Site comments please....

[Spark]

Think I'm finally getting somewhere but would really appreciate some honest feedback on my site. I've reached the stage where I can no longer see for looking but have to get the site live a.s.a.p. as a local publication is about to send out an editorial with the web address (timed that one a bit badly).

I know it needs more images and I'd like to put these in the borders (but will probably have to work out how to do that after it goes live) especially on the homepage (& in the top RH corner). When I'm feeling a little braver I'd also like to attempt a go to next page button.

What have I missed? What looks awful? What should I add (apart from the rest of the products!)? Is it ready to go live?

All comments really appreciated - please bear in mind I've got a total lack of programming knowledge so I'd be grateful if any suggestions made are in lay terms.

Thanks for looking if you have the time.

http://trials.actinic.com/trials/trial19673/index.html

[george]

First impressions are that the banner is far too deep, thats vital space you are losing on arguably the most important page on your 'site. Not sure about the colours for the type of website, maybe a brighter colour scheme would be better?

Also your font choice (and size) for the section links and nav bar. Thats a nice font, but I reckon some visitors, oops, potential customers, will find it hard to read.

The smart theme can be tuned up in a few ways, for example, you can find info within the forum detailing how to close the rather large gap between the side boxes.

Contact info should be more obvious. Nice to promote the goods, but what if someone wants to ask you about something?

Page titles need some serious work.

Hope this helps, and all the best for the future.

[jont]

Hi Sonia,

the yellow section/product box with grey text makes for very poor contrast and hence poor readability - I would consider changing the yellow box as even this is lost over the background colour.

As George says the font size in the navigation area is very small on my monitor.

The banner area is showing a strip of purple on the prduct pages and a whole block in the homepage - may be worth setting that background colour to the green colour of the page so it look like it runs all the way across.

On the homepage the graphic shouts "lets get this party started" which cries out to be clicked but alas nothing happens - may be worth making that graphic a clickable link to take people through to the shop pages.

The horizontal navigation links across the top (homepage only) vary from UPPERCASE to Capitalised - may be worth keeping these either one or the other for consistency.

Good luck with the live site

[Mistral]

Hi Sonia

Just took a quick look :-

The layout is fine.

Yellow box with grey/blue background is awkward - maybe it's contrast or too many colours or something.

Would suggest maybe a white background - which gives a cleaner look and feel to the site, also if many of your images have a white background, they too, will/should look better - but purely a subjective/personal opinion.

Otherwise great site

Cheers
Patrick

Bonkers

[Spark]

Thanks Jonty / George

You've both confirmed my fears - You're picking up on all the bits I'm having the most trouble with. I'd like to make the navigation text the same size as the site font - I thought I'd changed the font for the whole site using the actiniccore.js?? (ooops - that was before I started printing out all of my changes). I've tried changing the actxxsmall codes to actregular within act_primary too but this hasn't worked either - where should I go to alter the navigation font size?

Suresh helped me to get the paypal & nochex bits in the right place within the banner in act_primary and I don't have enough confidence to try to alter them but I can't seem to get Spark's logo to exactly fit - that's why I'm getting the purple border. Yesterday, the background to the banner was the light blue (Spark was transparent) - it worked for the banner but the colour is the one that's also used for store sections box and it was also difficult read as the yellow section box still is. I need to fiddle with the colours again trying to keep them toned in with Spark's 3 colours (similar to other marketing bits). Aaahhhhh. It would be great if the colours in the template were a little less restrictive (i.e, if I could have one colour background behind the banner and a different colour entirely for the boxes).

On the homepage you're right Jonty - it does cry out to be clicked - I've been reading through all sorts of things this morning trying to figure out how to do it but would be grateful if you could point me in the right direction.

Can I ask - do you like the graphic for the frontpage or do you prefer the one at the top of "Spark's area"?

I've made a couple of changes - not sure if it now looks better or worse - again, comments appreciated. Thank you.

Sorry Patrick - didn't see your reply until now (busy changing the site) - I started off viewing my site in white (whilst everyone else saw colours) - I'd not thought of going back to that, not sure if it was bright enough for children though. Thanks for suggesting it - I'll see how it looks.

[Spark]

Just realised - because the homepage image is in a fragment I can create the link in the same was as I did for other link sites but am I right in thinking I'll have to wait until the page is on my live domain so that I've got the correct URL??

[yarstor]

Sonia,

Just had a quick look. I think the content and layout are great, however still not keen on the colours. (Maybe just me, I'm a fan of plain white backgrounds!)

I also immediately tried to click on the "lets get this party started"!

If I was buying from your site, I'd like a bit more information about the products, - what age groups are they suitable for, and how big are they eg. dig a glow dinosaur (thinking of my nephews seventh birthday, but I'd have no idea if this is suitable or not!)

Other than that great site!

Becki

www.yarmo.co.uk

[pinbrook]

The attached image shows how your front page looks in a 800x600 screen.

[george]

The `monitor` image suggested to me there was a video awaiting clicking...

[jont]

To make the image clickable go to the fragment the image is in on the homepage - click the LINK tab and click "image clickable" and you can then select to either link though to a specific product or probably the shop section to get people started.

[Spark]

Jonty - thank you so much - I've done it and it's working - you're fast becoming my hero. I'm going to have great fun creating all sorts of clickable links when I get a little more time.

My worst nightmare was realised - the article has already come out and someone asked me about the site when I was on school pick-up today. Ahhhhh - Had just a slight panic but managed to get the site up and running on its own domain (that was easier so far than I thought):

www.sparkofinspiration.co.uk

Jo - thank's for showing me, again, another stupid question - 800x600?? What does it mean and what can I do about it please?

Ralph - Thank you. I agree completely about the products - I've got so many more products, descriptions and photos to add and now the site is in the right place I'm going to stop fiddling with the format for a day or two and focus on getting all of the product info right. Our house has been product test city for the whole of the summer holidays. The Natural History Museum Dig-a-Glows are aged 7+ and the egg shaped Dig-a-Glow Dinosaur from age 5+. E-mail and let me know when his birthday is, Spark can send him a card!

Thank you all for helping me to make the site passable for now - please keep commenting so that I know which bits to tackle next.