Site for sore eyes?

[SusanF]

Finally got my first site live and running. I would very much appreciate feedback on what you all think of the web site. I am particularly interested in ease of use in navigation and site functionality (it's difficult to critique this yourself when you know what the site is meant to do!). Any other comments will be welcome (even those pertaining to old-fashioned fonts ).

The web site can be found at www.CardsAtYourFingertips.co.uk.

As a small thank you (and yes, a blatant plug to try to get my first customer), you can get 20% off all purchases by using coupon code ALK001-20. This will be valid until 22nd June. My first customer will get various other goodies thrown in too! Delivery is UK only at the moment.

Thanks.

[george]

Order placed Suze.

[george]

45 views and no replies?

C'mon folks, give the lady some feedback...

[Mike Hughes]

C'mon folks, give the lady some feedback...

And what, that would be because you don't have the time George? (gentle ribbing, no flameback please)

Ok. Initial impressions.

1. I would expect to see more information on the website. Things like:

- Are the images printed on gloss or matt paper.
- What thickness is the card (premium grade 400 gsm or whatever).
- "Blank insert (white) for your own greeting". Is an insert the same as the inside of the card or something separate that's been inserted?
- "Free Delivery" How? How long it take? Will it fit through the letterbox, is it securely packaged to stop it getting bent etc. (I saw some of this eventually on the delivery and returns page but it could be more obvious).
- Ways of paying, etc.


2. returns.

- I'm not sure your returns policy would comply with the distance selling directive. It might do if the card was custom made for each customer but i'm not sure this really qualifies.
- In addition, it's important for most retailers to give a money back guarantee as it inspires confidence and encourages people to order.

3. navigation.

- You link stright to the relevant section page which is good.
- The 'breadcrumb' trail goes to other pages which aren't very usefull.
- Your links go via the cgi-bin which isn't SE friendly. If you don't use customer accounts then this isn't needed.

4. Top 10.

- Is this a list of top 10 sellers or something else?

Overall I like the site and think you have some nice cards at prices that look attractive.

Mike

[pinbrook]

Ok, I've been thinking about this one - the site just doesn't do it for me but I am finding it difficult to work out why. The cards look good, but the packaging (site) isn't doing them justice.

I'd layout the cards so that in each row the cards were all portrait or all landscape, the bottom of this page gets a little messy - Greetings Cards > No Greeting > Floral

Its seems very stark (without the benefit of being simple or elegant), if I were sending a card I'd like the site to have some atmosphere or emotion.

I was expecting the site to give me the option of sending a card to someone on my behalf - does it do this?

I've looked at other card sites and there aren't many decent ones out there, the closest I got was http://www.somethingtosay.co.uk/

[TraceyHand]

2. returns.

- I'm not sure your returns policy would comply with the distance selling directive. It might do if the card was custom made for each customer but i'm not sure this really qualifies.
- In addition, it's important for most retailers to give a money back guarantee as it inspires confidence and encourages people to order.
Mike

Mike's right (of course )
The Distance Selling Regs mean that any cards you sell that are not "make to order" items are subject to their rules. i.e customer has right to cancel their order (return, in other words) for full refund if they notify you in writing within 7 working days of receipt of goods.

Best check out the regs online for full info but it definitely needs noting on the website. http://www.dti.gov.uk/ccp/topics1/guide/distsell.htm

Off to check out website properly now (toddler permitting!)
Tracey

[TraceyHand]

Actually, one thing I think is missing, section images?
There are only 3 different types of subsection (landscapes, animal & birds and Floral) and it'd be nice if they had their own images so that when you click on the main sections such as here it shows some sort of images for the sections. Does that make sense?

Also, agree with Jo about grouping the landscape and portrait cards.

And, I hate to say it, but I *really* wanted to be able to click on the images to get a larger picture.
Apart from that, I do like it though
Tracey

[SusanF]

Thanks for your thoughtful replies, I've been given a lot to work on and the site will definitely be improved by your input.

George:
Thanks again for all your feedback - after Mike not being able to find my delivery and returns info, I think I might implement your suggestion to use a bigger sized font on my top navigation area after all! George is now officially my first customer so a big thank you for that too. Unfortunately I got a bit overexcited when processing the order so I'm not sure if you'll end up with one, two, three or even no e-mails at all telling you the order has been sent! (It has). I hope you like the cards when they arrive.

Mike:
Some really useful feedback here. Of course, this isn't just setting up a web site, it's starting a business - and I never realised just how complicated that was going to be. I tried to make the returns info as simple as possible as I hate ploughing through small print when buying things online. It never occurred to me that there was a legal reason for the gobbledegook, I'll look at a few other sites and change this as you and Tracey have suggested.

Having spent the past week submitting the site to search engines and indexes, I'm now getting quite paranoid about this subject. You mention that my product links go unnecessarily via the cgi-bin - I don't know what I should be doing to change this. Can you point me in the right direction?

Hopefully the Top Ten links will become a bit more obvious once I get more product uploaded. Yes, it will be the Top Ten bestsellers in various categories once I've got enough cards there to have ten appear in the search results. I'm quite pleased with this area as it will be quite easy to change categories and products here depending on what I want to push on the site at any time.


Jo:
Thanks for taking the time to look this over. I must admit I was dreading you replying . But one of the main reasons I chose Actinic over writing the whole thing myself was I know my limitations on creative web site design - and this is a whole lot better than I could have done myself!! (For example, look at Great Barford Lower School - but beware, it's full of Comic Sans!)

Trying to look at the cayf site impassively, I do like having a layout that's simple and clear to use, but it does look clinical, so I'm going to have to work on this. Not quite sure where to begin though ....


Tracey:
I totally agree with you on the section images. I've been trying to do this but can't get it to work.

...Was just about to go into a long explanation of what was going wrong - but I've got it to work okay now, so section images will be implemented pronto!

I'll also experiment with providing larger images. Grouping the landscape and portrait cards is a bit more difficult, especially as much of the navigation uses search results, so I'm not sure how I can control this.


I've had some great feedback here and do appreciate the time you have all taken over it.

Thanks,
Susan.

[pinbrook]

OH NO!! Am I an ogre?

When I do site critiques I tend to comment on design rather than usability....but here goes ..... I hope some useful info.

There is a very interesting post from Brian at Sure Sols - which starts out talking about themes and SEO but goes on to discuss themes/design

I would like to clarify for david if I may. I think the message David was trying to communicate is there are some Actinic templates which are less "freindly" with Search engines and more functional or design orientated. Some of the themes will require code level changes to become more SEO functional and code level changes may be beyond the scope of a a DIYer.

Some hard facts here on the Actinic "themes".
There are themes that are Frames based. These themes are not a good choice for a merchant if they are focused on Search results. Art Deco | Celebrations | etc.

There are themes a few themes which include more variables and functionality in the core html making some functionality easier to deploy BusinessCss | Clean Layout 04

Over all the majority of the themes work well with search engines becuase they use html to deploy the pages. I dont think a merchant is wasting their time deploying with a generic theme (frames themes excluded).

Some themes are better then others depending on the particular needs and functionality requirements the merchant may have for their site.

Lets be clear, "Themes" are not designs. They may have some style and design elements but I do not beleive a web designer can honestly call an Actinic theme a design. IMHO "themes" are a frameworks a coder | designer can use to build a quality ecommerce website. Themes have some good code which can be used in a design.

Merchants on a tight budget may use a theme to launch their site to get them started and I think the "more design orientated themes" can work for a merchant who is testing the waters. And that is why I do not beleive its a waste of time to deploy with a theme. However if your serious about SEO, Internet marketing and building sales online then a proper Custom design and coding of the Actinic templates are required to acheive the best results for your business.

The key to all this is to match your expectations with your budget. Either way Actinic will do an excellent job wether starting out on a low budget or making a big splash with a top design site. Great news for both designers and merchant as you do not need to switch ecommerce platforms as a merchants business grows. Just another reason why Actinic is good :-)

Brian
__________________
Brian Johnson
:::Sure Solutions Inc

I agree with Brian, and have to add that in my experience when I've taken a bare actinic theme (for an exsisting store) and applied a design to the site the sales have increased.

There are a few sites around which have managed to use the Smart theme and with a bit of extra work produced a very nice looking site - TreatmentGels is a recent one. Also www.buymeadvd.co.uk is another example of a site with a good banner to make something of a site with no other real design (this site is not Actinic, but the design is very similar to the Smart theme)

My suggestions for cayf

1 get a banner that fills the width of the page, with photo images in it
2 loose the comic (don't say I'm not full of suprises)
3 choose a different and contrasting colour for the centre column, there are some really good colour scheme sites out there to get good colours from (eg here
4 unlike Tracey I don't think you need the sections, I'd use the Yahoo menu with the top levels disabled, so that each section can be opened into the products without the extra section step which i feel on your site is an extra but redundant click.

hope this helps

Jo

[SusanF]

Hi Jo,

Sorry I haven't posted quicker - it's been a hectic week.

You could never be thought of as an ogre - I've seen you help too many people on this forum to ever think that. I appreciate your comments above - lots of ideas to get me started. The link to color schemer is really useful (anyone out there planning to revamp your site - this resource is well worth taking a look at). I liked the way the Buymeadvd site banner has been put together, and I don't feel I'm a million miles away from the look and feel of the Treatmentgels site - so I reckon there's hope for me yet.

I've also just realised from your comments that my banner didn't go all the way across the screen when using lower resolution screen settings so will start by fixing that.

Thanks.

[TraceyHand]

]
4 unlike Tracey I don't think you need the sections, I'd use the Yahoo menu with the top levels disabled, so that each section can be opened into the products without the extra section step which i feel on your site is an extra but redundant click.

Jo

Didn't mean to imply that the sections were needed, just that, if they are going to be there, as there are so few of them, it'd be nice if they had images, 'tis all
;-)

Now off to look at that colour scheme site myself as DH's website needs one!!
Tracey

[george]

Just thought I'd mention that the order from cayf come first thing next morning, probably less than 24 hours after placing the order. Items as expected also. :thumbsupthingy: