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Contribution
CMS Implementation, Design, Template Coding  SlickCarDeals Home Page - V2  SlickCarDeals Forums - V2
After reviewing site statistics from about several month's worth of metrics (Thanks to Google Analytics), I went back to the drawing board. First thing I noticed was that the forum was being accessed most of the time with every visit. The forum was indeed one of the main drivers to site traffic so with that in mind, "Latest Forum Topics" was moved to the center column.
Taking another look back at the old design, it was visually overstimulating. There wasn't a focus on a single product and everything seemed to jump out all at once. To resolve this issue, all the latest deals were consolidated into a link list under "Recent Deals" while the latest deal was allotted more real estate in hopes of sparking the interests of visitors. To the right of that is the "Browse by Section" navigation menu, which enabled users to quickly navigate the rest of the site based on car make. Last but not least, the design was given a facelift. At the time, the 'in-thing' was the big, shiny buttons and diagonal lines so I went with that style. The diagonal lines were given a carbon-fiber treatment and made to resemble buttons found in a car outfitted with aftermarket parts.  SlickCarDeals Home Page - V1
An expandable format was implemented to reduce the amount of scrolling due to the bulk of data that was being displayed. A forum and photo gallery were also integrated in order to maxmize repeat hits.
Design
A carbon fiber theme was used to make the site more up-to-date with recent aftermarket car trends. A metallic finish was used to match up with the charcoal colored surface. Results
After five months of operation, SlickCarDeals.com attained web rank 961,691 according to Alexa.com.
Future Considerations
To attract more users, more site "skins" will be added allowing users to customize their experience at SlickCarDeals.com. Each skin will follow the styles of specific car manufacturers. A rotating banner featuring site members' cars along with a newsletter component will also be added. Thank You!...
Adobe Photoshop, Macromedia Dreamweaver, and Joomla! Content Management System Visit SlickCarDeals.com - Expired 03/2008 After moving into the city with my brother (also my business partner who helped me run SlickCarDeals.com for the past two years), we both stopped using our cars because we now rely on mass transportation to get from point A to point B. Due to this fact, we've lost some (not all) our passion for modding our vehicles and decided to let SlickCarDeals.com expire this year. |
