Early release - feedback wanted

[NHRAFan]

We are slowly rolling out our new osCommerce powered e-comm site. We have over 5000 items available with hundreds being added daily. The install has been heavily modded to suit our needs, with more mod in the works. We plan pretty heavy promotion once the site has had a chance to get some use.

 

Any feedback or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

THIS IS A LIVE SITE - ORDERS WILL BE PROCESSED!

 

Thank you!

 

http://www.dougherbert.com/catalog/index.php

[Simplyeasier]

We are slowly rolling out our new osCommerce powered e-comm site. We have over 5000 items available with hundreds being added daily. The install has been heavily modded to suit our needs, with more mod in the works. We plan pretty heavy promotion once the site has had a chance to get some use.

 

Any feedback or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

THIS IS A LIVE SITE - ORDERS WILL BE PROCESSED!

 

Thank you!

 

http://www.dougherbert.com/catalog/index.php

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Hi Brent

 

Some observations for you

 

Red backgrounds are a bit in your face - try to add TV type lines to break it up - and the white text does not read Very easily on that background

 

On the RHS of the web estate you are wasting space by amplifying what Free shipping, payment options etc mean - put these into a brief box and spell out the details in your info box. - then you can use the web estate for pictures - the internet is a visual medium and ppl want to see pic's not read.

 

Some pages still have the stock osC images - you have modified the site so get rid of these remnants

 

Your contacts page can improve - if you want ppl to buy from you tell them where you are physically and how they can reach you by phone not just e-mail - this increases confidence when everything else is equal

 

Some pages have the click to enlarge link BUT no image - case in point http://www.dougherbert.com/catalog/product...oducts_id=10373 - put in an image or two or don't show the link

 

When creating a new account - you get the dreaded this page contains both secure and non secure items - do you wish to continue - most ppl will decide not to continue - The problem is that your page contains images or objects that are not resident on your server so your SSL certificate does not cover the security for that image(s) or objects

 

Consider looking at the thread on how to reduce the number of screens ppl have to go thro when setting up a new account - you can read more about it here http://www.oscommerce.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=31021

 

hth

 

Charles

[NHRAFan]

Thanks for the feedback Charles. A few of the items you touched are are in the works, but I just haven't had the time to get the details taken care of. I fully plan to implement your create a new account mod, that's a brilliant idea. I realized why some of the pages have the image link and no image, thanks for pointing that out, it's a simple fix until I get a chance to add the real images.

[RyanSmith]

Hi, Not a bad site first off. I agree with Charles, the red is a bit in your face. I don't think that the default blue (in the product listing) goes with the red at all either. I don't see any images on the site, and that can be a real turn-off for some of your products. I guess for a lot of your products, they're just parts, and people don't need an image, but some of your products, you will definitly want to make some images.

 

Another big issue that I see, you need to find a way to cache your navigation. I don't know if it's because the amount of querys that needs to be run, or if it's becuase of the DHTML menu and the javascript having to load the values, but it takes a while to pop in.

 

Charles is right about the few osC stock icons laying around. They just don't add anything to the site, and make it look silly. I would change the header text on create_account.php so it says checkout information instead of My Account Information. It kinda ruins the point of checkout without having to create an account.

 

You should add the contrib country-state selector. This will automatically select your default country and pre-populate the state site. It just makes life easier for the customer.

 

All in all, not bad, I love the buttons and how they go with the site design. My biggest complaint is that the white text against the red background is a bit hard on the eyes, and there aren't enough images for your items.

 

Good job :thumbsup:

[NHRAFan]

Thanks for the feedbad Ryan.

 

You guys will have to forgive the red :(

 

I inherited the site and getting the e-comm going was #1 priority. Once the store is worked out I intend to do a complete redesign of the look. I am working on getting images now. They are the next big project. Tomorrow I will be adding manufacturer logos, which will help a little. Product images will take a little longer due to the sheer number of items for sale. 5000 so far with another 8000 to go!

 

Is there an easy way to ditch the stock images? I am taking them out of the code each time I edit a page, but it would be nice to just wipe them out.

 

I'll install the country-state contrib tonight, I was just thinking that there had to be a better way to do this.

 

Anyone have any text color suggestiong for a temporarily red site? Also, any ideas on caching the nav? I am sure it is due to the number of queries involved in building them and that's not getting any smaller. I would hate to stop using the DHTML menus, particularly since it was specifically requested by the bossman!

[RyanSmith]

Ya, yours is one of the few DHTML menus systems that I like. Most of them are frustrating to use, espically with a touchpad or a trackball. I think that there is caching built into the stock osC catagories list. I don't know if your levegraging this for your system, or have compleatly redesigned the catagories box, but you should be able to get an idea of how to do it from the includes/boxes/categories.php file.

 

I would do a global search and replace on the directory for

            <td class="pageHeading" align="right"><?php echo tep_image(DIR_WS_IMAGES .

and replace it with

            <td class="pageHeading" align="right"><?php //echo tep_image(DIR_WS_IMAGES .

 

I think thats how I got rid of them all, but for some reason every now and then, I see one popup somewhere that I didn't get.

 

Well, good luck, it's looking good.

[NHRAFan]

That did it for the stock images.

 

The categories.php file is completely replaced for the DHTML menus. Guess I will have to do some digging around for that. Worst case I could always build the menus and dump the results in to a new table, then use that to build the menus. Number of queries would go down significantly that way. There'd have to be a way to force an update in case any new categories are made, but that could be done in the admin. If no one has done it yet, I guess I have an idea for a contribution now.

 

Thanks again.

[FalseDawn]

There's a problem with your cert which I'm sure you know about - "this page contains secure and insecure blah blah blah"

 

Make DOB optional or remove altogether in account/checkout page.

 

Why do I need a password when I checkout? My local Wal-Mart doesn't ask me for one at the till...

 

Your address fields are ordered incorrectly.

 

There are broken links in your html pages off the index page, too.

 

 

Good luck with it.

[NHRAFan]

Thanks FD. I am still trying to figure out the cert deal, the secure folder is mapped to the unsecure folder so there is no doubt everything is in both. I am still looking for what exactly causes the warning.

 

Removed DOB and reordered address fields.

 

The password for checkout is there because we require registration. See above suggestions for why the check out works this way.

 

Where did you find the broken links? I looked but I couldn't find any broken links.

 

Thanks for the suggestions!

[KeithAck]

http://www.dougherbert.com/catalog/order.html

 

The specials on the right are all broken links.

[NHRAFan]

Doh! Ok, I never thought to click on our own banners. Those are fixed now. Thanks Keith.