please look at our re-designed shop

[paulieGB]

Hello,

 

We have just re-designed our greeting card shop, we have centered our site changed the template a little, and have put seo URL's and header tags 4 novices and new google site map on the site.

 

Please take a look and tell us what you think.

 

We havent put all the descriptions on the cards yet.

 

http://www.foxycards.co.uk

 

Paulie.

[php_Guy]

The header looks great. The rest looks pretty stock.

 

Also, it's pretty small. A width of 647 on a 1600 wide screen looks pretty odd. You should be able to go to at least 750 without bothering anyone. 950-1000 is typical for other types of sites. eCommerce does tend to have to deal with a larger percentage of smaller browser windows but 647 is a tad overkill.

 

The boxes have blue corners over a black background

 

On the home page, the line near the bottom with the date and number of hits is full screen while on other pages it is contained in your fixed area. I'd suggest removing it entirely but that behavior is also the sign that you've got an error in your code.

 

Your copyright says Happy Birthday Cards but your logo says Foxy Cards.

 

Your catgories are wraping plus they have subcategory indicators ('->' ) and category counts. Dumping both of those and widening the left column will improve the look.

 

Since you aren't hurting too much for space otherwise, I'd increase the overall page width and increase the font size to make it all more comfortable to read.

 

I really like the header. The "Welcome to our shop" text is a tad grainy though.

 

Best of all, I love that you made new table background images!

 

Oh and the very bottom of the screen is a band of osc blue below your background color. Set "BODY { background-color: #2F4F4F; }" and it should fix that.

 

hth

[angryquaker]

The name of your shop is hard to read in your banner (but I do like the fox). Could be just my monitor, but it looks like black lettering on a pretty dark brown background. If it were me, I'd want to lighten one or the other so there's some contrast there. Same on your buttons, but not as extreme. I can read them, but they don't really "pop," if you know what I mean. The upper-left corners on your infoboxes look kinda weird, too. I don't know if you meant to do that or not, different colors from the rest of the borders, and the light blue or gray doesn't seem to tie in with anything else on the site. The category one is rounded, where the rest are square.

 

Also, when I click your "click to enlarge" links on a product, it makes the page stop working. I looked at another site a few minutes ago that did the same thing, so I suspected maybe it was something on my end. I turned off the pop-up blocker, refreshed the page, and got the same result. No new window opens, and all other links become disabled. I checked my site, where I know I'm not using any shadowboxing or pop-up image enhancements, and my images open in a new window without any problems. Could be you're both using the same contribution for the images, and it just messes with my setup, I don't know.

 

Finally, I've seen several of the veterans here recommend that you not show the date and counter in the footer, and I agree. There's really no reason to have the date there (or anywhere on the page, for that matter), and the counter really only shows people how slow or new your site is, or shows your competitors how much (or little) of a threat you are.

 

Namasté,

Russ

[paulieGB]

Thank you, very much for your comments.

 

I have made a few changes,

But i have decided to keep the site the same width, i quite like it.

 

Russ, you said you had trouble with the click to enlarge image ?

My enlarged image does not open a new window, its a flash that apears on the main page.

You couldn't see it ?

Anyone else have this problem ?

 

Ok so what do you guys think now i have made a few changes ?

 

Thanks,

Paulie

[angryquaker]

Hey, Paulie. I'm at work now, my home computer is different, especially the monitor. The infoboxes look better, but I don't know about the shade of blue you're using for them. You have the little arrow linking the "What's New" heading to the new products page, but that little arrow is easy to miss. I'd make the entire heading a link, or add a "What's New" link somewhere, that's easier to see and use. That is, if you plan on adding new products with any regularity. If not, you may not want to bring attention to that aspect.

 

It seems to me like you have several different colors on your site, and there's nothing that really brings it all together. I would look into using less colors, and/or choosing colors that match and complement one another. The logo banner looks better on this monitor (or if you changed it overnight), but still doesn't really do it for me personally. It's still not jumping out at me, it's too easy to ignore. You want that part to be really easy to recognize and remember, without thinking about it. I'd still change the buttons, too, make them match some other element of the site. Make ALL the elements of the site match, so it feels like a cohesive unit, rather than a grouping of nice elements that don't really have anything to do with each other.

 

As for the images, the flash enlarge feature is working here, but wasn't on my home computer. Could totally be something on my end, I was getting the same thing on some sites, but not on others. When I get home, I may try clearing my cache, reboot, see what happens. As for the images themselves, I'd think you would want to have more. They don't look bad, and the cards themselves look really nice, too, but if it were me trying to sell greeting cards, I'd want to have awesome pictures of the front, inside, maybe even the back, and I'd want the big pictures to be bigger, even full-size, so the customer can really see all the detail. If you actually make the cards yourself, I'd suggest offering custom cards. Give the customer an option to contact you and tell you exactly what they'd like to have on their personalized card, and work with them to make it "just so."

 

Namasté,

Russ

[paulieGB]

Thank you Russ, i will re-read you post and look into some changes,

 

But first, you mention custom cards, Have you looked in the link at the top 'about the cards' ?

 

What do you think of that ?

 

Thanks,

Paulie.

[angryquaker]

Ah, yes, that is almost exactly what I was talking about, but I didn't really take notice of that link up in the header. I'd suggest that since that sort of thing is possible, you might want to make it much easier for your customers to find. I'd personally add a link or button to every single card description, letting them know about it. Maybe drop that secure seal down to the bottom of a column, and fill that space with an eye-catching button regarding custom cards, too. Or add a gallery of custom cards you've done for folks.

 

I'm back home now, but haven't cleared my cache or rebooted just yet. I will do that, and report back later with my findings in regards to the flash image enlargements.

 

Namasté,

Russ

[paulieGB]

Thanks Russ,

 

I have made a few more changes,

Im not entirely sure on the new buttons i added, my mum loves them i like them also, but im not sute if they go great with the site, we do want something that will stand out we dont want a dull looking shop.

I changed the header boxes, the blue boxes were probably not ideal on the site, these new boxes i feel blend in with the site, hopefully not to much.

 

I think i will add a contrib to add more pictures to my site and larger picture , close up of the front of the card and an inside picture also.

It doesn't look like i will be able to keep the flash for my enlarged pictures if i do this, the contribs i have seen for 'more pics' seam to work with a pop up window.

 

Do you know how to add a button to the card descriptions, for customizing ?

Sounds like a great idea, i will try to do that, ill do some reseach later or tomorrow for that.

 

Please could you explain this =

 

"Maybe drop that secure seal down to the bottom of a column, and fill that space with an eye-catching button regarding custom cards, too"

 

I just can't work that ?

 

Thank you,

Paulie.

[angryquaker]

Holy guacamole, Paulie. I'm sorry. I had looked at someone else's site and given them feedback, it seems I got yours mixed up with theirs, as far as that secure logo thingy. I do apologize, dunno what came over me.

 

At any rate, the infoboxes do look OK with the gray rounded graphics. However, rather than matching, or being "tied in" to other elements of your site, they're a completely new and different color from the rest of the site. They're nice looking graphics, don't get me wrong, but why not go with a green color, to go with your header, rather than gray? Same story with the buttons. They're not bad looking buttons at all, they just don't fit in or co-ordinate with anything else on the site. By "bringing it all together," I mean: choose just one color, or no more than a few colors that really go well together, and make ALL the elements of your site stick to that color, or color scheme. What you have now is a dark blue-green matte, a lighter green header, brown in your logo, silver infobox headers, and orange buttons. All that, PLUS the black text and white background in the body. Think of it the way a woman picks an outfit to wear. They don't go around wearing blue pants, orange shirt, red jacket, purple hat, green shoes, and so forth. It's visually unappealing. Pick one main color that you really like, and make your site's "theme" that color. Use complimentary (not random) colors as accents, or just stick to the one color. Aim for a more coherent look. As it stands now, you have nice enough graphic elements, it just looks like they came from several different websites. Make it so YOUR website has ONE look and feel to it.

 

Adding buttons or links to your product descriptions is simple enough if you know a little HTML. Just drop in a button or link below the description that says "Customize this card," or what have you, and link it to the "Contact Us" page, or your "About The Cards" page.

 

<a href="about_the_cards.php" class="pageHeading">Customize This Card</a>

 

or

 

<a href="about_the_cards.php"><img src="images/yourbutton.gif" border="0" alt="Customize This Card"></a>

 

If you're using FCK Editor or similar, you can make the links and/or add images with the tools in it. Otherwise, you can just drop the HTML code right into the description box in admin, just after the description, and maybe a <p> tag to give you a little space between the text and the link. :)

 

Now then...after clearing my cache, installing the latest Windows® updates, disabling and re-installing IE fresh, installing the latest Flash player updates, doing a full virus/spyware scan, and rebooting half a dozen times throughout the process, I'm still having problems with flash links, up to and including the ones on Adobe's own site, where I'm almost certain they'd have the proper coding and cross-platform capabilities. Flash links give me the same behavior in Firefox, which points to something screwy in my setup. I'll probably spend the next hour or two banging my head against this machine to try and get that cleared up. I have no idea what could have happened, but I need to fix it. It's driving me mad.

 

Namasté,

Russ

[paulieGB]

Thnaks for all the advice Russ,

 

I have made lots of changes and i think the site looks alot better.

 

I would like lots of opinions on my site please =

 

http://www.foxycards.co.uk

[angryquaker]

It's looking much better, you're headed in the right direction, in my opinion. I bet you're working on the "details" button even now, and getting your SSL lined up as well.

 

Namasté,

Russ

[paulieGB]

Hi,

 

I have made lots of changes to my site,

 

I have decided to put the blue header boxes back on the site, it looks more customized that way and also adds colour.

I have also changed the thumbnail pics and now offer more pictures of the cards on the product pages.

I have added text to the product listing page.

I have changed the text a fair bit on all the pages.

I have also added options for my products on there pages.

 

I have been working on the SEO also and i think it looks good.

 

What does everyone think ?

 

Paulie.

[Guest]

Hello,

 

We have just re-designed our greeting card shop, we have centered our site changed the template a little, and have put seo URL's and header tags 4 novices and new google site map on the site.

 

Please take a look and tell us what you think.

 

We havent put all the descriptions on the cards yet.

 

http://www.foxycards.co.uk

 

Paulie.

 

 

Blue and green should never be seen - so they say - not together anyway.

 

otherwise seems ok.

 

Is there SSL

 

 

chefchops

[paulieGB]

Hi,

 

Theres no SSL yet, putting that on next.

 

I really like the blue and green. :)

[Guest]

Just a quick comment. Google Chrome broke all to hell. I see none of your background items such as your buttons. You might want to check you CSS because overall Chrome rocks. Also re: width, consider that others use large monitors with high resolution. The slim look can get down right anorexic on a high res monitor.

[paulieGB]

Hi,

 

Could you expalin what you mean by this please =

 

"Just a quick comment. Google Chrome broke all to hell. I see none of your background items such as your buttons. You might want to check you CSS because overall Chrome rocks"

 

?

You cant see any of the buy now buttons ?

the banners ?

Whats Google chrome ?

 

Paulie.