? So that could simply read - email address / password.

Give me a few minutes to think through the whole quick search deal. What about type ins for school or subdivision names?

REW Design, can I get an update on hours please?

Thanks

Hey Morgan, the total to date for creative, communication and  the build portion of the site is 187.5

Any thoughts on the quick search yet?

187 - keep goin brother - Still need a bit of time on the quick search I have some thoughts but they aren't clearly developed yet. In the meantime, can you give that suckerfish dropdown some love (Really bugging me) - and also put some time into the stylization of the dropdown jquery features for both the area index (which is going to be an alphabetical list of areas served) and the contact section - (You have room for mulitple phones, address, etc - I don't watn to micromanage those sections to much especially if you already have a vision for them.

I'll fix up the suckerfish menus right away.

I have a question about the Area Index. Do you just want a list of areas - or - a select group of areas with price ranges? (You had mentioned the price range idea in an earlier post)

BOTH are good ideas - so I am going to leave it up to you, which one (Or alternative) would YOU like to try. I think  I might need to see something there before I can make up my mind on this one.

Thanks for the reminder / feedback

Sounds Cool...

Having trouble with the suckerfish menus in IE - but i'll keep plugging away at it and move on to the area index. This design doesn't really lend itself to the http://www.zend.com/en/ style of dropdowns. Do you have another preference?

On a good note - I have the "hide slideshow" button creating a cookie that saves the users selection. Hide the slideshow and then refresh the page...

Wow! That site is looking pretty sweet! 

Thanks Brett - I am just the picky customer - all the credit for the fancy pretty wow factor stuff goes to the dev team - I am happy with it as well.

Hey Morgan,

Update: Drop down menus are styled. Hidden contact area and area index are also styled.

I just went with a list of areas for the area index. I was going to add 5 featured communities with prices ranges under the list but thought it would be too much and too busy. This area would have also taken up most of the screen on a smaller monitor.

Quick search: I'm going to see if I can add the extra select boxes for the subdivision and school search without extending the height of this area.

The local area index is AWESOME! - Please don't focus to much on the quick search right now, I am more concerned with getting hte IDX skinning under way - we will probably end up goign with type in for those pesky quick search options

We should also try to get this incorporated into the CMS 2.0, so I can start clicking around and implrement some demo content etc

Thanks

The contact form item is also awesome! (I will have some feedback) but I am digging both of em!

Progress Report

I reworked the quick search content so that an additional select box can be added to the Subdivision and School searches.

I've added the registration form to the My Account area. It will slide down when you click "Sign Up Here For Your Free Account".

The Site is hooked up to the CMS, IDX and Blog. (The IDX and Blog need skinning).

Dude registration is awesome! - quick search, we are going to go to an auto complete type in format for schools and subs, so we can revert back to the way we had it (which I liked)

Let me check out the blog etc see what there is to see

Quick comment on the blog, (And the IDX for that matter) I do not want to have the slideshow on the /blog/ or /idx/ pages at all.

Questions

• Do you have any ideas or preferences for the IDX?
   
• Should the feature listings be a snippet so you can add it to what ever page you like - OR - do you want it moved over to the right column on the sub pages?
   
• I'm going to make the Local Area Index and Feature Communities snippets so you can edit them through the CMS.
   
• Do you want to keep the slide show on the IDX and Blog pages?
   
• My Account: is it possible for this whole box to be change when someone is logged in? Maybe to a similar box..  Welcome Username - Sign out, Saved Searches, Favorite Listings, New Listings etc..
   
• Do you want the Quick Search to be on the IDX pages? I was thinking of putting "Search Tools"in this area instead.
   

Thanks Morgan. I'll revert back to the original Quick Search. I was concerned about the usability of the form but the auto complete feature solves this nicely. I'll also remove the slideshow from the idx and blog.

Answers:

Featured listings should "most definitely" be a snippet

Local Area Index a snippet yup - Featured Communities, makes sense as well. I guess we don't have any "tranditional" CMS sidebar navigation. But I am not sure we need it - in fact, one could get creative with snippet includes (would be custom requests) should they want more controllable areas in the sidebar. We should probably make the footer links snippets as well.

Now onto intutive sub navigation (Sub pages for area pages, or buyers section etc) - I actually had an idea for this as well. The idea is to actually have the sub navigation (sub pages) of the main pages show up in the body content area directly below the slideshow. This is something we toyed with here: http://www.yourraleigh.com/raleigh-businesses.php and it actually worked out quite well. I was thinking 4 columns, it would not take up much vertical space. Thoughts? It could even have a breadcrumb "type" element or feel to it where it had a label like "Pages contained with "mainpage" as a headline - know what I mean (this might not make sense, but I can explain further if need be.)

As for what my account box will change to, it will actually be the links for our new control panel - I just finished building it, and the very first implementation can be seen on http://www.hartanovteam.com (I adding some extra goodies there too, hope you don't mind) - Anyways, go ahead and login, you will see the control panel links - they are:

Control Panel
My Favorites
My Saved Searches
My Messages
Logout

There is actually some really cool stuff built into the control panel, such as an intelligent saved search generator that "learns" from IDX search behavior and creates a saved search, and emails them once it has learned enough (I am quite proud of it actually)

Quick search definitely does NOT need to be on IDX pages (search, listings or details) what will be there instead is a "refine search" bar - you can see an example of it here: http://www.luxurysarasotarealestate.com/idx/search.html?submit=true - as you can see, the concept will work really well with the current LEC - what will need to happen, is on the IDX pages, the "Find your next home by" graphic will need to be changed to "REFINE YOUR SEARCH to.." or something like that.



 

Morgan,

Love the site. The intelligent saved search generator is a awesome idea. Makes it look like the agent is doing alot of extra work for the buyer.

Look forward to seeing the completion. See you next week.

Morgan, I'm removing the Quick Search from the idx pages BUT.... the "refine search" isn't needed on the initial search page and I'm not sure what to with the quick search area on this page!

I was thinking of leaving the "Find your next home" text and moving "by city, by subdivision. by school etc." to this area. Thoughts?

Ermmm not sure that will work - what would go on the main page, if you move the search stuff to the right?

Sorry, I didn't mean the form content - just the links/tabs that change to the different search pages

• By City
• By Subdivision
• By School
• By Zip Code
• By MLS Number
• By Map

Quick update for those following this post - "Austin, TX" has been purchased and is no longer available for this LEC  - The sticker price was $10,000 with no custom mods (Plus hosting of course) - figured I better post that as I know I will be asked. This is not the final price, it will definitely be "at least" $10,000 but price may go up based on how the first one goes in terms of reproduction time (And of course demand) - anyone that wants to pre-order at the $10,000 price point, feel free

That's great news Morgan.

As for a production update. I'm a little behind on the IDX skinning. There was a problem in IE6 with the refine search form that I had to debug - it broke the whole layout. But it's now skinned and working... I'll let you know when the IDX is complete.

Hey Morgan,

How was the Conference/Summit? I've been working on the IDX results page... and have created two views for the user to choose from - classic (the standard list view) and thumbnail (a more compact view with less info - like the featured listings). This is working well but will need a little tweaking and i'll need some help from programming to add this option to the search form and refine search form.

Hey Morgan,

I was just looking over your IDX and had an idea. What are your thoughts on adding a Mobile IDX to this LEC? I can create a simple IDX search for you that is accessible from your cell phone or blackberry. It will be a very simple search, ie City and address. Will only take  me around 10 hours to implement.

Let me know if you would like to have this done

Design - I will hopefully be able to post some feedback tonight, the search results are looking GREAT! - I am super stoked, we will also need to make some programming modifications for snippets.

Programming - heck no we aren't building in a mobile IDX search lol - (Although people can certainly order one if their MLS board allows it)

Design - Again - I really want to get the sub navigation concept started, I think I posted about it above, but I will re-iterate my thoughts and ideas about it later tonight as well.

Great job guys! (Btw, I think we sold like 4 more of these at the conference, and one lucky attendee "Mike Taylor" also won one for his market - Indianapolis. Zing!

I guess I should post - I beleive Indianapolis, Calgary , San Clemente and  Mckinney TX are all now taken as is Austin.

Morgan, This is an example of the sub-navigation. I'm pretty sure this is what you wanted!

http://dev190.rewtemplates.com/communities.php

SAaaaaweeeeeeeeeeetttttttttt!!!! That's exactly what I was thinking - Just need some programming love, and I think we are good to go from a design perspective (other than the IDX) - actually there is only one other thing we need from a design perspective, a "featured callout box" - I think we can use that exact same skin / style for the featured callout box that you have used for sub nav - I will create a snippet and see how that works out - if that works, then I can start releasing this thing (without the IDX) to let those who have purchased begin implementing thier content.

I gotter done dev190.rewtemplates.com/buying.php

Ok Morgan I get how it developed or is developing. Great process great minds great job.

So I seem to be stalled on the IDX skin. Can you go through what is there and give me an idea of what you think. I'm happy with the search and search results pages. I'm finishing off the IDX details page today and then just have to fix up the map search page.

The search results in FF 3 (Not sure about 2.xx) are not working, I will check out your progress in IE 7 on the details page for now, but in the meantime, can you please debug the search results for FF this is of course important to us.

Thanks

Seems to work fine in FF 2.xx. I'll check FF3. What exactly is happening? Or is it a - you'll know when you see it problem?

It's a you'll know when you see it problem - it's completely fubared

Never mind, must have been a caching issue (Or perhaps you were updating) - seems fine now. Looking forward to seeing the details pages modifications.

Thanks

The modifications on the details page have been made - let me know what you think?

Thanks for going over this with me Morgan. I think the page looks great now.

A few things on the LEC details page.

Below the slider, totally cool and approved.

As for the slider itself - we are going to need to change that, not a fan at all - what about using the jquery carosel function like we use on the bottom of http://www.realestatewebmasters.com/portfolio/ - actually scratch that, there is an even cooler effect that we did here http://finehomesofhiltonhead.com/listings/detail.php?id=125 - see how nice and polished that is compared to a stock slider? Ask Phil for sample code if required.

Other feedback - the border around the photo is far to bold for me - I don't know if it is to dark, or to thick (I think both) I would like to see that reduced a bit, maybe keep the color for the next iteration and reduce the width by "at least" half.

I want to loose the gradient under the "general details" - keep the proportions similar, however I want to use more of the width of that area (there is room on buth sides) - loose the gradient, and make those fonts / colors more readable - I also would like to see a bit more effect (maybe a button or tab) in place of that text link for more details.

WE ARE SOOOO DAMN CLOSE!

http://dev190.rewtemplates.com/idx/listings/MC6819338/details.html Slider looks freakin awesome! user pass is rew / rew for those that want to check it out.

how do get in to see it? password protected

never mind lol

No, what is freakin awesome is the Local Area Index and where it is hidden!

Yeah Morgan it rocks alright. It looks very well thought out with respect to design and how the information is delivered. Great job man!

The index is cool, It show a style of thinking that you just do see from many designers.

oops typing to fast - you do NOT see this thinking from many designers

I just did a sample search. The reults pages is well thought out as well. It is not just your old scroll down results. It gives the a unique experience visually, meaning that it is easy for the eyes to pan acroos the thumbs.

Did you happen to notice the click to classic view at the top

Ah yes for those who like it old school. The one thing that I liked about this site from day one what you have stayed true even with the idx; Is the ease in which someone can find things. The button sizes, the colors and the fonts make it easy to look over the pages. It is clear that information was not the only focus but the factors for a great  user experience are the foundation of the design.

Someone sounds excited to get started - We are going to go over final revisions tomorrow and next so yours should be able to get started the week after.

Yeah just a little! I cannot think of a better way to confront uncertain times in the real estate market than with a state of the art tool as this is. Many people run scared and save, when I believe we need to invest in and develop new ideas and strategies. I am watching this market crush companies that I thought were strong, and giving rise to some real innovators. Now more than ever is the time to invest and reinvest and posture. I predict we will start to see some real ideas emerge through all of this; because only the very best ideas will push people and companies forward in today’s environment. For those who grab onto the ideas of today more than ever will flourish tomorrow. As you can tell we are doing all of these things knowing it is the best way the only way.
 

Great Feedback! - I'm glad everyone is happy with the final product.

So Morgan, I think we're pretty much done. The Details page and Map Search page were finished off last week. I have been through the site a couple of times in the different browsers and everything look good. There was a small problem with the Example IDX Snippet page you created last week - but it's working fine now.

Curious to know one thing. On the search results the thumbs are 4 across and on the preset community they are 3 across. Any reason as to why?

That was an problem I thought was already fixed!! Can you try refreshing your browser and/or deleting your cache and see if the problem is still exists?

It appears to be working fine, Curtis, you just need to clear your cache

Thanks REW Design - looks like it's Game on! Great job - hit me up for your next assignment.