My New Website - Critique Please

[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!