New greeting card site - comments welcome

[brucet]

I helped my daughter set up www.myangelcards.co.uk to sell her own hand made greeting cards using Actinic.

She is still at college so has no budget for a professional design, unfortunately. We’ve done our best between us, but any feedback and suggestions for improvement would be more than welcome

Thanks in advance

[acompton]

I spent quite a bit of time browsing the products, so that must say something.
Nice to see lots of description text, but you could do with running it through a spell checker. Some of the descriptions could do with better wording. e.g
"A white card with snowman, who is dressed in a scarf and hat"
"A white card with a snowman, dressed in a scarf and hat"
The plural of pansy is pansies.
The large photo of the purple & white pansies is HUGE.
I wondered if you would be better to feature a large photo of the products in the first place. It would show them off better.
The rollover text on the menu is invisible.
Not sure about the angel logo.

[pinbrook]

extending info pages have different sized images, this is quite off putting, they should really all be the same size - try to get it so the height fits on the screen ie no scrolling required.

Also try to brighten up the images i found the images quite dull and flat - they dont encourage me to buy.

Personally i dont like the pale blue background, try to make the dark blue of the background image line up horizontally with the height of the logo

none of the cards have the dimensions

This card is blank inside so you can write what ever you wish.

probably better just to say "This card is blank inside" Even so by adding this to every description means you will rank very high in serps for this phrase

The product description in pale blue on blue background is going to be hard for some people to read

[Ho Ho Bird]

I think everyone on here would applaud your daughter's entrepreneurial spirit so well done for that.

I think the site would be much improved by redoing the 'larger photo' extended info pages as suggested by Pinbrook. Why not set the sizes so the cards appear roughly 'actual size'?

Making them too large means may exaggerate some of the 'flaws' you get with hand crafted cards, too small and we don't know what we are getting. Actual size seems a good compromise. Would it also help help to show the card in 3-D, (against a neutral background) rather than just a totally flat image that sometimes looks like its been built in Photoshop?

Perhaps also say something about the quality / stiffness of the card, and that they are supplied in a matching coloured and quality envelope.

Finally, where there are two colour options within a product, if sometimes looks as it more than just the colour has changed (particularly Anniversary cards). If the blue card is very different from the red, then they should ideally be listed as separate products (each with the appropriate larger photo). Failing that, the larger image should show both options.

Good luck!

[Jan]

Hi Bruce,

Comments from a shopper rather than a designer, you don't say how big the cards actually are or give an idea of the quality of the card etc. They look handmade but it doesn't say whether they are.

I find it quite hard to buy tags to put on presents so if the cards are handmade then it might be worth looking into adding matching gift tags.

I'd buy the cards though, there are some unusual ones in there - I particularly liked the handyman cards, they would suit a couple of people I know.

Regards,

[chris ashdown]

With the hand made cards it would be nice if the verse inside was made out to the person. maybe the front page as well " Happy birthday Tracy" etc

I would also charge postage as at these small prices it all adds up and nobody is going to mind a 50p postage etc

Last but not least, make sure you have commercial rights to any images you use, Getty are bastards if they find you using one of their images without licence

[hobuk]

Looks good, my better half loves the hand made cards, I am not sure about the banner so hope you dont mind, have put one together, I have tons of fairy brushes etc for photoshop so feel free to email me if you want any.

[brucet]

Thanks everyone for your very valid and helpful comments. We will work through them and make the necessary improvements as best we can.

The product images are a challenge, most of them are scanned ATM, and I totally agree they really don't cut it. Danielle (my daughter) is studying A-level photography ATM, though, so hopefully she will soon be able to improve them significantly...