My store - almost complete

[ricersux]

I did use an off the shelf template but had to change alot of the images to make it work with my products...it isn't 100% live yet as I still have a few things to work out. But your feedback would be greatly appreciated.

 

www.driftmafia.com/store

 

Thanks

 

------------

Made link clickable

Andrew

[gty]

the flash reloading after every click is kinda annoying.

[ricersux]

I agree but I am not sure how to stop that. I want to remove the sound so that it is less annoying.

 

Any thing else?

[ricersux]

One comment? Come on guys rip me up I don't care! There has to be other feedback.

[Guest]

Ok, to start with the sound on the flash movie has to go - I was sitting here peacefully listening to music, I don't want to mute the computer for that reason, but I also don't want some stupid 'bong' noise everytime I view a new page.

 

You need bigger/clearer/something images of the shirts. This one for example: http://driftmafia.com/store/images/TextShirtBig.png is virtually impossible to see clearly from your illustration.

 

Your header image is vast, it takes up most of the window height at low resolutions.

 

On the product_info pages, I think the price is a bit hard to spot, tucked up there under the header in red text, I'd likt it to be more visible.

 

You need to optimise images, flash, etc. for speed, it's just far too slow:

 

Download Times*

Connection Rate Download Time

14.4K 446.99 seconds

28.8K 223.60 seconds

33.6K 191.68 seconds

56K 115.09 seconds

ISDN 128K 35.38 seconds

T1 1.44Mbps 3.25 seconds

 

In Safari on the mac, your 'buy now' button on product_info pages, is replaced by the browsers standard button, I have no idea why, very odd.

 

Having said all that I actually really like the site, there is still a lot of work that could be done to improve it, but the basis is really nice. :)

[spax]

I agree with John, it is a good looking site but needs that Flash taming and some decent images.

Do the shirts actually look like that? That is what I would be thinking, as a buyer. I want to see some real images, not something drawn in Photoshop.

 

You need some more stock but I'm sure that is something you are in the process of doing.

 

How about some info on the landing page. I want to know who you are, what you do and where you are, before I give you any money.

 

You need some meta tag information, keywords, description etc. You can use a contribution or do it manually but you need some.

 

You could do with SSL. Even if you are using off-site payment, some customers might not want to give their personal details over an unsecure connection.

 

Definately a good start though, keep up the good work! :thumbsup:

[ricersux]

Thanks for the feedback - I agree about the flash, I like it but I HATE THE SOUND it annoys the crap outta me! I wish I could figure out how to make the flash only happen once, not on every page load. The sound is going to be taken out. I don't know how I can speed it up tho.

 

I am also going to be replacing the images with something like this, let me know if this would be better:

 

THUMBNAIL

 

EXPANDED IMAGE

 

THUMBNAIL

 

EXPANDED IMAGE

 

My host has a shared ssl and I thought I had implemented it I will have to check on that.

 

The meta tags contribution will be utilized too.

 

I am going to write up a little "about us" paragraph to put on the home page.

 

Thanks again for all the feedback and keep it coming.

[ricersux]

I have removed the sound from the flash and typed up some information to put on the front page just haven't uploaded it yet. I am also working on the pics. Anything else?

[sharplab]

Overall not bad but.......

 

Noone want to load a page via ISDN that will take close to 40 secs!

You will lose many of your potential would be customers.

 

Optimize your images and reduce your flash header. Maybe opt for a static header logo. I had the same problem. My flash header was a whopping 100k+, I removed the sound and it went down to 75k. Still had horrible load times so ditched it and got a nice simple static header. Ask John he knows my site.

 

Now i have ISDN load times under 10 secs. This a must for especially having only 5 products. Imageine your load times when you have 20 shirts on the main page.

 

UGHHHH...............

 

Good luck!

 

Steve

[Guest]

Here's a quick way to fix the flash reload. It's abstract but you should get the basic idea.

 

if ($_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] == 'http://www.yoursite.com')

{

show the flash movie

}

else

{

 

}

[Guest]

Here's a quick way to fix the flash reload. It's abstract but you should get the basic idea.

In the header code,

if ($_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] == 'http://www.yoursite.com')
{
  show the flash movie
}
else
{
 show static image
}

 

Its crude, but thats the gist of it.

You check to see if the user is on the home page, and if the are, show the flash. Otherwise, show a static image.

 

 

D

[Crackedken]

Ok, problem here. When I put shirts in the shopping cart before logging in, then go to check out, when I log-in, the shirts aren't there. If I log in first, then when I go to the shirts, I'm logged out again, and then the first problem comes back into play. Any ideas how can we get this fixed please?

[ricersux]

Just an FYI, Crackedken is the main force building my site. Please help with any information you can provide.

[Crackedken]

Ok, problem here. When I put shirts in the shopping cart before logging in, then go to check out, when I log-in, the shirts aren't there. If I log in first, then when I go to the shirts, I'm logged out again, and then the first problem comes back into play. Any ideas how can we get this fixed please?

 

Really really need help with this if anyone has an inkling as to what the problem could be, because I'm completely drawing a blank with this one.

[ricersux]

Might want to post this in the general support forum.

[hrsports]

Were does this code go again. I've tried it in the flash file and in my site under the head and it isn't working anywhere. I keep getting string errors.

 

 

 

 

Here's a quick way to fix the flash reload. It's abstract but you should get the basic idea.

 

if ($_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] == 'http://www.yoursite.com')

{

show the flash movie

}

else

{

 

}

[ricersux]

The site is at 90%...please check it out again and let me know of any other changes that should be made. (it is technically live so do not enter cc information if you go thru the check out...or just enter 4111111111111111)

 

Things I know need changed:

SSL (working on that one right now with the host - I currently have a shared ssl and need a private)

 

Images (the images on the products are only temporary and will be replaced before going live)

[chooch]

correct me if i am wrong but this is a template right?

 

there was a clothing osC template available not long ago which had virtually the same design except it was beige not black...

[ricersux]

Yes, it started as a template but we changed almost all of the images and what not. I am not a programmer or web designer so a template was the best option for me to begin with.

[chooch]

Yes, it started as a template but we changed almost all of the images and what not. I am not a programmer or web designer so a template was the best option for me to begin with.

the reason i asked was that the key problem with these types of templates (actually this one is quite good) that they have various bits of hard-coding which means certaisn types of modification especially anything related to multi-language will be problematic because of the 'english' hard-coding.

 

as long as you stick to just one language (english) those problems won't arise. good luck