Site Review, especially product layouts

[pinkequine]

Hi there

I was wondering if anyone can give me a review on the new look of our site, particularly things like product layouts as I struggled with those.

Here is a product layout, one with a lot of options, I didn't really like having the options at the bottom of the page, but it didn't really flow right having it in the middle so I swapped the layouts.. http://www.pinkequine.com/acatalog/Leisure_Crystal_Bridle_Coloured_Padding.html

Anyway, all comments would be appreciated.

The site is www.pinkequine.com

Thanks in advance.

[leehack]

I think your thumbnails are far too large, i'd like to see them all shrunk and merged into the same addon and in the same place. People will be clicking on them if they are interested. You could go 4 wide and move them all up like on here for example - http://www.atlanticshopping.co.uk/acatalog/Lattice-Bar-Stool-Cream.html - the page is too scrolly, it all needs moving up and compressing but not cramping IMO. text size is too small also, you want it readable, not looking like small print. Font size 12px is ideal.

[Duncan Rounding]

I agree with Lee. You have to reduce the sizes of all images on that page (perhaps with a zoom) and bring the options above the tabber. You also need to keep your add to cart button above the fold.

Also don't be shy with the colour of your add to cart button - make it bright to stand out.

[pinkequine]

Thanks you are right of course

You know when you know something isn't right but you've just been on it too long you cant see the wood through the trees.. I didn't even think of making the thumbnails smaller.

Keep the feedback coming.. thanks

[Mike Hughes]

First things that come to mind:

1. Product Layouts:

As above, plus there's too much white space. I'd move everything a bit closer to reduce the scrolling.

I also think the main image size could be smaller.

2. General:

That top RH image looks odd with the persons body cropped out. It makes me want to try and scroll the page up so I can see the whole image.

3. Seo:

Every page has a title that goes 'Pink Equine Product x'. This puts the primary focus on 'pink equine' which is identical for every page. You'll get more pages indexed and they'll do better in the rankings if you change the titles to say 'product x from Pink Equine'.

Also you don't appear to have any keyword or description meta tags. These are very important for the SEs. The description meta tag is normally displayed by Google in the search results and is a terrific opportunity to persuade people to visit your website.

Mike

PS. Your pages will load quicker with the css styling in a separate file.

[Ho Ho Bird]

Tiny point: Typo in first line of Contact Us text.

[pinkequine]

Olderscot

Thank you

1. Agreed, working on a new layout at the moment...

2. It does look a bit weird doesn't it.. I hadn't spent too much time thinking about it but I get your point.. I'll see if I can get her head in :)

3. The SEO is my partners job.. we havent done much SEO yet as he was waiting for me to get the main layouts/content finished.. he's working on that at the moment but he'll read this post anyway (get working Jonathan :))

Ho Ho

Well spotted.. have to say I am really impressed with the effort people are putting into looking around the site.. I was a bit wary of putting the site on for review because I thought it may be a bit pretentious, but I am so glad I did.. it makes you take a look at how others will see your site.. sometimes you can just be a bit too close to it.

[Sean Williams]

Agreed on the thumbnail / whitespace.

One thing - because of the name, I am disconcerted not to find any pink anywhere in the design.
Is this because I'm a weirdo, or could it be expectations not fulfilled? If the latter, perhaps there's an argument for not (perhaps subconciously) disappointing customers by having some pink in there somewhere.
I'll get me coat, after my last point.

I'm impressed by the quality of the images - so many sites stumble on this aspect of presentation.

[pinbrook]

I am really impressed with the effort people are putting into looking around the site.. it always heps if you are specific about what you would like people to comment on.

One of my pet hates is people who ask for a site review who on receiving comments say the site isn't finished yet, that isn't a review - pedantic hat on today.

Back to your site - i'd like to see the product name and price above the images. it might make the drop downs line up more neatly.

I'm also not sure about shopping pages having green logo etc and rest of site blue.

Out of curiousity why pink in pink equine?

[pinkequine]

Dear Sean

Just for you :) http://www.pinkequine.com/acatalog/Juniors_Home.html

We broke the site up because the children want only pink, the leisure want pink but want to be a bit more quiet about it and the pro's may want it but arent allowed in competition:)

The first site was **really**pink but it limited our target audience so we toned it down... then it got to the point it was so toned down the site looked a bit bland.. so we thought to split it up and give everyone a site area they felt comfortable with.

We do a few shows now around the country and our first stand - we called it the pink palace - would only get the children coming over the threshold, now our stand is all oak slatwall and we segregate it into two halves, sedate and pink.. now we get a much wider following.. its fun to watch as you can almost guess who is going to walk into which side of the stand when they start walking over. Its worked really well for us and we are always rammed full with customers on our stand, so now we've replicated that on the website.


Olderscot.. I looked again at the Titles and I havent quite worked out how the name comes first... there must be a combined variable that says
<companyname><sectionpagename> or something like that, that I need to swap around.. just gotta find it.

[pinkequine]

Thanks Pinbrook

yes really my specific was the product pages, it was something I got really stuck on. But am happy to receive all comments, to my mind if you think you've got it cracked, even on a live site, you can become really complacent.

I am working on a new layout now.. we just had to go live with what we had as it was year end and as of 1st june we arent accepting orders from Canada anymore due to a new distribution agreement over there.. so I couldnt afford for any orders to slip through.

I agree on the shopping cart.. but I was too scared to mess with any of the pages.. I'd love it if I could follow the theme through on whichever colour scheme the customer was on.. I just didnt know how and since I nearly broke the pages just trying to put an image on there I decided to back off... if there is a way to do it though I'd really love to hear it.

[pinbrook]

The first site was **really**pink but it limited our target audience so we toned it down... then it got to the point it was so toned down the site looked a bit bland.. so we thought to split it up and give everyone a site area they felt comfortable with.

We do a few shows now around the country and our first stand - we called it the pink palace - would only get the children coming over the threshold, now our stand is all oak slatwall and we segregate it into two halves, sedate and pink.. now we get a much wider following.. its fun to watch as you can almost guess who is going to walk into which side of the stand when they start walking over. Its worked really well for us and we are always rammed full with customers on our stand, so now we've replicated that on the website.


Excellent story, just goes to show how important company branding is.

[grantglendinnin]

As you're pushing your telephone number at the top of the page, there's quite a bit of space to the right side, I'd add your contact e-mail address in there in graphic format - safe for preventing spammers.

[leehack]

There's some weird dotted lines on the bottom edge of the section link layouts - http://www.pinkequine.com/acatalog/Juniors_Home.html - maybe linked to the list layout or some incorrect coding possibly, well worth checking out and sorting.

I think the header area needs a rethink also, it's not offensive at all, but i do think it's a poor use of prime real estate on your site.

[pinkequine]

Excellent story, just goes to show how important company branding is.

Yes 100% agreed, we've done a lot of work on the branding, the website just was a bit lagging.

[pinkequine]

There's some weird dotted lines on the bottom edge of the section link layouts - http://www.pinkequine.com/acatalog/Juniors_Home.html - maybe linked to the list layout or some incorrect coding possibly, well worth checking out and sorting.

I Think the dots are something to do with the original layouts, probably brought out because I changed the images to boxes or something. There are other dots between the fragments also on other pages I dont like either, so its on my to do list.

[leehack]

I'd look in the list layout first if i were investigating, if it was a section link layout issue it should prevail on all uses of that layout which it doesn't seem to be doing.

[Sean Williams]

Dear Sean

Just for you :) http://www.pinkequine.com/acatalog/Juniors_Home.html


<sigh>
That's better :)

I'm With Pinbrook - good story and a good effort in paying attention and moving with the market.

[pinkequine]

Thanks Lee, I'll look at that.

Sean.. thanks, and glad the pink was a welcome relief :D

[pinkequine]

http://www.pinkequine.com/acatalog/Junior_Reins.html

Havent done all the layouts yet, but have tidied it up, kept the info above the fold, made the main page header smaller and not been too shy with my add to cart button.

[Darren B]

Just one observation, i notice the page was slow to load, upon inspection this was caused by the thwate logo. You might be better to move this code to the bottom of the page. Any code that calls on info from another server could impact on page loading performance, its always best to keep this code at the bottom of your page.

This is all MHO

[pinkequine]

oh I never realised that.. thanks..

[acompton]

I'm impressed that you've solved a problem I've been pondering for some time: how to cater to different 'levels' of customer.

Very picky point: the footer on the index page is a bit strange:
Pink Equine © 2007 powered by actinic equestrian | horse tack | dressage |show jumping Pink Equine horse tack for dressage show jumping and other equestrian disciplines home

"powered by actinic equestrian" :eek:

[pinkequine]

oh yes, I never even noticed that! Well spotted. Regards catering for the different customers, do you mean age/types or the fact that we have a members area on different price brackets.

[acompton]

oh yes, I never even noticed that! Well spotted. Regards catering for the different customers, do you mean age/types or the fact that we have a members area on different price brackets.
It was the Junior/Leisure/Pro split I liked.

[pinkequine]

Yes this was a problem we pondered for ages, it even made us really cautious with the colour schemes on the website just so we didnt alienate anyone.

We're much happier now with the feel of the website.