Hello Paul,

this one is for Mount Street Developments.

Mount Street builds lovely homes, and you have the pictures to show it. The views of your new schemes are crisp and well lit, the interiors of the finished homes are bright and inviting, and the Gallery is a good set of photographs. "Built for life, crafted with care" is a strong line too.

So the hard part is already done. Most of our thoughts are about the website around those pictures, so that it feels as much your own as the homes do and makes a buyer's next step easy.

The menu slips out of view

On the homepage the logo and menu sit underneath the opening photograph. As you scroll they travel up the page and then carry on off the top, so once you're reading there's no menu to hand. A menu that stays at the top of the screen, on every page, would make the whole site easier to get around.

The homepage and About Us are the same page

The logo takes you to About Us, and About Us is the homepage again, so once you're into the site there's no real home to come back to. Both are the opening photograph and a few paragraphs about the company, with none of your developments on show. A homepage that leads with the homes you have for sale now would show a buyer what you build within seconds.

A brand beyond the logo

The site is set in one of the most widely used typefaces on the web, with nearly all the text centred. It's tidy, but it could belong to any developer. The one big picture on the homepage could be cropped to make more of it, too. A typeface chosen for Mount Street, a clear way of laying out pictures and words, and a bit more care over how the imagery is used would make the site feel as considered as the homes.

Make it easy to buy

Some of the schemes still being built invite people to register their interest early, but there's no form or button to do it with. One page has a "Selling Agent" heading with no agent underneath. Elsewhere the details sit in a brochure on another website, or in a flyer saved as a picture, where Google and AI assistants can't read them. Putting everything on the page itself, with a short register form and the agents linked, keeps buyers with you and lets people find what you're selling. We also noticed one of the agent links is labelled as though the visitor came from a property portal, so it's hard to tell which enquiries your own site sends.

Galleries that sell the finish

Each development has a good set of pictures, but they're all shown the same way, in a small grid. The best ones could be big, with a line or two on the features and finishes: the kitchen, the materials, the garden. That's what a buyer is looking for, and it would make each scheme feel special.

Maps that help

Most of the development pages have a map with a pin on it, but one doesn't, so a buyer is left to guess where the homes are. The Developments page has a home-made Google map, and the previous schemes look much the same as the current ones. One clear map with every scheme on it, and current, future and previous homes easy to tell apart, would do the job better.

Those pictures could also move

Websites can do a lot more with moving images now, and new homes suit it especially well. A slow camera move along one of your schemes would give a feel for the setting in a way a still can't. We make these from the images you already have, so nothing needs reshooting, and we'd be glad to show you some examples on a call.

The opening photograph is a heavy file

The photograph at the top of the homepage is sent to every screen at its full original size, and it makes up most of what the homepage downloads. On a phone that means a long wait before it appears. The photograph can stay. It just needs sending at a size that suits each screen, so it looks just as sharp and arrives much sooner.