danix Posted July 5, 2004 Share Posted July 5, 2004 TDIParts.com This site has been in the works for close to a year now. Every time I think I'm done, a contri gets revised or something new comes out that I realize I need. But, I've got to launch at some point, so any feedback is appreciated. I know that some images and product descriptions are missing, I'm working on those as I go along. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shayrgob Posted July 5, 2004 Share Posted July 5, 2004 Thats a very cool site. GOod job! I like the color scheme and im really liking the buttons up top. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimP Posted July 5, 2004 Share Posted July 5, 2004 I like the header buttons but change the box headings from the standard look, there is a contribution that allows you to easly change the look..... tp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danix Posted July 6, 2004 Author Share Posted July 6, 2004 Thanks for the initial feedback. I'm especially interested in comments on the center shop contri, and also how the site looks in other browsers. I will check into the box headings you suggest but I'm not quite sure what you mean? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 6, 2004 Share Posted July 6, 2004 I also run an automotive site..... I wish you luck. Tough business.... :huh: your site is nice... i viewed it in Firefox (Mozilla) and looked fine. no errors or problems here. Good Luck! B) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chance Posted July 6, 2004 Share Posted July 6, 2004 I agree with TimP. Right now, it looks like you bought a header on Template Monster and then slapped it on a stock osC shop. You would do wonders for the overall look of your site if you would take the gradient that is under the top navigation bar buttons ( http://www.tdiparts.com/catalog/images/but...lank_middle.gif ) and include it in your stylesheet.css file for the TD.infoBoxHeading def. On stylesheet.css, your infoboxHeading is as follows: TD.infoBoxHeading { font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: bold; background: #D0C3AD; color: #4F4F4F; } add under the "background: #D0C3AD;" this: background-image: url(images/button_blank_middle.gif); You always want to define a background color in addition to a background image in case the image does not load for any reason. 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...
danix Posted July 6, 2004 Author Share Posted July 6, 2004 Thanks guys, keep em coming. The header was a custom design for me by a friend, but he doesn't do php/css so I'm left to figure out that end on my own. Chance, I made the change you suggested. I don't see any difference, should I? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chance Posted July 6, 2004 Share Posted July 6, 2004 Its loading the background gradient, try adding height: 28px; to your TD.infoBoxHeading def to adjust the heading size to the full size of the gradient. 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...
danix Posted July 6, 2004 Author Share Posted July 6, 2004 Actually, it did work even without the height, but I see the effect of the height setting. I think 28px might be too tall, what do you think now? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
♥MYC267 Posted July 6, 2004 Share Posted July 6, 2004 It just doesn't inspire me... Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danix Posted July 6, 2004 Author Share Posted July 6, 2004 To each his own Dan. I certainly had more constructive feedback for your site, but as you no longer display the osc banner, we can't talk about your site anymore :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
♥MYC267 Posted July 6, 2004 Share Posted July 6, 2004 I wrote that this morning in a rush Dan.... and was planning to leave better feedback for you!!!! Come on I have contributed a lot to this community and I love helping out where I can!! Header - I like it but sorry it's not obvious what TDI means. What does it mean? Layout - Pretty stock in nature and at first glance on some of the simpler contributions have been used. That's ok though! I think your left and right columns are too wide and it makes the centre section too crampes. Content - The main page is a little bleek. You need some content there, not just the standard comments provided by OSC. You need a sell job... tell your visitors why they should shop with you, offer an incentive... something.. anything! There's a broken link on every category page... the top right category image is broken. You have a SPECIALS button at the top but there are no specials. You could make that button dynamic so your site detects whether there are specials or not and makes it appear when there are and not available when there are no specials. I just think that if you have such a prime location for a specials link you had better make sure there are some! Same as above but for reviews. "5106 requests since Wednesday, December 31 2003 " - Why do you need that at all? I guess there's not much more I can add. It's pretty much a stock OSC with some colour changes and a different header and a few contributions. I guess you need to put yourself into your customers shoes. Would you buy something from your site? Would you trust your site? What I normally do is conduct user experience reviews (that's what I call it) and have someone who hasn't seen your site before but is into the topic of the site sit down and use the site and watch what they do. Prepare a set of questions for them and see how long it takes to find the answer. User experience is very underestimated with a lot of OSC sites, don't make the same mistake! Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shayrgob Posted July 6, 2004 Share Posted July 6, 2004 wow, that was some real good advice b/c i am getting ready to open up my online aftermarket car parts website too. THanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
♥MYC267 Posted July 6, 2004 Share Posted July 6, 2004 The advice I gave was common sense, there's nothing new in it. The trick is to take it further... Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chance Posted July 6, 2004 Share Posted July 6, 2004 I would do the same with the footer class that you did with infoBoxHeading Dan(ix). Now the footer bar sticks out like a sore thumb :) 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 July 6, 2004 Share Posted July 6, 2004 You know, I am going to have to disagree with ModYourCar on the "Explain what TDI is" comment. While I am not an expert at selling car stuff, I do know a little about selling specialized products. VW / Audi owners know what TDI stands for. It makes no sense to explain to a Honda or Nissan owner that TDI stands for Turbo Diesel Injection. Its a niche market, and people that go out looking for TDI performance parts are not going to care for an explanation on what TDI means- they already know and love the engine/car. I guess what I am trying to say is the person who is going to shop at your site is already looking for TDI parts, so don't waste their time with explaining to them what they already know. Get to the parts, explain the performance, tell how to install it. Don't lecture them on what they already know and want. Put TDI info in your metadata, page titles, etc for search engine listings, not for the customers. 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...
♥MYC267 Posted July 6, 2004 Share Posted July 6, 2004 Well there you go... I had NO IDEA what it stood for!!! Makes sense now. Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ocinfo Posted July 6, 2004 Share Posted July 6, 2004 The site looks really nice. Could you please tell me how you did the categories menu how you did? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danix Posted July 7, 2004 Author Share Posted July 7, 2004 I will get back with more info later but just to say that Chance is correct. I already have a customer base of over 500 people who are looking for me to improve the way I do business, and oscommerce was the answer. Obviously I want new customers too, but it's not a primary focus at this point. I will implement some of the suggestions asap. Some things like specials have to be fleshed out, yes. I'm not sure of the protocol here - if I am having some issues/questions, do I post here or back in the general issues forums? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danix Posted July 7, 2004 Author Share Posted July 7, 2004 The site looks really nice. Could you please tell me how you did the categories menu how you did? Thanks That was one of the custom items I contracted out to an OSC developer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danix Posted July 10, 2004 Author Share Posted July 10, 2004 Well, feedback has died off, so I thank you for your input so far. I've incorporated all the suggestions (well, most of them) and my site is in public beta. There are still a few things that I need to fix/test, like paypal IPN, USPS and UPS shipping, etc. as well as update my product descriptions. I've written a couple of custom tools to help with site operations but they are very unix/linux centric, so I'm not sure if they would be worth posting as contris as I believe the majority of shops are on Windows platforms, right? Anyway, thanks again, and I will repost here if I have anything else I need feedback on. Special thanks to the OSC developer who did a super job on the items I contracted out to him. I'm not sure if I should mention his name but if anyone needs a referral, let me know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AXM Posted July 11, 2004 Share Posted July 11, 2004 I'd suggest that you expand the center column so that the page takes up the whole page or atleast a little more than what you have currently. For the previous poster who asked how was the menu made..."HV Menu found on Dynamic Drive" was found in the code. Yeah the DHTML menu looks sweet, but have you had any complaints about older-browser equipped customers not being able to see it correctly? And does anyone know if the search engines are able to search DHTML links? Another item...take off or replace that ugly stock clipart. I see it in Specials, What's New, Advanced Search, Log In...Too much to list :-). Sorry the stock clipart gave me personally, a splitting headache. Under no circumstance do you want to make the "Specials" tab dynamic detect if specials are available. Do you really want another database query slowing down your website??? Here are two suggestions: 1) Always have something on special (good idea on multiple levels). "Hey what does TDI have on special this day/week/month?" 2) Add a configuration SHOW_SPECIAL_TAB. And have 1 for True/Yes and 0 for False/No. Then where you put your html code for the tab, you put: <?php if (show_special_tab) { ?> INSERT HTML AND PHP CODE FOR SPECIAL TAB HERE <?php } ?> Just watch out with the <TD> tags. I noticed that you have a blank <TD> then the <TD> including the tab data. So both <TD> tags should be included in the middle of the code posted above. I ♥ PHP/MYSQL/CSS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AXM Posted July 11, 2004 Share Posted July 11, 2004 Yeah and on another note, like Carrerarod said earlier in the post "I wish you luck. Tough business.... " Yes it is a tough business to get into (well atleast extremely tough here in Southern California)...but you've picked a wonderful cart to work with. And i'm sure with the right developers behind it, you'll be jumping ahead of the competition in no time (especially those based on those weaker carts B) :ph34r: :blink: ) :D Danix, I should be having our site (atleast a test version up within a month)...keep an eye out for it. We've done our homework and have added a lot of well needed features perhaps never seen before on an automotive e-commerce website. I ♥ PHP/MYSQL/CSS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 11, 2004 Share Posted July 11, 2004 I've written a couple of custom tools to help with site operations but they are very unix/linux centric, so I'm not sure if they would be worth posting as contris as I believe the majority of shops are on Windows platforms, right? This is quite incorrect - most sites run on Linux/Apache :D Please post away! Matti Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burt Posted July 11, 2004 Share Posted July 11, 2004 I must say your site doesn't do much for me - it's too close to the "out of the box" oscommerce look. You said this: This site has been in the works for close to a year now. in your initial post. Can I ask what/where/why/how this site took a year to produce ? I (and I'm sure many others) would find that process interesting. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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