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I had an opportunity to redesign....decided on a new look!

twix23919twix23919 subscriber Posts: 2
edited June 2008 in Website Critique
Hi to all!
I hope you find this more to your liking. I decided to make some changes on my site. I`m not a web designer, so I took some suggestions that were given to me, and worked on a different approach. I still want to improve my pics in the for sale sections, which I am currently working on. However, I do have some shows coming up, and I`m hoping that the present inventory will be sold and new inventory will be added.....and those will be photographed with a new set up that I have come up with.
Thanks everyone for your input....before and now!
Trish
www.twixidesigns.com</A>
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Comments

  • sarahleighmsarahleighm subscriber Posts: 3
    Trish
    I love the layout of your site and the colors are great. Good luck.
    Cheers
    Sarah
  • twix23919twix23919 subscriber Posts: 2
    Good morning!
    Thank you for your responses! I did fix the edges of the text. I think it should be enough. To Steve..."I`m not a fan of intro pages... uh, although I (ahem) have one on my site"....that was funny! Actually, I`ve had some real nice comments from friends on that one. One friend of mine said it was "classy / feminine / speaks to the savvy." She`s a "speak your mind kinda gal," so I was very flattered from that!
    As far as the albums go(sample pages), they are the "jalbum." It took me awhile to figure out to get them to work in the website. They offer other choices, but I`m not sure any of them can be altered to have the blue lines on the sides. The reason I chose the black is because it makes the colors of the samples stand out.....and, I didn`t do a great job when I photographed them, and the black kinda made the pics pop.
    Craig.....were you talking about the font used for the navigation buttons? I had read that there were 3 different fonts that all computers had. It said if you use something too different, that if someone`s computer didn`t have that font, they won`t be able to view it. Is that correct? I can`t remember where I read that now. I`m thinking at microsoft.com.
    Again......I appreciate your input! Y`all have a great weekend!
    Trish
    www.twixidesigns.com
  • vwebworldvwebworld subscriber Posts: 40
    Hi,
    Splash page - if you are going to keep the splash page you should add a description (meta tag) for it, I also suggest adding links to your other pages at the bottom of that page..as it will help those other pages get indexed and can help you search results placement.
    ~Roland
  • twix23919twix23919 subscriber Posts: 2
    Hi,
    I did go in put meta tags on the entry page. Thanks! I didn`t even think of it! Not sure on putting links to it tho. I like the looks of it, and I`m not sure how to do it and make it look ok.
    I`ll give it some thought.
    Trish
    www.twixidesigns.com
  • SalemHSalemH subscriber Posts: 4
    Hi Trish,
    The design doesn`t look too bad, and the purses section has been forward to some of my female friend, nice designs!
    I`ll give you some constructive criticism from a design firm.
    -The landing page`s title is huge.  Its the first thing I and one of our designers see.
    -The font is inconsistent, I`d soon as stick with a single font and bold / italic any key points within text. Customers note things of this nature, and sometimes it won`t "seem right." when inconsistency is playing a factor.
    -After the title, the next thing my eyes draw too is the sillouette graphic on the left, or the next huge header "Home of the Hip Quick Chick Bag" I think you`d have some good effect if you showcased your actual designs some more.  Maybe to the right throw up some reviews, or the featured bags, bring them out in 3D at the bottom, awards you`ve won etc.
    -The bag page is not consistent with your other pages: grey background, buttons etc.  Would be good to keep it consistent and change those to match your other pages colors / styling.
    Good job though, building your own website is no easy task and its trial and error...trial and hits, plus or minus at least.
    Good luck!DesignMyIdea6/16/2008 6:56 PM
  • infiltainfilta subscriber Posts: 8
    I agree with a couple people above - drop the "splash" page. You don`t need it, plus it looks, well, not so attractive.
  • twix23919twix23919 subscriber Posts: 2
    Thanks to both of you for your input. I`m not a website designer, so it`s been trial and error. It`s always good to know what others think. And thank you "DesignMyIdea" for forwarding my bags to your friends! That was really nice!
     
    Trish
  • vwebworldvwebworld subscriber Posts: 40
    I`d suggest removing this meta tag: <META Name="revisit-after" Content="30 Days"> and also adding a robot.txt.
     
    "Shopping" on your site is not user friendly. When I go to the shop page I see images of different bags which is ok, but there is no information about them until I click on one. That bring me to a page about that bag - which is good BUT to see other products I have to go back to the main shopping page and pick a bag and repeat the process.
     
    It would be better to have a link to all your products (since they are small in number) on every product detail page. Plus you should have a link to your other web pages.
     
    The order of the items on your web page menus changes from page to page. I`d recommend using the saem order on every page.
     
    The shopping cart system - when it takes me to the shopping cart page it doesn`t look like I`m still on your site - no logo or name.
     
    Oh - on each of the product pages it appears that there are a few </form> tags that are not needed..... html coding errors.
     
    ~Roland
    vwebworld6/18/2008 1:47 AM
  • twix23919twix23919 subscriber Posts: 2
    Good morning Roland,
     

    I`d suggest removing this meta tag: <META Name="revisit-after" Content="30 Days"> and also adding a robot.txt.
    These are the kind of things I have no idea what to do. I don`t know what a robot.txt is....and/or what does the meta tag thing mean? Is that something the program automatically puts in? I use Frontpage 2003. For the shopping cart....it`s a basic setup. Not sure if my company`s name can be added, but I will email the guy and check for sure. Also, you said on the product pages that I have form tags not needed.....I wouldn`t have a clue as to what to remove. Like I said.....I`m not a website designer, so that`s why I went with a program that`s WYSIWYG. It has to be pretty simple. And when it comes to the details of html....again....I just don`t know. I know a few things about it just from working with it, but the particular things you mentioned are things I don`t know about. If you could be more specific.....pretend I`m in elementary...LOL!
     
    Thanks again for your input!
     
    Trish
  • vwebworldvwebworld subscriber Posts: 40
    Ok, if you used FP.... if you open the page with FP you can change the page properties.... title, description, and meta tags.  Just find the tag I mentioned and delete it. You might have to find it in the HTML code.
     
    Re: the duplicate </form> code, the site functions, but it should be corrected.
     
    As far as a robot.txt  here`s how to make robot.txt  .  Basically, a robot.txt file tells (cooperating) search bots what NOT to index.. like private directories or files you may have on the web server.
     
    ~Roland
  • twix23919twix23919 subscriber Posts: 2
    Hi Roland,
     
    Before I have a chance to work on it.....what exactly does META Name="revisit-after" Content="30 Days" mean?
     
    Trish
  • vwebworldvwebworld subscriber Posts: 40
    That instruction tells search bots to visit the site in 30 days (come back in 30 days). You do not want to restrict bots, that`s why it`s of no benefit to have it. Plus, it is really not supported by the major search engines - so it is of no value. From Google
     
    ~Roland
    vwebworld6/18/2008 11:20 AM
  • infiltainfilta subscriber Posts: 8
    Well if you`re talking about robots.txt then you should also make XML or at least text sitemap files for Google site maps/Yahoo! site explorer.
  • twix23919twix23919 subscriber Posts: 2
    Thanks Roland! Just like to know why I should delete something and that one definitely makes sense! I did already find it in the html. I do want the search engines to come around as much as possible!
     
    Infilta...............I have no idea what you just said! LOL!
     
    Trish
  • vwebworldvwebworld subscriber Posts: 40
    Absolutely, create and submit a google and yahoo site map. These are essentially  road maps of the pages on your website... to "help" Google and Yahoo find all your pages... or the pages you want them to find.
     
    The process is to create a site map then upload it to your server and notify Google and Yahoo.
     
    You might also add Google analytics too. This provides some nice information about traffic to your site (in addition to whatever your web host provides).
     
    ~Roland
    vwebworld6/18/2008 12:09 PM
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