Adventure Friends site improvements. Are we there?

[AngelaGirl]

Originally Posted by MillieAbroad

Hi Rico,

I must confess that I am kind of on the run so only got the chance to take a quick look, but wanted to let you know that first impressions are good. I really like your top menu, and I think the site is easy to navigate.

I like the colour scheme. The only thing that bothered me ever so slightly after awhile was the moving image on the right. If I was looking at a page for an extended period I think it would increasingly bother me. Having said that, I have another confession - I had just had a champagne (celebrating a business related achievement) and it may have just been that ;combined with fatigue

Good luck

April

Yes April, do share!

[sroberts]

Hi Rico,
I really liked the site, great colours and easy to navigate.
I am a fan of the Top Menu on the first page and kept clicking "Back" as I found it more engaging so I would consider putting that on all the pages.
Apart from that I thought it was excellent, Congratulations and Good Luck.

[Uncomplicating]

Originally Posted by Rico

Hi everyone,

I'd like to ask your opinion about the new version of my web site.

www.AdventureFriends.com.au

This time my main focus was to create a site that is easy to navigate, so I designed two separate category menu, on the left vertical panel and on the top. Also, as we sell high end outdoor gear, I tried to create the right color match for the active person (black, grey, orange). The 3D banner was designed by us as well, and I think it is very original.

I tried to keep the most visible part of the page as clean as possible, so to highlight the free shipping offer.

The Check out button on the top right changes color when something is in the cart.
Of course I have the "live chat" and the "contact us" page in evidence, but I decided to move the about us and form of payment at the bottom.

I decided to leave all the central part to a random product display, as I found that many visitors are repetitive, so they will have different product displayed each time they come.

The product pages are very clean, with the product description just below the product photo. The features and technical informations are on the right panel, because I think that only some visitor is interested into them.

Please give me your opinion, and feel free to be very direct
This is version 5 of my site in only 1 year, and I really want to understand if I am getting there.

Rico

For the record, I'm using Firefox 10.0.2

I like it lots. Images are good, navigation is fine for the most part. Good site all in all, but a couple of things.

1) There's something not quite right about the way the home page changes when the browser resizes. The right side menu and some of the header is hidden. The centre panel resizes a little and then stops at 7 items wide as a minimum.

Good, but I think the resizing priorities are not quite right yet.

2) Rule #1 of good UI design - be consistent. As I'm a completely dumb user, I only have the capacity to learn one thing about how to navigate around your site. So, whatever you make me do, make me do it all the time. Don't make me work out another technique to get from here to there.

At the moment, drilling down to a specific product hides both the navigation menu and the right menu. I liked those because I saw them everywhere I'd been previosuly.

3) Most boxes highlight on MouseOver. Cool stuff, looks nice. Would be better if the whole box (particularly the left menu) was the anchor for the group rather than actually having to click on the title. Reason for this is that you're providing a visual clue on mouseover, but I can't actually do anything until I move to a piece of text.

4) I have a 24" monitor running 1920X1200, and I'm still not able to see all of the header images, even when maximised. THe header image appears to repeat and that leaves me thinking I'm missing something.

It's almost as if you're not quite sure what's more important, the content or the side panels.

All in all, nice site. Hope mine will be that good when it's done.

[Rico]

Originally Posted by sroberts

Hi Rico,
I really liked the site, great colours and easy to navigate.
I am a fan of the Top Menu on the first page and kept clicking "Back" as I found it more engaging so I would consider putting that on all the pages.
Apart from that I thought it was excellent, Congratulations and Good Luck.

Thanks for resuming this thread. After so many positive comments about the top horizontal menu in the home page, we gave it a go to see how it looked store wide, and we didn't really like it. The problem is that it uses too much real estate and you need to scroll to see the product you are interested in.
But your post made me to think about it again, and maybe I found the solution.... I'll go to work on it now, and I'll ask your opinion as soon as I'll publish it.

Rico

[Rico]

Originally Posted by UncomplicatingIT

1) There's something not quite right about the way the home page changes when the browser resizes. The right side menu and some of the header is hidden. The centre panel resizes a little and then stops at 7 items wide as a minimum.

Good, but I think the resizing priorities are not quite right yet.

You are so right. We've been trying to understand why this happens. The idea is that the web site should automatically load with the best number of product columns for your monitor. So a small window browser will have 4 items across, and a large monitor 7 items, with any number in between. Resizing the window browser should change the number of columns in real time. This doesn't always happen, unless you click on the refresh button!!!

Originally Posted by UncomplicatingIT

2) Rule #1 of good UI design - be consistent. As I'm a completely dumb user, I only have the capacity to learn one thing about how to navigate around your site. So, whatever you make me do, make me do it all the time. Don't make me work out another technique to get from here to there.

At the moment, drilling down to a specific product hides both the navigation menu and the right menu. I liked those because I saw them everywhere I'd been previosuly.

Another very good point. We just had to give up in having the right panel in the product page, as we need that space for the technical features of the product. The idea is to have a simple and clear description in the center, and to keep the technical stuff on the side. This gives us a very clean product page that is still very informative. In the past our solution was to have a separate tab for the technical data, but this way we are saving the reader a click of the mouse.
The top navigation menu is too large to be hosted in all the pages, but I totally agree with you that it should be there... so my idea is now to work on a smaller menu with a similar graphic. I'll keep you posted

Originally Posted by UncomplicatingIT

3) Most boxes highlight on MouseOver. Cool stuff, looks nice. Would be better if the whole box (particularly the left menu) was the anchor for the group rather than actually having to click on the title. Reason for this is that you're providing a visual clue on mouseover, but I can't actually do anything until I move to a piece of text.

Thanks for pointing it out. Yes, this will have to be fixed.

Originally Posted by UncomplicatingIT

4) I have a 24" monitor running 1920X1200, and I'm still not able to see all of the header images, even when maximised. THe header image appears to repeat and that leaves me thinking I'm missing something.

What you see it is actually a mirror of the Free shipping banner on the left. If you had a smaller monitor you wouldn't be able to see it. This is why I missed it on my laptop, but I can see what you mean now. I will replace it with a grey background.

Originally Posted by UncomplicatingIT

All in all, nice site. Hope mine will be that good when it's done.

If you are like me, you will never be 100% happy with your web site, and you will never say: It's done!

Rico

[Uncomplicating]

Originally Posted by Rico

If you are like me, you will never be 100% happy with your web site, and you will never say: It's done!

Rico

After 15 years in the world of commercial software design/developement I can tell you never "right", just "right enough".

Started the ball rolling on mine yesterday. We shall see.

[pix2print.com.au]

Hi Rico, great products. Let us know when you are ready to go live with it as I can help you promote it. I am a very outdoorsy person and have many friends who fall into that category. Like the things you are selling and like the website. Happy to post on my facebook when you are live.

I agree with the last few people who commented too, just get it out there. It will never be perfect, but at some point you need to have it out there and start promoting it. As long as the ordering system works well you will be fine. You can always fine-tune once live.

I am a perfectionist as well and had to really convince myself that the website was fine to go-live. I have a lot of positive feedback on it, even though I can still see many areas where I want to improve! Nobody is ever as critical of your website as you (and that is a good thing, but you also need to get over the 'get it perfect' feeling!).

Good luck with it all!!

Cheers,
Jude

[TrishF]

hi Rocco
Love the site, looks great.
Just a couple of things;

I can't see a Privacy Policy or Disclaimer page

When I view a product I liked - I can't see an 'ad to cart' button, only 'ad to wishlist' button

There is no 'home' button when I'm viewing a product. I note you said you didn't like the look of that, but really it's not about you - it's about the customer.

IMO the payment options need to be more obvious - i.e. above the fold

I would recommend a 'trust logo' - helps massively with credibility http://www.verisign.com.au/

Cheers
Trish Fehon

[Rico]

Originally Posted by pix2print.com.au

Hi Rico, great products. Let us know when you are ready to go live with it as I can help you promote it. I am a very outdoorsy person and have many friends who fall into that category. Like the things you are selling and like the website. Happy to post on my facebook when you are live.

I agree with the last few people who commented too, just get it out there. It will never be perfect, but at some point you need to have it out there and start promoting it. As long as the ordering system works well you will be fine. You can always fine-tune once live.

I am a perfectionist as well and had to really convince myself that the website was fine to go-live. I have a lot of positive feedback on it, even though I can still see many areas where I want to improve! Nobody is ever as critical of your website as you (and that is a good thing, but you also need to get over the 'get it perfect' feeling!).

Good luck with it all!!

Cheers,
Jude

Hi Jude,

Thanks for your offer, we have been live for 18 months now and the web site gets 120 unique visitors a day without much advertising but with lots of word of mouth. This is version 3 of our site, and that is the reason why I am asking suggestions, and we are fine tuning it every day.

I'd love you to post a link on your FB page. I also have a 10% discount code for the members of the forum, FLYINGSOLO.

Thanks a lot for your help!
Rico