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ModYourCar - development OSC site


MYC267

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OK people I have been working on this for a couple of months and I'd say it's about 90% there.. I still have a couple of things to sort out... this is my development site so there is no SSL on it... if you want you can log in using whatever...

 

I have modded my shop extensively and theres also a lot of custom mods of my own... More changes will be going up tonight including category images.

 

Let me know what you think, I can take any sort of feedback.

 

Like I said it's not quite there yet but good enough to show you guys!

 

I plan on going LIVE mid January.

 

What's the address???

 

http://dev.modyourcar.com.au

Dan

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Im new to Osc and I am enjoying checking out all your sites as I am in the process of building my own and I have to say that this is one of the nicest Osc sites I have seen. Nice use of the gorgeous girl :P. Although the crumb trail is in a bit of a confusing spot, it's just too close to the cart details and kind of hard to find.

 

Anyway can't wait to see the finished product!

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Cheers for the reply... at least someone has taken the time to check it out and provide some feedback... the only one, and your new here.

 

Come on peeps have you got anything for me?????

Dan

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I'm using the Mozilla FireBird browser and your site seems to have lost the css, text is too small and looks times new roman type font.

It also looks like the site has been designed for 600x800 and at 1024 etc the category pictures are too small and not discernable. I wonder what those add to cart buttons would look like at the resolution you intended, they're huge.

I would consider doing something about those drop down menus, i.e. lose them, their spoiling the left hand column. Why not put them at the bottom of the main body?

Why not let the site fill the whole screen?

Validate your html at www.w3.org.

If you had SSL, I would probably sign up and buy, because in general everything looks good.

"Any fool can know. The point is to understand." -- Albert Einstein

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Thanks for the feedback... the site is designed for 1024x768 minimum. It's not really for 800x600.

 

Yes the ADD TO CART button looks quite big but I wasn't sure what to do with it, perhaps I'll make the text smaller.

 

The drop down menus on the left do look a little funny, perhaps I'll make an 'Advanced Search' page and have more options on there rather than having it all on the left hand side.

 

I didn't want the site to fill the whole screen, I like it centred like that. I just like the look and feel it gives and customers in general like it and there hasn't been any problems so I think I will keep it that way.

 

Keep in mind I have been running www.modyourcar.com.ay for about 4 months now (not using OSC) so I do have customers and I get feedback from them.

 

I will use w3 to validate some of my code, not sure why the CSS isn't filtering through on your Mozilla browser.

 

The SSL will be there once I go to production, I have an instanstssl certificate.

 

Thanks for the feedback.

Dan

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I like your site. Very nice layout. You could tell that you spend a lot of time modifying it. Something different from stock OSC layout. I especially like the advanced search feature on the left column. Search by price, name, manufacturer. How did you do it? Was there a contribution for it?

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Thanks! I am glad you like it... yes I Have spent a heap of time modifying and getting feedback from existing customers and friends etc...

 

I have done a lot myself including that advanced seacrch facility... there was no contribution for it, in fact there wasn't many contributions that I found completely useful. They either had bugs, didn't work properly or simply didn't give a nice user experience.

 

Thank you for the feedback.

Dan

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This site looks very good overall.

I think it has just enough of that oscommerce feel to it to keep it an ecommerce shop, but has personality everywhere.

Your category structure is very in depth and if I were looking for performance products I am sure I would stick around this site a while.

I like how your super search results work and I feel that this is a huge strong point in your site. I am dying to know how you did it. Ever consider making it a contribution? Please discuss this a bit further as I know a few have requested something like this in the past.

 

My only gripe about the site is the actual product page. Something about the layout of the "add to cart" "reviews" and "enquire" buttons is a bit odd but only on the products that have very little info. It looks better with the products that have more content. No big thing, just figured as a professional designer I would give the ups and downs out of respect.

 

Overall the job looks good. It looks like you will be making plenty sales with a professional ecommerce atmosphere. Any pointers on that super search box feature will be great. I'm sure many will love it.

Thanks Again

F S

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FS thanks for the comments, I am happy most of the comments made here have been positive but I do like the constructive feedback you have given, it's much appreciated.

 

Yes I agree the product info page looks wierd!!! I did a few different things but I couldn't get it looking good and that's what I finished with. Now that you have made a point of it I am going to make some changes. I agree it looks wierd, that ADD TO CART button looks big and gumby. Perhaps I will move those buttons to the bottom of the product info page again. Only think I don't like about that is when there is a huge product description they are not visible on the page when it is first loaded. I like the "key" functions to be accessible in the top section of the page where the page loads, that's the most expensive real estate so why waste ie!! I'll have a re-think anyway.

 

OK with the search box I knew a few of you guys would like it, it is quite neat! I basically modded the original search infobox to include all these other attributes. It's quite simple... at the moment each product in the PRODUCTS table has a list of associated "car make" and "engine" (separated by a comma) so when you select those in the search box it uses those fields to narrow down the search. I will be making that a lot more advanced this year some time so there are link tables for those two attributes so I am using primary keys and indexes. At the moment it uses a wildcard. Anyway that's a technical thing.

 

Like I said there is quite a few mods that I have done myself which just gives ModYourCar a personal look and feel and sets it apart from the rest.

 

Last night I also set up the "test" secure domain to test to see if it all works ok. So now if you navigate to a secure part of the site you will see the URL http://securedev.modyourcar.com.au in the browser window. This is not secure but I created this sub domain to mimic a separate domain. When this goes live I will have the SSL in place there.

Dan

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have done a lot more work on the development site over the last 2 weeks and it is about 95% there now with all my mods working. Its pretty much there and I'd love to see what you people have to say....

 

Please take the time to review as I have done with so many sites on here.

 

This is the development site... http://dev.modyourcar.com.au

 

The secure pages will use a subdomain called securedev.modyourcar.com.au but that's not secure... when the site goes live I have my own SSL ready to go!

 

 

http://dev.modyourcar.com.au

Dan

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I think it's a really nice site - well done. Personally I'd make a couple of changes though:

 

1. I'd modify the main categories section on the left so that it had some kind of CSS rollover in the background of the <TR>. Maybe try rolling over in the red/burgundy colour you've got or even a more subtle change on the blue grey that it is now. I'd also think about left aligning the text as I think it's easier to read.

 

2. I don't like the search drop-downs on the left. I think they just look a little messy and would be better left on an advanced search page. Saying that, you know your customers and if they are using these a lot, maybe you need to keep them?

 

Like I say - just my ideas.

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I see your point about the search but yes my customers do use those a lot but I will monitor it once I go live. If I find they don't use it all that much I will move most if it to an advanced search page like you said.

 

With the categories list.... I'll try and see if left aligning them makes it nicer, I have always had it like that (even on the current site) so I just kept it the same.

 

Thanks for the feedback, not many people have left me feedback on the site.... so I appreciate it.

Dan

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Made some more changes.... removed the bread crumb, moved the cart contents to the bottom of the login box and added some links to the top of the site.

 

Our SSL is almost setup so I am anticipating a live upgrade this week.

Dan

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Dan,

 

Our site is looking nice :) I really like the small detials like showing the ModYourCar Team members on the Our Profile page, really gives a personal touch. I really like your Contact Us page as it is more than just an email us page. Is there a specific contribution you used to require the extra info on the Contact Us page (ie: Where did you hear about us?, Subject?, Make, Model, State, Country, etc) or did you simply do it yourself? Could you post the code for doing that here or in the Tips and Tricks section or PM me? Thank you.

 

Joe

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Joe.... I am glad you like!!

 

"Our site is nice"??? eh?

 

You will notice A LOT of differences on ModYourCar compared to a stock OSC and you have pointed out a couple of them.

 

Yes I like to give our customers a personalised experience and make them feel welcome so I have pics of the ModYourCar Team, in the profile page. Putting faces on your web site is extremely important, there's nothing worse than a mundane looking web site.

 

One thing I didn't like about the standard OSC Contact Us page was it's plain feel and "care factor zero" attitude. It just didn't give a good customer experience at all. I have made quite a few changes to it in fact. If you are logged in it will recognise you and won't ask you to enter in all your details (as we already have them). If you are not logged in it will ask you for all those details.

 

You will also notice an 'ENQUIRE' button on each product, click it and see what it does! It actually goes to the Contact Us page and put the product code and name in the subject already pre-populated. It's pretty neat.

 

The other info you ask about was all done by me. I could post the code in the Tips and Tricks section if you like (when I get home).

 

And if you are wondering who the "girl" is... that's Chelsie my girlfriend. :P She appears throughout the site to give a real personal experience and having a friendly face works wonders.

Dan

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Hi Dan,

 

Fantastic Job...

 

Just a quick note, I think you should add some extra fonts to the style sheet just in case a broswer doens't pick up tahoma. I'm using FireBird on Linux and the font looks like times new roman and a bit small.

 

There seemed to be a little alignment problem with the credit card images and the privacy statement.

 

m8 if I was customer I'd also like to see a phone number, even address or registered business details before I'd spend $25 or more with you. Today I got an email telling me I'd just won US$2,500,000.00 and even they had the decency to put an address, even though it was in South Africa.

"Any fool can know. The point is to understand." -- Albert Einstein

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Thanks for that feedback... yes I know I need to have a number on there and an address. We do not have a physical shop so that's why the address isn't shown but I am planning a free call 1800 number which will be great.

 

So where is the alignment problem? On the Privacy Agreement page itself?

 

Point taken about the stylesheet... what font would yuo recommend?

Dan

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I saw it on the main page, it the bottom left hand box, the PA seemed to of dropped an extra line and left aligned along with the cc images.

 

I think if you just tag on the default fonts from the osc version you should be ok, I downloaded the M$ fonts pckg available for linux, just seems like tahoma isn't one of them.

 

One last point or reminder :), since you have the site so well done I would get some meta tags going etc....

 

All the best.

"Any fool can know. The point is to understand." -- Albert Einstein

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I don't see that PA problem on IE ... can you send me a screen shot to [email protected]? I'd appreciate it.

 

META tags... yup... I know... there's a few things like that I haven't done yet. I don't want to go too over the top though, I like thin, small pages that download quickly. I hate bloated pages even though OSC does produce some bloated code but I don't want to make it worse.

 

Thanks for the help as well... much appreciated.

Dan

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I just noticed a problem ... I am hoping someone may know what it is.

 

Create an account and then try and log in from the log in box... it creates a session id and all but it doesn't recognise you as logged in.

 

Now.. add something to your cart (so theres something in it) and then try and log in... no problem.

 

Why won't it let me log in unless theres something in the cart??

Dan

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One thing I didn't like about the standard OSC Contact Us page was it's plain feel and "care factor zero" attitude. It just didn't give a good customer experience at all. I have made quite a few changes to it in fact. If you are logged in it will recognise you and won't ask you to enter in all your details (as we already have them). If you are not logged in it will ask you for all those details.

 

You will also notice an 'ENQUIRE' button on each product, click it and see what it does! It actually goes to the Contact Us page and put the product code and name in the subject already pre-populated. It's pretty neat.

 

The other info you ask about was all done by me. I could post the code in the Tips and Tricks section if you like (when I get home).

Yes, this is very useful. I would like to change some of the fields and/or add others, is it a fairly simple thing to do? I would like to require a mailing address and maybe even throw in a couple of interest selection check boxes. Very cool indeed...autofilling fields helps on the CS end to better assist the customer. Yes, if you will kindly post how to change up the Contact Us page to the Tips and Tricks I am sure many including myself would like to know how to get it done as well as you have done it. BTW is that the Center Shop contribution you are using to center your site on the page? Excellent work.

 

Joe

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Just my 2 cents, but I would make the cart contents stand out a little more. In my travels, I have learned 2 things. 1.Present your best product first. and 2. Make it as easy as possible for your customers to purchase it. You may also want to consider making your contiue shopping link in your cart link to some product page. I had a difficult time navigating back to the "showroom". Just a thought. Cheers

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Actually, I just realized what happened. I put something in my cart and the cart displayed with my item in it. I clicked contiue to shop and it brought me back to the product listing for the item I placed in my cart. Gess what? No back button. So what do I do naturally? I click the back button in my browser. Where does that take me? Back to the CART! Fix this now!! I would take me about 4 clicks to get back to the "Showroom". If I was a customer, I'd be history.

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