Redesign of Site

[La_Boutique]

I'll be honest and say I'm not a professional designer, studied a bit in college and am trying to get better, nor am I a professional in Actinic, but anyway, I'm redesigning our Actinic site and I'm having problems. Currently designing outside of Actinic (as this is how I work best) and here's some of what I've come up with:

http://www.la-boutique.co.uk/new-layout/index5.html

I then edited it to this:
http://www.la-boutique.co.uk/new-layout/index6.html

The products will have to be redone as we would prefer just different featured products, rather than best selling and new, but I'm not yet sure of how it should look. Also does anyone know of how we could just have different products and change them every so often without knowing HTML?

The logo obviously has to be redone, it's just there for colours just now, once we've perfected the new colours (as we are unhappy with the current one) it will be updated properly. I am struggling with selecting a new colour scheme as we think it currently looks a bit too busy at the moment. I am currently trying to change it to a red/white/grey layout but, I'm not sure if that will look any better.

Basically just looking for some overall opinions on how it looks (good points, bad points), what could be changed to make it more user friendly, how the colour scheme could be. Any help would be appreciated as we need this completely finished and into Actinic in the next few weeks and I am really struggling.

Thanks to all in advance.

[CymraegKev]

Hi Sarah - my overall impression is that it looks a bit, well, bland I suppose is the word. Doesn't seem to have much in terms of colour or "pop" on the page. I'd think about subtle colour blends and using more imagery. Take a look at some of your major competitors and see how there sites look and try and get some ideas of concept. It's a good effort though so don't give up....integrating it into Actinic will probably be the easiest bit

Kev

[RuralWeb]

Also does anyone know of how we could just have different products and change them every so often without knowing HTML?

Just rename the best seller feed and use that

[Rich Brady]

The products will have to be redone as we would prefer just different featured products, rather than best selling and new, but I'm not yet sure of how it should look. Also does anyone know of how we could just have different products and change them every so often without knowing HTML?

As Mal said change the name of your New Products or Best Selling Marketing lists to Featured Items. What's displayed in these lists can be manually adjusted in the marketing drop down at the top of the Actinic Page.

Alternatively, if you wish to keep the BS and NP, you could embed !!<<>>!! the Featured Image code you're currently using into a Fragment text box.

I am struggling with selecting a new colour scheme as we think it currently looks a bit too busy at the moment. I am currently trying to change it to a red/white/grey layout but, I'm not sure if that will look any better.

Using a site like colour hunter you can submit your logo and it will spit out a colour scheme that suits. You'll see here I referenced your current logo.

Finally welcome to the forum...

Don't be scared of asking anything (well provide you've search thoroughly first)

Rich

[leehack]

Why so narrow, sites for 800 wide screens are a thing of the past in ecommerce, stretch it out, let people who have bought bigger than 800 wide screens enjoy them more.