Review Please

[Brandon_R]

Constructive critisism is most welcome.
I didnt design this, my boss did. But in about a year or 2, i'll be taking over the rebuilding of the site and would like some suggestions now to start building off of.
http://www.razorbladeproducts.com/

[PineSolPirate]

Fits in with the, shall we say "classic", web design on the 90's :)
That splash page is kinda hideous though. Aside from the aesthetics the navigation is a bit jumbled and confusing up there at the top of it. Splash pages are just a bit out of style. They slow the user down from getting to the products and usually confuse more than clarify.
As for the store itself, it's actually not that bad. Everything is sectioned and categorized and it looks like all the product photos are large and clear, which is good on a retail site. The black and pink are certainly eye popping, but the top logo is fuzzy and doesn't cover the whole top, so it creates some discontinuity with that big patch of white space up at the top right.

[Brandon_R]

Fits in with the, shall we say "classic", web design on the 90's :)
That splash page is kinda hideous though. Aside from the aesthetics the navigation is a bit jumbled and confusing up there at the top of it. Splash pages are just a bit out of style. They slow the user down from getting to the products and usually confuse more than clarify.
As for the store itself, it's actually not that bad. Everything is sectioned and categorized and it looks like all the product photos are large and clear, which is good on a retail site. The black and pink are certainly eye popping, but the top logo is fuzzy and doesn't cover the whole top, so it creates some discontinuity with that big patch of white space up at the top right.

What is a splash page? Are you talking about the opening page where it says "Enter the Store" ?

[PineSolPirate]

Yeah, that.

Here's a rundown on the pros and cons:
http://webdesign.about.com/od/navigation/a/aa020303a.htm

I try to avoid them, but it depends on your target audience. For instance, splash pages are everywhere when it comes to band websites. The reasons, I think, is that splash pages can be a kind of artistic release for web designers. In the case of bands it's an acceptable release because of the audience. To be honest, I've used splash pages before, but only for band websites.

However it all comes down to you, the designer. If you think you can pull off a good, clean splash page that does what you want it too, more power to ya. Or if you think your target audience would appreciate a splash page for one reason or another, go with it.

I don't feel that there aren't any hard and fast rules to web design, except for one: usability. If you can't use it quick and easy people wander off because the web is huge and offers tons of alternatives.

Anyway, that was a really long response to a really short question. I hope I don't come off in an ugly fashion, just trying to tell you what I've seen. :)

[PineSolPirate]

P.S. I have an alternate entry to my personal site at http://www.pinesolpirate.com/ which totally goes against all of that by providing a big, graphic splash with no context at all to explain it or direct the user. To be fair though, it's more of a placeholder than a real page. :)