New Parrot Site (Info & Online Store)

[molder101]

Hi,
My last experience with critiques and recommendations went well so here is another site to tear apart.

Rhoda's Parrots:

New Site - http://www.rhodasparrots.com/new/
Original Site - http://www.rhodasparrots.com/

The new site is not fully completed.. I just have the first page up.. most of the dynamic code is ready for dropping in when I finish the "look".

I attempted to stay within the color theme of the orig. site as the client liked (likes) it. I wanted to push more of the online store aspect on the main page so categories were listed and main (middle) content was aimed towards that (sales, etc).

Just curious on the ideas others may have!

Oh, I have checked it in NN, IE, Opera, & Firefox and they all work/validate correctly with my current configuration (XP Pro SP2, 1280x1024, 16.2mil clrs, DSL) and loads quickly enough.

All info/recommends are helpful... tear apart as needed.

Thanks,
Mike

[wello]

loads fast on my dail up
and it looks good, i like the blue/green compination.
the only think i dislike is the "go" button in the login form.
Good Luck

[newboy]

Make the main logo a little less bright. It grabs too much attention.

[Alex_]

- Opinion: I don't like the color combination on the header title
- That funny looking bird doesn't look like a parrot, it's more like some sort of weird Plaza Sesamo meets pelican thing just kidding!
- The grey horizontal bar on the top is too large, it kind of breaks the layout

Anyway, I think parrots are one of the coolest animals on earth and your site looks pretty cool too. I really wanted to read the article on why I need to get one for myself. I just wish there was a way to have those without having to lock them in prisons (bad bad bad bad...).

Tell us when your site is ready ok?

[chowmein858]

I do not like the color combination either. You might ask the client if they want a new logo too.

The homepage right now looks more like a site on information about parrots. You should not have so much text, but more pictures of items.

[Ango]

I think the new site is definately an improvement from the older one, the layout is much better. I think the header also looks great!

[skyraider]

Fine in IE and Firefox except for the fact that in both, theleft and right menus actually goe off the screen (I'm using 1024x768 on an 18.1-inch viewable CRT monitor). You need to reduce the width of the center table so that the user can concentrate on the menus. You should really compact the site into a smaller area so that users with screens smaller than about 19 inches viewable can see the site It's not letting me scroll hortizontally for some reason. Also, the "Sale items" and "Novelty Items" links don't work.

Great potential. Needs adjusted width, fixed links and a faster server if possible (it's quite slow over here on my cable modem).

[TannerCreative]

Good work - I love the cartoon character

[WebCrawler]

Keep two color,white and green. Logos pink color doesent match with website theme. From old site i only like home page (not the round button though). That gives an idea to keep your background color as complete green, make your content box within 700PX with white background and keep that content box just 80px from left window margin. You can keep that parot character which looks attractive just outide left of content area in a diffrent shape for diffrent pages. The parrot is holding the content area, hiding beside the box etc..

[fisicx]

Please do not think that the following are a critisism of you, it is just how I see the site:

1. The logo background dies not blend in well with the header - 'cos its a gif and the green does not fade, instead you get rings of green.

2. 'www.rhodasparrots.com' is not a link. If you don't want it to be a link then why put it on the page.

3. What is purpose of the date? is it just to balance the ULI at the left. See comment above.

4. Add to favourites is only any good if you are using IE.

5. ' Books, Gifts, Articles & More in One Place' is the same style as your links but isn't a link.

6. Help? If you need a help link then there is a usability problem with the site.

7. Left and right columns look as if they have been chopped off on the outside (think this is what skyraider was alluding to).

8. The left and right columns are quite wide. On an 800x640 resolution you do get a very thin main comtent. And if you up the font size it gets even thinner.

9. What is your USP? Are you providing an information service or selling parrots? It seems to be neither one nor t'other at the moment. I would suggest that you need to have a 'wow' message at the top of the page: 'Rhoda's Parrots, the online parrot store. We offer quality parrots and parrot products. Rhoda's Parrot does not import or distribute parrots captured in the wild, our birds are hand reared and registered with the Parrot Association....' Then you can begin to add all the other services.

10. Your footer is way too big. Does it matter to prospective clients that you meet the w3c standards? Not really.

11. Nested tables. Not going to discuss the prosa and cons of tables v CSS but it does make for a complicated structure.

Nothing showstopping but hopefully constructive.

[obrienkev]

good work.

[DaveWoods]

The look and feel looks fine to me. I always try to design a site with lots of flat colour and not add anything to the page that is unneccesary that might clutter the page up and your site passes with flying colours on these grounds.

I also took a look at your code and would like to suggest moving over to completely CSS driven site that you've probably heard alot of people banging on about.

I'd also suggest keeping your CSS in a seperate stylesheet and not in the head of your html as you have done with this site. By having it in an external stylesheet is simply makes your life easier when a client comes back to you and asks for that green to be changed to a darker one. What would you prefer? Changing the code in one stylesheet or going through each individual page and updating them?

[molder101]

Thanks for the comments so far.. I hope to implement some of them this weekend.

I do plan to keep the css in a separate file. Because I was still working on the design/layout/colors/etc I decided to keep it all together so I could work on it as a whole without switching between two files. In the end though, it will be an external stylesheet.

Thanks again for the constructive criticism... it means a lot to know what others "see".

mike

[dsaccess]

I just love the new site.

[Smarky]

I like the old site better, for one reason, It has more personality.

That is not something to get dishearten about, the second site is more usable and has more content area. It's going in the right direction for sure! You just need to put the personality back into it!

Consider some more white space. Everything seems to be boxed in, and although I’m sure your proud to show those nice W3c buttons at the bottom, think of the site from Joe users view, do they care? how does seeing those buttons serve there goal as a site visitor?

The shades of colour of the logo and the header background don't work together nicely, if you play with them a little I’m sure it will look much better (although I noticed this was from the first version, convince the client the need for change!)

[molder101]

Thanks again for the info... the xhtml and css buttons at the bottom will not be on the final design.. they are just a quicklink for me to test the page for compliance.

I also happened to like the friendliness of the first site but clients are clients. I will attempt to bring a little more into the design regardless.

Thanks,
Mike

[molder101]

For any of you who would like to check out the finished product ... feel free to go to:

RhodasParrots.com

It turned out very well (well client is estatic), so we'll leave it at that.

Thanks for the helpful critiques along the way,
Mike

[amberstar702]

Very good information for people who are considering buying a parrot. I am surprised that there was nothing written about lovebirds though. I have one and am absolutely crazy about this feisty little creature who is sitting on my should now as I type. Just have to be careful that she does not poop on the keyboard.

IMO, the website is set up nicely but the homepage colors are dull and uninviting. The gray/brown is downright ugly. I think some yellow judiciously added might liven up the homepage a bit.

[molder101]

Thanks for the note... I will mentioned to the businessowner that she should add info about lovebirds.

I too would like to liven up the home page a little... I was pushing to get the site launched. Now I can "brighten" it up!

Mike

[Mikey85]

Clean, nice