Re: Critique commercial site please

----- Original Message -----
From: Devlin Peter W <DevlinPeterW(at)JohnDeere.com>
To: <hwg-critique(at)mail.hwg.org>
Sent: Wednesday, August 30, 2000 5:37 AM
Subject: Critique commercial site please


> This is a secondary market site I've done. Owner wants it extremely simple
> (no java, order page, visa on line) so anyone with any browser can view
it.
> It is supposed to have a 'comfortable come into my home' atmosphere and
also
> be her outlet for expressing her sense of humor and love of animals (cats
in
> particular).

Are you sure this is a commercial site?  As a viewer, I'm not.  I think the
emphasis on "homey-ness" has gone just a tad overboard, making it look like
far too many of the personal home pages out there.  If your note hadn't said
that it was a commercial site, I truly never would have known.  I don't
think my interest would have been held long enough for me to get to the
bottom of the first page.  I spent an inordinate amount of time looking for
the navigation.

When it finally occurred to me that maybe I should click the door, I still
had to scroll way on down there before I got any impression that there were
products to sell.  Then I had to click *again* before I got anywhere that I
could find (in far too obscure a place, I think) ordering information.

<snip>

> Given that, I still want it to be visually inviting, easy to navigate, and
> if you were interested in buying-could you easily know how to contact her
> regarding the item you wish to purchase?

I think a major part of the challenge is that angelfire banner splat dab in
your face.  It takes up a lot of real estate and screams "unprofessional".
I realize that she wants a laid-back feel, and free services are fine in a
lot of cases, but as a personal preference I try to shy away from the ones
that force banners.  At least with a popup, I can kill it or let software do
it for me.  But that's neither here nor there... sorry....

The hodge-podginess of the graphics has the potential to be appealing (for
the homey-ness thing), but I'd recommend limiting the number of moving
graphics.

Navigation - once I got to
http://www.angelfire.com/il/misssniff/front.html
I was grateful for the text navigation at the bottom.  I'd recommend putting
it on the first page as well.  I supposed the setup is great for browsing
and "rummaging" like you would in a shop.  I'm more of a "I'm looking for
*this*" person than a browsing type person, so I can't comment on its
effectiveness.

Could I easily know how to contact her?
No.  Given the nature of the internet, I was looking for the "order" area.
The very reason I would shop online is for the convenience of submitting an
order and having it arrive without a lot of extra steps or hassles.  When I
finally found the "how to place an order", I didn't even bother to read the
long block of text.  I supposed I'm just impatient.

As a personal home page sharing a collection, it seems to fit in with the
others of its type out there (but is that what you really want???).  As a
commercial page, however, I don't think I'd take it seriously enough to let
my money go.

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