Website review appreciated- Online invitations card business

[Belinda82]

Hi all!

Firstly I would just like to say how much I love the articles on this website. They are all highly informative and relevant and easy to read and best of all, I like the fact that they aren't geared towards pushing readers to buy anything.

I noticed others providing useful reviews of other websites on this forum and I was hoping I could also get a review of my own website.

I just launched my wedding invitation website about half a year ago and would really appreciate some honest feedback on the site design, usability and appeal of the website.

I've been designing invitations for a number of years already (I absolutely love it!) but only recently decided to do it commercially.

My website address is: http://www.bstudioweddinginvitations.com

Thanks,
Belinda.

[exstatic]

Hey Belinda, good to hear you are doing something you enjoy and better yet making some money from it!

I have just myself finished making 80 hand made wedding invitations and while they turned out nice I don't think I would ever do it again, I'll leave it to the professionals like yourself.

I had a look around your site, its nicely designed and fairly easy to navigate.

My only criticism is the gallery, what you have done is just scaled down the full size image as a thumbnail on the preview pages, which means it still has to download the whole image even though it is only a thumbnail/small preview of the actual design.

It's good practice in web design to make thumbnail/small preview images actually sized correctly rather than scaled, then when you click it it takes you to the full sized image.

This gives the viewer the choice to download the full size image as opposed to having to download the full sized image at preview.. sort of defeats the purpose of a preview!

Other than that, seems nice to use and get around.. so best of luck.

[Benedict]

Hi Belinda

I'm glad you are enjoying it here. It is generally a pretty friendly forum.

My take on your site. If you haven't already seen, I am pretty honest when asked. But I am happy to back and explain anything I say to help you improve.

As mentioned by exstatic, I feel that most of your images are blurry. They really need to be sharp. Because images are very important for this site you may want to invest in a professional product photographer who will then supply you with images to sizes you specify. Actually the Gallery images are better so maybe it is just that you need to resize for large and small. Asking browsers to pixel resize on the fly almost always equals blurry.

I feel that your information flow isn't quite right. Stock shopping carts are rarely your friend in this department. I think you can really change the impression and therefore sales by sitting with a 3rd party who understands selling and content to map how your customers are going to want to shop (not how you think they should shop). Then you will want to design a whole interface that helps your users to "get" B Studio and know that you are THE Best choice for them.

To be honest I will say that at the moment while there is nothing dramatically wrong I don't feel any passion or engagement coming off that site to make me want to choose you over someone else.

There is a bit of reading here but these articles may help you to get how to build a Sales Flow that engages people. http://www.brmwebconsulting.com/blog/how-to/

Again, I am happy to explain and help you

:-)

[Belinda82]

Originally Posted by exstatic

Hey Belinda, good to hear you are doing something you enjoy and better yet making some money from it!

I have just myself finished making 80 hand made wedding invitations and while they turned out nice I don't think I would ever do it again, I'll leave it to the professionals like yourself.

I had a look around your site, its nicely designed and fairly easy to navigate.

My only criticism is the gallery, what you have done is just scaled down the full size image as a thumbnail on the preview pages, which means it still has to download the whole image even though it is only a thumbnail/small preview of the actual design.

It's good practice in web design to make thumbnail/small preview images actually sized correctly rather than scaled, then when you click it it takes you to the full sized image.

This gives the viewer the choice to download the full size image as opposed to having to download the full sized image at preview.. sort of defeats the purpose of a preview!

Other than that, seems nice to use and get around.. so best of luck.

Thanks exstatic for taking the time to view my website and for your comments! =)

Your comment about needing thumbnail images in the gallery page is good. Actually its something which I never even thought of so thanks for pointing that out! I'll be workling on that aspect soon. Thanks again!

[Belinda82]

Originally Posted by Benedict

Hi Belinda

I'm glad you are enjoying it here. It is generally a pretty friendly forum.

My take on your site. If you haven't already seen, I am pretty honest when asked. But I am happy to back and explain anything I say to help you improve.

As mentioned by exstatic, I feel that most of your images are blurry. They really need to be sharp. Because images are very important for this site you may want to invest in a professional product photographer who will then supply you with images to sizes you specify. Actually the Gallery images are better so maybe it is just that you need to resize for large and small. Asking browsers to pixel resize on the fly almost always equals blurry.

I feel that your information flow isn't quite right. Stock shopping carts are rarely your friend in this department. I think you can really change the impression and therefore sales by sitting with a 3rd party who understands selling and content to map how your customers are going to want to shop (not how you think they should shop). Then you will want to design a whole interface that helps your users to "get" B Studio and know that you are THE Best choice for them.

To be honest I will say that at the moment while there is nothing dramatically wrong I don't feel any passion or engagement coming off that site to make me want to choose you over someone else.

There is a bit of reading here but these articles may help you to get how to build a Sales Flow that engages people. http://www.brmwebconsulting.com/blog/how-to/

Again, I am happy to explain and help you

:-)

Thanks Benedict for viewing my website and commenting! =)

Yes, I think I will need to improve the images. Thats something on my to-do list.

As for the shopping cart function, I do know what you mean about the flow. But unfortunately this was the cart function given by my web hosting company. Would you know of any good companies who provide cart services for a website thats already been set-up?

Also your comment about the lack of engagement, any ideas on how to make it more engaging?

Thanks for all the help! Much appreciated!

[Benedict]

Originally Posted by Belinda82

Thanks Benedict for viewing my website and commenting! =)

Yes, I think I will need to improve the images. Thats something on my to-do list.

As for the shopping cart function, I do know what you mean about the flow. But unfortunately this was the cart function given by my web hosting company. Would you know of any good companies who provide cart services for a website thats already been set-up?

Also your comment about the lack of engagement, any ideas on how to make it more engaging?

Thanks for all the help! Much appreciated!

Hi Belinda

Yes letting IT people drive your sales process invariably leads to challenges. The problem arises from looking at the solutions or technologies before looking at the problem. To bolt something else on will no solve anything and may make things worse.

To get passion into this you need to get your passion on the page and that comes from being you and not what you think you need to be. We are generally all taught that when writing we have to write like Shakespeare or a Banker. Not true. What people want is to relate to other people. You are you, be you (easier said than done at the start as that seems to be a Zen riddle).

As for creating flow, well I offer a lot in those articles in that link above. Otherwise if you contact me directly we can see if there is a way to help each other move forward.

:-)

[Lizzy C]

Hi Belinda,

Lovely lovely invitations. I think the site works really well as it is easy to navigate and the colours and style do not compete with the invitations.

The only thing I think that was immediately apparent to me was the quality of the photographs. I think they bring down the quality of the invitations. It is obvious that you are trying to show quality products but the images are distracting and make the site look less professional. It is important to have good quality photographs because they are showcasing your beautiful work.

You want the images to be clear of any distractions such as the chair in the background and well lit so as the focus is only on your product.

I am biased as a photographer but I think it is something worth considering.

All the best,

Lizzy

[pado]

Hi Belinda, I like your website and you do fantastic invitations, I think if you can get the word out you will do extremely well.

Two quick points, would be great to see your logo on the aboutus page incorporated into your website. Also you should really get the .com.au domain name for your website as well. Personally I always look for .com.au websites first just to give me the added sense of security of ordering from australia and when you take off you dont want anyone else pinching it.

Best of luck.