Site rebuild please have a look and comment!

[mash]

Hi Guys if people have time please could you have a quick look over the following site which has been rebuilt! Organic Plants for Gardens & Allotments

Been planning to ask for a little while but then I get caught up in a problem which delays it all!

The site has taken a big step forward, we introduced the pick and mix option this year but we continue to have problems with the different delivery periods, long story there.

Areas, which need work:

Images - still some are missing. Plus would like to use the title bar top right for some nice photos which will change on refresh.

Dates – would like to add planting and harvest data as well as proximate dispatch date for each product. When investigating this, I initially thought of a graphic but Brain from Sure Solutions Inc suggested text as then people could search on this.

It would be good to have that information on each product and on the extend information window. Still working on it.

Meta tags need to add them!

Anyway, any comments would be appreciated, have a look and let me know what you think.

Thank you, Mash

[pinbrook]

For me the orange is to bright, or maybe its early in the morning for a fluorescent hit.

Your product page could do with the text being moved away from the image, at present there's no gap between the image and the text. Use cell padding on the image to create the gap. The text font/size doesn't seem to match the rest of the site.

I'd like to see more images on the index page too. Its abit text intensive. Maybe place the info about delivery dates nearer the top of the page rather than buried at the bottom.

I'm viewing using Firefox.

[mash]

May be there should be a BRIGHT warning on the front page, that is a fair comment hence placing images on the top right to reduce the amount of Orange!

Images are being replaced, they should be 100 pixels wide and with these the text is not cramped up. Were they in Ornamentals | Autumn Bedding?

The text font/size doesn't seem to match the rest of the site.

The text font/size does vary, unsure how to over come this.

Hopefully the delivery information will be aid to each product as custom property so it will be less important and will move of that page.

Images unsure how to use them on the index page except placing them top right as I have mentioned.

I'm viewing using Firefox.

What is the difference between IE and Firefox, what platform does it run on?

Anyway thank you for taking the time, it is good to have fresh eyes having a look. I will have to think how to address what you have brought up. Cheers. M

[PeteN]

Here's my suggestions for improvement for what there're worth,
#1 Change the colour scheme, I think the "rustic" would work well.
#2 Don't forget to change the colour scheme
#3 I think you could have a much better layout for certain sections
i.e. in the 'June delivery/original selection packs/herbs the image you are using is 100 x 447 pixles which is giving you a long and unbalanced appearance to the page. Why not rotate the image to the horizontal and use the Act_CenterProductLine.html it would give a much nicer look and shorten the page considerably. To try it simply paste Act_CenterProductLine.html into the layout/product layout box.
#4 get some small images into the home page, it's very text intensive and a lot of the stuff is doubled up in the L/H list, boring springs to mind.
Move the fragment containing the welcom text up to the top, after it has been layed out better, or try this, posted into a text only fragment

!!<<B><CENTER>Welcome to OrganicPlants.co.uk.</B><BR>
Our <B>new look site</B> is now live and taking orders, please take a look around, <I><B>note:</B></I> the 'pick and mix 'option is now available for the entire range. If you need extra information on any product please contact us, we are here to help, and feedback is always welcome. Thank you. and enjoy our site.</CENTER>>!!

[mash]

People are being down on the colour scheme! You may just have to wear shades! Equally I can see what you mean and yes "rustic" is better.

It was hard changing the layout, the colour may have to stay.

#3 I have tried "Act_CenterProductLine.html" that on Bedding Hot Selection

And does look better, I have to see if I can get the time to change images so they are a horizonal bar. It may be nice to have the image at the bottom, unsure need a play with layout.

#4 I am unsure how to use the images I have got, as I said planning to put some at the top right. We do have some nice images so it would be good to get the in here. As I said unsure how.

Fragment does look a lot better, this will be stupid question, how do you move it up to the top, I have tried draging it up but it always goes down to the bottom of the list. It has been a long day so I am allowed to a few dump questions.

Thanks again for the feedback, cheers Mash

[PeteN]

To get the fragment to the top of the site, click on the 'home' icon at the top of the catalog tree then 'right click'/new fragment, give it the title welcom text, select text only layout the post it in there, job done

[mash]

That does not work for me, I click on the top of the catalogue, then right click, select new fragment and once I filled in the details, and apply. It goes to the bottom!

But above the last fragment! I have had problems move sections around too in the past, I think with products there is an order number the database. Is this the case for sections and fragments?

M

[wjcampbe]

Try dragging the other fragments/items down and dropping them on the one you want to rise to the top. That has worked for me in the past.

[procheck]

It's not that the orange is bad. There's just too much of it. Replace the top right bar with an image. People like images. Just make sure they're not too large to load. Your search text doesn't stand out enough. I agree with Pinbrook - too much text. Plus I have a personal dislike for "Enter this site" buttons on the main page. Your main page is like a book cover. You need to make the consumer want to stay by drawing them to other pages.

On the plus side, I like the images you've displayed in the catalogue. You've provided the consumer with an abundance of information on the product.

Overall you have a very good site, but I cannot stress enough a good main page. Have a look at the big boys - ESPN, CBS, Amazon etc.. They're in your face selling their products right from the get go.

[pinbrook]

I hadn't seen the real index page....loose it, it sucks!! (sorry )

get the first page on your site to be acatalog/index.html

Could you put some images in the top bar to loose the orange, we can then comment better on thge rest of the orange.

Get some images into the centre column on the index page to, brighten it up, dilite the text

[webyourbusiness]

I hadn't seen the real index page....loose it, it sucks!! (sorry )

get the first page on your site to be acatalog/index.html

Could you put some images in the top bar to loose the orange, we can then comment better on thge rest of the orange.

Get some images into the centre column on the index page to, brighten it up, dilite the text

I agree with jo - the front page should be right into the store - make your masthead match your bottom graphic more, and tone down the orange to a rustic brown or earth-tone.

my 2c

[mash]

I do feel like a rabbit in the lights of a car but the feedback is superb so thanks for that.

Colour has taken a bit of a bashing, I was using Groovy (framed) theme, which the colour was less of an issue, less dominant.

I have little control over the index page and not very happy with the button leading to the online shop. We do need to think about that aspect of the website, as you said we need a reason for people to come back all year round.

I have included some images in the top right hand corner to tone down the orange, what do you think?

I was hoping to use random banner like from the following threads.
Random Banner Script and cgi-bin
Or Banner on product page
Does anyone have any preferences on these?

The core is boring and too much text, I have not got great experience with this theme, how flexible is it and to introduce images to break up the text are there any favourite layouts?

Have not be able to move that fragment up, have tried dragging and drop and draging the sections down does not work!!

Checklist
#1 so I have reduced the impacted of the orange with images.
#2 within the sections I have to improve the layout and use some horizontal images instead of the very long vertical ones.
#3 I have introduced images in the catalogue main page.
#4 then tackle the extra data like harvest dates etc.. I wish you could import that data through flat file import that would be so useful and more controllable than the other way.

Anyway, yet again thank you for the feedback. Mash

[procheck]

Just adding those images alone improved your site. If you want to get fancy, you could create an image map which links to these products. Also you might want to repeat the name of your store on this page http://www.organicplants.co.uk/acatalog/.

[mash]

Thanks for having a look, I was pleased with the images, I was unsure if I could get them where I wanted.

As I said I would be interested in getting them to be random so there is something new each time when people load.

Image map would be good, I have already down a query and a report to generate the hyperlink for my top five products so hyperlink stuff is sorted just the other stuff!

Also you might want to repeat the name of your store on this page http://www.organicplants.co.uk/acatalog/.

I was unsure what you mean on the above, have not quite woken up!

Cheers having a look, of course I have not tackled the text intensive bit! or the other section layouts. The day is young!

[Jan]

Hello Mash,

I love your new site - and I think that it looks great (but I have only seen it since you de-oranged it).

The old site seemed to have more pictures on it and as your pictures are rather good, they were a really good selling point. One place where I think you could put them back in (and it would be easy to do so) would be in your pick and mix sections headings, at the moment you have a list of 5 types, if you gave the sections nice pictures and used the option on design options/sections to display them in several columns those sections would then have a lot more impact.

I think that pick and mix will be very popular, it might be worth adding a quick order pick and mix section, which would basically be a simple list so that people can order without having to go through all of the sections. If you could design a compact product template then this would work well.

Your range seems to have changed quite a bit, I was pleased to see fruit, but sorry to see that things like the childrens selection and the courgette/squash collections have gone - but maybe this is because you haven't got everything on yet (or maybe they just were not popular enough).

I have just been to the basket page and have had a glimpse of the orange because you haven't put your new graphics onto that page yet. My basket expired within a couple of hours as well, this is something that annoys me because I often take ages placing orders and when they expire I usually don't bother putting them in again.

Regards,