Would like to hear peoples thoughts on my design

[balloons]

If anyone would like to check out my site and give me feedback on i that would be great.

 

It is my first time designing a site for oscommerce, but I am an not 100% happy with the design so am still debating whether to change it! I would like to hear peoples views on it and whether they would buy from it or does it look too amateurish?

 

I only have 18 listed at the moment as I am still working on things, like the problem I have with Firefix as the £ does not display but it does it Internet Explorer. I have asked this in another forum but no answer.

 

Anyway, Please can anyone give me there thoughts on the design and layout,

 

Cheers

[balloons]

Well that was a terrible mistake!

 

Forgot to include the link!

 

Here is the link

[balloons]

I would be very grateful if anybody could checkout my store and give me feedback on how it looks, feels and works.

 

I have revamped the template and am happy with the look and think that its ready for launch, however I would very much like to know people's thoughts on how it looks etc.

 

There are still a few things that I cannot fix even though I have searched and asked in the forums I have had no answers.

 

1. ? displays instead of £ in firefox.

2. I dont know how to set the amount to display per page in the cart.

 

Also, I am only going to accept payment by paypal for the momen so do I need to get ssl, and if so where can I get a decent one?

 

Cheers.

[warrenerjm]

I would be very grateful if anybody could checkout my store and give me feedback on how it looks, feels and works.

 

I have revamped the template and am happy with the look and think that its ready for launch, however I would very much like to know people's thoughts on how it looks etc.

 

There are still a few things that I cannot fix even though I have searched and asked in the forums I have had no answers.

 

1. ? displays instead of £ in firefox.

2. I dont know how to set the amount to display per page in the cart.

 

Also, I am only going to accept payment by paypal for the momen so do I need to get ssl, and if so where can I get a decent one?

 

Cheers.

Hi Gareth

 

I think the site looks great. I like the colours & the font & buttons. (which font is it & how did you do them please :-" )

 

I found a coouple of minors:

 

The "Click to enlarge" didn't work

I don't think the category count is needed (personal)

I couldn't see any info on P&P minimum order etc. Can I buy one candle for 49p & have free P&P? I might have missed it.

I "noticed" the small gap at the top of the right column, which is not the same as the left column.

The [more info] on the login page said page error

 

Looks nice & clean & easy. :thumbsup:

 

Julie

[balloons]

Thanks for the feedback julie.

 

The made the buttons myself using blending options in photoshop and the font style is 'Pristina', which is standard on photoshop.

 

I also have found the click to enlage is not working, but not sure how to fix it, any ideas??

 

I am not sure how you remove the category count so any ideas on how to remove that?

 

I will look into the p&p. I have only just worked out how I am going to charge and have been setting the prices per item as some items I have are big and light and others small and heavy! I will be adding to it and will be charging free postage on orders over £20, as the extra purchases should cover the packing cost, trial and error I think!

 

I am not sure where the gap is that you are reffering to as it does not show up on my side?

 

I cant find where you are getting the page error on the login page? On my login page I have the buttons 'continue', 'sign in' and 'forgotten password' but none of them return an error?

 

Thanks for taking a look at the site and I am glad someone other than me likes it!!

 

If anyone else has got anything to say about my site then I would really like to her what you have to say.

 

Thanks.

[♥FWR Media]

Generally nice effort.

 

The ffffff white against the blue hurts my eyes.

 

Enlarge image doesn't work.

 

Every new page the site seems to temporarily "break apart" then reform .. odd.

 

I'll leave others to continue.

[digilee]

It's ok, better than a lot of other stores but, to me, it looks like it was designed by a windows user.

I know you said you use photoshop but it doesn't look like it.

But no doubt others will like it, it's just not my thing.

 

Image popups don't work

Corners look awful

Big white spaces everywhere

All the sideboxes has their titles twice

No contact details

 

I'm not sure what your corporate branding is but there's an old saying by a very famous designer:

"if in doubt, use blue"

[warrenerjm]

I'm not sure what your corporate branding is but there's an old saying by a very famous designer:

"if in doubt, use blue"

Is that bad? I like blue & it is supposed to suggest trust. I like pink too but I guess everyone will have a favourite colour.

 

When I first looked at the URL it said login.php, but on looking again it is on the create_account.php (which I didn't look at) & at the top right it says [more info] text link. The error message is in the bottom left bar.

 

Also the whole form is not lining up properly. Maybe align left would look better or tweak the boxes.

 

Categories count can be turned off on admin>confiuration>my store & set category count to false.

 

Gap I meant was only that the box goes to the box header in the left column but stops short in the other column. Nothing to worry about, only my eye was drawn to that. Others wouldn't even notice or care.

 

Julie

[balloons]

Thanks for all the feedback its good to hear peoples thoughts, even if people dont like my site!!

 

I think that it is very hard to please all the people all the time, so for now I will keep the site as it is as the feedback is 50/50, I have spent too much time trying to refine the site I just need to get it live to pay for itself now.

 

Can anyone tell me what is going wrong with the 'click to enlarge' buttons as none seem to work and I am not sure how to get them working again?

 

The side boxes display there titles twice, but again I dont not know how to remove the titles which I want to do, can anyone help?

 

As for the big white spaces, I designed it to display about 5 items going down, which works, but as you noticed there are big spaces when you are not listing etc. I do not know how to make a flexible design using photoshop and oscommerce so have had to settle with what I have, but if anyone can point me in the right direction that would be great.

 

When I first looked at the URL it said login.php, but on looking again it is on the create_account.php (which I didn't look at) & at the top right it says [more info] text link. The error message is in the bottom left bar.

 

Excuse me for being slow, but I am still not seeing the error! I have looked at it in firefox and ie but still not seeing the error?

 

I think for my first try at an online shop it is not too bad, and I dont want to spend many more hours re-designing it as it will become a never ending task. I still have a few more things to add like p&p and payment etc, but generally I think it is nearly ready for launch so anymore feedback would be helpful.

 

Thanks for taking the time to check out my site.

[balloons]

I have redone my site now using css and made the site more flexible so that there is less white.

 

Can anyone check it out and give me there feedback and comments on how it looks and runs now?

 

I am pretty close to how I want it now and really want to get the site up and running in the next few weeks, its just a pity I couldnt have got it running up for xmas!

 

Thanks for any commets.

 

Twilight Balloons

[vertmonkee]

I have redone my site now using css and made the site more flexible so that there is less white.

 

Can anyone check it out and give me there feedback and comments on how it looks and runs now?

 

I am pretty close to how I want it now and really want to get the site up and running in the next few weeks, its just a pity I couldnt have got it running up for xmas!

 

Thanks for any commets.

 

Twilight Balloons

 

I'd get rid of the opening page and go straight to the main page. Personally, and I know a lot of others agree, I don;t want to see that first screenI just want to look at the products.

 

The column on the left would look nicer if the blue extended to the bottom.

 

Also the links for categories looks very basic html.

 

But I do think that it is very close to looking really nice. I only write the negative comments because I know I'd like to hear what people don't like so I can improve it. Please take any of my negative comments as positive criticism.

 

Your buttons look really nice, if you could emulate the text in some of the other areas that would be interesting to see of it works.

[balloons]

Thanks for your comments vert.

 

Comments either good or bad are good to hear as only from them can things change, hopefully for the better!

 

The reason I have an entry page is because I am not sure how to set my oscommerce page as my entry page! To set up my website I name the entry page index.html and that is the first page people see, and that in turn is linked to the button which goes to www.twilightballoons.co.uk/osc. I have tried re-naming my template page to index.html but nothing works, so does anybody have any ideas or should I contact my host?

 

As for the rest of the design, I am still working on it and as I am very new to using css it is still a bit of a struggle!!

 

Below is the coding for the side box which only stretches so far down, and I would like it to always touch the footer, but again am not sure how to do it:

 

float: left;

width: 150px;

padding-top: 10px;

padding-right: 10px;

padding-bottom: 15px;

padding-left: 20px;

background-color: #97DEFE;

background-repeat: repeat;

height: auto;

 

As for changing the categories text, well I have not got a clue! I know I can change it to different text that is in css but not sure how I change it to other text or how to 'jazz' it up at all!

 

Any help is appreciated, as are comments good or bad!

 

Cheers.

[balloons]

I would be very grateful if anyone could tell me if they think my site is now ready for launch?

 

As was pointed out about the entry page, I have now made the shop as the entry page, and also I think I have setup paypal right as it seems to work for me?

 

I just have a few more categories to fill in now before I start trying to get sales, and am looking at launching it 1st Jan and see how it goes.

 

Hopefully, things look ok to other people as to me it looks fine, but I am still having probs with the blue sidebar getting it to always touch the footer but to no avail. I have posted here and on another forum but not had much luck, but will get there in the end.

 

Thanks for any feedback.

 

Twilight Balloons

[digilee]

Don't take this personally but it does seem that every 5 minutes you are asking for feedback, but generally, the site looks the same.

Are you happy with it?

If so, great, if not then change it until you are happy as that's all that matters.

[marnslee]

If anyone would like to check out my site and give me feedback on i that would be great.

 

It is my first time designing a site for oscommerce, but I am an not 100% happy with the design so am still debating whether to change it! I would like to hear peoples views on it and whether they would buy from it or does it look too amateurish?

 

I only have 18 listed at the moment as I am still working on things, like the problem I have with Firefix as the £ does not display but it does it Internet Explorer. I have asked this in another forum but no answer.

 

Anyway, Please can anyone give me there thoughts on the design and layout,

 

Cheers

 

Hi, well done on your first site! i only have one suggestion, when using the same colours in your case blue, try to use the eydropper supplied in PS to get the tone of the colour (background for instance), then go to the library and use the PANTONE colour bridge CMYK or something of the sort, this give the correct colour, hope this helps. I do agree the white is a bit stark on the eyes maybe a gradient image or something?? but well done anyway :thumbsup:

[teruchan]

I do recommend getting SSL even if you are only accepting Paypal. People still have to enter a lot of information to create an account, and some like to see that little lock before they type something personal in. I know I do.

 

I got SSL from Geotrust, You can also use GlobalSign or Verisign etc.

[anjali]

Hi Gareth,

 

It looks pretty good.

 

Do you design website professionally if so please let me know as My friend has a new domain and wants to get the same designed without paying a lot as in market it’s so costly.

 

Tahir Ahmad

[Guest]

Hi Gareth,

 

This review done in Firefox2.0/WinXP, all comments in random order.

 

As point in time, I see £ as £.

 

Nice looking buttons! And nice looking category icons too. (Just noticed that under "Cards" all the sub-categories end with card expect for congratulations and the way "congratulations" centers with "wedding cards" I wondered if: By any chance was that done for alignment purposes?

 

Best looking Powered by osCommerce image I can remember seeing.

 

I see you have the "Enlarge Image" fixed. (Can ya make the window a tad taller to fit the image better?)

 

Possibly consider on of the next/previous product contributions to make surfing the products easier. See example at one of my sites.

 

Personal Comment: As a web user, I really don't like people changing my cursor for their amusement.

 

Your header navigation bar don't really look right with the frosting at the bottom. I am wondering if inverting the image might help the look.

 

The left column just seems like too much real estate with the same flat back ground. I had thought about maybe buttons for category titles, but that is too much... I like that the area is kept "open" without borders (and stops when you're done with the text). Maybe change the font for "Categories", "Quick Find", and "Information" into what you used for your buttons and/or footer image.

 

I like the basic look and feel of your site, but I would never buy from you because I don't know the first thing about you. No names, addresses, business license #s, or phone numbers. Nothing. Ya gotta tell me something. To me, no info screams a scam. (I am taking the viewpoint that you are an honest person like myself.) If you are a brick-n-mortar, put up your business location, if you work out of your home, like me, use your home address or better yet a commercial drop-box address (in the US we have places like Mailbox Ect, Inc where you can rent a "P.O." box labeled as a suite with a physical address. ie:

 

Your Business Name

123 Some Little Street

Suite 200567

Your City, State

Postal Code

 

). I went looking for information about your company and found none. That makes me feel as if you are TRYING to hide your identity and it makes me wonder WHY. Can you understand what I am trying to say. I am not trying to attack you either. The last two sites I reviewed tonight provided information about themselves immediately; one in the header and the other in the footer.

 

Your product images are very nice looking. (sure wish I could get pictures as clear as those from my clients!) I appreciated that they are all small byte-wise.

 

There are a lot of good points about your site and only a couple distractions.

[balloons]

Thanks for the feedback dcphosting!

 

I have just put a post up about someone logging in as 'test' 'account' and though it was you until I saw 'dcphosting' in both the email and this forum, so I guess you are not spam but were checking out my site!!!

 

Thanks for the detailed analasis of my site and I will try to rectify all the points you covered as soon as I can.

 

All the buttons now end with 'card' as I though it just makes things a little easier, well in my opinion anyway and yes everything was done for alignment within the button template.

 

Yep, got the image enlarge fixed thanks to the helpful people on here but not really sure how to make the image window grow bigger as I noticed it needed to be bigger. Have been looking at 'lightbox' as that the image centers on the middle of the page but not got the hang of how you install it as of yet.

 

Cursor, I thought the cross looked nice and helped make locating the buttons easier, but I see you point and will change it back as soon as I can now that someone has pointed it out.

 

Not too sure about what wich one you mean about header navigation, but the bar with 'Home' on I will keep the same and the bar with 'breadcrumbs on I will change when I can.

 

As for the left bar, I am not really sure how to change the font and make it look better? I have seen the contribution 'great categories' but not sure if I want that as all I really need to do is change a few things to make it look better.

 

Finally, am I real or a scam! Well I am definetly real but I can see your point now that you mention it, this is why I have been asking for peoples feedback as sometimes when you stand in the forest you cant see the wood for the trees!! I currently do not have a phone number for my site, but was thinking about buying a cheap mobile to use that for any calls, not sure if this is a good idea or not. I run the business from home and am a bit wary about advertising my address in case I get strange spam coming through my door!

 

I have looked at a PO box but they cost £57.85 for 12 months, which on my limited budget is steep as I have yet to see a bean from my site. When I start selling then that might be an option so what would you suggest? Should I just put in my about us page that I am located in Wrexham, N.wales or would it be better to put my whole address there? I totally agree as to making people see that I am real, but am wary about putting my whole address on my site?

 

Cheers for all the feedback, it is really helping me make my site better.

[Guest]

Hey Gareth,

 

I use Test Account for name and yourdomain@mydomain for an email address (easier to determine sources of spam).

 

I know how to make the pop-up window larger, but not how to make it sized for the image. I wonder if making the pop-up big enough for the largest pop-up picture would help (or give more problems with a pop-up window that looks too big)?

 

What I called Header Navigation is the breadcrumb.

 

Changing the category font would involve creating a new class in the stylesheet and using that named class when writing out the "Categories", "Quick Find", and "Information" headings. Not really hard.

 

I was not/am not inferring anything towards you. The address/phone thing is always hard for me to bring up without feeling (or worse yet, use wording) like I am accusing the other person. I (naively? :rolleyes: ) believe that the vast vast majority of store keepers at this forum are straight-up - honest - legit - whatever term. But..., you do a site review and the anonymity of the site can actually illicit fear of bad things.

 

I understand what you say about not "advertising my address in case I get strange spam coming through my door". <teasing tone>What, you're afraid that someone is going to hunt you down because the blue balloons weren't blue enough for them?</teasing tone> The unfortunate answer to that question these days is: YES.

 

You had brought up using a cheap mobile for a phone. How does that compare in cost the the dropbox? I don't think you necessarily need both an address and a phone number (both is better). So tell your web clients either: (... are spaces)

 

..............Twilight Balloons

..............1-111-111-1111 (us version of phone number)

Offices located in Sunny Wrexham, N.Wales

 

or

 

Twilight Balloons

123 Rented Address

Suite 101

Wrexham, N.Wales

 

Both of these give the feeling that one can reach the company if need be and that the site is probably legit. I also completely understand limited budget. I have sites that support me and I have sites that lose money (and their only expense being the domain name). You have to sell a lot of product to make any money, which makes it even harder to justify spending. (Hypothetically: "Many congratulations" sells for £0.59. Using a 15% profit margin , you would need to sell 654 of them to generate the cash flow to get a p.o.box.) Ouch.

 

I hope I haven't wandered around too much. Have a great day.

[balloons]

Right, after alot of headaches, alot of work and alot of help from the people on this forum I think I have finally got my site looking good and working good.

 

I now have a PO Box and a mobile number on the contact page as well as e-mail contact and finally I have an SSL certificate to verify my site. There are just a few minor things I need to change which I will get round to very soon mainly an error on the entry page which I am looking into.

 

If anyone could take a qucik look at my site and tell me what they think and if it looks better than previously.

 

Click to view my site!!

 

Cheers for any feedback.

[♥Vger]

When I click on an https page I get a "Secure/Insecure Content" warning - and guess what's causing it - your Comodo Trust Logo, which is linking to an http address. You need to change that to https.

 

Vger

[balloons]

Do you know how I can change the link from http to https?

 

I have been having a few problems getting everything to work with https and internet explorer so am am new to SSL and configuring it so some help would be great.

 

Cheers.

[joannemojo]

It's looking a lot better than it used to. Keep up the good work.

[balloons]

Cheers Jo, I think I am getting there at long last!

 

Just got to sort out the Trust logo that Vger said about and hopefully I just need to find paying customers now!!