Because it has a bunch of buttons that are irrelevant, which basically add too much unnecessary visual "noise" to the page.
Between the slideshow and the video, I would suggest going with simple screenshots of the control panel and a short summary of what the service is. Then have a separate longer page that explains features in a bit more length, and also have detailed description available in the Documentation section. Currently, the page simply has "too many characters".
Also the color scheme should not be white on dark. This is purely a perception thing. You are pitching clarity, reliability and simplicity - the color for these is white.
Also the page looks a bit sloppy layout-wise. The "exactly" from ".. showing exactly what .." actually sits on top of the slideshow.
The "NOW" part from "Try out monitoring NOW" sounds tacky. Also the dark-on-gray is not a very good color choice for an action button. It's gotta be bright and it should look visually pleasant.
The "WIGS" is effectively another source of the noise that detracts from your primary service. I would consider renaming it into something a bit more human-friendly or taking it out completely. The same goes for "security videos of the academy" link at the bottom. Why the heck would I care about some academy.
All in all, the site needs to be simplified and streamlined to focus on just one thing - your primary service. The service itself appears to be valuable, but (a) it's going to be a tough sell (as its value is in detecting abnormal conditions, i.e. its value is not tangible under normal conditions) (b) make damn sure it respects robots.txt, because otherwise with a one-minute polling interval you will be blacklisted in no time.
Thanks for the suggestions.. lots to work for on Monday :) That's exactly what I wanted...
Also, on the page having too many characters, I agree with you. I spend hours adding and removing messages from there trying to make it clean, but at the same time explaining what it does.
i don't think too much text is necessarily bad. it is possible to convey a lot of information and details on one page. look at most apple product pages or a page like
http://www.agile42.com/cms/pages/agilo/.
use the space on the page. use white space. go deep and let users scroll. keep the typography and graphics as simple as possible. be systematic with your typography and layout grid. keep the text columns narrow to make them easier to read.
your home page is a good start. did you work with a designer or just draw on good influences?
I thought the slideshow was different from what I expected and my eyes immediately went to it when it loaded. But it didn't strike me as bad, just keep in mind that because of the load time, it may be pulling people's eyes there instead of your page.
It doesn't fit. A lot of that information would be interesting, but it takes extra time to load, and because of the small size is hard to read. If you actually put the information on the page in an appealing way, I'd be much happier to look over it.
