My first site, almost done...sugestions on improvement

[dawnmariegifts]

Greetings to all, and a BIG Thank You to all the great contributors who's generosity has made it possible for people like myself with

 

limited technical skills.... THANK YOU!

 

Now I'm almost done with my site: www.dawnmariegifts.com this is the first time ever doing something like this. I pretty much reached

 

the end of my design abilities, and pretty much everything else.

 

I need some directional criticism; I'm not sentimental, be harsh, I won't cry, much.

 

feel free to take it for a test drive, it is not yet live and I'm not going to be processing any sales through it anyways, I'm working on

 

installing Google Checkout as soon I work around the domxml situation with my host. But please feel free to place orders and play

 

with it to see if it all works.

 

 

Thank You!

--

 

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

Made link Clickable

Andrew

[Andrew Yuen]

I would create a better <title></title> then just wwww.dawnmariegifts.com. Utilize the space for keywords, create a unique title. There is an unnecessary rss button on the bottom left of your site that is outside the design. On the upper right of your header I do not like the repeating shopping bags. I would also get rid of the stock osCommerce icon, also the white background on the search magnifying glass button. Your header design does not convey what you are selling. Finally, I recommend using a thumbnail contribution.

[abra123cadabra]

You asked for it...

 

1 - The page takes too long to load. You need to install a thumbnail contribution to reduce bandwith for loading your images.

 

2 - The right part of the logo looks odd as the shopping bags are cut off on the left.

 

3 - Get rid of those three icon on the right of the logo. All icons look out of place and don't match your theme.

 

4 - Take a look at the dynamic sitemap. Some of the links and texts on the right don't make sense or point to areas which you might want to exclude from the list or they are not clickable at all and in a different colour.

 

5 - You need your customers to trust you so they will buy from you. It's very difficult to get trust when there is no business address and phone number on the site. Are you a private person or a company. Which country are you in...

 

6 - Your privacy and shipping & returns pages are unstructured and therefore very hard to read.

 

7 - Your conditions of use are empty.

 

8 - Get rid of the counter in the footer. It's only interesting for you and you and there are better ways to get that information like logfiles etc.

 

9 - The RSS button on the left underneath the breadcrumb looks out of place.

 

10 - In the product details description is a link "more" that actually enlarges the product image instead of revealing more information about the item. I wanted more info and not a bigger image so don't mislead me by using wrong labels for links.

 

11 - Your previous/next buttons on product details don't match the rest of your buttons.

 

12 - The font in product details is too big.

 

13 - When a page is loaded for the first time, it builds up rather slowly with the original colours and backgrounds. Maybe check your stylesheet for duplicate properties.

 

14 - Couldn't find any information on shipping charges. Won't register an account to find this out.

 

I think, that's a lot to work on right now. I like the wallpaper background and the colour scheme. Nice work.

 

abra

[dawnmariegifts]

Thank you all for stopping by, and taking the time to give me your most valuble opinion!

 

 

 

Well I removed the extra rss button at the bottom left, also installed Image Magic(although my pop ups work when they want to now, sometime they work and most of the time they dont; headache) and the rest of the stuff I agree with you guys 100% I intend to replace all of the stock oscom icons as I find suitable ones, as for the ones on the logo I just dont know how to remove them, gota find out. As for the site map I intend of getting rid of that one, google doesnt like it. And my info pages: shipping and returns; privacy etc.. well I have not filled them in cause I havent firgured out how to format them, everything I try gives my the same outcome. As for that "more" link in the product info, I dont know how that got there, I noticed that the pop up(when it works) has all of the porducts description on it, and the link takes you to the pop up, so I'm guessing it has something to do with it. I'll keep chipping away at this til I get it some right.

 

 

 

Well thaks again, and if you think of anything else, Im all ears.

[abra123cadabra]

Thank you all for stopping by, and taking the time to give me your most valuble opinion!

 

 

 

Well I removed the extra rss button at the bottom left, also installed Image Magic(although my pop ups work when they want to now, sometime they work and most of the time they dont; headache) and the rest of the stuff I agree with you guys 100% I intend to replace all of the stock oscom icons as I find suitable ones, as for the ones on the logo I just dont know how to remove them, gota find out. As for the site map I intend of getting rid of that one, google doesnt like it. And my info pages: shipping and returns; privacy etc.. well I have not filled them in cause I havent firgured out how to format them, everything I try gives my the same outcome. As for that "more" link in the product info, I dont know how that got there, I noticed that the pop up(when it works) has all of the porducts description on it, and the link takes you to the pop up, so I'm guessing it has something to do with it. I'll keep chipping away at this til I get it some right.

 

 

 

Well thaks again, and if you think of anything else, Im all ears.

 

Well, the "... more" link in the product details is most likely the renamed "click to enlarge" text. I think it's in /includes/languages/english/product_info.php. Just go there and replace that text with something less misleading.

 

As for the three icons in the header wich overlap your shopping bags. In your browser right click over them and select properties. You'll see the name and folder they are stored in. Note that down, make a copy of the pixel_trans.gif in /images/ and name it like the icon you want to replace. Load it back up so that it overwrites the original icon and voila, the icon is gone in the header although the link is still there.

 

It's something you can do with any unwanted comic gif from the original osC. Just copy the pixel_trans.gif and give it the name of the icon to be replaced. No messing in the code and you can just add your more suitable image later when you find one.

 

The sitemap. Hm. Got that in a more or less similar state in my shop too. Just removed the connecting link to it until I figure out how to make it look and show what I want it to. It would be for the customer. For Google I installed the Google XML Sitemap Feeds contribution and for all the other bots I have all products which should help them find them.

 

abra

[boxtel]

Thank you all for stopping by, and taking the time to give me your most valuble opinion!

Well I removed the extra rss button at the bottom left, also installed Image Magic(although my pop ups work when they want to now, sometime they work and most of the time they dont; headache) and the rest of the stuff I agree with you guys 100% I intend to replace all of the stock oscom icons as I find suitable ones, as for the ones on the logo I just dont know how to remove them, gota find out. As for the site map I intend of getting rid of that one, google doesnt like it. And my info pages: shipping and returns; privacy etc.. well I have not filled them in cause I havent firgured out how to format them, everything I try gives my the same outcome. As for that "more" link in the product info, I dont know how that got there, I noticed that the pop up(when it works) has all of the porducts description on it, and the link takes you to the pop up, so I'm guessing it has something to do with it. I'll keep chipping away at this til I get it some right.

Well thaks again, and if you think of anything else, Im all ears.

 

1) onload js error

 

2) RSS button looks out of place there

 

3) why does "more" with description give the image popup (which is way too big) instead of more description?

 

4) keep your buttons the same style.

 

5) what is your currency? $ can mean many different dollars.

 

6) Would not show the shopping cart box on the shopping cart page. means you execute code twice to show the same info.

 

7) Would make the left and right columns thinner as it would make the center column wider.

 

8) would limit the create account fields a much as possible so date of birth is a no-winner here.

 

9) would get rid of the js form error alert or at least format it better.

 

10) you need to control your cart quantity field.

[dawnmariegifts]

First off I wish to thank you all. Your feedback has been a tremdous help.

 

Well I was out of commision for awhile as I changed hosting in order to be able to use the googel check out.

 

I couldn't figure out how to transfer my site, thought I would have start from scratch but I figured it out at last.

 

Well got most of the suggested changes done. Cant figure out the reason why my fornt page loads with errors, I've searched high and low but, to no avail.

 

 

Once again, thanks guys!

 

 

P.S

 

am I heading in the right direction?

[Guest]

I like your image popup with the prices and info. Which contrib did you use?

 

Nice job with the header logo.

 

Don't forget to fill in your "conditions of use" field.

 

I would format your shipping info a bit so it's not all one paragraph. It's a little hard to read through.

[dawnmariegifts]

I like your image popup with the prices and info. Which contrib did you use?

 

Nice job with the header logo.

 

Don't forget to fill in your "conditions of use" field.

 

I would format your shipping info a bit so it's not all one paragraph. It's a little hard to read through.

 

 

Thank you for your comment.

 

I'm glad you like the header/logo, It's not really what I had in mind but untill I get one done by a profesional it will have to do.

 

Here is the link to the popup I used: http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contri..._4_5_6_7_8_9_10

 

 

I agree with you about the shipping info...I'm still trying to figure that one out though, I'll do it just as soon as I learn how.

 

And again thanks guys, y'all been and continue to be a great help!

[Guest]

Here is the link to the popup I used: http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contri..._4_5_6_7_8_9_10

I agree with you about the shipping info...I'm still trying to figure that one out though, I'll do it just as soon as I learn how.

 

Thanks for the link. I'll have to give that a shot in my store.

 

With the shipping info, you can use basic HTML tags to format it. To break it into paragraphs, just put <p> before each paragraph, and </p> after each paragraph. Or you can just add <br> for each space you want between paragraphs. Basic HTML tags work in product descriptions too.

 

Here's an example:

 

<p>Orders are shipped within 1 to 2 business days of receipt from Order Department in Simi Valley, California. All orders are shipped via UPS; estimated time for delivery is 7-10 days unless an alternate shipping method is specified.</p><p>We would only contact you by phone or email in case any items are out of stock or discontinued or have an ETA on restock of item, so that you may make a choice of substitution, or subtract from order.</p><p>To return a defective item for credit or replacement, simply e-mail us at [email protected] or call (786) 287-0746 within 15 days of purchase or click on the contact page. We want to make sure our customers are happy with their purchase. If you are not satisfied with your purchase for any reason we will gladly refund your purchase, as long as the product is not defective and not used. Unfortunately we will not be able to refund your shipping costs. No packages will be accepted without a Return Authorization Number written clearly on the box.</p>

should yield this:

 

Orders are shipped within 1 to 2 business days of receipt from Order Department in Simi Valley, California. All orders are shipped via UPS; estimated time for delivery is 7-10 days unless an alternate shipping method is specified.

 

We would only contact you by phone or email in case any items are out of stock or discontinued or have an ETA on restock of item, so that you may make a choice of substitution, or subtract from order.

 

To return a defective item for credit or replacement, simply e-mail us at [email protected] or call (786) 287-0746 within 15 days of purchase or click on the contact page. We want to make sure our customers are happy with their purchase. If you are not satisfied with your purchase for any reason we will gladly refund your purchase, as long as the product is not defective and not used. Unfortunately we will not be able to refund your shipping costs. No packages will be accepted without a Return Authorization Number written clearly on the box.

 

 

Just a little bit to break it up. You can add <strong></strong> for bold, and <i></i> for italics as well if you think it will make things easier to read.

[dawnmariegifts]

I re-wrote my Shipping and Returns page and my Privacy page using the sugestions offered by "mlavanish".

 

Thanks for your advice, I thin it's 100% improvement from before. (I didn't know you could format with code)

 

And thanks to all whos suggestions has helped me come this far.

[dawnmariegifts]

Ok ...

 

I did some moving around, I moved the RSS button to the upper right, at the end of my bread crumb bar thingy.

 

I eleminated the stock osC Greeting from the main page. I added ultimitate seo 2.2; links manager 1.4 and family products.

 

 

Everythings is working fine, the best I can tell. I do have some concerns with my page load times. If anyone can find the time to test and comment on how fast or how slow, and or any problem page taking too long I'd really be greatful.

 

 

Again thanks you guys have been great!

[dawnmariegifts]

Hello everyone,

 

Well I redesigned my header and footer, I also rearanged my info boxes. Everything is working properly.

 

I'm getting around 15-25 visitors a day, but I'm doing around 3 sales a week. My visitors are spending an average of 30 seconds to 1 1/2 minutes on my front page and then they leave.

 

Any suggestions on what can be driving them off would be greatly appreciated.

 

My adwords compaign are bringing them in but I can't seem to make the sales. I'm wondering if it has anything to do with the design of my site?

 

Your feedback will be most welcomed, as this is costing me a pretty penny!

 

Thanks a bunch.

[portalplanet]

You seem to have so many items. I'm looking at a briefcase but I just looked at birdhouses. It seems so general. Maybe breaking out your products into several sites? If you see a pattern in your current sales do that "niche" first. I didn't sign up or anything but I assume you are accepting credit cards / paypal / check or money order? I noticed my sales skyrocket when I started taking credit cards as opposed to just paypal and check or money order.

 

Justin

 

 

Hello everyone,

 

Well I redesigned my header and footer, I also rearanged my info boxes. Everything is working properly.

 

I'm getting around 15-25 visitors a day, but I'm doing around 3 sales a week. My visitors are spending an average of 30 seconds to 1 1/2 minutes on my front page and then they leave.

 

Any suggestions on what can be driving them off would be greatly appreciated.

 

My adwords compaign are bringing them in but I can't seem to make the sales. I'm wondering if it has anything to do with the design of my site?

 

Your feedback will be most welcomed, as this is costing me a pretty penny!

 

Thanks a bunch.

[dawnmariegifts]

Thanks, portalplanet,

 

Yes I do have alot of products and I still have to add about 3000 more. I run a small catalogue business from home, I started in 1999 and I have a nice calient base. This started out more for their convenience, but I think I make something more out of this. I just never done this before, so I dont know if I'm doing something right or wrong.

 

Whithout the fine folks in this forum I could not have come this far. Thanks everyone, yall have been with me from the start.

 

Well yes I do accept credit cards, (I have googlecheckout, and working 100% Luckly).

 

Well here is what I done lately:

 

I re-did my Logo again and i added google adsense and adsearch, any suggestion to the corect placement of these. I tried to blend them in with my site. What you guys think? I can sure use some advice on this.

 

Well thanks again!

[dawnmariegifts]

Hi all,

 

Just put up a new logo; any comments?

 

Thanks for all the feed back in the past, made my work all the easier.