Web Design Clinic - L. M. T's
grandpaw krittur asked that his site be reviewed:
We just updated our website, L.M.Tees and would like to know what you think.
My Thoughts
The products on this site are very nice, but it's unfortunate that the site doesn't live up to the shirts. There is an awful lot going on on this page, which makes it hard to know where to begin either in a critique or to find something to purchase. The first thing I would look at is the goal of the entire site. My guess is to sell t-shirts. So the home page should focus just on that. I would move the following off the home page:
- the multiple promotions (new lower prices, think spring, new shirts, tote bags, get a free shirt, etc.) - limit the home page to just one promotion at a time, so that it stands out
- payment options - don't scare away the customers before they've decided to buy. If you feel it's vital to announce that you support PayPal or any other payment methods, keep it simple - use a small image
- information about the shirts (100% cotton, earth friendly dyes, etc.) - yes, you want that information available on the site, but keeping it on the home page just clutters things
- price list - like with the payment options, you should focus on getting people entranced with the shirts, and then tell them your prices
- articles from Web Design @ About.com - while I definitely appreciate the thought, the content really doesn't match the topic of the site and so it just looks strange and out of place
- feedback request - this is another great thing you should keep on the site, just not on the home page
Once you have the content for the home page pared down to the minimum you need to get people excited about your products, then you should work on the design. It's clear that you've spent a lot of time trying to get the design and layout right, but there are still a number of things you can do to improve it.
- Centering text is difficult to read, especially when you're centering text inside columns.
- Make sure the widths of the columns match the borders around the other elements. In my browser (Firefox 2) the right column text overwrites the middle column.
- Take a look at the colors - there are a lot of colors used on this page, but they don't seem to have any cohesiveness. I would strongly recommend that you rethink the black background with white text. This is very hard to read.
- Examine the site structure and try to cut the navigation buttons and links down to perhaps 7. Right now there are 18 buttons (some with a second level) in the left navigation and another 15 category links. This is overwhelming.
How would you critique this site?
What would you suggest to grandpaw krittur to improve this design? Are there other things he could do to improve the site? Provide your own feedback on the site design by responding to the forum post or commenting here in the blog.
Do You Want Your Site Considered for the Web Design Clinic?
There are two ways you can have your site reviewed on Web Design @ About.com:
- Post a request in the Site Review Requests folder in the Web Design forum. This is the best way to get feedback, as you'll get responses from other Web designers in the forum, and selected posts will be chosen for the Web Design Clinic.
- Submit your site to the Web Design Design Gallery and check the "solicit critiques" checkbox on the form. Pages submitted there will be reviewed by the About.com Guide to Web Design, Jennifer Kyrnin, and may be chosen for the Web Design Clinic.
Comments
I feel, very strongly, that this site is bogus… they inserted an “About.com” widget down at the bottom of the page to gain recognition. I would be willing to bet that it will not stay there for long. They used About.com for promotional reasoning only. Either that or they plan on adding new widgets, just as they did their search engine. Not only that, but they also do not include any prominent copyright/privacy/contact information on the site.
Most of the site seems to be constructed by third-party products. Not that I have a problem using 3rd-party applications, but I seriously doubt that the user took the photo of the tiger or the dog that has the text “Don’t Beg-Just Click”, and yet it is not click-able. I don’t see anything in the source code regarding the source of the lame images.
I would never enter my credit card information into this site.
The only exception to what I’m saying, is that if this person is a new employee working for About.com in which you guys were trying to give exposure.
I still will not provide my credit card info.
Jason: interesting take. I hadn’t even thought about that aspect of the site (which is dumb, now that I think about it). Since it is an ecommerce site, it needs to generate trust for the buyers. As you mention, if the customers don’t trust the site they will never enter their credit card information in, and so the site won’t make any money.
No, this isn’t an About.com affiliated site. He requested his site be reviewed in the Web Design forum. I don’t know him, nor have I had any dealings with his site before I wrote the review.
For the widget, he used the free content generator that is available to anyone with any About.com site. I agree that this widget looks out of place on this site – and in fact mentioned that in my review.
I think the site needs to be redesigned. I think the site needs to be totally revamped. I think the site is trying to be environmental friendly but it doesn’t “feel” that way. I would try a very simple design with a white background with more muted ” environmental” feel. The big buzz word now a days is “Go Green.” I would try to piggie back on that theme. You might want to announce that you are donating a certain amount from each sale of your t-shirts to either some sort environmental charity or animal rights organization.
I also notice there is no opt in box. If you have customers who visit your website and you let them leave without getting their info you have made a terrible mistake. You need to make sure this box is above the fold on your website most times on the top right. You can offer a free report for signing up. It could be a free report on how your t-shirts are more environmentally friendly or a free report on animal abuse, about endangered animals or whatever…the options are endless.
It looks like something that was made in the early 90’s by a twelve year old. My advice… look at web pages that are designed well and then compare them to your own. Notice how there is nothing in common between theirs and yours… in other words take this off the internet. Then follow these steps, find an aesthetic, organize your info, then work on a page.
Like several others I found it hard to know where to start.
The first thing I notice is the big yellow band across the page. The problem is that this is the only part of the page my eyes want to look at. Even though my brain knows I should be looking around my eyes want to keep going back to this patch of yellow. I didn’t find the the white text so hard to read but that could be because the blue text of the links was impossible for me to read.
Instead of having stock photos of animals on the front page use photos of your “T” shirts, this is after all what you want your viewers to get interested in.
The navigation down the left side is impossible to decipher and the link titles are meaningless to me. What is a “ghost shirt” or a “transfer shirt”? I also see a link to an “animal forum”, “free greeting cards”, a “knitting blog”, “animal books”, “animal articles” and “rescue links”. Just exactly what is being sold on this site.
To be honest if I was not doing a critique I do not beleive I would get past the home page.
Do not revamp, redo or “re” anything else to this page. Scrap it and start ove again.
Your contact information should be more predominate on all pages.
Bye For Now
Wayne