Quick Site Check If Anyone has 5 mns?

[CymraegKev]

Hi,

Whilst I've been using Actinic (Cat v6) for some time, I've recently completely redeveloped and re-built my site.

The main page (the brochure is quite graphic heavy and I am addressing that) but I'd appreciate any comments, hints, complaints etc about the site if any of you have a couple of minutes to check it through.

The site is : http://www.rugbymemories.com and it sels rugby union memorabilia.

Any comments, good or bad are greatly appreciated.

Kevin Regards,

Kevin Mullins

PS - The site is live so please don't test the ordering (as that does work).

[garyhay]

Looks great. I have Broadband so the graphic heavey pages dont bother me.

I would just say that you should use some dofferent buttons on the Cart page (after you add to basket) and also pull the text away from the left a bit.

Very smooth site. I like it

[CymraegKev]

Thanks Gary - much appreciated. I agree with both points that you make and I'll adjust them.

Many Thanks again,

Kevin

[Mike Hughes]

Looks nice but it's a huge page and will load slowly for anyone still using dial up.

the page itself is 47KB and I'd say you've probably got more than 200K byes in images. That's almost a minute to load on dial up which really is too long.

Most of the images are 10-12K bytes each whereas they could easily be compressed some more without losing image quality.

Mike

[RussellPing]

Wow, thats a really nicely layed out site. Found a problem though,
Url: /rugbymemories/acatalog/mattking.aspx this doesn't work.

The images are great and it all fits and flows well. Wish mine was like that

[CymraegKev]

Wow, thats a really nicely layed out site. Found a problem though,
Url: /rugbymemories/acatalog/mattking.aspx this doesn't work.

The images are great and it all fits and flows well. Wish mine was like that

Thanks for that. I know about the matking page and there is one other "Webservices" pages which aren't built yet. I'm hoping to have those up today.

Thanks for the feedback though. Much appreciated.

Kevin

[CymraegKev]

Looks nice but it's a huge page and will load slowly for anyone still using dial up.

the page itself is 47KB and I'd say you've probably got more than 200K byes in images. That's almost a minute to load on dial up which really is too long.

Most of the images are 10-12K bytes each whereas they could easily be compressed some more without losing image quality.

Mike

Hi Mike - yes, I agree about the images. I need to go back to photoshop and compress them quite substantially. Most of my customers will probably be on dial-up as most rugby collectors tend to be of the older generation who, by inference, generally have dial-up.

I will address that issue as soon as i can.

Many Thanks for the feedback though,

Kevin

[James Gladwin]

Hi - nice site, but I agree with the others - I tested on a dial-up line - took 95 seconds for the home page to load - I'm afraid I wouldn't have waited if I was a casual browser...

Good luck - back to Photoshop!

Best - James

[CymraegKev]

Hi - nice site, but I agree with the others - I tested on a dial-up line - took 95 seconds for the home page to load - I'm afraid I wouldn't have waited if I was a casual browser...

Good luck - back to Photoshop!

Best - James

Yep - you're quite right. I will address the graphic issue as a priotity.

Many Thanks again.

Kevin

[imis]

Hi,

Home page and site banner looks good - our two pennies worth in addition to the comments by others:

1. On the home page, perhaps make the whole image for each section a clickable link rather than having to click the More>

2. MatchWorn.html is far too long IMHO - consider cutting into separate pages with say 10 items per page and using Next/Previous buttons - this would also help dial-up users. Applies to any other long pages also.

3. Found presentation of the item images a little inconsistent and their quality not as good as it could be - the presentation would be improved if they could all be shot in a similar fashion and at similar light/saturation levels. e.g. http://www.rugbymemories.com/rugbyme...RONT_SMALL.jpg
Also, shooting through glass with a flash is not a good idea:
http://www.rugbymemories.com/rugbyme...alog/DAL02.jpg

4. How about a nice graphic button for "Add to Cart" rather than the default form button.

5. Would be tempted to put the "mini basket" display nearer the top of the page (underneath Your Basket : Checkout).

Hope these help.

Cheers

IMIS

[CymraegKev]

Hi,

Home page and site banner looks good - our two pennies worth in addition to the comments by others:

1. On the home page, perhaps make the whole image for each section a clickable link rather than having to click the More>

2. MatchWorn.html is far too long IMHO - consider cutting into separate pages with say 10 items per page and using Next/Previous buttons - this would also help dial-up users. Applies to any other long pages also.

3. Found presentation of the item images a little inconsistent and their quality not as good as it could be - the presentation would be improved if they could all be shot in a similar fashion and at similar light/saturation levels. e.g. http://www.rugbymemories.com/rugbyme...RONT_SMALL.jpg
Also, shooting through glass with a flash is not a good idea:
http://www.rugbymemories.com/rugbyme...alog/DAL02.jpg

4. How about a nice graphic button for "Add to Cart" rather than the default form button.

5. Would be tempted to put the "mini basket" display nearer the top of the page (underneath Your Basket : Checkout).

Hope these help.

Cheers

IMIS

Many Thanks for all of that,

I agree with the homepage making each section clickable - its a good idea and I'll do it.

The splitting of the match worn items into seperate pages is also a good idea (I wasn't sure how to do this in Actinic but I'll look around to figure it out). It will also apply to many of the other sections.

I also agree with the image presentation. The main problem I have is that I currently have 3000 items, and about another 5000 in storage (mostly programmes etc). The poor quality images were taken ages ago and to go back and redo wach one would take too long. All the new(er) images are being done much better. I do agree with you on the older images though.

Yep - will change the add to cart button and will also think about moving the mini-cart up the page.

Thanks again for your comments - I appreciate them and will try and put them all to good use.

Kevin

[imis]

Hi Kevin,

The Next/Previous "how to" is in the advanced user guide. We used it here:

www.crombie.co.uk/crombie/v6/crostartv6.htm

Go to the For Him > Ties section.

They had a similar problem with long pages but the combination of thumbnails and next/previous certainly speeded things up for visitors.

Cheers

IMIS

[CymraegKev]

Hi Kevin,

The Next/Previous "how to" is in the advanced user guide. We used it here:

www.crombie.co.uk/crombie/v6/crostartv6.htm

Go to the For Him > Ties section.

They had a similar problem with long pages but the combination of thumbnails and next/previous certainly speeded things up for visitors.

Cheers

IMIS

Brilliant - thanks for that, I'll look into it.

Kevin

PS www.crombie.co.uk is a nice site....

[imis]

Thanks for the compliment.

It's hopefully a little different from the usual Actinic implementation and it certainly was a challenge to get it to fit into the existing site design - still, keeps life interesting.

Cheers

IMIS