site feedback please

[bramswell]

Hello

This is my first site and was hoping i could get some feedback.

If anyone could spare a few mins to take a look i would be gratefull.

I have had some comments from customers that have found the site and said they were impressed or thought it was good, but i would like opinions fom some of you pro's out there.

thanks

www.bestdogbakery.co.uk

[doug selby]

It's great! Clean, simple, and very funny.

There always are a few minor tweaks that could improve a site. Perhaps you could space out the navigation a little? "Paw"ticulars runs into wholesale a bit at my text size settings.

It's a good start. Better than my first site, I reckon.

[bramswell]

I noticed the nav buttons were a bit close.
havent found out how to space them yet..

any idea's

[fleetwood]

Great site Stuart - and exactly the sort of business idea that should do well - niche fun product!

I love the lack of any superfulous navigation and lack of sidebars - the product speaks for itself, and its easy to find your way around, so no need for site clutter - excellent.

As you have already noted, you have a couple of layout problems, which make an otherwise very clean and neat looking site a little bit messy.

1) Home page - you have a neat graphic, but its 'lost' at the bottom of the page. There is actually no need for all the "welcome to...blah blah bit".
I would see if you can find some way of incorporating your colour doggy pic, with the featured product (currently 'something fishy'), and have that as the only thing on the front page - keep it all compact enough so that everything is showing without scrolling, on a small monitor.
The product you have is good enough to get any user to click further, as its already put a smile on the users face.

2) Catalog - product layout is good - pics are good, but you shopping cart and search are out of sync with the rest of the page.
I think you could get away with leaving everything else more or less as is, and simply tweaking the justification of the cart and search.
You could make the nav look less cluttered by reducing the font size slightly.

3) Terms & conditions - need to centralise the text.

Terms: Making a purchase - I would look again at the text regarding 'a contract dosen't exist...." and rephrase it.
I know what you are intending, but it sounds like a get out clause to a potential customer.
It needs simplying... "confirmation email indicates we have received your order, but does not form a binding contract until we take payment. If we need to adjust your order blah blah we will contact you before taking any payment" (by all means protect yourself, but reassure the customer that they get the last say).
Take a look at a load of other big pro sites, and you can pick and choose from their terms for best wording.

Terms: returns policy - I would include some basic customer rights here, including how they return goods to you. Its always nice to see "if you are not completely satisfied blah blah" - very reassuring - rather than just a link to another site.
The link to hmso should be made clickable.

4) If you can get some similar cat food products, I know my wife will be a customer

Good luck

Martin

[pinbrook]

Ok, so the others like it.....to me it functions ok, but it doesn't do anything for me.

But for whats worth these are my comments

1 its too basic and stark, some sites manage to carry simplicity and make it quite elegant this one doesn't

2 the use of text for the navigation is messy as the text spreads over 2 lines

3 the width of the page needs to be tidying up

4 the lack of side navigation means the only method of navigation is to use the breadcrumb which results in to many clicks to travel from one section to another

5 I could find no mention of the credit card processor until I went right into the checkout, only to find it was paypal only. Terms only says "we take payment by creditcard"

6 Terms and conditions are the bog standard actinic ones, they have been given no thought. The credit card info is wrong as it refers to inbuilt encryption and not paypal, there is a spelling mistake in shipping and handling

7 lack of credibility

Given I am not a dog owner - thus the uniqueness and desirability of these products will have gone over my head - and maybe dog owners are a functional bunch of people.

But credibility is an issue to be addressed this would put me off buying as the general lack of final polish could also be carried on through to issues of security and data protection etc etc. The very basic image that the site portrays immediately makes me think "business in a bedroom" .

There are millions of posts about how sites that only take paypal are perceived so I'm not going to repeat these. If this site only took cards by SSL I definalty would not buy as we then get into the issue of holding CC detail on an unsecured PC.

The lack of polish raises the following doubts in my mind - what steps do you take on a daily basis to ensure the safety of my personal data on your PC. If its on a laptop what will happen to my data if the laptop is stolen as many 1000's are per day.

[fleetwood]

Jo
Whilst the points about credibility are very valid, I think your missing the point about navigation.
The site is only selling about half a dozen products.
A more sofisticated navigational system is pointless - there are no other sections to visit!
For the site as is I would say 'keep it as simple as possible'.

With tongue firmly in cheek - what better navigation for a dog biscuit site, than to follow the breadcrumbs!

[pinbrook]

what better navigation for a dog biscuit site, than to follow the breadcrumbs!

I agree that there is no harm in the navigation being simple ie breadcrumb only, but if there were left hand nav you could go

product, leftnav, product

instead of

product, breadcrumb, section, product

granted its only one click, but for usability most surfers are used to seeing a left nav, therefore you are relying on surfers knowing the breadcrumb is there in place of left nav

Nowadays I tend to ensure all my designs have left nav, and top right checkout/basket buttons. These are becoming "standard" layouts which in turn help you to help people buy.

The credibility is the biggest issue for this site, my first 4 points fall into the would be nice but won't really affect sales category

[Luddite]

Before you do anything else, my recommendation would be to visit as many competitors websites as you can and then do an honest appraisal of your own in comparison. I found these: www.caninecookiecompany.co.uk, www.thedogdeli.co.uk.

[chris ashdown]

My old dog would have prefered something with more bite in it like
Leg of postman
fluffy something at other end of field
what evers left alone for a minute
Any dog far bigger that itself
Turkey left to thaw

[Luddite]

Any dog far bigger that itself

Made me LOL

[pinbrook]

caninecookiecompany - that site is mad, although not mad enough to make me buy.

the jingle on the home page is irritating once you have heard in once. Again they don't give much info re how they process credit cards, and because it is an O s c site (without the patch to allow you to buy without creating an account) forcing me to open an account with them will always send me elsewhere.

[bramswell]

thanks for the comments

i have taken on board what has been said.

i agree with Jo on the points made, i am still working on this site and it is my first and am i no way saying i'm a web developer, this is an extra side business which i hope to develope into a full time business.

with regards to the points made by Jo, are these covered somewhere in the manuals? re: text size, left hand nav etc

@ Martin
it has been brought to my attention that the liver biscotti and something fishy are popular with cats, as some of my custormers have cats too.
if you want to email me i could send some sample out for you.

thanks again for taking time to visit and comment