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keepin it Kiwi website feedback


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First of all I’d like to say a big thank you to all those who write in the forum and offer contributions, without you I probably wouldn’t have got this far.

 

The main contributions I have installed are “no account” - http://addons.oscommerce.com/info/5950 , “pxaccess for DPS” - http://addons.oscommerce.com/info/4400 and “wordpress integration” - http://michaelwender.com/2006/10/06/embedd...mmerce-part-ii/

 

I have created my website to instill a bit more pride in New Zealand. We only seem to have pride in our country when the All Blacks are winning.

 

So the main emphasis is on me writing articles about New Zealand and selling keepin it Kiwi T Shirts. The writing style I’m trying to achieve is colloquial New Zealand. My next mission is to get into PR-ing the site through my contacts in New Zealand radio and other media.

 

Now I know you guys will probably give me the waste that my site is pretty much bog standard OScommerce, but I wanted to keep everything pretty simple as I’m a novice web designer. Believe it or not, I’ve actually been working on this for a few months. I started off with Agora Cart (no offence), and then found it wasn’t really easily compatible with my payment gateway, so switched over to OScommerce. I have to say that I’ve found OScommerce is much easier to deal with than Agora Cart and that the OScommerce stock template is so much more modern (just thought I’d mention this for anyone who is considering Agora Cart as an alternative). Plus OScommerce has a lot more usable and relevant contributions for what I was trying to create.

 

Anyway, take a look at my site and tell me what you think. Please let me know if there’s anything I’ve done wrong or missed out.

 

Thanks everyone and I’d just like to say I think OScommerce rocks!

 

www . keepinitkiwi . co . nz

 

Gerry

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Okay, no offense (and I'm American so maybe I'm just not picking up the flavor) but the site seems to me to be using one's patriotism to make you money. I don't know if a New Zealander would have the same feeling, that's just what it feels like to me.

 

The site feels empty and disjointed. The header logo seems to be unfinished. There's no privacy policy. When you click on the size chart link in the product info page, it takes you away from the product rather than just popping up.

 

I do like your size charts, your postage charts. Very cute!

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My $0.02:

 

1. Three little words: brand, brand, brand. The site doesn't seem to know what colour or style it should be. Your logo is going in the right direction - use it as a base. Use it's colours and icomic style to influence the rest of teh site. It looks like a ha=omage to clipart at the moment.

 

2. SEO URLs is a must. Hunt down that contrib and install.

 

3. Header Tags for SEO is another must. Grab it.

 

4. Nice enlarge image contrib. I use lightbox too - makes it look more classy (www.datamouse.biz/catalog)

 

5. Images look odd on the flower background. Maybe "Border" them. Consider it in your rebrand.

 

Hope that this helps.

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OK, thanks all for taking the time to have a look at my site....

 

seems I've still got a bit of work to do yet.

 

my main mission was to get it up and running first and continue to develop as I go.

 

I do not intend the site to be all about selling t shirts (but I do have to have a revenue stream), I intend keepin it Kiwi to become a recognized brand that also addresses a social issue (but in a fun way)

 

There are people who make good money selling New Zealand T Shirts, but I find most of them look like tourist shirts, or have the same tired old symbols like the silver fern or the Maori koru...or just simply have New Zealand written on them. So I'm just trying to do something a bit different.

 

anyway thanks again for your input, I'm not usually someone who takes criticism well, but I won't be like others on this site who ask for it then get upset when people are just stating their asked for opinion....

 

So I will just smile graciously, then go away and take a good long hard look at myself.

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Site Review for: Keepin it Kiwi T Shirts

 

Alt tags are important because:

Some of the web users cannot see images, be they blind (convert text to speech or Braille output), color-blind, low-sighted etc. The alt attribute gives them an idea of what's on the page.

Search engines do index alt attributes as well. Make sure each image on your store contains relavent alt tags.

 

A site map makes it easier for indexing spiders to find all of the content on your site. Search engine spiders or bots have a hard time following links that use JavaScript, like mouseovers. A site map with a collection of plain text links to all pages can make it easier for more pages of a site to be included in a search engine index. Consider installing the following module:

http://addons.oscommerce.com/info/2208

 

Acceptable forms of payment should be clearly displayed on your store to let customers know exactly what forms of payment are accepted. This may include displaying credit card, Google Checkout or Paypal logos. This information should preferably be displayed in the footer. However, under certain circumstances when site pages are too long this information should be displayed within an infobox. See the following module for instructions on how to create a Credit Card Payment Logo Box:

http://addons.oscommerce.com/info/5413

 

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is a commonly-used protocol for managing the security of a message transmission on the Internet. SSL should be installed for all osCommerce stores because every osCommerce store handles sensitive client information (contact, billing and shipping information). For more information on SSL installation please contact your hosting provider. A SSL logo should be clearly displayed (in your footer or an infobox) so that customers know that your store is taking measures to protect their personal information.

 

It is suggested that you use colors that are contrasting and are located across from each other on a color wheel. Avoid using colors that tend to blend together.

 

The search infobox should be within close proximity to the categories infobox. It should be present and easy to find.

 

The shopping cart infobox should be easy to find and accessible on all pages.

 

A Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart (CAPTCHA) is a type of challenge-response test used in computing to determine whether the user is human. The main purpose of CAPTCHA is to prevent spam. I suggest installing this module. In addition, if your contact us page contains email addresses, consider removing them. For more information please visit the link below:

http://addons.oscommerce.com/info/4960

 

 

Comments:

 

Your banner does not match the "cartoon" look of the left banner above the Tiki Tour infobox (which I really like). Consider re-designing your logo and header around that left banner. On my screen the light blue heading text on each page is hard to read on the white background. Consider using a darker blue. I suggest making the scrolling banner stop when you mouse over it so that it is easier to read the reviews contained within.

 

 

Andrew's Overall Score:

68/100 = 68%

Andrew Yuen

osCommerce, Community Team

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Site Review for: Keepin it Andrew's Overall Score:

68/100 = 68%

 

 

cool, thanks andrew so very useful suggestions there...I'll get to work...

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