My website - MKII! ...

[mj_superfly]

Hello... after a few weeks of work, I've finally uploaded the 'mark II' design of my first osCommerce website.

 

My Website

 

Known issues:

No SSL - trying to find the cash!

Using PayPal - ditto

Session ID lost if slideshow on index.php is clicked (can anybody help with this?)

One or two images missing - working on it this afternoon

Still setting up the cross selling on some products

 

Would really appreciate some good constructive criticism - I've been looking at it so long that I'm probably missing some completely obvious stuff.

 

Thanks in advance.

Steve

[fatmcgav]

Very very nice site, very pleasing on the eyes, and very original.

 

Couple of bits though :D

 

1)The search text box is very hard to see, almost missed it, saw the mag glass and though "hmm..."

2)Personally, i'd feel better if the "Products" link on the top bar took u to a categories page, rather then to an all prods page - i think it would just give the customer a more direct route to the correct category...

3) Have u tried display products in Rows instead of Colums? Eg: here

I think maybe with ure more original design, Rows might fit a bit better...

 

Also, i noticed on some of the products u've got an "Also in the product range" section - is this just the standard X-Sell Products Contrib? If it is, it's very well concealed :D

 

Overall, a very nice site though, and i can see u've got a fantastic eye for design.

[mj_superfly]

Very very nice site, very pleasing on the eyes, and very original.

 

Couple of bits though :D

 

1)The search text box is very hard to see, almost missed it, saw the mag glass and though "hmm..."

2)Personally, i'd feel better if the "Products" link on the top bar took u to a categories page, rather then to an all prods page - i think it would just give the customer a more direct route to the correct category...

3) Have u tried display products in Rows instead of Colums? Eg: here

I think maybe with ure more original design, Rows might fit a bit better...

 

Also, i noticed on some of the products u've got an "Also in the product range" section - is this just the standard X-Sell Products Contrib? If it is, it's very well concealed :D

 

Overall, a very nice site though, and i can see u've got a fantastic eye for design.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Thanks for the comments & the kind words... appreciate you taking the time to look :thumbsup:

 

1) I'll work on the search box - it is a bit 'plain', maybe I can embellish it a bit and make it stand out.

2) Yep, hadn't thought of that - was just trying to maintain a link to the allprods page for the search engines (:-") but you're right, a categories page would make more sense.

3) Haven't tried rows, but I'd like to move away from the stock product listing so I'll give it a go. Thanks for the tip :D

 

The 'Also in this collection' is indeed the x-sell contribution. It was important for us that customers could navigate by the materials or style in the jewellery, not just the type. IMHO, I think it works pretty well. Still not fully set up though - the x-sell interface is a bit clunky to say the least, so it's taking ages.

 

Anybody else? FalseDawn? :lol:

[Wendy James]

Not sure how you linked the images in the slide show... did you use a regular link or a tep_href_link? Unless you have fixed it by now I don't see a problem. I added a product to my cart and it stayed there when clicking a link on the slideshow.

 

Very nice looking

 

Any particular reason why Neck is lighter than the rest of the text in your links on the left?

 

And I agree, great use of the xsell

[mj_superfly]

Not sure how you linked the images in the slide show... did you use a regular link or a tep_href_link? Unless you have fixed it by now I don't see a problem. I added a product to my cart and it stayed there when clicking a link on the slideshow.

 

Very nice looking

 

Any particular reason why Neck is lighter than the rest of the text in your links on the left?

 

And I agree, great use of the xsell

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Hi Wendy, thanks for the comments. The slideshow is linked using a tep_href_link to ADVANCED_SEARCH_RESULTS with the relevant keywords appended. It's fine as long as you have cookies enabled, but loses the session ID otherwise. Not a huge issue, but a bug nonetheless.

 

I was going for sort of a gradient effect on the links... perhaps there aren't enough categories for the effect to be as subtle as I'd like!

[Wendy James]

Are the images random or are you picking which images to use?

And as far as I know I do not have cookies enabled. I hate em.

 

ohhh and the effect would be cool. Maybe it looks a lil funny cause the other links are not that long.

[mj_superfly]

The images are hand picked, since the photos aren't directly associated with any specific category or product. It's based on a JavaScript slideshow you can find here :D

 

Not sure about the cookie thing then... maybe someone more knowledgeable can help us out? I believe that osCommerce uses session cookies, which most browsers will accept unless the user has turned them off.

 

Is that right? :S

 

My Webpage

[Wendy James]

Well instead of linking using a search string, you could use the tep link and link to a category directly. Can't see why it would make a difference but I am no php or database pro. =)

 

I do not allow cookies. I have them blocked, atleast I did. If it's been changed it wasn't me that did it. lol But I think it all depends on how you set it up when you are installing.. if you choose to save sessions to mysql or a file. I always do mysql.

[mj_superfly]

Well instead of linking using a search string, you could use the tep link and link to a category directly. Can't see why it would make a difference but I am no php or database pro. =)

 

I do not allow cookies. I have them blocked, atleast I did. If it's been changed it wasn't me that did it. lol But I think it all depends on how you set it up when you are installing.. if you choose to save sessions to mysql or a file. I always do mysql.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

The link is to a page of search results - not a category. Have checked my settings and I've got it set to MySQL sessions, so maybe it's OK. Hopefully it was just a problem when I ran it on my local server :thumbsup:

 

Any more comments on my site?

 

Cheers!

[H2B2]

The link is to a page of search results - not a category. Have checked my settings and I've got it set to MySQL sessions, so maybe it's OK. Hopefully it was just a problem when I ran it on my local server  :thumbsup:

 

Any more comments on my site?

 

Cheers!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Nice and tastefull design. Well done job!

 

The store has a clear focus on the products you'r selling (which is good), but lacks info on the seller, payment methods and delivery process, i.e.

- The About Us page could benefit with more details about your firm, and -if applicable or interesting to buyers - a few words about the production process, materials, producers, etc.

- contact info (address, phone/fax/mail) is missing

- sales conditions and delivery info is missing

But perhaps these are the pages your working on? If not, you might want to offer potential buyers some more confidence in buying from your store by giving those details.

 

Rings may be a difficult product to sell, if you don't include a measurements table detailing what you mean by Small, Medium, etc.

 

Cheers,

Al

[Jumping Rabbit]

Very smooth, beautifully clear pictures, clear navigation, a nice toutch with the no "frames" picture zoom/pop-up. :D

 

The product listing pages and the login page does not match the rest of the sites overall good looks.

 

I also miss some more information about sizes concerning rings, bracelets and bangles.

[mj_superfly]

Rings may be a difficult product to sell, if you don't include a measurements table detailing what you mean by Small, Medium, etc.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Hi Al - thanks for the comments! The info you mention is linked in the footer (Delivery and Returns, Privacy Policy, Contact Us, Site Map). Nonetheless, I think that building confidence with potential buyers is a key area we need to work on.. does anyone know anything about the Internet Shopping is Safe or Safebuy schemes? Are they worth the money?

 

Sizing of rings and bracelets is a known problem - we're getting a ring sizer to accurately size the products and then I'll sort out some kind of chart.

 

Jumping Rabbit - agreed that the product listing pages (and a few others!) are still a bit ugly. I'm looking for ways to improve them but haven't been hit by any inspiration as yet!

 

Keep the comments coming! :D

[mj_superfly]

:-" (bump)

 

Anybody else? Could really use some more suggestions :'(

[Guest]

:-"  (bump)

 

Anybody else? Could really use some more suggestions  :'(

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Probably why no one has responded to your post is they can't find anything wrong! ;)

 

Great site! :thumbsup: How's your search engine rank, just out of curiosity?

[Evil Petting Zoo]

Great site! I love your look, and I also love dichoric glass jewelry!!

[mj_superfly]

Probably why no one has responded to your post is they can't find anything wrong! ;)

 

Great site!  :thumbsup: How's your search engine rank, just out of curiosity?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

:lol: I wish it _was_ that good... still planning lots of improvements, but overall I'm fairly happy with the way it's shaping up.

 

Search engine rankings are OK but need to do some more work on keyword tags for individual products. Jewellery is fiercely competitive, but we're backing it up with a Google adwords campaign, which is getting us a lot of relevant clicks (although not any sales as yet!).

 

Planned improvements:

1) SSL

2) Credit card processing (leaving PayPal as an option)

3) Pure CSS tableless design (halfway there with this :thumbsup: )

4) Restyling product listing module

 

Anybody else have any comments? Or thoughts on my planned improvements?

 

My Webpage

[karstenvoigt]

Anybody else have any comments? Or thoughts on my planned improvements?

 

My Webpage

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Hi Steve,

here are my comments on your website. Of course, this is very objective and other people may have different opinions on these topics.

1. I think you should make those buttons inactive which link to the current page the client is visiting: If he is on the homepage, the button ?home? should be inactive, etc. The same holds for all your other pages. To my mind, this would make navigation easier (although navigating your site is already pleasantly simple).

2. Products page: In the headline, it says ?Product Name +?. What does the ?+? mean?

3. The search function as a logical flaw. If I search for ?bangles?, I get the message that there is no matching product; only if I search for ?bangle? (in the singular), the results show up. So you would assume that you would always need to use the singular form of the noun to find products. But if you look for ?rings? (the plural), you nonetheless get 22 search results.

4. The search for ?ring? returns 36 products.

 

The problem is the very simplistic search function of osCommerce: It seems to check the database for ANY term which includes the searchterm. So, if you would include the book ?the lord of the rings? in your database, this book would be displayed when you search either for ?ring? or for ?rings?.

 

5. This leads to the next problem: if we look for rings, your shop displays all your earrings as well. This is probably not what the customer had in mind.

6. ?About us?: I don?t know which expectations other people have when visiting an ?about us? page, but I want to find out who the people are who run the internet shop, and how I can contact them. You do not display any of that information. You begin with explaining your company?s mission and product portfolio (which I think is a good introduction to an ?about us? page), followed by a ?continue? button. My first impression was ?so, where is the information about who runs this shop? Why does he hide it? why do I have to click a ?continue? button to get to that info??. So, next to the fact that the information which I expected to find was not there, it was not clear to me where the ?continue? button would lead me to. When I clicked the button, I was very amazed to find myself on the homepage again. Although I like your store, I have to admit that I would not purchase from somebody who does not offer any contact address or phone number.

7. shopping cart and checkout: Good that you installed the purchase without account contribution. To my mind, it is a must.

8. Delivery and returns: Just a minor issue: If you want to stress that shipping to any UK destination is free, I would let this stand out clearly in the table. Why not use bold type for the word ?free? in the table? and repeat this next to each weight class? And: Are there no items which weigh more than 500g?

9. Contact us: ahhh ? here we have your address. sorry, saw this only now. maybe you want to repeat it in the ?about us? section? Further, I found the sentence ?please use the form below to email us. Alternatively, we can be contacted directly by email? confusing at first and thought there was a typo. Kind of didn?t expect that you would offer two alternative ways for emailing you?

10. Sitemap: the links my account/account information, my account/address book and my account/order history all lead to the same page

 

 

I hope that my feedback helped you.

 

Maybe you can give me some advice on the slideshow you integrated into your site. I checked the link to http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex14...inslideshow.htm, and they say one should simply post their code into the body-section of the file. Here are my questions:

1. From where does the slideshow load the images? can I specify the image list? As I have implemented the sm, med, lg contribution, I have three different sized images for each product; obviously, I want to show only one of them

2. Can I open the slideshow in a separate window instead of letting it constantly run on the homepage? I am thinking of putting something like ?click here for a slideshow? onto the homepage.

3. Do you think it is possible to add previous/next buttons instead of having the slideshow automatically change the image at fixed intervals?

4. What would happen if the client has no javascript? would he get an error message?

 

Karsten

[mj_superfly]

Hi Karsten, many thanks for the comprehensive review! :)

 

(grrr quote tags aren't working!)

 

Hi Steve,

here are my comments on your website. Of course, this is very objective and other people may have different opinions on these topics.

1. I think you should make those buttons inactive which link to the current page the client is visiting: If he is on the homepage, the button ?home? should be inactive, etc. The same holds for all your other pages. To my mind, this would make navigation easier (although navigating your site is already pleasantly simple).

I agree this does make things a little easier. Unfortunately, I think the law of diminishing returns comes into force with a site in the end... it would take a while to work this out and it isn't a _huge_ improvement. I'll put it on the list :thumbsup:

 

2. Products page: In the headline, it says ?Product Name +?. What does the ?+? mean?

Clicking on the Product Name title sorts it either ascending or descending (the + changes to a -). Standard osC behavior I believe, but perhaps a bit unclear.

 

3. The search function as a logical flaw. If I search for ?bangles?, I get the message that there is no matching product; only if I search for ?bangle? (in the singular), the results show up. So you would assume that you would always need to use the singular form of the noun to find products. But if you look for ?rings? (the plural), you nonetheless get 22 search results.

4. The search for ?ring? returns 36 products.

 

The problem is the very simplistic search function of osCommerce: It seems to check the database for ANY term which includes the searchterm. So, if you would include the book ?the lord of the rings? in your database, this book would be displayed when you search either for ?ring? or for ?rings?.

5. This leads to the next problem: if we look for rings, your shop displays all your earrings as well. This is probably not what the customer had in mind.

Yep, there does seem to be a big 'ole flaw with the search mechanism. Nonetheless, we are only a small store (around 100 products) and all the examples you give (bangles, rings, earrings) have their own categories and I'd expect costumers to look there first. I've really only left the search function in so customers can find all products in a range e.g. jade or dichroic.

 

6. ?About us?: I don?t know which expectations other people have when visiting an ?about us? page, but I want to find out who the people are who run the internet shop, and how I can contact them. You do not display any of that information. You begin with explaining your company?s mission and product portfolio (which I think is a good introduction to an ?about us? page), followed by a ?continue? button. My first impression was ?so, where is the information about who runs this shop? Why does he hide it? why do I have to click a ?continue? button to get to that info??. So, next to the fact that the information which I expected to find was not there, it was not clear to me where the ?continue? button would lead me to. When I clicked the button, I was very amazed to find myself on the homepage again. Although I like your store, I have to admit that I would not purchase from somebody who does not offer any contact address or phone number.

I'm currently rewriting this page, nonetheless, you aren't the first person to suggest contact information should go on this page, so I'll fix it.

 

7. shopping cart and checkout: Good that you installed the purchase without account contribution. To my mind, it is a must.

Agreed. I'm still not happy with my checkout process... PayPal adds a bunch of extra clicks that I'd rather not have. Intend to install direct credit card processing, leaving PayPal as an option.

 

8. Delivery and returns: Just a minor issue: If you want to stress that shipping to any UK destination is free, I would let this stand out clearly in the table. Why not use bold type for the word ?free? in the table? and repeat this next to each weight class? And: Are there no items which weigh more than 500g?

I have plans to re-inforce some of our selling points throughout the store and this would help, thanks :thumbsup: None of our individual items are over 200g and the postage rates worldwide are very high about 500g, so I've left them off this page. Weights up to 2kg are calculated correctly at checkout.

 

9. Contact us: ahhh ? here we have your address. sorry, saw this only now. maybe you want to repeat it in the ?about us? section? Further, I found the sentence ?please use the form below to email us. Alternatively, we can be contacted directly by email? confusing at first and thought there was a typo. Kind of didn?t expect that you would offer two alternative ways for emailing you?

You're right, this is unclear. I'll fix it.

 

 

10. Sitemap: the links my account/account information, my account/address book and my account/order history all lead to the same page

Not if you have an account and are logged it. I'll make it so they disappear if not logged in.

 

Maybe you can give me some advice on the slideshow you integrated into your site. I checked the link to http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex14...inslideshow.htm, and they say one should simply post their code into the body-section of the file. Here are my questions:

1. From where does the slideshow load the images? can I specify the image list? As I have implemented the sm, med, lg contribution, I have three different sized images for each product; obviously, I want to show only one of them

I load them from a sub-folder of my images folder and they are hand picked and resized specifically for the slideshow.

2. Can I open the slideshow in a separate window instead of letting it constantly run on the homepage? I am thinking of putting something like ?click here for a slideshow? onto the homepage.

Yes... you can make a javascript pop-up window and put whatever you like in it. Bear in mind that pop-ups will be blocked by IE 6 in WinXP SP2, hence my use of a hidden DIV for the enlarged images on the product page.

3. Do you think it is possible to add previous/next buttons instead of having the slideshow automatically change the image at fixed intervals?

If you have the time to hard code it, then this would be very simple to do. Unfortunately, I'm no programmer so I can't help on coding something like this. Check out Dynamic Drive though, I'm sure they have galleries/slideshows which do exactly that.

4. What would happen if the client has no javascript? would he get an error message?

He would get nothing... I haven't got a NOSCRIPT alternative for the slideshow yet.

 

Good luck and thanks for the comments! :D

[Guest]

2. Products page: In the headline, it says ?Product Name +?. What does the ?+? mean?

Clicking on the Product Name title sorts it either ascending or descending (the + changes to a -). Standard osC behavior I believe, but perhaps a bit unclear.

 

It is standard, when you move your mouse over it a tooltip pops up telling you you can sort on this column by clicking

[♥BlueYon]

Simple, but nice!