MrMcauber Posted March 22, 2006 Posted March 22, 2006 Hi Guys, I would be grateful for any feedback relating to the site I have just updated/modified. It is located at: http://sayitincense.co.uk/store/index.php I must admit it is only about 90% of the way to where I want it to be, I have a few more things to do to it, but I have to go away for 2 weeks on business in a few days time and I will be finishing it off when I return. So I thought now would be as good a time as any to ask for any comments as when I come to finish it off, I can accomodate any suggestions made. As for the site, Its not too great a deviation from the standard install. The layout has oviously changed, and I wanted the colours to be calm, relaxed due to nature of the productsd (incense). I have altered some code to get my desired result - the categories listing on the left for example, and some things have moved around or been removed completely. I wont say too much about what I think is right, wrong or what I plan to change as I dont want to sway any objective criticism, I want you to view it as an unsuspecting, but prospective, customer may do. The only thing I will say is that at the very top left, under the SayItIncense writing a logo will be going there once the person doing it has it finished. Cheers
Guest Posted March 22, 2006 Posted March 22, 2006 I love that outdoor scene picture on the main page. The thumbnails take a long while to open and are fuzzy - perhaps make then a large size. Instead of 75x75, do 100x100 or something. Just opened the Aran Cross pendant - need much more details - perhaps a little history about it or something? Keywords, Keywords, Keywords *grins* Speaking of which - your main page needs some "blurb" that contains keywords! The search engines need something to grab ahold of and read. Contact Us page should have physical address, email address(es), and phone number if at all possible. Since you don't have an About Us page, perhaps a little blurb about your company here also. The outline around Home, New Products, My account, Shopping Cart and Check out - the outline needs to be darker, the words are a tad washed out otherwise. Like the overall look - nice job!
MrMcauber Posted March 22, 2006 Author Posted March 22, 2006 Brilliant barbara! Thanks for the feedback, and everything you say makes absolute sense! Some of the thinsg you mention are what I plan to work on when I get back, for example the product images are a hangover from the old store. As for the SEO stuff, I have some other pages, they are linked from the centre middle of the header - resisn, Incense, Burners, Jewellery) that are basic HTML pages that are going to be optomised. They are another part of the site I am updating when I get back as at the moment they dont have the same style and dont work in firefox either. Thx again Barbara, youve added a few items to my to-do-list which is just what I wanted! :D Many Thanks indeed! GW I love that outdoor scene picture on the main page. The thumbnails take a long while to open and are fuzzy - perhaps make then a large size. Instead of 75x75, do 100x100 or something. Just opened the Aran Cross pendant - need much more details - perhaps a little history about it or something? Keywords, Keywords, Keywords *grins* Speaking of which - your main page needs some "blurb" that contains keywords! The search engines need something to grab ahold of and read. Contact Us page should have physical address, email address(es), and phone number if at all possible. Since you don't have an About Us page, perhaps a little blurb about your company here also. The outline around Home, New Products, My account, Shopping Cart and Check out - the outline needs to be darker, the words are a tad washed out otherwise. Like the overall look - nice job!
MrMcauber Posted March 22, 2006 Author Posted March 22, 2006 Darn I hit the wrong button there.... I have made a slight alteration to the washed out writing on the left hand menu just to make it contrast slightly better. Not sure if its enough, if not I will sort when I get back. Thanks Brilliant barbara! Thanks for the feedback, and everything you say makes absolute sense! Some of the thinsg you mention are what I plan to work on when I get back, for example the product images are a hangover from the old store. As for the SEO stuff, I have some other pages, they are linked from the centre middle of the header - resisn, Incense, Burners, Jewellery) that are basic HTML pages that are going to be optomised. They are another part of the site I am updating when I get back as at the moment they dont have the same style and dont work in firefox either. Thx again Barbara, youve added a few items to my to-do-list which is just what I wanted! :D Many Thanks indeed! GW
Guest Posted March 23, 2006 Posted March 23, 2006 The "washed out" words are better *grins* Thanks for your help with my header problem - got my logos showing up now *grins* Have fun on your biz trip. Let us know when you've updated the site - can't wait to see the finished touches. I see you are in the UK, but I'm looking for a US based company that will drop ship jewelry such as yours (especially Celtic), if you know of any, can you let me know? I still haven't found any after 3 months of looking. UGH.
Guest Posted March 23, 2006 Posted March 23, 2006 Decided to click on those header links - VERY nice! I like the Jewelry one especially - those pics are so clear compared to the ones in the shop (thumbnails).
tastar Posted March 27, 2006 Posted March 27, 2006 I just noticed your store in the Live Shops area and thought then that it was a very nice site. The HTML pages that are links from the header don't work in FireFox 1.5 or Safari on a Mac. They do work in IE 5, though. You have some very definitive and strong colors in the static home page image. I don't think that pulling some of them (like making the brown that you use much heavier to match the image) would hurt the appearance. You have a lot of white space and the very light color scheme makes it look like you have too much white space. And dark colors can bring contrast as well as peace and harmony. The clickable part of the shopping cart drops off the bottom of my screen. I typically see shopping carts at the top. Maybe they are up there since they are the focus of ecommerce. And, it should be easy for people to find them and go to them - I don't think that the bottom is a good location. I still haven't found anyone who has changed the wording What's in My Cart? Your shopping cart is empty. I don't know how it would matter or be helpful, but it would be nice to see someone change it. Very nice job. Tony
MrMcauber Posted April 11, 2006 Author Posted April 11, 2006 Thanks for all the positive comments, and equaly so (if not more so) those that brought some shortcomings to light. Im back from my 2 week trip so will be putting some effort into the improvements. I have made one alteration though, in the "Shopping Cart" as soon as an item is added it shows the estimated shipping costs and total costs (these are actually accurate as I have only the one method). I know there is a contribution that can do this, but I did this one myself as I have only one shipping method and therefore it only took a few lines of code. Not sure if this will help people take the next step to buying once they put items in the cart, I sometimes feel having to register BEFORE knowing the shipping may discourage some. I also intend to add the option to purchase without an account in the future, anyone use this ontribution and if so do you think it helps encourage more people to buy? I've added a logo to the top left - the burner with smoke coming out, not as happy with that as I had hoped, but its a start. The pages linked at the top that dont display correctly in firefox etc will be fixed over the next week or so. I have done one more thing thats not so visible, really a stab at SEO in a way, I have a script that generates a static html page for each product in the store, and the script sets the meta tags, the html file name is the product name and a few more things, not sure if it will be any good but if it works I will keep you all informed. It also generates a page with links to all these product pages too... Shopping cart at the top of screen... Yes, that was my preferred option, but I found it hard to incorporate a section that could grow (i.e. the cart) into a section that was not designed to grow, i.e. the header - hence it was re-homed in the left column. This is something I will revisit in the future..... If anyone else wants to add some critique then I would be very happy, Thanks GW I just noticed your store in the Live Shops area and thought then that it was a very nice site. The HTML pages that are links from the header don't work in FireFox 1.5 or Safari on a Mac. They do work in IE 5, though. You have some very definitive and strong colors in the static home page image. I don't think that pulling some of them (like making the brown that you use much heavier to match the image) would hurt the appearance. You have a lot of white space and the very light color scheme makes it look like you have too much white space. And dark colors can bring contrast as well as peace and harmony. The clickable part of the shopping cart drops off the bottom of my screen. I typically see shopping carts at the top. Maybe they are up there since they are the focus of ecommerce. And, it should be easy for people to find them and go to them - I don't think that the bottom is a good location. I still haven't found anyone who has changed the wording What's in My Cart? Your shopping cart is empty. I don't know how it would matter or be helpful, but it would be nice to see someone change it. Very nice job. Tony
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