2020-Graphics — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 21:14:04 +0000

I also agree, your important stuff should not be at the bottom of the page. The site is very clean and simple which makes it easy to navigate and easy on the eyes. But the top part just takes away from the site I think. It looks out of place.

chris_bcn — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 16:12:00 +0000

I agree with the above posts.

I would say that there is too much white space - it makes it very difficult for the eye to setle on the important information. You could perhaps create the site with a fixed width (no more that 768px wide to accommodate people with 800x600 - bless 'em!).

The smiley face could be made more transparent - it doesn't need to be so noticable - make it a wee bit smaller too - that would help. It would still be a focal point without being so distracting.

This would also be a fantastic site to cut your teeth on with CSS. There's no reason to have a table layout for this type of site.

just my 2 cents worth

fifeclub — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 14:28:21 +0000

Most important: Get your important content "above the fold". Have the items you're selling start high enough so that users don't need to scroll down to see it. On my screen I see a two smiley faces and some boring text - NO INK.

Now about the smily faces. I think the smiley face background is a good idea. Great for branding. But it needs to be much more subtle, less distracting. It shouldn't make it hard for people to effortlessly read the text over it.

Regarding the other, animated smiley: Like I said it's good for your brand recognition but it is totally distracting. Place it and those payment option graphics at the bottom of the page. This comes back to my main point again about getting IMPORTANT content near the top and less important stuff below the fold.

I seriously suggest taking all content after your welcome message (including "Why shop with us" and all those bullet points) and bring them below the ink that you're selling. Reasons to shop with you and payments accepted (those credit card icons on the right) are how you close the deal but not how you begin a deal. A salesman starts off telling you about their product first. They don't ring your door bell and tell you how you can pay them before you even know what they're selling.

angmi90 wrote: Second, make your text links have an underline and then when users hover hover them, make the underline disappear. That way users can tell what are links and what are not. You can easily do this in CSS styling.

I respectfully disagree with angmi90 about the links. Although that method for displaying links is popular and utilize right here on these forums, the reverse practice is just as widespread and accepted. I am one of those webmasters who do just the opposite, I don't underline unhovered links
and then I underline them only upon hover. IMO (no studies for me to point to) the internet has been around long enough that most surfers recognize differented color text as most likely being links. The benefit of not using underlines is that is cleaner and more pleasing to the eye. The benefit of adding the underline when hovered is to give reinforcement to the user as s/he's about to click the link, that it is actually a hypertext link like they thought. Just my opinion for you to keep the links un-underlined but maybe to add underline upon hover.

Get photos of what you're selling up near the top and good luck.

cyfocus — Wed, 13 Jul 2005 04:51:48 +0000

I agree, the smiley moving face takes away the focus from the actual content. Take a look at friendster.com concept.

angmi90 — Sun, 10 Jul 2005 12:46:33 +0000

I don't like the smile face as a background item at the top left. I would get rid of that personally. Second, make your text links have an underline and then when users hover hover them, make the underline disappear. That way users can tell what are links and what are not. You can easily do this in CSS styling.

Busy — Thu, 07 Jul 2005 23:28:26 +0000

Can you please review a few sites as per the posting agreement, thanks