WAHM Forums

It seems like no matter what I do, I can't get my site to look completely professional like I want it to. I can't figure out what it is that I don't like...the colors??...the info boxes??...the banners at the bottom??...the white background??...I just don't know and it's making me nuts and frustrated and irritated.....smileys/smiley7.gif


Any suggestions before I do something rash like dump the whole thing and start over?? smileys/smiley7.gif

There's a lot to like about your site. It just needs some minor tweaking and organization.



Starting at the top and working my way down.



1. The whole site is too wide and needs to be tightened up.

2. The gradient in the header makes it hard to read and isn't something
a "professional" designer would do (if you care about that!).

3. The header elements are too far apart and don't seem to relate to each other.

4. I like the breadcrumb trail on the left and the link positioning on the right.

5. I think the problem with the info boxes is that they're all too
similar. There doesn't seem to be a heirarchy of information, if that
makes sense. A user's eye just kind of wanders over the page and
doesn't have a place to rest. I'm thinking all the product boxes
(categories, new products, specials, best sellers) should be grouped
together on one side and all the other boxes grouped on the other side.

6. I'm prissy about links being underlined or at least set off with a
distinct color. Because they're the same color as your copy, it's not
clear what's clickable.

7. I would move the "New Products for February up underneath the upcoming holidays section.

8. Is there a way to make all your various banners at the bottom a
consistent size? Unfortunately, things like that always make a site
look less professional but there are ways to organize these icons to
make them less obtrusive.



That's my two-minute usability review. You can find more information on optimizing web usability here: www.useit.com (http://www.useit.com). He gets kind of fussy sometimes, but is a world-renowned expert in what works and what doesn't.



LMK if you have questions or would like more feedback.



peace...adrienne

Hi Elizabeth,


I'm sorry you are fustrated.


I like your site (and Adrienne gave you some good suggestions.)


Teresa smileys/smiley1.gif

Thanks for the suggestions. I can try to fix some of that. Some I don't know how to fix. I'm going to start with the header, from the top down, just to make it easier to keep track.


Thanks again. I'll see what I can do with it!

Hi Liz,


Not that I'm much of a web expert but I did click over to your about us page and noticed a few things. First of all, don't tell people you are a "small" "home" gift basket. There is a huge perception problem there. Also, further down, leave out the ordering in bulk and let people know you sell individually as well as baskets (stand alone gifts).


My 4 year old calls, I'll "critique" more later.smileys/smiley2.gif

I think your site looks wonderful. My own is going through a makeover as well here ... http://www.getawayspas.com/ Its so much work but when you do it yourself it feels like such an accomplishment.


Your on the right track. Again it looks fantastic if you want my opinion! smileys/smiley2.gif

Any thoughts on how to tighten up the whole site?? Is this in my stylesheet or just within the sizes of the boxes? I really can't work on the header until I get the size correct.


Baby steps...baby steps...


smileys/smiley1.gif

Scratch that...I don't think it's in the stylesheet. Actually think I fixed it a little bit in the index.php. It's still a bit off. Does it look OK??


Any thoughts on 12pt vs. 10pt text??Edited by: lizscgc

I think it's looking great! Be patient, you'll get there! You wouldn't believe how many changes I went through when I first started my stationery site 4 years ago!! :)

Could someone tell me if my header is still too hard to read? If so, I'm changing the text color to black. Thanks.

I really like the new one! It's much easier to read, and very creative!


Personally, I liked the white background on your site better, though. What if you just made the header section yellow?

I only did the header section yellow at first. Then just got carried away...excited that I figured out how to change it!! I will probably change it back to white. I tried mint green too but that was a little over the topsmileys/smiley4.gif

7. I would move the "New Products for February up underneath the upcoming holidays section.


I can't figure out how to do this one. I know how to move the 'holidays' text down...but I don't know how to move the entire 'New Products' box up.

What tool are you using to build your website? My suggestion on how to
move the "new products" box would be to move the table cell, but if
you're not editing the actual HTML, I'm not sure how to tell you to do
it. As far as tightening up the entire site, right now you have your
content table set to expand to fill all the available space. Therefore,
people with large monitors will see a looser layout than those with
smaller monitors (or those who are viewing your site in a minimized
window).



The new logo is excellent. Much more professional looking and easier to read.

I edit all of my html and php manually. My site was built using oscommerce. I'll try to move the box, but not sure if I can do it.


right now you have your content table set to expand to fill all the available space.


What's your suggestion on the width of the site? My computer is 17", I think. It fills mine out good. Isn't anywhere from 15" - 19" pretty basic?? I did "tighten" the site up based on your suggestion. Is it OK now??

It's much better. I think the problem is the header, not the site
itself. I'm wondering if you can make the header one solid graphic and
center it along the top? If you want the entire site to have white
space on either side, you can wrap the whole thing in another table set
to a width of 80-90%. That will keep your content from bumping right up
against the edges of the window. In fact, something I've seen a lot of
designers do is to place a background texture in the wrapping table so
that the content area is white but sits on a colored background. I do
this on my site, if you want to see an example.

It's much better. I think the problem is the header, not the site itself. I'm wondering if you can make the header one solid graphic and center it along the top? If you want the entire site to have white space on either side, you can wrap the whole thing in another table set to a width of 80-90%. That will keep your content from bumping right up against the edges of the window. In fact, something I've seen a lot of designers do is to place a background texture in the wrapping table so that the content area is white but sits on a colored background. I do this on my site, if you want to see an example.



I initially tried to do one solid graphic, but couldn't get the size right. So I just colored in the background and did two seperate images. I could try it again with just one image and leave the background color the way it is.


I think I see what you mean about putting white all the way around, but I don't have the faintest idea of how to do this. I assume there's some html that I would put into my stylesheet, right??

I just looked at your style sheet. Wow! There's a lot of info there.
I'm thinking you'll have to create a new definition called
TABLE.wrapper and give it a value of width: 80%. Then you'll have to go
into the HTML and place all your other content inside a table tag
(<table class="wrapper">). I'm not 100% sure that will work,
though.



If you let me know the size you want, I can grab your graphics and do a
quick banner graphic for you in Photoshop. (No charge, of course...we
WAHMs have to stick together!) I think just that one tweak will solve
the majority of your problems and give you that "tighter" look you're
seeking.



peace...adrienne

That would be great, but I don't have a clue as to what size to use.


I tweaked the header a bit more. I'd love some feedback. I think it looks much better. smileys/smiley32.gif

It looks great! 100% better than when you started. Now for the orders to roll in...smileys/smiley2.gif



peace...adrienne

Yeah, no kidding.


Thanks for all your help. I agree that it looks way better.


Appreciate all you've done!


Liz

Hi Elizabeth,


I'm a little late in the discussion, but I wanted to say I think your site looks great! I'm still tweaking mine. My home page needs some work. I'm curious what software people use to create their own header with their company name in it like yours shows? I'm currently using a preset template, but am interested in having one of my own with my company name in it like yours.


Lin

I use Paint Shop Pro. It has a serious learning curve, but once you get the hang of it, it's not too bad. I know many people also use Adobe. I'm sure others will chime in here.


Thanks for the feedback on my site. I think it looks so much better than it did before.


And thanks to all of you who helped me out! I really like the look of the header...just need to work a bit on the footer...