pyratekyng40 Posted February 16, 2004 Posted February 16, 2004 If anyone can take a look and give me some feedback on the look and feel of my site, I'd greatly appreciate it. I want to keep it simple and I'm still getting rid of some default text and gifs... Thanks in advance.. www.sanddollarbeachtablecompany.com
Chance Posted February 16, 2004 Posted February 16, 2004 Looks pretty good, although the infobox header colors of course don't match the rest of the site. Then again, you said you were replacing stock images, etc so I am sure this is on your list of things "to-do". I am not quite sure about the links at the bottom of the page though- they easily add twice the page length to every page in your cart, and most would probably put those in a link page of some sort. Personaly, I would not want to show people other shopping options if they were viewing a products listing and debating if they want to put it in their cart or not, but thats just me. Links are better placed in a section of their own IMHO. Also, I would much rather prefer to see a thumbnail in the categories listing. It helps me compare what you have to offer and pick which one I like best quickly. The names for your products don't really do them justice, and a picture is worth a thousand words for someone browsing for something purely on its asthetic value. My advice comes in two flavors- Pick the one that won't offend you. Hard and Cynical: How to Make a Horrible osCommerce Site Warm and Fuzzy: How to Make an Awesome osCommerce Site
pyratekyng40 Posted February 16, 2004 Author Posted February 16, 2004 Thanks for the input........... I'll keep plugging...
pyratekyng40 Posted February 16, 2004 Author Posted February 16, 2004 I do need a little help if someone could point me in the right direction... When I change the stylesheet for the Infobox header background, I still get the gray box corners and outline. Thanks in advance for anyone who could point me to the right file to change the outline color.
TerryK Posted February 17, 2004 Posted February 17, 2004 First I'll answer your question from the last post... If you want to keep the corner images, then the easiest thing to do would be to copy the GIF images and replace them with the color you're using, then upload those with the same file name. (Hopefully that makes sense!) Or, if you don't want to use them at all, in osC2.2MS2, go into /catalog/includes/classes/boxes.php and look for this code: class infoBoxHeading extends tableBox { function infoBoxHeading($contents, $left_corner = true, $right_corner = true, $right_arrow = false) { $this->table_cellpadding = '0'; and change the 'true' values to false. You could also replace the images in question with a transparent GIF as a quick solution. As far as your site goes, I think you've changed some of the colors since I visited earlier today. They work well together now. Your header image looks pretty stretched and distorted though. I think it would look better if you could find an image to fit in there without playing with the image proportions. Maybe one that could tile nicely? It looks like you have a nifty product, but that isn't obvious from a first glance at your site. With the pictures being taken from straight above, and given the name of your shop, my first thought was that the tables were made out of sand dollars. I thought they were miniature tables to be used as conversation pieces. Maybe finding a way to put in a picture of one on the front page which would show the size relative to some other object would help? I agree with a previous poster about the long list of links. Why would you want to chase someone out of your store to another Web site? If they find something that interests them, they may not come back (regardless of whether you're opening a new browser page for the link). It sends me a message like... "Well, if you don't find what you're looking for here, you could go to any of these other people and do business with them!" So, I'd really think about that one... Anyway, good start -- best wishes for success! Terry Terry Kluytmans Contribs Installed: Purchase Without Account (PWA); Big Images, Product Availability, Description in Product Listing, Graphical Infobox, Header Tags Controller, Login Box, Option Type Feature, plus many layout changes & other mods of my own, like: Add order total to checkout_shipment Add order total to checkout_payment Add radio buttons at checkout_shipping (for backorder options, etc.) Duplicate Table Rate Shipping Module Better Product Review Flow * If at first you don't succeed, find out if there's a prize for the loser. *
TerryK Posted February 17, 2004 Posted February 17, 2004 Not sure if my reply on box corners was thorough, but this link was just posted in another section: http://wiki.oscommerce.com/docsCatBoxGenCorner HTH, Terry Terry Kluytmans Contribs Installed: Purchase Without Account (PWA); Big Images, Product Availability, Description in Product Listing, Graphical Infobox, Header Tags Controller, Login Box, Option Type Feature, plus many layout changes & other mods of my own, like: Add order total to checkout_shipment Add order total to checkout_payment Add radio buttons at checkout_shipping (for backorder options, etc.) Duplicate Table Rate Shipping Module Better Product Review Flow * If at first you don't succeed, find out if there's a prize for the loser. *
pyratekyng40 Posted February 17, 2004 Author Posted February 17, 2004 Terry, Thanks for all the input... I figured out the corners..Thanks I also have a pic on the main page that shows the set up and relative size. Still pluggin, Thanks for the advice Skip
TerryK Posted February 17, 2004 Posted February 17, 2004 I also have a pic on the main page that shows the set up and relative size. Do you mean the 'Orange' table thumbnail of the four corner pictures? If so, I couldn't look at that and know what it was without clicking on it. How about a picture of just one table -- not a thumbnail -- with, say, a bottle of pop or juice on it? It would only need to be from 150-200 pixels wide to make it more obvious at a glance. Also, if you're not using the Manufacturers box (which looks empty), I'd recommend removing it. You can just comment it out in your column_left.php page. Just one last thing: to be grammatically correct, your "Catalog's" heading shouldn't have an apostrophe. It should just read "Catalogs." HTH, Terry Terry Kluytmans Contribs Installed: Purchase Without Account (PWA); Big Images, Product Availability, Description in Product Listing, Graphical Infobox, Header Tags Controller, Login Box, Option Type Feature, plus many layout changes & other mods of my own, like: Add order total to checkout_shipment Add order total to checkout_payment Add radio buttons at checkout_shipping (for backorder options, etc.) Duplicate Table Rate Shipping Module Better Product Review Flow * If at first you don't succeed, find out if there's a prize for the loser. *
pyratekyng40 Posted February 17, 2004 Author Posted February 17, 2004 Terry, You're awesome... Mfg's Gone Catalogs spelled correctly Working on a pic Thanks for your time, Skip
Chance Posted February 17, 2004 Posted February 17, 2004 Aww, TerryK got an awesome and not me :( My advice comes in two flavors- Pick the one that won't offend you. Hard and Cynical: How to Make a Horrible osCommerce Site Warm and Fuzzy: How to Make an Awesome osCommerce Site
pyratekyng40 Posted February 17, 2004 Author Posted February 17, 2004 Sorry Chance.......... You're awesome too!
pyratekyng40 Posted February 18, 2004 Author Posted February 18, 2004 OK ... Changed a bit, If anyone has a 'dial-up' (or knows anyone who does), please let me know if the background takes too long to load. Thanks in advance!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TerryK and Chance..... Still Awesome! Skip
TerryK Posted February 18, 2004 Posted February 18, 2004 Hey Skip... I was so impressed when I saw your new header image downloading -- it's great! Unfortunately, I can't say the same for your background, sorry. :( The color doesn't site nicely against the header, and it doesn't tile seamlessly as you scroll down either. I'd be more inclined to pull out the beiges, greens and blues from the header and incorporate those somehow into the body -- with the light beige as the base background color, and the others as accents. But... that's just one girl's opinion. :) As far as download speeds, I'm on dialup and it all came through fairly quickly. HTH, Terry (wondering whether she'll still get the 'awesome' rating... Hmmmm. :) Terry Kluytmans Contribs Installed: Purchase Without Account (PWA); Big Images, Product Availability, Description in Product Listing, Graphical Infobox, Header Tags Controller, Login Box, Option Type Feature, plus many layout changes & other mods of my own, like: Add order total to checkout_shipment Add order total to checkout_payment Add radio buttons at checkout_shipping (for backorder options, etc.) Duplicate Table Rate Shipping Module Better Product Review Flow * If at first you don't succeed, find out if there's a prize for the loser. *
TerryK Posted February 18, 2004 Posted February 18, 2004 One more observation: nowhere on your site could I find a phone number or address to contact you. I would not order from a site that didn't readily provide this information, though your mileage may vary... Terry ( watching that rating diminish even further -- suck it up, Chance! ) :) Terry Kluytmans Contribs Installed: Purchase Without Account (PWA); Big Images, Product Availability, Description in Product Listing, Graphical Infobox, Header Tags Controller, Login Box, Option Type Feature, plus many layout changes & other mods of my own, like: Add order total to checkout_shipment Add order total to checkout_payment Add radio buttons at checkout_shipping (for backorder options, etc.) Duplicate Table Rate Shipping Module Better Product Review Flow * If at first you don't succeed, find out if there's a prize for the loser. *
pyratekyng40 Posted February 18, 2004 Author Posted February 18, 2004 Thanks for the input Terry, Still awesome!!!! I'm continually playing with the background colors.. what do ya think? I can take it! haha Your right about the Address and Contact ifo, I moved all the links to their own page and I'll throw the Privacy info with the Shipping as a combined information kinda page. Then turn the Privacy into "About Us" Skip
TerryK Posted February 18, 2004 Posted February 18, 2004 Hi Skip, Sorry, I just don't like that blue background. Your site looked MUCH cleaner and seemed to fit the 'theme' of your product better when you had the sandy brown background behind it. And since I'm managing to maintain that 'awesome' status even while semi-dissing your site :) I might as well make one more observation. I don't think the Comic Sans MS font works well with your stencil font logo and buttons. Comic is like a hand-printed kids' font and tends to work well with more 'kiddish' sites (like mine, as you'll see if you check it out). In your case, I'd be inclined to stick with a more classic sans-serif font for the headers and prices. Digging myself into yet a deeper hole, I'll also make a suggestion about your buttons, too. The font size should really be the same for all of them for a more streamlined look to your site. On your product info pages, the "reviews" button is in a large, bold faced font, and the 'Gotta Have It' button is more squeezed together and not bolded. My suggestion would be to find the wording that takes the most space (width wise) and the font size that works best with it, then make your others match. As far as contact goes, I just added the contact information to my 'Contact Us' form. Check it out via the www link in my sig. HTH, Terry Terry Kluytmans Contribs Installed: Purchase Without Account (PWA); Big Images, Product Availability, Description in Product Listing, Graphical Infobox, Header Tags Controller, Login Box, Option Type Feature, plus many layout changes & other mods of my own, like: Add order total to checkout_shipment Add order total to checkout_payment Add radio buttons at checkout_shipping (for backorder options, etc.) Duplicate Table Rate Shipping Module Better Product Review Flow * If at first you don't succeed, find out if there's a prize for the loser. *
Urbluffingme Posted February 18, 2004 Posted February 18, 2004 When you chose a domain name, you should have went with something like: www.Ichoseanamethatensuresnobodywilleverrememberit.com Just kidding. But bite the bullet and go with something simpler. I learned this lesson the hard way. Nobody ever remembers my domain name. I mean NOBODY. cheers, Kevin
pyratekyng40 Posted February 19, 2004 Author Posted February 19, 2004 Ok Terry, What about this??? I know you still don't like the blue, but...
TerryK Posted February 19, 2004 Posted February 19, 2004 Hi Skip, You're right. I still don't like the blue, and I still see Comic font in play in the columns. But, hey -- it's only one gal's opinion. :) It took a long time to download today on my dialup connection -- almost 4 minutes! Your oscommerce.gif is 70K, sand_dollar_blue_white.jpg is 100K. You should be able to reduce the thumbnails to 5-10K each as low resolution jpgs, and your oscommerce.gif should be saved as a JPG because it's photo quality. (GIFs are more suited to text or solid color / line art images.) Terry Terry Kluytmans Contribs Installed: Purchase Without Account (PWA); Big Images, Product Availability, Description in Product Listing, Graphical Infobox, Header Tags Controller, Login Box, Option Type Feature, plus many layout changes & other mods of my own, like: Add order total to checkout_shipment Add order total to checkout_payment Add radio buttons at checkout_shipping (for backorder options, etc.) Duplicate Table Rate Shipping Module Better Product Review Flow * If at first you don't succeed, find out if there's a prize for the loser. *
Chance Posted February 19, 2004 Posted February 19, 2004 Also, in addition to your new header image being huge, its 1000pix wide. Making customers scroll 300pix to the right on an 800x600 screen is no good. I am going to have to agree with the comment Terry made on the blue background image. I have always secretly harbored a hate toward repeating background images that are not used as a style element in a table (like a header background or something) because the first thing they remind me of is hack Frontpage website development. I don't know what it is, but people who favor Frontpage are always all about the body background image. To me, it will always appear amaturish. With that said, if you are dead set on a repeating background image I would take Terry's advice and go with something very light and "sandy". Nothing overpowering, just "the essense of sandy beaches" if you know what I mean. A light sand texture. Using a color that borders on neon-blue I think is a generaly bad idea. Not trying to be mean at all, just telling you what goes through my head when I see it. If this is all crap to you, just ignore me :) Chance My advice comes in two flavors- Pick the one that won't offend you. Hard and Cynical: How to Make a Horrible osCommerce Site Warm and Fuzzy: How to Make an Awesome osCommerce Site
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