Review please

[jlreich]

I have recently redesigned my site from the ground up. After registering here a few months ago and pouring over posts and links I have finally learned enough to go totally CSS . :D I think. :eek:

A few notes:

There are some pages that have to do with the shopping cart that will not validate because of the "display cart" tag. But everything else is in good order so I am not worried about that for the time being until I can find a way to resolve this or switch to a host that has a better e-commerce program.

Also there are a few pages that don't validate because of the "alt" missing from an image. I will be changing the location of those images soon, so I will take care of this at that time.

There are some horrible pictures that will be replaced. And you will notice a few pages that don't have any. I will put some pictures in later to fill out those pages.

I will be making the navbar a UL soon. Just haven't got around to doing it yet.

OK that's about it I think. I plan on putting the enter link back in the index page by this weekend so I hope there is not to many problems.

All comments, suggestions welcome. :) And thanks for your time.

http://www.jlongfellows.com/online-store/scstore/shophome.html

[spufi]

There is a decent amount of scrolling at 800px width resolution. I would push the menu away from the left side a little to create some space.

[sajjad27s]

Hi..........Quality of item images is week. Design can be improved. And 1 thing more, the left navigation slips down in shopping cart page if cart is empty.

[LJK]

Hi -
While it's nice for those w/ poor eyesight, I thought that everything was just too big. Like when wanting to view cloaks - a total of two products / images, I had to use three different links/pages - unecessary, IMHO.

The image on the home page would look better if smaller & incorporated into the header / logo. That'd free up some prime real estate - maybe as a better location for any 'News' items. [Which are now not differentiated very well from your intro. text.]

I really did not like that when I clicked on a page link, it took me to a useless 'in-between' page w/ nothing but another link to get to the actual content. I'd also suggest that you style your option/select areas to better match the rest of the layout - esp. in just changing the font, aligning to the left, etc.

Okay start, though - and good for you in making the switch to non-table-based layouts!

El

[jlreich]

Thanks for all your replies. Very much appreciated.

There is a decent amount of scrolling at 800px width resolution. I would push the menu away from the left side a little to create some space.

I will put a little room on the left side for the menu. I didn't think to check it in a different resolution. :( Will do that tonight.

Quality of item images is week. Design can be improved. And 1 thing more, the left navigation slips down in shopping cart page if cart is empty.

The images will be changed soon, and yes they are horrible. Many of them are just there to give me a visual while designing.

Any pages where the main content is not enough to fill out the page correctly I was planning on filling with a picture or something to push the white area down enough to make it look right. I tried using min-height to fix that but was having some problems getting it to work right. I know there are some issues with that style. I guess I will have to do some reading and try again. I would rather not put pics in just to fill out the page.


LJK, I agree the picture needs to be smaller but that is something me and my wife/partner have debated over. It was actually bigger at one time till I talked her onto reducing it some. :eek: I am not sure what you mean by incorporating it into the header/logo. Could you elaborate please?

I don't like number of links to get to an actual product page either. I had a Javascript menu that expanded to allow you choose a specific product directly, but the softcart program will not parse links in Javascript. And after reading posts here and other places I see that this not a good idea anyway. I was going to leave it for now but I will further look into CSS menus right away to fix this.

I overlooked changing the font for the options. I will have to take care of that. ;)

I really appreciate all of your feedback. I really want the site to look clean, uncluttered, and easy to navigate. Let me tell you, if you had seen what a mess it was before you would probably throw up. :eek:

I look forward to more suggestions or comments.

[LJK]

Hi -
What I meant about incorporating that image into the header is that it would look nice scaled down and used as part of the logo-title-header design.
-------
As for the links - just change the code to take us right to the content page and omit that in-between one. ;-)

Good luck,
El

[comptech520]

Say I went to the monks cloak, and fleece because I like fleece, where the size area is at the botton should be the same font as what the rest of the site is in.

Good luck and keep up the good work :)

[jlreich]

Thanks for the replies.

I have made some changes that I like but because of some CSS layout issues trying to make it more suitable for lower resolutions, I haven't made the changes to the live site yet. :( But.....

I have changed the font for the options, reduced the size of the picture, reduced the font size a little in the main content, unbolded the navbar font, added some breathing room for the navbar, and trying to change the CSS a little to look better in different resolutions.

I will post back when I change the live site so those interested can give their opinion of the changes. I will be working on it soon as I post this. So hopefully it wont be long.

LJK when I am done I will have 15 different products. I Don't think it is good idea to link directly to each one on the navbar. I really need to find a good CSS expandable menu in order to have the categories in the navbar expand to allow you to choose a specific product directly. That way you can as you said bypass the useless in between page.

It seems like I found a good expanding CSS menu not to long ago but I can't seem to find it again. :( Most of what I find either use some Javascript or they don't do what I need them to do.

You would think since Javascript for menus is not recommended there would be a built in CSS style for menus. :confused:

Thanks again everyone. And I will hopefully post back later tonight with the updated site. :)

[hansons]

Improve quality of image. The heading font is really attractive.

[jlreich]

OK I have made the changes I listed in my last post. Let me know if you think it is better. :)

One thing I just thought of. If I put all the products in just one category, or maybe even two, it would give several links for the in-between page instead of just a couple. That way it would at least seem to give that page a purpose. At least until I can come up with a better menu solution. Hmmm.... Comments, thoughts?

http://www.jlongfellows.com/online-store/scstore/shophome.html

I am working on some new pictures. Many of the pictures in there right now are left over from the days when I was using Frontpage 2002. :eek: But you could probably tell that from the bevel. :p BTW I found out very quick FP would not do. Terrible program. I think I only used it for about a month before I realized I had to start learning to do it myself. What a waste of money that was.

[The Little Guy]

I really dislike the logo at the top, I can't even read it, so I dont know what the page is about.

[hansons]

change ur website fonts otherwise ur website is great.....

[jlreich]

Thanks Hansons. What font might you suggest? To be honest I don't much like the main font myself (verdana). It is so hard to decide sometimes, or to find one that suits the site.