Feedback Requested

[compwhizmm90]

Hi,

I made a site for someone in february with the stock Oscommerce design. It is now July and it has had about 115 orders. I recently designed it and I want to know if there are anyways to improve it and what you think about the site, colors, graphics, the message board, etc. The only thing still left to be done is the About Us link at the top, so please ignore the fact that you cannot click it. Also, please don't make any test orders, because it it live. Thanks!!! :)

 

Summer Hill Seeds Link

[tastar]

 

This is the way that your customer comments look at 100 percent in Firefox 1.505 on a Mac. Some of the text isn't defined in a stylesheet and defaults to default text, including "Website by: MTM Web Design". You don't have any cellspacing (cellpadding?) between product_info text and the left column - it looks too tight without it.

 

I just looked at the site in IE 5 on a Mac, and it looks completely different. The colors are different, the head is completely different (it's looks the way that you intended it). All of the text is defined by a stylesheet, text that looked too small in Firefox is okay. Text that looked okay in Firefox looks too big, etc. I think that you really need to spend time testing it in different browsers and different platforms.

 

The color scheme in Firefox looks pretty good. The one that appears in IE looks too bright. In both, the blue buttons just don't cut it. You could go to to a button generator site like http://ekstreme.com/buttonmaker/ and generate some nice rectangular buttons that match your color scheme.

 

I think that you need more information about who you are and where you are. I didn't find a phone number or an address.

 

The few photos that I checked shrink when you hit click to enlarge. Maybe it should say click to shrink.

 

The stuff looks very interesting. But, you should have more refined categories - like sun, partial sun, shade, like zones for northern, southern, areas, etc. so that novices can figure out what to get that will work in their environment.

 

Overall, the site has a lot of potential. But, you really need to stabilize it re. cross browser compatibility as well as adding more sophisticated and guided access to your products.

 

Good luck with it!

 

Tony

[compwhizmm90]

 

This is the way that your customer comments look at 100 percent in Firefox 1.505 on a Mac. Some of the text isn't defined in a stylesheet and defaults to default text, including "Website by: MTM Web Design". You don't have any cellspacing (cellpadding?) between product_info text and the left column - it looks too tight without it.

 

I just looked at the site in IE 5 on a Mac, and it looks completely different. The colors are different, the head is completely different (it's looks the way that you intended it). All of the text is defined by a stylesheet, text that looked too small in Firefox is okay. Text that looked okay in Firefox looks too big, etc. I think that you really need to spend time testing it in different browsers and different platforms.

 

The color scheme in Firefox looks pretty good. The one that appears in IE looks too bright. In both, the blue buttons just don't cut it. You could go to to a button generator site like http://ekstreme.com/buttonmaker/ and generate some nice rectangular buttons that match your color scheme.

 

I think that you need more information about who you are and where you are. I didn't find a phone number or an address.

 

The few photos that I checked shrink when you hit click to enlarge. Maybe it should say click to shrink.

 

The stuff looks very interesting. But, you should have more refined categories - like sun, partial sun, shade, like zones for northern, southern, areas, etc. so that novices can figure out what to get that will work in their environment.

 

Overall, the site has a lot of potential. But, you really need to stabilize it re. cross browser compatibility as well as adding more sophisticated and guided access to your products.

 

Good luck with it!

 

Tony

 

 

Thanks, for your feedback.

 

Regarding the header in firefox, I looked at it in my firefox and the two images were on two rows, so I combined the two images, and it displays on one row.

 

I hooked the comment page up to the stylesheet, used a different font, and made it wider. Could you please tell me if it is still having the problem? I also made it a bit wider. It does not show up in my firefox like that. thanks

 

I hooked up the designed by... up to the stylesheet.

 

I could not get the cell padding to work, so I just added a small column inbetween the two and it looks much better, It is not as tight.

 

I got some plain white buttons and I will get new ones when I have more time to make them.

 

Could you post a screenshot of the colors being different? I have a brand new laptop running IE7 (beta 3) and firefox so I cannot tell what the difference is. I can't think of anyone I could borrow an old computer from. Thanks!

 

I like the suggestion for the refined categories. I was thinking of adding the extra product fields contributions and work out a way for them to be searchable. Is there a better way?

 

Thanks for your feedback I really appreciate.

 

If anyone is using dialup, please tell me how fast it loads. That is one of the things I have been working on. Also, do you think the colors look ok together? If anyone has anymore feedback I would really appreciate it, thanks!!!!!!!!!!! I think it already looks better

[tastar]

For the category breakdowns, you could add sub-categories to each major category, like perennials, full sun, etc. Or, you could put each group into a new major category, like full sun, perennials, etc. And, within each description, you could put in a zone description (using the same format for each item so that it would look uniform).

 

The way that I did this on my site was to add some hidden text to the product descriptions (4pt, same color as background) and added some canned searches for this text. For example, I search for 999999ipod in the description to bring up all iPod items. I used the Quick Research Infobox with Page Result contrib to do the searches (because it searches the descriptions by default).

 

My method works, and I enter the stuff in my local database, so it's reasonably easy to update. But, I would be curious to see how other people organize this stuff.

 

Here are a couple of screenshots - the top from IE 5 (the latest version available on a Mac), the bottom from Firefox (the latest Mac version). Two different web sites.

 

 

 

Tony

[compwhizmm90]

For the category breakdowns, you could add sub-categories to each major category, like perennials, full sun, etc. Or, you could put each group into a new major category, like full sun, perennials, etc. And, within each description, you could put in a zone description (using the same format for each item so that it would look uniform).

 

The way that I did this on my site was to add some hidden text to the product descriptions (4pt, same color as background) and added some canned searches for this text. For example, I search for 999999ipod in the description to bring up all iPod items. I used the Quick Research Infobox with Page Result contrib to do the searches (because it searches the descriptions by default).

 

My method works, and I enter the stuff in my local database, so it's reasonably easy to update. But, I would be curious to see how other people organize this stuff.

 

Here are a couple of screenshots - the top from IE 5 (the latest version available on a Mac), the bottom from Firefox (the latest Mac version). Two different web sites.

 

 

Tony

 

Thanks for those screenshots. That is weird, because the olive green shows up above the categories, but not below. The screenshot from firefox is what I intended it to look like. I found a couple websites that help cross-browser modifcations, so I will work on that. I will also, get with the owner and suggest the idea to her about the zones, sun, etc. She adds the products, so it is hard for her to learn how to do something new.

 

Here is what the site looks like in my browser, this is How I intended it to be.

 

 

It also looks very similar in firefox.

 

Are there any other suggestions? I really appreciate it, thanks!!

[compwhizmm90]

If anyone has dial up, can you tell me how fast it loads? Thanks!!

[Guest]

I am on aol dialup - no heckling please! LOL

 

It loaded VERY quickly - *sighs* Thank you! LOL

 

Suggestion - along the top where you have About us, Message Board, etc - perhaps put a separator between them such as: | or - They look kind of jumbled otherwise.

[compwhizmm90]

I am on aol dialup - no heckling please! LOL

 

It loaded VERY quickly - *sighs* Thank you! LOL

 

Suggestion - along the top where you have About us, Message Board, etc - perhaps put a separator between them such as: | or - They look kind of jumbled otherwise.

 

Thanks, glad to hear it. Sorry you have dialup though :)

Does anyone else have any more suggestions? I really appreciate it, and I really benefit from it, so thanks!!