Brooke — Wed, 29 Mar 2000 21:14:00 +0000

It is a better layout, but I personally don't like having products on the home page. I feel like I've entered the site somewhere in the middle - not the beginning.

Brooke

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Providing quality websites for businesses and individuals!
www.cataluna.com

bigbeginner — Tue, 28 Mar 2000 22:13:00 +0000

interior catalog pages changed a bit since I posted last
http://www.shadesoffun.com/Cat/001.html

index page changed. is this an improvement or not?

understand everyone is bothered by two panels of buttons. under consideration.

Brooke — Mon, 27 Mar 2000 16:51:00 +0000

The second versions you did are much better.

I don't get the wine glass links at the bottom - are they all of the different sunglasses by category? They all use the champaign glass icon and I just don't understand the separte navigation. It's just too confusing with the side links and the top text that seems like links.

About the top text that seems like links, you also have those at the very bottom of the page. So they really seem like they are supposed to be links. Confusing.

Brooke

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Providing quality websites for businesses and individuals!
www.cataluna.com

Megan — Mon, 27 Mar 2000 15:07:00 +0000

Wow, what an improvement! It is very, very nice to see that you have your prices quoted in several different currencies! Great! You should, however, put something on your "how to order" page about where you can ship to, costs of shipping to different countries etc.

Anyway, you still need a logo of some sort. Maybe try incorporating your text with the sunglasses graphic you've got in the right corner.

You also need to work on your graphics (the links button in particular looks rather tacky) All of these animations are realy unnecessary - I didn't even notice the ones on the arrow and the "how to order" button right away. Just use regular gif's.

The mouseover buttons are okay, but I dont' think they should move over like that. Is that supposed to be a drop shadow? It doesn't really look right. The menu should also appear on every single page (It's not on the Fraternity/Sorrority page right now).

Oh, and your main title and/or the suglasses gif should link back to the home page.

NSS — Sun, 26 Mar 2000 16:32:00 +0000

Excellent! And the loading is very fast.

Great job

NSS

Suzanne — Sun, 26 Mar 2000 15:55:00 +0000

Wow, what a difference.

Much tighter, more professional presentation -- you are going for the 800 resolution, right? Looks good, no more scroll at that res.

The photos need help, though.
www.scantips.com should give you some great tips. I have a devil of a time with photos (probably because I deal with way too many and my scanner has the turquoise issue, too), but I find this page helpful.

Also, friend of mine at http://members.home.net/jonespm/PJDigPhot.htm has tips on photos, and great resources.

hth,

Suzanne

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Zero Cattle
Suzanne
Tables DeMystified

bigbeginner — Sun, 26 Mar 2000 13:32:00 +0000

Regarding the resolution issue and general comments,just working quickly, does the re-do at below address fare any better?
http://www.shadesoffun.com/Cat/a001.html and http://www.shadesoffun.com/Cat/a002.html

Thanks.

Suzanne — Sat, 25 Mar 2000 22:14:00 +0000

Please forgive me if I am getting this wrong, but are you saying that useability isn't important if you can get a better search engine position? ?? Tell me it isn't so!

The pages are very poorly laid out. There is a combination of qualities in the graphics as well that decreases consumer confidence.

I would strongly suggest that you take out a piece of paper and pen and draw out the pages (or use a graphics program to lay out the images) so you can get a good grip on what you want it to look like.

Then take your papers or print outs and grab your friends and family and get them to give you their opinions on what it looks like. The more cranky and honest ones will be better than the supportive ones (trust me on this -- in fact, find a particularly venomous enemy if you have one and you will get a much clearer idea of whether your design sucks or not).

About screen resolution -- expandable is great, be careful about spaghetti text at higher resolutions, though. Setting the body margins to zero and the table to 100% will make it more seamless. At 640, the text in your big block of colour header wraps. A good logo will be an asset.

I think it would be worth your time and energy and money to invest in having someone professionally design the layout of your site, create a logo, et cetera, that you can then plug the content in yourself. It is an economical solution, and you still retain the hands on feel and you can maintain it yourself. When your skills are up to speed, you can, of course, redesign.

Suzanne

Vincent Puglia — Sat, 25 Mar 2000 21:17:00 +0000

Hi,

Re the home page:
1) the sunglass gif ("Can you see...") is too large and thus distracting (at least for its placement on the page. Maybe you can make it smaller, and put it lower down in the page so that surfers can begin to read the content before having their eyes drawn away.
2) Too much "white space" on the page as a whole and especially on the right hand side.
3) The text reads almost as if it were transplanted from a (large) business card. Throw in some personal comments, adage, etc. (even if it sounds like an ad -- "Natalie Wood wanted to wear our glasses in Breakfast at Tiffany's, but..." -- "Remember that outrageous party last year? That was us behind the specs.")
Re the menu suggestions:
a left-column menu would solve some of the white space problem and make the page look more professional.
I didn't mind the Theme & Type links so much -- though you should put the Types where people expect them -- on the left, not the right. I would make sure that the top & bottom Themes are the same, in the same order -- even if you have to have a double line of them.
Re the text that looks like links: Kill them; if you want to add them to your keywords for the search engines - fine. Otherwise, kill 'em or flesh them out with some text or tables and put them on the home page.

BTW: Seeing as how you're in the city, can I pop by and buy 1 pair (champagne)? I could wear them while posting on forums and drinking mimosas.

Vinny

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GrassBlade: cut&paste javascript

[This message has been edited by Vincent Puglia (edited 25 March 2000).]

bigbeginner — Sat, 25 Mar 2000 15:11:00 +0000

ZOOM, you folks are fast! You have reflected what I suspected particularly re: the first page confusion. To adjust that quickly, I have just racheted down the proportion and switched some things around which perhaps help that.

Purple button suggestions have been heard. My java is supposed to be pre-loading these items, but you are suggesting that it is not? Can you explain a touch more? (Created in Dreamweaver following its prompts)

My logs show visitors love the Theme (bottom row) and Type (purple) buttons so I'm reluctant on that score.

The text along the top which "look like links" . . . I had not considered that aspect of it. I added them recently as per Brett Tabke's recent newsletter advising SEs are moving toward "the whole site flavor" as a means of evaluating rank in search results. This text "looks like links" is intended to satisfy the SEs upcoming change in site evaluation. If any of you missed that newsletter, let me know.

Get a good logo . . . any offers?

Finally, first comment re: 600x480 or 800x600. Can you point me toward any discussion explaining merits/demerits of this decision. As of now, the site is entirely in tables set to be 95% of the width of the monitor. Clearly, I need to understand this implication more.

Thanks all.