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ctec2001

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I would like to get some feedback on this in progress website. When I stated in progress, I mean in development and not finished. I know the obvious like buttons and some pages are blank. What I am really after is functionality. How easy is it to navigate.

 

Thank you in advance.

Do or Do Not, there is no try.

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just curious, but why did you choose green for the text color in your heading. it doesnt seem to match all that well..

A great place for newbies to start

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DO NOT PM ME FOR HELP. My time is valuable, unless i ask you to PM me, please dont. You will get better help if you post publicly. I am not as good at this as you think anyways!

 

HOWEVER, you can visit my blog (go to my profile to see it) and post a question there, i will find time to get back and answer you

 

Proud Memeber of the CODE BREAKERS CLUB!!

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I agree with colours. In fact, here's some other pointers:

 

1. Pick a colour scheme and stick to it.

At the moment, you have earth tones (browns) as your base, but black and white gradient as your header. The green would look OK if the black and white were changed to, say, a soft yellow>beige gradient.

 

2. Header graphic isn't a hyperlink. It's natural to click on this to get back to the home page.

 

3. Product images are all missing on this browser (IE6).

 

4. Nice buttons (add to cart etc).

 

5. SEO URL and headers are well used. Good contributions to have.

 

6. Default icons on search have white backgrounds. However, you're showing on a different background, so I can see the borders. Change to transparent gif/png format instead.

 

7. Privacy info is missing.

 

8. Conditions is missing.

 

9. Error messages are highlighted in pink. Make sure that this remains an obvious error message if you decide to change your colour scheme.

 

10. Default icons in login pages etc. They don't match the quality of your buttons. Change them in catalog/images directory.

 

11. SEO. Currently, your home page is mainly optimised for the word "home"It's in your <h1> tags and appears numerous times. Be aware of this.

 

12. Product info shows no images at all.

 

13. Looking at your code, it appears as though, if there were images in product_info, they would enlarge in the same size. Get a contribution that allows you to show a larger image (Lightbox, maybe - like at my site - www.datamouse.biz/catalog)

 

HTH

Danny

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I agree with colours. In fact, here's some other pointers:

 

1. Pick a colour scheme and stick to it.

At the moment, you have earth tones (browns) as your base, but black and white gradient as your header. The green would look OK if the black and white were changed to, say, a soft yellow>beige gradient.

 

2. Header graphic isn't a hyperlink. It's natural to click on this to get back to the home page.

 

3. Product images are all missing on this browser (IE6).

 

4. Nice buttons (add to cart etc).

 

5. SEO URL and headers are well used. Good contributions to have.

 

6. Default icons on search have white backgrounds. However, you're showing on a different background, so I can see the borders. Change to transparent gif/png format instead.

 

7. Privacy info is missing.

 

8. Conditions is missing.

 

9. Error messages are highlighted in pink. Make sure that this remains an obvious error message if you decide to change your colour scheme.

 

10. Default icons in login pages etc. They don't match the quality of your buttons. Change them in catalog/images directory.

 

11. SEO. Currently, your home page is mainly optimised for the word "home"It's in your <h1> tags and appears numerous times. Be aware of this.

 

12. Product info shows no images at all.

 

13. Looking at your code, it appears as though, if there were images in product_info, they would enlarge in the same size. Get a contribution that allows you to show a larger image (Lightbox, maybe - like at my site - www.datamouse.biz/catalog)

 

HTH

Danny

 

 

Thanks for the reply.

 

The color scheme in the header will be changing, just had to get something there.

 

Do you think that the image in the header should have a link back to the Home Page even when there is a Home in the navigation bar?

 

The images, yeah. The client did not have any pics yet. I should have something in the next few days. So nothing wrong with your browser. Just no pics on my end.

 

Thank you about the buttons. I was even thinking about changing the quick search default icon to an actual button. What do you think?

 

Are you saying that I am not using SEO URL's and headers? Or that I am.

 

Which icons? The ones on the upper right of the pages? I am going to remove those, thank for reminding me.

 

Privacy info and Conditions is missing. Yes, I have not recv'd anything from the client yet. Is there any default Privacy or Conditions to use?

 

The error message I might keep the same or change to yellow with red writing. Have to think about that one.

 

Can you explain number 11 more. How do I correct this?

 

I currently have lightbox installed. I know that if I had a bigger image downloaded, it would appear bigger. How did you do yours?

 

Thank you.

Do or Do Not, there is no try.

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just curious, but why did you choose green for the text color in your heading. it doesnt seem to match all that well..

 

I just had to get something up on the site quickly. It will be changed though.

 

Thank you.

Do or Do Not, there is no try.

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>>Do you think that the image in the header should have a link back to the Home Page even when there is a Home in the navigation bar?

 

A. Yes. It's natural for a viewer to click on a header to get home. Better to have and not need, than need and not have.

 

>>Thank you about the buttons. I was even thinking about changing the quick search default icon to an actual button. What do you think?

 

A. Anything that makes the site "yours" rather than a standard install is a good thing (image-wise). The images are what your visitors will spot first. The more they tie in with teh overall feel, the better the experience for them (and teh more likely they'll enjoy visiting your site).

 

>>Are you saying that I am not using SEO URL's and headers? Or that I am.

 

A. That you are - and that they're well used.

 

>>Which icons? The ones on the upper right of the pages? I am going to remove those, thank for reminding me.

 

A. Yes. And the "tell a freidn" and "search" mini icons.

 

>>Privacy info and Conditions is missing. Yes, I have not recv'd anything from the client yet. Is there any default Privacy or Conditions to use?

 

A. Your conditions and privacy will depend on your site owner. There are default ones, but you don't want to promise one condition and then not fulfill it.

 

>>Can you explain number 11 more. How do I correct this?

 

A. Sure. SEO is a massive topic, and we could talk for hours about it. Basically, remember these:

 

1. Google counts words on your site and works out which appear most (keyword density).

2. If words are in certain places (such as title or <h1> tags), styles (bold or italic) or included in hyperlinks, they are worth "more" than a normal text word.

 

In your site, you have "Home" in the <h1> tags and it appears in bold and in normal text - so it's more important than any other word on that page. Google will assume that this means that the page is about "home". Does that make sense?

There's more seo info in my blog (DataMouse Blog).

 

>>I currently have lightbox installed. I know that if I had a bigger image downloaded, it would appear bigger. How did you do yours?

 

A. I have all of my thumbnail images in catalog/images. I have all of my large previews in catalog/images/images_big/

My lightbox code looks like this:

 

<script language="javascript"><!--
document.write('<a href="http://www.datamouse.biz/catalog/images/images_big/beginning_access_2002_vba.png" target="_blank" rel="lightbox" title="Beginning Microsoft Access 2002 VBA" ><img src="images/beginning_access_2002_vba.png" border="0" alt="Beginning Microsoft Access 2002 VBA" title=" Beginning Microsoft Access 2002 VBA " width="128" height="180" hspace="5" vspace="5"><br>Click to enlarge</a>');
//--></script>
<noscript>
<a href="http://www.datamouse.biz/catalog/images/images_big/beginning_access_2002_vba.png" target="_blank" rel="lightbox" title="Beginning Microsoft Access 2002 VBA" ><img src="images/beginning_access_2002_vba.png" border="0" alt="Beginning Microsoft Access 2002 VBA" title=" Beginning Microsoft Access 2002 VBA " width="128" height="180" hspace="5" vspace="5"><br>Click to enlarge</a>');
</noscript>

 

You can see that the image source is <img src="images/beginning_access_2002_vba.png" whereas the target (ie. preview) is "http://www.datamouse.biz/catalog/images/images_big/beginning_access_2002_vba.png"

 

Feel free to take a look at my site (the blog has a link to my store).

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>>Do you think that the image in the header should have a link back to the Home Page even when there is a Home in the navigation bar?

 

A. Yes. It's natural for a viewer to click on a header to get home. Better to have and not need, than need and not have.

 

>>Thank you about the buttons. I was even thinking about changing the quick search default icon to an actual button. What do you think?

 

A. Anything that makes the site "yours" rather than a standard install is a good thing (image-wise). The images are what your visitors will spot first. The more they tie in with teh overall feel, the better the experience for them (and teh more likely they'll enjoy visiting your site).

 

>>Are you saying that I am not using SEO URL's and headers? Or that I am.

 

A. That you are - and that they're well used.

 

>>Which icons? The ones on the upper right of the pages? I am going to remove those, thank for reminding me.

 

A. Yes. And the "tell a freidn" and "search" mini icons.

 

>>Privacy info and Conditions is missing. Yes, I have not recv'd anything from the client yet. Is there any default Privacy or Conditions to use?

 

A. Your conditions and privacy will depend on your site owner. There are default ones, but you don't want to promise one condition and then not fulfill it.

 

>>Can you explain number 11 more. How do I correct this?

 

A. Sure. SEO is a massive topic, and we could talk for hours about it. Basically, remember these:

 

1. Google counts words on your site and works out which appear most (keyword density).

2. If words are in certain places (such as title or <h1> tags), styles (bold or italic) or included in hyperlinks, they are worth "more" than a normal text word.

 

In your site, you have "Home" in the <h1> tags and it appears in bold and in normal text - so it's more important than any other word on that page. Google will assume that this means that the page is about "home". Does that make sense?

There's more seo info in my blog (DataMouse Blog).

 

>>I currently have lightbox installed. I know that if I had a bigger image downloaded, it would appear bigger. How did you do yours?

 

A. I have all of my thumbnail images in catalog/images. I have all of my large previews in catalog/images/images_big/

My lightbox code looks like this:

 

<script language="javascript"><!--
document.write('<a href="http://www.datamouse.biz/catalog/images/images_big/beginning_access_2002_vba.png" target="_blank" rel="lightbox" title="Beginning Microsoft Access 2002 VBA" ><img src="images/beginning_access_2002_vba.png" border="0" alt="Beginning Microsoft Access 2002 VBA" title=" Beginning Microsoft Access 2002 VBA " width="128" height="180" hspace="5" vspace="5"><br>Click to enlarge</a>');
//--></script>
<noscript>
<a href="http://www.datamouse.biz/catalog/images/images_big/beginning_access_2002_vba.png" target="_blank" rel="lightbox" title="Beginning Microsoft Access 2002 VBA" ><img src="images/beginning_access_2002_vba.png" border="0" alt="Beginning Microsoft Access 2002 VBA" title=" Beginning Microsoft Access 2002 VBA " width="128" height="180" hspace="5" vspace="5"><br>Click to enlarge</a>');
</noscript>

 

You can see that the image source is <img src="images/beginning_access_2002_vba.png" whereas the target (ie. preview) is "http://www.datamouse.biz/catalog/images/images_big/beginning_access_2002_vba.png"

 

Feel free to take a look at my site (the blog has a link to my store).

 

 

Thank you for the explanations you provided. For the image enlargement, I saved an image about 500 x 375 and uploaded it to my image file. Now when I click enlarge it does exactly that. What I am trying to say is that I only have 1 image. The application automatically resizes. Please check the site, do a search for engines and take a look at what I am talking about.

 

You have been a great help.

 

My only concern is the header. I think it is missing something, but not sure what. I do not have much input from my client. This goes for any wording on their website. I personally think that this site is 100% better than their Current Website I did however take your advise on the link in the header. Better to have than not to have.

 

I removed the Home from the index page and replaced with different wording, but thinking, maybe I don't need the wording there. I also replaced many captions and removed the default images and replaced the warning.

 

Let me know what you think.

 

Thank you

 

Michael

Do or Do Not, there is no try.

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For the images, there are two images used in my site.

One is saved at 128x180 and used as a thumbnail.

A DIFFERENT image is also stored at a larger size - say 600x600.

When the user clicks the "enlarge" option, it doesn't enlarge the first image - it fetches the second larger one.

This makes your images much sharper, rather than allowing osC to squash down a large image to fit your thumbnail size. Look how clear the images are in my store.

 

The header could be jazzed up. It's not really a header - more of a blank box with jagged text in.

 

Maybe use an dimage that your selling and an anti-alias (smooth edged) font.

Deviantart.com has some great web interfaces that you can browse to see what others are using. You can't "borrow the designs; but they will give you some pointers.

 

Your site is absolutely better than theirs....

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I kinda like your header.. For the type of website you have, simple is GOOD.. anything too busy or cartoon-y will just make customers this it is less professional.. unlike my site, where cutesy and cartoon-y is better.

 

If you want to add something to it, maybe a racing stripe looking thing that goes across the top of the words, then bends downward and goes under the logo to the end of the banner. I think if you use the colors in the logo (orange, blue and beige) it will tie everything together nicely. If you want an example of what i am suggesting, i can make one up really quick.

 

I know what you mean when you say its "missing someting" i have been looking at my banner for MONTHS> i know i want to change it because it is just not professional looking, but i can not figure out what i want to do with it because i get totally split reviews on it. Some love it, others dont.. Oh well.. If you ever need help, i am pretty good with design and stuff, i use illustrator A LOT.. (you wouldnt know it by looking at my site though - its very rough)

A great place for newbies to start

Road Map to oscommerce File Structure

DO NOT PM ME FOR HELP. My time is valuable, unless i ask you to PM me, please dont. You will get better help if you post publicly. I am not as good at this as you think anyways!

 

HOWEVER, you can visit my blog (go to my profile to see it) and post a question there, i will find time to get back and answer you

 

Proud Memeber of the CODE BREAKERS CLUB!!

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I kinda like your header.. For the type of website you have, simple is GOOD.. anything too busy or cartoon-y will just make customers this it is less professional.. unlike my site, where cutesy and cartoon-y is better.

 

If you want to add something to it, maybe a racing stripe looking thing that goes across the top of the words, then bends downward and goes under the logo to the end of the banner. I think if you use the colors in the logo (orange, blue and beige) it will tie everything together nicely. If you want an example of what i am suggesting, i can make one up really quick.

 

I know what you mean when you say its "missing someting" i have been looking at my banner for MONTHS> i know i want to change it because it is just not professional looking, but i can not figure out what i want to do with it because i get totally split reviews on it. Some love it, others dont.. Oh well.. If you ever need help, i am pretty good with design and stuff, i use illustrator A LOT.. (you wouldnt know it by looking at my site though - its very rough)

 

Please if you could make something real quick. Maybe it would give me some idea.

 

I do like the designs of your website. Fun colors, etc.

 

Thank you

Do or Do Not, there is no try.

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here you go.. this was what i had in mind for you.. obviously that is a quick thing i did in 5 minutes, and it could definitely be better, but theres it idea.

 

Untitled-1.jpg

A great place for newbies to start

Road Map to oscommerce File Structure

DO NOT PM ME FOR HELP. My time is valuable, unless i ask you to PM me, please dont. You will get better help if you post publicly. I am not as good at this as you think anyways!

 

HOWEVER, you can visit my blog (go to my profile to see it) and post a question there, i will find time to get back and answer you

 

Proud Memeber of the CODE BREAKERS CLUB!!

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here you go.. this was what i had in mind for you.. obviously that is a quick thing i did in 5 minutes, and it could definitely be better, but theres it idea.

 

Untitled-1.jpg

 

Thanks for the image. I thought the curves where a little to much, so I have angles. I thought about it for awhile and decided to get the angle of the triangle involved a little. Take a look and let me know what you think.

 

Thanks again.

Do or Do Not, there is no try.

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For the images, there are two images used in my site.

One is saved at 128x180 and used as a thumbnail.

A DIFFERENT image is also stored at a larger size - say 600x600.

When the user clicks the "enlarge" option, it doesn't enlarge the first image - it fetches the second larger one.

This makes your images much sharper, rather than allowing osC to squash down a large image to fit your thumbnail size. Look how clear the images are in my store.

 

The header could be jazzed up. It's not really a header - more of a blank box with jagged text in.

 

Maybe use an dimage that your selling and an anti-alias (smooth edged) font.

Deviantart.com has some great web interfaces that you can browse to see what others are using. You can't "borrow the designs; but they will give you some pointers.

 

Your site is absolutely better than theirs....

 

Yeah, I see the difference in the images.

 

I did smooth out the edges on the font. Photoshop is still a learning curve for me. I did however figure it out. I also added a little more to the header thanks to lindsayanng for giving me an idea. Great to have both of your opinions.

 

Thanks again.

Do or Do Not, there is no try.

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very nice... i like that.

A great place for newbies to start

Road Map to oscommerce File Structure

DO NOT PM ME FOR HELP. My time is valuable, unless i ask you to PM me, please dont. You will get better help if you post publicly. I am not as good at this as you think anyways!

 

HOWEVER, you can visit my blog (go to my profile to see it) and post a question there, i will find time to get back and answer you

 

Proud Memeber of the CODE BREAKERS CLUB!!

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