Chance Posted May 25, 2004 Share Posted May 25, 2004 Our company already has a successful osCommerce site for fire / rescue equipment, and we are getting ready to launch our second site, a "Tactical" site for law enforcement, military, and security related equipment. I don't suspect some will know much about the items being sold on the site because of the nature of the products, and I would really appreciate any military or law enforcement folks who would like to give me their subjective impressions of the site and "if you would buy from me". It was hard selecting the color scheme for the site- Tactical by nature is dark and somewhat menacing, but eCommerce sites are, in my opinion, better if they are light and open and inviting. I welcome any comments on the color scheme, and what you guys think. Usablility, load times, and flow are also points I welcome comments on, as well as anything else anyone might like to add. Currently there is one manufacturers line of products on the site, with around 500 part numbers. There are more contributions than I can remember on the site, and pretty much everthing I learned from the fire site I took and made the tactical site better. I welcome any and all comments, I have thick skin. The site uses STS, and must be accessed by this url: http://www.thurstontactical.com?tplDir=osC 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agiftcodotcom Posted May 25, 2004 Share Posted May 25, 2004 I work for gtdist.com and I REALLY wish they would've given me an OSC site to work with instead of hiring some small time company to re-invent the wheel. Now I'm having to deal with their crappy site... not that I'm bitter :) Maybe I'll have to try to talk them into an OSC site in the future. But, your site looks great. And load time ROCKS!! Have you ever gone to Galls web site? For such a large company you would think they could have a better site. Sorry, had to vent again :D Good luck with your new site. Contributions I used : Updated 06-13-04 23:42 ---------------- Vote on My Graphis Poll Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerryK Posted May 25, 2004 Share Posted May 25, 2004 I'm not really fond of the green you've used -- I think it's a little bright. (If it were me, I'd be inclined to go with a green more like that found in camouflage gear -- like the helmet color, only perhaps darker/deeper.) "Monthly Specials" page generates a blank page -- not even a 'nothing on sale' message. Ditch the little cartoon icon on that page, too... Company Info link at the bottom of the page takes me to a new site, with a new logo/color scheme. I'd rather see an initial company info page that references the parent company, with a link from that page to the new site. Otherwise, looks clean and well laid out. 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. * Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agiftcodotcom Posted May 25, 2004 Share Posted May 25, 2004 Really, if you replace the green with a light gray, for how much you use, it wouldn't be a bad thing. You are correct that many sites in our industry use dark colors, which aren't inviting to average web users, but the people purchasing from us are actually used to the darker sites. Contributions I used : Updated 06-13-04 23:42 ---------------- Vote on My Graphis Poll Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chance Posted May 25, 2004 Author Share Posted May 25, 2004 I have tried a number of colors in the infobox headers, and to be honest when I tried a more "olive drab" color green it really washed out on the product info pages when the products contained a lot of those colors, along with the header. I will play around with a gray and a few more color combinations, but I am pretty sold on what colors I am using now. Thanks for the heads up on the stock osC images Terry, those little buggers are a pain in the butt to get all out. I think they are all gone now. 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drazan Posted May 25, 2004 Share Posted May 25, 2004 May I suggest centering your site. I have a laptop with 15.4 "widescreen" and your page is all but half the monitor and skooched to the left. Even on a 1024X768 there is a lot of blank space to the right. I actually don't mind the green. However it is such a color that on those monitors that are not set correctly it will show up ver vibrant. Perhaps keep the color and tone down the saturation of the color. =) Jade Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sb_1 Posted May 25, 2004 Share Posted May 25, 2004 Looks pretty good. YOur table header color is abit off. Doesnt match the rest of the site. Scott Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chance Posted May 26, 2004 Author Share Posted May 26, 2004 Um, sorry the site uses BTS. I always get my _TS's mixed up. 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burt Posted May 26, 2004 Share Posted May 26, 2004 It's very nice. I'm unsure about the green bar in the logo that goes over the soldiers heads...how about moving the green bar of the "T" up and using it as the breadcrumb navbar ? That might look quite cool ? 2 things do stick out from the design: 1/ The shoppng cart box (on shopping_cart.php) when you have products in your cart. It's kind a of a brown colour that doesn't sit well with the other colours. 2/ Same colour on the box here: http://www.thurstontactical.com/index.php?cPath=28 I think these may look better as a camo colour (image in stylesheet), or perhaps the same green as the "T" of Tees ? Good work overall though! I think it is STS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burt Posted May 26, 2004 Share Posted May 26, 2004 I've noticed one more thing - the colour of the background in the left column is very slightly different to the colour of the infobox, so on a long page eg: http://www.thurstontactical.com/index.php?cPath=28 it looks not quite right... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chance Posted May 26, 2004 Author Share Posted May 26, 2004 For everyone that said something about colors, I think I changed them all 20 times last night looking for a good combo, and I am not done yet. The color thing is by far the hardest part, for me, to making a site. Thanks for the heads up on that background color difference burt, I didn't notice that one. 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chance Posted May 26, 2004 Author Share Posted May 26, 2004 Burt, fixed that color problem with the infobox background color. Changed the green in the infobox headers to a slightly darker "websafe" color. Old background-color: #00A039; New background-color: #009933; The green in the header image is still the same if you people with good color sense would like to compare :) (mostly because I am too lazy to change it right now) 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
New 
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.