Please take a look.....

[jools]

We would appreciate some comments, suggestions, constructive criticism on our site, please.

I know its not yet finished and there are a few things still to be added, but would like some unbiased opinions on how it looks, works etc so far.

Bedibuys

Many thanks

[QueueIn]

So far, first impression -- the site is really bland needs color, logo etc... categories section is messy / confussing. There are alot of good mods to clean this up. dthml is a very good one to start with.

[mikes]

Thumbnails are a bit to small. they are fuzzy and I can't tell what I'm looking at. On the other hand, the category pictures are WAY to big. Also, thumbnails should be included on the product listing page.

 

Remove the category count and "->" that preceed it.

 

Take the number out of the category name.

 

Widen the left column so that text doesn't word-wrap.

 

Kudos on getting rid of the right column!!!

 

Replace the standard osc graphics.

 

Replace the standard osc buttons.

 

The site is too white. Perhaps a subtle image background would add some color but don't go overboard. It should be extremely subtle.

 

You are still using the standard osc color scheme. Pull some color out of your logo and use that.

 

No one will care when a product was added to the catalog. Wish they'd remove this from the standard install.

 

hth

[Tariq]

lol that's a pet peeve with ya aint it Mike? The date added thing? lol :) It does look funky. Maybe I will get around to getting that off my site as well.

 

Anyway, yeah basically the things that have already been said. It is too standard looking. It needs color badly. Maybe also getting rid of, or adding back in the rest of the rounded corners, as only the top left one has one right now on the Categories box, and it looks a little lost by its self.

 

Coloring would look good with very subtle shades of purple and lavender. Matching your logo colors for the headers for the infoboxes and making the text either black or white would be nice, and the background for the infoboxes a different color than the bg on the main page offsets them and makes them flow across the site better.

 

I would reorder the positioning of the Infoboxes as they are now, also.

 

Put the search where the Shopping cart is, and move the information box to the footer. I can help ya out on that one since I just got it done myself :)

 

Taking the Categories out of ALL CAPS would be wonderful as well. I HATE looking at something written entirely in caps, as it seems as if I am being yelled at lol

 

Just Nettiquette...

 

Honestly, with as many categories and products you have, you would be far better off, as QueueIn said, going with the DHTML contrib. It makes a VERY nice dropdown menu that is very easy to navigate. Its not so good for sites with few categories or items, but for your site, it is almost ideal.

 

Replace the standard OSC table backgrounds too, but Congrats on getting rid of the images above the Cart and such! Took me forever to figure that one out!

 

Getting rid of the Hits since at the bottom would be good too, and if you add in the lnks there from the information box, it would clean up the overall look even more!

 

But you are DEFINATELY off to a good start, and it seems as if you most assuredly have a better understanding of the inner workings of OSC than I did when I first looked at it and went

oh

my

 

LOL

 

Keep working, you are starting well!!

 

 

````````

HRM! Just thought of something, if you go with the DHTML menu, move the information box contents to the footer, then all you would have left would be the search.. Move that to the right in the header, and you have a Boxless site other than the Shopping cart! Add a Login to the opposite side, or right above, and you wikl have a very clean presentation

[jools]

Hi,

I'd like to thank everyone for their replies and input....only one slight problem, I have no idea how to change any of the basic layout of the site, as that was all done for us, by someone else (who we paid to do it, for a set sum) any changes he would have to make for us, he would charge us for....and we cannot afford it at the moment, as its coming up to Christmas!

Basically I have no idea, how it was all put together....shame on me I know...lol. We only added the products and images...

Am now panicking that we have gone about it the wrong way (OW MY GOD WHAT HAVE I DONE!) lol

HELP!

Thanks everyone

Jools :blink:

[Guest]

You should intergrate more graphics with your website.

 

In my personal belief, Graphics make a website :ph34r: .

 

Good luck with it all!

 

Regards

 

Rich

[WendyM]

If you know how to look at your current OSC files, you can do alot with the colors, size of text, and much more.....

 

by editing your "stylesheet.css",

 

which affects all pages of OSC uniformly.

 

I use OSC 2 MS2.2 and to find mine, I go to my control panel and get to the first page which shows osc files, toward the bottom is "stylesheet.css", I click on that, then look up and to the right(I see some options) and click on "edit". New window opens with the contents of the file.

 

Play around with it to see what all you can accomplish. (might wanna copy the original somewhere, just in case you get tangled up lol)

 

Another place where you can make changes sitewide, is the Admin area. You get there by typing your website address and adding "/osc/admin/" to the end of it. Enter your username and password, and voila! There ya go.

 

For images: go to configuration, then images. You can set the width and/or heighth of various images.

 

You've come a long long way in gaining control of your site, by asking questions here on the forums. These are some wonderful folks, who are eager to help others. I can't tell ya how much I've learned from reading the posts and asking questions.

 

Much luck and success to ya!

 

Wendy

 

PS...another good thing to do, is look at other websites. Look for "www" on edges of posts, click the "www" and you'll go to that person's site. And........have fun! :D