0pn — Sun, 04 Jan 2004 13:42:29 +0000

Very slick site the colors go very well together.
The design is nice as well easy to find buttons and very straight and to the point product placement.

The only Critique I have is with the photos(gallery page). Now that you took the other peoples advice. They can be made more web ready. Stick them in a program(photoshops image ready) and get the size down. There are just too many people on dial up still.

The other suggestions (posts) are all up to you. New Yorkers are a diff bred of people so marketing to them always seems to be about TIME if they can't do it quick then BLEEP it (clean up for posting).

things that I would consider

andymac50 — Fri, 02 Jan 2004 08:30:35 +0000

The things that I like about the site.
- the colour and sytle of the left nav. area
- the font of "Natiss" on the left
- the simple picture of the model

Really need to think about - the content of the left nav area
1) the first thing listed is a site map....is your site that hard to navigate that you need that at all?
2) map is always a great idea....however on the I would include the address....with telephone #....contact info is always great in case someone is running late or just printed out the one page of your site.
3) Price list - all looks good.
4) Fun....I am not sure if I would include this on the navigation area....did not follow through with the questions.
5) job/classifieds....lose them....you are trying to attract clients
6) before and afters....good idea to include....but lose the page if you don't have the content/pictures.
7) Our gallery....need pics....also use the pic of the store front with the map page....allows clients to place your storefront better than just a map.

Things to Consider:
1) Our Services for an item on the left nav. area....should be the top thing....this would take some items of text off the main page.
2) The placement of the address underneath the World Trade Centre info.
3) Place the hours of service running across the bottom, but ensure the person does NOT need to scroll.
4) Include the "How did you find us" but maybe box it....or some how spice it up.
5) You dont really need the bottom nav. area too....your page does not scroll that much to require this feature to be repeated.
6) Since today is the first of 2004.....time to change the copyright date....lol

Anyways all this from a guy that lives in Canada.

Wish you the best.

Andy
DontFart.com
Don't Fart Around ...Find It Here!
(Coming Soon)

Princess4ubabe — Wed, 31 Dec 2003 20:31:01 +0000

I would have to agree with most of the previous posts. However, I like the picture of the store. The storefront looks professional and so does the inside. This is what makes me want to visit your salon. I would resize them and make them smaller. Maybe combine these pictures, your address, and the map to one page?

The first and foremost thing I was hoping to see was pictures. The before&after link excited me...after I clicked on it, I was quite turned off. The mona lisa pictures doesn't tell me Natiss can cut and style hair, it tells me that Natiss can digitally manipulate photos (if that's how you did the after picture, I don't know). The point is that the before&after is a good idea...just get real people on there (and maybe some testimonials). In addition, the black and white photos don't impress/attract me at all. I'd go color.

Also, I like the fun link. However, after I got finished with the romance quiz, the links "yes" and "no" were dead. You may want to check on that. In addition to things like this...I would have an "education" piece. If I have a long face, like mona lisa, do I look better with long hair or short hair. If I have dark skin, do I look better with blonde hair or black hair, etc.

And one last thing. I would reorganize the order of the menu links. "Site map" is important, but probably not the first thing I'm looking for. I would do the before&after first, then the gallery, price list, fun, job opportunities (which seems dependent with "classifieds"), then the site map.

Overall, I think you have a good start.

cordedpoodle — Tue, 30 Dec 2003 21:20:49 +0000

the navigation bar its downright ugly hope that want to harsh

Constructive criticism requires suggestions for improvement.

Using saturated colors like Red or Blue tends to give a design a harsh feeling especiall when you use two saturated colors. What I generally try to do is choose one dominant color and then one color that is muted (added black or brown) or pastel (added white). Non standard colors are more complex and interesting to the eye for instance Maroon is more interesting than Red.

Use other colors only to call attention to something.

For example:
Main color Maroon
Sub color light brown
attention color yellow or green

A friend of mine gave me great advice. Look at the colors women wear in their clothing.

Interesting note: Women tend to have a color vocabulary at least 2x larger than men. Just take a look at lipstick and nail colors.

I have changed it!

e_t — Tue, 30 Dec 2003 18:47:38 +0000

Rosanda you got me all wrong, I do like what I did, and steel I am willing to listen to other people’s opinion - to get all values out of them. What I meant is that I stared for so long at my site – I might be missing something obvious.
I have changed it, what do you think now www.natiss.com

Thank you,
E.T.

if you like it you should keep it that way

rosanda — Sun, 30 Nov 2003 21:02:58 +0000

well i can't give any comments, cause you already said that you liked it because you did it. So you beter keep it that way and only make the improvements that suits your needs.
[qoute]I did it so I like it:
natiss.com
How I can improove it?

Thanks,
e_t[/qoute]

rosanda
http://www.websolutionarchives.com

D856C — Thu, 27 Nov 2003 02:55:46 +0000

The picture of the storefront is a good idea. I agree the layout is a little uneven, the before and after has to be more than cute -- run through the thought process as well. "Typically in this situation X, but we decided on Y, because Z. Try looking around at some sites. Put up some new information each month, you can consider a pseudo emag give customers and potentials reason to check in every so often.

Establish a proposition of uniqueness, find out what the top 3 things people hate about salons, and pay special attention to articulating what you do about them. Perhaps research into this turns up people feel they can't always talk to their stylist. You would then explain "We train our stylists to really listen to what you want. Until they have mastered our three-step interview process we don't allow them out on the floor."

To sum up, even with a layout makeover, the site is just to cute for its own good. The Mona Lisa thing? C'mon. The Gallery pictures? What exactly am I looking at? While the exterior shot lets people know they've arrived at the right location, the rest are just a little pointless. Show something of interest in the photos, if nothing else then as a basic element of photo composition. Since this is a bit of an artistic "style" business, it just doesn't work when the design doesn't support this. As for the turkey -- if you wouldn't put it in your storefront window, do not do it to your site. If you would, then it meshes with the overall communication and relays the personality customers are going to encounter in the salon. I would suggest the stylist/client relationship has a 'pesonality' which can also be articulated.

cjb_89 — Wed, 26 Nov 2003 22:10:42 +0000

I dont care what other people say but i like the turkey, but one thing i dont like aovu the site is the navigation bar its downright ugly hope that want to harsh.

Thank! (really)

e_t — Tue, 18 Nov 2003 15:08:07 +0000

I appreciate you help!
I will be back, after I licked my wounds.

E_T

The Webmistress — Tue, 18 Nov 2003 09:05:40 +0000

I agree with Busy that for a beauty salon site I would expect something quite stunning to reflect the business. This unfortunately doesn't look very professional to me and wouldn't inspire me to use the salon, remember a website is like a shop front, you have to entice people to come in.

A few pointers:
Don't centre text - it makes it harder to read and isn't professional
Make sure the layout fits 800*600
Don't use gimmicks (like the turkey)
Loose the amination and ensure that the text isn't jaggedy
Specify a font in your style sheet, default TNR is ugly!

If I was creating this site I would take some inspiration from the sign outside the shop, use the curved shape as the header of the layout which contains the logo, tag line and also incorporate the line drawings. Remember the site should reflect the actual business.