Review of New Store

[alistair.tweed]

Hi All!

 

My store is at:

 

http://aging-management.com/

 

I am going live on 3/12/2007 and would very much appreciate some feedback on the site.

 

Modifications and Additions I have made are:

 

Making acceptance of both the Conditions of Use and Sale mandatory before an account can be created. (This is stored on the database for each new person signing up).

 

I am particularly proud of the questionnaires on the left that serve up pre-formatted HTML direct from the database. I don't know if this is common or even good practice as this is my first web site...

 

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

 

Best Regards,

 

Alistair

[Arctic Fox]

I fill in the form on create_account.php with random information.

I turn off JavaScript and click submit.

This error comes up:

Warning: checkdate() expects parameter 3 to be long, string given in /homepages/8/d194861538/htdocs/aging-management/create_account.php on line 81

 

Is there a reason why you need to know my gender and DoB?

 

Got through the cart, onto PayPal... then I get this:

 

Unable to process payment. Please contact the merchant as the shipping address provided by the merchant is invalid, and the merchant has requested that your order must be shipped to that address.

[alistair.tweed]

Thanks so much for your feedback and your thorough and diligent testing, Arctic Fox! Very much appreciated.

 

I tried to recreate warning on the checkdate() function call, but could not do so. The code on line 81 is:

 

	if (ACCOUNT_DOB == 'true') {
  if (checkdate(substr(tep_date_raw($dob), 4, 2), substr(tep_date_raw($dob), 6, 2), substr(tep_date_raw($dob), 0, 4)) == false) {
	$error = true;

	$messageStack->add('create_account', ENTRY_DATE_OF_BIRTH_ERROR);
  }
}

 

I turned off Javascript, and typed in "05/21/1970" in the DOB field, which is what was committed to the database for your entries. Is "05/21/1970" what you typed in to get this error or what you typed in afterwards to get it to work? I haven't changed this code from the original...

 

Is there a reason why you need to know my gender and DoB?

 

Yes, the questionnaires use this data to work out aspects of your health. For example, the Oestrogen questionnaire uses this data to work out if the subject is likely to be menopausal.

 

Regarding the PayPal error you mention:

 

Unable to process payment. Please contact the merchant as the shipping address provided by the merchant is invalid, and the merchant has requested that your order must be shipped to that address.

 

I don't understand this - "the shipping address provided by the merchant is invalid" - surely shipping address is provided by the customer not the merchant? Could it be that this is a typo and is should be "the shipping address provided TO the merchant is invalid"? In this case, PayPal must have some validation routines on address details and the ones you provided (street_address, postcode, city, Afganistan) didn't pass this.

 

Once again, thanks for your help and I would be keen to hear how you created the checkdate() function error as this may be likely to effect all OSC installations.

 

Any other feedback from anyone else?

 

Thanks,

 

Alistair

[Arctic Fox]

Instead of typing in "05/21/1970", type "Goo". :)

[houstoncory]

Allistair,

Im different from a normal customer who is directed to your site through a referral, or search engine.

So, when I look at your site objectively, I am turned off by all of the text in the middle of the page.

 

Is there a way you could make the text more brief ?

[digilee]

I love the way you've made your site look exactly like a stock osc install.

Well done on the branding!

 

:)

[alistair.tweed]

Arctic Fox, Yup! "Goo" in the DOB certainly messes with checkdate()! Let's hope my customers don't try that. Thanks for getting back on that and putting my mind at rest.

 

houstoncory, thanks for the feed back. I agree. It is a bit verbose. I am working on the front page text with my bro and will try and make it more concise and link out for more detail.

 

digilee, fair point, mate! I won't try and tell you that creative design, HTML and Dreamweaver are my strong points. :-) As I mentioned, this is my first site and I come to this from a background in databases. I was hoping to go for a clean, clinical look and feel. If you have any tips on how I can improve on this or you can recommend someone who is good at this kind of thing I would be very grateful.

 

Once again thanks very much for your feedback and if anyone else has anything to add, please let me know.

 

Best Regards,

 

Alistair

[joannemojo]

I don't think it's such a bad thing to have the default osc template on a site unchanged. Any regular joe bloggs visitor probably won't know that this is the case and that template is decent enough to get away with. It's not the best but it's usable.........yeah the cartoon graphics are crap but they are easily changed.

 

I think we, as regular osc users and merchants, are quick to jump on people who use the default set up but forget that average users won't know the difference. We see so many sites on here and do our own that we don't see sites as regular visitors do.

 

I know Im rambling but I know what I want to say........can't get the words out.........stupid hangovers...........

[alistair.tweed]

Well, I have been working hard on the installation and now feel that we have created something genuinely useful and are ready to start telling people about it.

 

From an osCommerce point of view, I have not altered it that much. I like it as it is. I have put together my own social bookmarks format and tweaked the header bar to display a message when you are logged in. If anyone likes these I would be happy to make them available as a contribution.

 

However, it is now has rather more content than the average osC store.

 

If anyone has any feedback or comments, I would be keen to hear them.

 

Best Regards,

 

Alistair

[digilee]

Way, way, way too much text for offline, let alone online.

One the first page you need to grab the visitors attention and tell them exactly what you are doing right there and then.

You have 3 seconds and they start to skim read.

 

It took me at least 30 seconds to find what it is you're selling then I noticed a product pic on the right.

 

Not saying what you have is bad (although it's a bit bland for my liking) it just doesn't work mainly because of the huge amount of copy.

[alistair.tweed]

Thanks for the reply and feedback, Digilee!

 

To be honest, it was a struggle to trim it down as much as it has been!

 

Trying to sum up what we are trying to do without going below the fold is really hard. I guess that is because we want our site to be more than just a shop with products. We want it to give you the information you need to live for much longer. We also want to take a more soft sell approach to the products - they are health products and people are (and should be) careful with their health - there are a lot of sharks and snakeoil salesmen out there. We are hoping that once people have read the Introduction starting at our site, they will see the attention and quality of care that has been put in to what we are doing will have earned enough trust for them to buy our products.

 

There are plenty of online vitamin and supplement shops, not many of them offer the medical credentials that we do - two consultant doctors, one specialising in anti-aging, both qualified to surgeon level.

 

aging-management.com/about_us.php#_note-1

 

I think it would be a shame for that not to come across and I think that content is the only way to carry that message. If you can think of another way, I would be keen and grateful to hear it.

 

You are quite right that people don't want to invest the time in reading anything for more than 3 seconds. However, if you or they do, you will get the time it takes to read the whole site back and many more years besides! Surely that has to represent a good investment of your time, doesn't it?

 

Thanks,

 

Alistair