ControlThink Forums

We're playing with a number of concepts for our new website.

So, for anyone who would care to comment, what do you think of this concept?

http://wwwbeta.controlthink.com/

Chris

Some particular questions:

1. Do you find the site attractive?
2. If coming to the website, would you know how to find what you were looking for?  Software?  Accessories?  Forums?  Downloads?  Job openings? Remote access to your home?
3. What does the "Connect" section tab at the top mean to you?  It's the ThinkConnect (remote access) section of the website, where you can login to your home.  Does it make sense, or should we rename it?

Please note that the description text on the site is supposed to be arbitrary :)

Here is an overview of the sections:

Solutions
Includes samples of residential and commercial solutions for everyday users, installers/professionals, and hobbyists (including code samples!)

Products
Includes our software products, and accessories (light switches, plug-in modules, thermostats, outlets, cameras, etc.)

Connect
Includes links to sign into, sign up for, and administer the ThinkConnect service (remote access to your home or business)

Support
Includes bug reporting forms, contact links, the forums, and more.

Chris

Chris,

The home page has a nice clean look to it.  similar to what you have you now.  i definitely agree in not having a suped up flash intro on the homepage.  it would bog things down too much and isn't needed at all.

might i suggest looking into joomla also (http://joomla.org/).  it is open source and has tons of functionality with more coming out all of the time.  this would help you down the road if you ever need to add some new functionality.  if you have a regular site then you would have to code everything out and possibly redesign your site.  joomla is totally modular and has tons of community support and development.  there is a wide range of functionality and tons of templates to choose from (although the better ones are $ but the prices are definitely reasonable).

Also for the coding you may want to follow a similar model to that of homeseer with plugins.  you could have a free sharing section along with a pay plugin section.  take a look at how the joomla community does this also.  they have both free and pay.  it really helps with development in your product since developers have excellent incentive to develop quality add ons to the base product, in this case thinkessentials.  they may use beta versions for free and move to pay products once they are stable.  this would also enable for genuine support of plugins/add ons because when things are free the support tends to lack and the development can start off solid and just taper off after the developer finds other paying projects.

i will pm you a link for some joomla templates already setup on a site for you to peruse  through. 

syner, thanks for the feedback--and the recommendation on CMS.

Hi Chris, I thought this would be a good spot to jump in with my first post.

 My #1 priority as home automation consumer is to be able to monitor and control my devices wherever I'm at, so web-enabled control is a must.  This means that the first thing I want to find on your website are the links to sign up or to login into my ThinkConnect service.  I guess I prefer a login gadget on the upper left hand pane of the main page.  New product news, important announcements, and freebies are nice to have and I think you've done a good job including them down lower on the page.

 As a developer, I like the solutions and support pages as you have them laid out on the main page.  Of course, these links have to be populated with good content in order for me to keep coming back.

 Thanks.

 John

jkrbalexander,

Welcome to the forums, and thanks for posting!

I have three concerns on the prototype design, and you have hit on what may be my biggest concern.  We're really trying to keep things simple, but I really do think that logging into one's home is one of the most common things to do.  The solution right now is to just bookmark http://connect.controlthink.com, but I'm hoping that we can find a way to integrate the login into the main page.  I will highlight your comments for our next design meeting.

The other cool thing is that the "shopping cart" account and the forums account and the home login accounts are all synchronized, so you won't need to have different passwords for each one.  Depending on customer feedback, we may require that the password be entered again during checkout--but it'll be nice to be able to jump from the forums to one's home without logging into the site again.

Chris

John,

What if we made the "My Account" link in the top-right corner say "Sign In" instead, and then it gave the user the option of logging into their home as well as viewing their orders, etc.?

The hard design issue is that a "login to my home" box might need to go in a left or right column on the main page, and that would create a lot of "noise" on the otherwise clean page.

Chris

The "Sign In" option would work nicely.  I'd still like it a bit more prominently displayed, but single sign on would be helpful.  I'm looking at the page from a wide screen monitor, so that somewhat skews my thinking.  We should really consider what it looks like on a web-enabled phone.  That's when the direct link to the connect page will be necessary.

What about putting the "Connect" tab first, then, then Products, Solutions, Support...

 John

(last post for the day, it's Snowing!)

Looks nice.  I see your Solutions tab, but am not sure where it will go.

I recommend having tiered implementation suggestions, such as:

Starter system:  Describe how to use a small handful of cheap devices.

Midrange:  A more complete solution to home automation.

High end:  Money-no-object intense system.

I would like each one to suggest exact device model numbers.  In fact somewhere on your site should be comparison charts of the vendor devices, so we know which features at what suggested retail prices are available.  If someone wants the cheapest in-wall dimmer, that is different than someone who wants a more complete dimmer control.

 You have a great opportunity to be the main Go-To site for Z-Wave information.

 Good Luck!

-Greg