The DCCconcepts Website:
We always think carefully about the products we sell to make sure that they either add value, do things others cannot or offer something a bit special.
Our website is structured with the same approach, so it’s not just about products… While we DO like to show off the things we create, you also need good information about their use, so product detail, advice, modelling skills and similar things share equal top billing with the items we offer.
Most importantly, we do not want our website to replace human contact totally, so we continue to welcome you on a personal level, whether it be by email, telephone, in person or as a member of our ‘Focus Modelling Forum’. We never wish to be a faceless order processing machine!
To remain consistent, when it came time to redevelop our website, we decided we should do it the same way. No fancy animations to distract or waste your time.
Simple navigation, plain and to the point product details, lots of information about how to use or do things…and of course black and white, down to earth advice…
We really do hope you enjoy visiting. Please feel free to email us to comment, criticize or share ideas to make it even better… As with all interactive media, it is a constant ‘work in progress’ so all corrections, positive suggestions and feedback are welcome.
A little about our new Website design and structure:
Our initial website served us well, and apart from some ongoing problems with browser compatibility that were a never ending source of frustration, worked reasonably well. We learned some valuable lessons from it:
We needed better ways to navigate, easier updating, better cross-browser compatibility and most of all, we needed to build onto the already strong advice and information base we had created and not just add more products.
Having seen the level of ‘help and how to’ emails grow, supplemented by many forum related questions we chose to advise on… we also realised that we needed a more ‘organic’ and interactive way to give pragmatic modelling help and product advice.
We hope you like the changes. Here are a few highlights.
In general:
The overall compatibility is assured… We have chosen a platform created and maintained by the best creative software brand in the world to make sure that www.dccconcepts.com remains compatible with every browser type and all interactive media platforms from smartphones to desktop computers.
The ability to maintain and enhance the website is greatly improved… Full time web staff have been added, and the structure itself has been created in such a way that site-wide changes can at last happen with minimal effort.
Ordering:
For the first time, secure order placement is also possible via our website:
We have however kept actual card processing separated, so you’ll never get billed for an item not in stock. This also gives us the time to review your order before processing, which we think is important, as all too often, we find clients can make accidental ordering errors. Having the time to make sure its 100% right before we ship it to you is therefore a real advantage!
Of course, the whole website is secure, with an even deeper level of security on the ordering pages so that your details will remain safe at all times.
Navigation:
We’ve tried to keep navigation direct and clean – We hate websites that get us lost when looking for the things we want, so we’ve kept the path from home page to product or information simple… with no more than three clicks to get to your destination.
We’ve also stayed away from web forms and elected to stay with direct email links because easy direct and personal communication is too important. Yes, it may well leave us with a little more ‘spam’ to deal with but so what… Good personal communications really do matter.
The Home page is more personal… and very versatile!
Home page is a silly name. More accurately, this is truly the ‘front door’ to DCCconcepts for most of the world.
The look is clean and clear (We hope you agree) and its even a little personalised specifically for you… because depending on ‘where in the world’ you are, the train image should automatically change to something a little more local – you may also use an interactive drop-down to specify the image you see when you visit us.
With the exception of the information that brought you here, the balance of the home page will either feature new items, news and reviews or has a real purpose… its truly a front door to information, not just a brand image. There are no less than three ways to get directly to the products, to the information or to the place you want to be, and no level of information is more than three mouse-clicks away.
Noteworthy added features include: Interactive time-zone clocks above the main taskbar… Showing your time and ours.
We also added some ‘home page only’ product highlight buttons (below the vertical sliders). We did this because model railway accessories cover a huge range of items and subjects… This row of seven buttons highlights special or key products whose location isn’t immediately evident from the slider descriptions. The content and linking may change from time to time.
We’ve also added a selection of direct access options to the lower right-hand side of the home page for those who may know what they need, but not understand precisely where they want to go…
The Product Pages:
We’ve kept them as simple and clean as possible. The first thing you will notice is just how many NEW items there are… perhaps 30% of our current range was not represented on the old website, and the huge difference this has made surprised us all!!
We’ve done our best to group products into related areas, and these are shown in the large vertical tabs at the top of the home page which will take you directly to the various product families…
Each ‘family page’ has direct links to specific areas and to related products.
Each specific product page has direct links to related family products.
Each specific product page has direct links to advice, videos, tips, knowledge and the focus modelling forum.
We hope you like them!
The Information pages:
We now feature a separate well-structured section for manuals, tips, videos and the Focus Modelling Forum, giving you easily followed by product group access to all the latest manuals and materials that might make using our products easier for you.
Video archives are increasing quickly, and will also include ‘how to use’ videos for many of our products, showing specific addressing and set-up information for use with every common DCC brand
The forum is a totally new approach to sharing modelling knowledge and helping with use of our product – Starting small, we hope to encourage a wide range of high quality hands-on modellers to participate, to give you the benefit of the widest possible experience and expertise in all areas of the hobby.
The Knowledge Articles:
We have had many compliments over the years about our information pages and have taken particular care in preserving them for our new website.
These core articles have all been kept, reformatted and where needed, updated. You will find each of them in an appropriate place in the information pages, still readable online as always… but now also ready to download as a PDF file.
New articles expanding our knowledge base even further are under production… and we hope to add them soon.
Administration pages:
All aspects of DCCconcepts operations, from our operating policies and philosophy to our more pragmatic areas such as trading terms, shipping information and policy, ordering information, warranty terms and the like, are grouped together in one easy access area (in fact if you are reading this, you are there already).
Like all other areas of the website, there is more than one way to get there, and each individual page includes direct links to all other areas, so you will never need more than three mouse clicks to get to your destination and will never get lost on the DCCconcepts Website!
Well… that’s the new website.
We have done our best to get it right and hope you like it.
Kind regards from
Richard, Rand, Peter, Derek, Carly and of course the ‘too many to mention’ special individuals who made it all possible.
PS: Mistakes do happen: We have done our best to get it right and we really do hope you like it. Of course… we are only human, so if you happen to find a mistake or something we missed, we’d really appreciate an email letting us know about it.
So – please do not hesitate to email us at web@dccconcepts.com and let us know if you find something!