More opinions

[MDS]

Hi

I have finally taken the plunge after buying Actinic about 9 months ago

My idea is for a clean, fast, easy to navigate site

www.candccentral.co.uk/testsite

It is still in progress, meta's havn't been done yet but most of the content has been added.

Thanks for looking

Mick

[compendia]

had a quick look

a couple of things struck me. A nice little introductory text on the frontpage, but I would have to know what you were talking about to feel comfortable using the site, you might like a 'don't know what you're doing, we'll help in friendly way' email link.

Love the big picture though have no idea what it is.
Like that I can see the actual product one click away from the home page.
Home page has two columns of pics, quite busy, but then if I knew what I was lookign for I would prabably block out all the pictures that didn't apply to me.

Are you sure you want a munufacture web link in products, the manufacturers will probably have a list retailers so it might be shooting yourself in the foot when it comes to making the sales (though obviously I am thinking of my own industry here)

Also, you should definitley move products that you have in stock to the top of the page. The page I went to the first two products were out of stock which makes think 'Oh I'm not even going to bother looking this site doesn't actually have any stock at all!' this is unfair, but it's what some customers might think. If you are lookign for something urgently it's very frustrating to happen across a site that is in some kind of test mode that won't sell you anything, and if you ready to sell you want those people who need it now, because they have probably passed the comparison, info gathering stage. and are just going to get it.

I liked the site and it was very quick for the amount of pics you had on there.
Meg

[jont]

Hi Mick,

have to agree with Megan on the homepage - really was an assault on information via icons in the left hand column - compare this to when you enter the site and you have just a text only left hand navigation. May be worth using text navigation on your homepage to mirror the rest of the site and use the icons on the body of the homepage as an additional way to find you - they do look good but are not easy on the old eyes for navigation.

Similarly the right hand navigation items could use some text - I use Firefox which does not show the ALT text so I had to rely on the status bar for what each image was leading me to.

The header image is centred on the homepage but positioned left on the brochure pages. May be worth using a <br> in the Act_ProductLine.html template after the price as the including and excluding prices are running into each other at the moment (there is a current thread about this).

Unsure about the white text on black background - makes quick reading very difficult and I found myself having to squint.

Love the Aerocool Aeroengine case by the way - that's one mean looking case that demands respect

[MDS]

Thanks both for taking the time to look at my site

There are numerous points which I have, or will be implementing.

I am really torn on the homepage because I like it.

Didnt realise about Firefox-will try adding text see how it looks

Header i did, then overwrote it

Thanks for the pricing tip-invaluable & looks much much better.

Removed the links-never thought of that & rewrote the intro slightly

[george]

Having toyed with colours for my own site, I'd reckon you'd be better with navy sidebars, or possibly white to match the pics you've used a bit better.

The grey/red Thermaltake links looks wrongly coloured.

I like the images down the sides, although maybe a bit `hard core` for some visitors, as in a decent knowledge is required before entering. That may probably suit the type of visitor your after anyway.

Thats just a little feedback on these items, feel free to ignore, lol.

[B_Online]

Every page has 'Computers & Components (Central) Ltd' in the title, you don’t need to use this on every page and you could use more relevant specific keywords on each page. Your home page title just says ‘Home’ use some keywords instead… Most of your images have white backgrounds and would look better on a white background…

You have a ‘Forum’ link on your home page; this will take them away from your site and will distract people from buying from your site without them even entering it. Are you sure you want to use ‘Darren's Tsunami Dream Tower’ as a seller, seems a little bad taste. The image of the Tsunami Dream Tower is quite large. Not sure the overall colour scheme is right.

Have a look at this site its not as in your face and it looks like a novice could navigate it, without losing the product impact and it’s an Actinic site.
www .overclockers.co.uk

Hope that helps

[MDS]

Thanks Both

Enough have pointed out the colour scheme is suspect to make me look again at it

I have changed the colour scheme, & tidied the front page up a bit-still feel there is more work to be done there.

I must say the site is now much cleaner & sharper

The meta tags etc still need to be done, this is a steep learning curve for me, but Actinic certainly seems to be better than our other system

Would appreciate it very much if you could have another quick look for me.

[george]

Don't think this will help mate, but I preferred the old look.

Thing is Mick, most Actinic 'sites are sites in progress really as web trends change, and I reckon Actinic does make (major?) changes relatively easy.

You'd look at mine and probably rip it to bits, lol.

[MDS]

Don't think this will help mate, but I preferred the old look.

Oh dear

Actually I really like your site.

I started with that theme, but wasnt sure it really worked for me

[george]

People who like upgrading their `box` like lighting up cables and stuff, so maybe a couple of pics of different customisation jobs you've done would look good on the homepage.

Regarding the colours. I toyed with a green background, a navy one, and a couple of grassy pitch type ones, I just thought white looked best for our one in the end.

Maybe an idea worth considering would be putting a border round your images? That may be worth trying out. I've done many changes over the last couple of years and ended up undoing them cos they didn't look as good, or didn't work as well as I thought.

Part of the fun (fun?) is arguing with yourself on what looks/works best. And in your case (no pun intended) your site should reflect your tremendous enthisiasm for your pc work.

You better listen to the pro's on here, not me lol.