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Need Honest Feedback - Don’t hold back!

JeannieJeannie subscriber Posts: 8
edited January 2007 in Website Critique
Hi everyone,
I am fairly new to SUN and I have been reading posts, answering a few and getting use to this community.  My heart is beating fast as I am going to ask for honest feedback on my new website, www.SmudgeGuard.com</A>. 
My friend, who has no experience at all, created this Website for me as I was on a tight budget and he needed some learning experience.  So we helped each other out.  Please do not hold back bad feedback because I want to hear it.  I know that it will only make my website/product better.  So.. any feedback will be much much appreciated. 
Thanks so much!
Jeannie
 
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Comments

  • keyconkeycon subscriber Posts: 34
    Jeannie - I`m no web designer, but I think the site looks very nice - your friend did a nice job. Everything was clear and concise to me.
    Your product and site piqued my interest in left-hand products and I did a quick search on left-hand websites - man, there`s a lot of sites out there selling products for left-handed people - very interesting. Have you approached any of these people about selling your product on their sites? Just wondering.
    Best wishes.
    R@
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  • JeannieJeannie subscriber Posts: 8
    Hi Richard,
    Thanks for your feedback!  Yes, there are tons of left-handed sites.  But I have recently sent my product sample to the biggest seller of left-handed products online, called Anything Left-handed.  So.. I`m crossing my fingers and hoping for the best! 
     
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  • MyraJoyMyraJoy subscriber Posts: 0
    Dear Jeannie,I agree with Richard, the site is professional, concise, full of info, and bright and friendly. I am a web designer, and can tell you that it`s very good organizationally and graphically.The only thing I would do is give the left hand navigation roll-over features. Mostly because that`s what everyone is used to and it`s a little disconcerting when you roll over some text that you know is a link, but it doesn`t change color or background. I think we all got used to that visual feedback.I wish you all the best,Myra
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  • JeannieJeannie subscriber Posts: 8
    Myra,
    Thank you for your honest opinion!  Gee, I just noticed what you mean.  I will definitely check to see if my friend can change that.  Again thank you for taking the time to check out my site and to also give me feedback.  I really appreciate it!
     
     
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  • JeannieJeannie subscriber Posts: 8
    Dear Craig,
    Thank you so much for taking the time to write to me!  As a lefty, I hated the smudging problem all my life too!  The worst times were definitely during school, taking ALL those notes!  But my 5 year old son, actually inpsired me to create this product for him.  He started coming home from school with graphite smudges on the side of his left hand and I just didn`t want him to go through the pain of smudges that I had.  So I solved the problem for him since I couldn`t find any other product out there.
    My research showed, that my product can be used by two markets:
    Left-handed people and Right-handed Artists. 
    Thus, SmudgeGuard can be worn by both lefties and righties! It is made to be worn by the left hand OR the right hand. So there`s no bias product here!
    As for it being marketed for carpal tunnel or wrist support, there are products out there that serve only that purpose, so I don`t want to step on their toes. So I will leave that alone since I don`t want to look like this!
    You are correct when you say, children are the main people getting the smudges.  I will try to stress the benefits to children more.  Thanks for that input!  And yes, this glove is washable and handles ink, graphite, crayons and markers very well. And in addition, this material let`s the side of your hand and pinky breath very well.  Sweaty hands won`t be a problem! 
    Have noted your thoughts on the smudged hand.  I will look into that.
    Again... thanks for all your honest input!  It`s great to hear it!  Thanks for not holding back!
    Jeannie
     
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  • JeannieJeannie subscriber Posts: 8
    Hey ElidS,
    Yes, if I could sell a ton of these to a large retailer..it would definitely be my wish coming true!..... If only, I was a real Jeannie! hehehe.
    Thanks for the feedback!
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  • JWDesignCenterJWDesignCenter subscriber Posts: 1
    I`m an artist and let me tell you... I would LOVE your product.... I would consider marketing to art schools too...  We always had to do a lot of work using charcoal and the mess you end up in when you`re done.  Sometimes those supplies don`t come off right away so you walk around looking like a dirty ragamuffin. 
    What about art supply stores?  Daniel Smith comes to mind as a big one here in the northwest.
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  • JeannieJeannie subscriber Posts: 8
    Hey Jen and Craig,
    One of things I need to do next is to send information to buyers of art supply stores.  I will try Michael`s Craft Store and the Dick Blick Art Store.  But I never heard of Daniel Smith before, but will be sure to include it in my list of supply stores.  And yes, I will try independent mom and pop stores too! I will be grateful to any store willing to stock my product. 
    I`m sure there`s a list or directory for art supply stores.  I just need to check it out online. 
    Thanks for writing back!
     
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  • JeannieJeannie subscriber Posts: 8
    Dear Kathy,
    Thanks for taking the time out to search art stores for me!
    As for you betting that the art store will be interested in my product, I REALLY hope that you`ll win that bet!!  -  for my sake!!  hahhah. 
     
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  • JeannieJeannie subscriber Posts: 8
    Yes, I agree with Vincent - all marketing angles ARE great!  This community is so nice!
    Craig, I bookmarked Switchboard.  That will really come in handy!  Thanks so much!
    Really appreciate all your great feedback! I value every bit of it!
    Jeannie
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  • smartiesmartie subscriber Posts: 1
    I like the site very much. It is very user friendly and what a great product! The colour scheme is unobtrusive and the whole feelof the site is neat and clean. It`s nice on the eye and easy to navigate.
    Makes you kind of wanting to order one of those guards. I had to hide my vallet.
    Tell your friend job well done!
    Monika
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  • JeannieJeannie subscriber Posts: 8
    Hey Monika,
    Thanks for your nice comments!  I will defiinitely tell my friend to read all of the comments posted here and that he`s done a nice job!
    Hey... when you say it kinda makes you want to order... You know....Xmas is only around the corner..   Got any left-handed friends or right-handed artistic friends on your list? I`m having an introductory price of only 99 cents going on right now! ....... Just kidding around with you.
    Just wanted to see if I could persuade you to unhide your wallet! hehehe.
    Jeannie
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  • sagemediasagemedia subscriber Posts: 5
    Hi Jeannie,First off, as an artist I have to say that your product concept is brilliant. My hand has had that tell-tale smudge for well over a decade now.You and your friend did a nice job putting your site together.I would suggest that you do some cross browser compatibility testing... as a Firefox user, I noticed a problem right away (the unwanted smudges image cuts into the header text above it). While a lot of people use Internet Explorer, a growing number of people prefer to use Firefox, Opera, or (for Mac users) Safari.  If you are marketing to artists, (a demographic that tends to use Safari or Firefox more often), it is very important to make sure that your site appears as it should when they view it with their preferred browser.You might also want to consider bringing your promotional messages ($0.99 sale for example) up into the top fold. People are lazy... they prefer not to scroll, and you want your most important (and call to action) messages to hit them first, before they flip on to something else.Centering the site on the screen is also a nice aesthetic touch - while standards dictate we still design for the 800x600 resolution viewers, the vast majority of people have much larger screens nowadays (again, particularly artists).  If you were to give the site clean borders and center it on the page, it would look more professional and aesthetically balanced.Again, great product. With the right marketing I am sure you will be successful.Chanie
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  • JeannieJeannie subscriber Posts: 8
    Dear Chanie,
    Since my friend and I have no prior experience with creating a website, we really didn`t think of doing cross browser compatibility testing.  So you say the smudged hand image cuts right into the header where it says, "Are you a student"?  Wow.. I will need to check into that. 
    And I will follow your great suggestion to put the 99 cents offer at the top! Don`t want the lazy people to miss this offer!  Thanks! 
    As for the centering, I totally agree with you that it would look more professional and balanced.  But when I mentioned this problem to my friend, to see if he could close off the gap on the right side of the page, he wasn`t sure how to do that without having to change all the data around. Would it be simple to center it?  I will ask him again.
    Thanks for your feedback! I feel so lucky to be getting all kinds of responses  from everyone here at SUN.  It`s just what I needed! Thanks again!
    Jeannie
     
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  • sagemediasagemedia subscriber Posts: 5
    Hi Jeannie,Centering the page should be a very simple and straightforward process. After a quick cursory glance at your site code, I see that the container is controlled with a table, yet much of the content within the table is in an absolutely positioned div. I`m not sure why your developer decided to use this structure... to be honest (and not intending to be mean at all) the code is a bit of a mess.Now that I see it, this absolutely positioned div is also the likely culprit for the image overlap problem.Strict CSS vs Tables is a hot point of controversy in the coding community, but given your specific purposes and resources it would make more sense to use a combination of tables within the HTML file for structure, and an external CSS file for style.  If your developer insists on using an absolutely positioned div, all they have to do is place it inside a relatively positioned div... though in such a case the whole page should be laid out with CSS to avoid conflicts. Divs shouldn`t really be used at all without a full understanding of CSS layout, in my opinion.Best of luck,Chanie
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