My New Website - Critique Please

[lightningad]

Hello all,

finally got my finger out and created a little website to help promote my leather crafting. The site is not finished yet (i suppose they never are!) but i was wondering if anyone wants to take a look and tell me what they think.

I want to make it as usable as possible, and whilst i know i need to make some image pop-ups, i am really keen to gauge the feedback.

the url is....www.barkingrooster.co.uk

thanks in advance

adam

Edited June 20, 2013 by lightningad

[Ferg]

Adam,

Very nice front page. I noticed one little thing. "somethings" should read, "some things".

Nice photos.

ferg

[lightningad]

thanks Ferg, appreciate the positive comments.

We'll have to add "Eagle-eyed" to your signature!! well spotted -the typo will be changed on the next upload.

adam

[Northmount]

On your home page, the info on the banner is repeated below it.

Many websites place the menu bar below the banner. That's where I tend to look for it, so took a moment to find where I could check out your other pages.

Looking pretty good, interesting.

Tom

[dirtclod]

I would change the color of the fonts on the top bar, their hard to see and like Tom i had to look to find them. On the page with your products their needs to be link to bigger picture, with prices and measurements. On the joke page i would take the first one down. It didn't bother me but i'd bet good money it will offend some people and they may just leave. JMHO

[lightningad]

thanks chaps - you have mentioned the same things that were bugging me ( i didnt mention them as i wanted honest uncoloured opinions).

Annoyingly, the one thing that is virtually impossible in iWeb is changing the navigation bar. I will have to build a new one from scratch...i just tried holding off as its a lot of work. I did this on my wifes website (also made in iWeb !) and wanted to avoid the hassle ...but as you've mentioned it, then its not just me!

As for the jokes, i think they will stay for now. I heard a great quote recently that sums up my own opinion - "Just because your offended it doesn't mean you're right!". It might be arrogance on my part, but thats why its my own site and not a corporate one.

I am prepping more files and code so that the images will open larger views in pop up windows.

As with the other site i made, i have a feeling this will go through several incarnations before i'm happy with it.

Thanks very much for giving me your thoughts...now for some more work !!

[dirtclod]

I've seen people on here get their panties in a wad over less than that first joke. You asked what people though and I told ya. It's you site so do what ever you want.

[David8386]

Looks good except for what has already been mentioned. I like the jokes but like dirt clod said, somebody will be offended. I would base wether it stays or not based on your targeted market. If it is old guys and bikers like me it stays, if it is soccer moms and grandma I would ditch it. My 2 cents.

David

[mrdabeetle]

"methods" in the navigation menu is not capitalized like the other links. All of the text on that page is underlined. On the "Creations" page, some of the images overlap and the drop-shadow makes it look odd when they overlap. (I'm using Mozilla Firefox if that makes a difference) Other than that, the site looks great. I like the theme, it is rustic without looking dirty or cliche.

[lightningad]

Again, thanks everyone for your comments. I really appreciate having some unbiased eyes looking over the site.

Aside from larger image pop-ups and rebuilding the navigation menu, which will have to wait until i have more time...I have updated the site based on your comments.

I think its certainly an improvement - and if you have any farmyard related funnies you want adding, just let me know!

[Ed in Tx]

ll Looks very well done to me. I like how you did the picket fence incorporating your business name. I saw one of the critiques above questioning the duplication of the Barking Rooster, personally I don't see that as an issue, in fact that is a very good method of reinforcing your brand. The comment about the Font color is true in the extent that it doesn't "stand out". I do however like the fact that the current selection changes the look of the font. One thing we "Yankees" (yes you are a yankee even if your from the south as far as a Brit is concerned) need to remember is there are indeed spelling differences in many words for us. Overall I think you did a great job.

[lightningad]

never thought i'd hear a Texan call himself a Yankee!

Thanks for the kind words.

I always felt the Logo would look good as if painted on the side of a wild west livery stable - hence the photoshop job on the wooden planks! I very pleased you noticed it.

I will be changing the navigation buttons - the one really annoying thing about Apple iWeb is the complete inability to alter anything to do with the look of those buttons. Everything else you can adapt but not those.

regards

Adam

[paris3200]

Overall I think you've got a great start on a website. I actually ran across your site a few days ago and was pleased with what I saw. Just a few things I noticed.

As previously mentioned the top menu text color is very hard to see. In general all your links are hard to see. I don't know anything about iWeb, but it seems likely you can change the color with a simple css fix. You also have your footer text the same color as your hyperlinks. This gives the impression that your footer is a link when it isn't.

On the creation page your second paragraph is formatted rather strangely. Looks like you have an extra line break where it isn't needed.

On the methods page, under stropping, the first sentence isn't capitalized.

This is more of opinion than anything, but the shadows on the front bag images are too strong and hard. I think if you softened the shadows slightly it would look a lot better. I just checked the image and the shadows aren't on the actual image, so I don't have any idea where they are coming from.

[NicoleAlaine]

Your site looks great, love the themes and the graphics are great. The only thing that got me right off the bat (but it is fairly common so may just be a personal preference thing) is that when the page loads I see:

Header with business name

Tag line

Menue

Business name again

The top 1/6th of a beautiful pair of satchels

No matter what page I land on first, I can't see any whole products, and that visual of what you actually have to offer is what always catches my eye first. Would it be possible to make your header/page title smaller to allow more of the images to load higher up?

Best of luck with your new site!

[lightningad]

Hi Nicole,

thanks for the comments- hope you dont mind me asking...what resolution is your screen set to?

adam

[NicoleAlaine]

Hi Adam, you know that is a great question. I forgot that I have a freak monitor. It is actually a 32" TV set to 1360 X 768. That may be why I see so little of the site.

[lightningad]

that would explain it! although your points are very valid ones which i am going to work on.

i had felt something was awry...just not sure what. I think you spotted the cause!

thanks

adam

[NicoleAlaine]

Hope I could help Your site is really nice looking! I have been trying to personalize mine more, but so far it is still pretty simple, almost sterile.

[lightningad]

Thanks, glad you like it. I wanted to design one that had a rustic, crafted feel that was somehow reminiscent of the old west without coming across cliched or too cluttered.

I have just uploaded a new version of the site, following on from your very helpful comments. I'd be grateful if you could give it the quick once over....see if it looks any better on your screen.

adam

[NicoleAlaine]

It looks great on my screen now, and I just looked at it on my other computer with a regular sized screen as well. Both screens allow me to see your lovely satchels completely (ditto on your product pages, I can see the first few rows on product completely). Now it doesn't take any work (scrolling) to see what you have to offer. Shoppers can be very lazy and bounce rates on websites are really high, so the more you can suck them in right away the better!

Keep it up!

[lightningad]

Thanks Nicole, appreciate the help.

now if only i could figure a way to do image pop-ups in iWeb!!!

[NicoleAlaine]

Did you do your website yourself or hire someone? I can see that you didn't use Wordpress, etc. and that you have at least some reference to W3Schools in your code. That is where I learned all of my coding, so I am somewhat familiar with their tools. Here is one tutorial that might be helpful, thought I have never done pop-ups so I don't know if there are any other steps involved. Since iWeb is proprietary it may be you have to be using Apple software?

http://iwebunlimited.com/iweb-tips/iweb-tip-6-pop-up-windows-in-iweb/

[lightningad]

Hi Nicole, I did it all myself using iWeb. I have been trying various options for the pop-ups but haven't found one that does exactly what i need...yet! The link you gave looks very promising.

As for the coding, i've never learned any. I did try Dreamweaver a few years back but i just couldnt take to it. I like iWeb because its pretty simple unless you want to do something thats different from the supplied templates. I have been using it for a few years now on my wifes website, which we decided long ago would need to look unique, so i figured out ways to make it look different from the standard iweb templates. You can do quite a lot using HTML snippets.

I've just carried that notion over to my own site....and unfrtunately Apple have ceased to develop the software any more, so i will have to start learning new software once this becomes too outdated.

adam

[NicoleAlaine]

I love your wife's cake toppers, they are super creative and cute. I wish you the best with the iWeb, I had never heard of it until your post. I hope you are able to still use it after they stop supporting it, at least long enough to learn a new system. I am using Wordpress with Woocommerce for my site. The basic Wordpress site does blogs and general pages, and the Woocommerce allows you to add products and a shopping cart linked to Paypal. It has worked pretty well for me so far, but I may want to change later. My only beef with Wordpress is that it is not intended for ecommerce without added plugins, so sometimes all the different pieces don't interact well, especially around big Wordpress updates. But so far I have been really happy with it and it is totally free. You also don't need any special knowledge which is nice.