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By Joe Burns May 10, 2001 Web Design Goodies Critique #34Published May 10, 2001 By Joe Burns, Ph.D.Greetings, Fellow Designers Every now and again I run into a site that basically stands out from the rest. I don't mean because of the designI mean because of the content. You like pigs? We got Pig stuff! Now the obligatory release clause statement >>>>The critique below represents the opinions of Joe Burns, Ph.D. Feel free to disagree, argue, forget, or accept anything he writes. The purpose of the critique is to offer examples that you may use, repair, or forget when it comes to your own Web site. As always, remember that there are simply no hard or fast rules to Web design. Any choice is the correct choice as long as that choice aids the user and adds to the site's purpose for being.<<<<
Title: Pig Stuff Concept: This little piggy went to marketto buy a modem for his new DSL line in order to buy stuff online. This site is dedicated to all things pig, specifically the Pot-Bellied Pig. All pigs and pig lovers welcome. You can buy just about anything dealing with, or related to pigsincluding pigs themselves. Just as a site created for an ASPCA might have an adopt-a-kitten program, this site helps you adopt a pig. You can even donate money to help pigs that have been saved from nasty owners. Praise: This is a niche if I ever saw a niche. The audience for this site won't be relatively large, but I'll bet it'll be loyal as anything. Usually I don't like for a site to basically offer everything. This site has a store, an auction, screen savers, and an online game. I often tell site managers to stay away from offering everything in one fell swoop. I'm afraid I'll have to go back on my word on this one. This is a real niche and hereit works. Offer it all. Those that love their pigs will love this site if for nothing else but its content. I don't even like pigs and I liked the site. Here we go.
1. Concern: I'm going to hit a few little things right off the bat. First off, I think the site has a fairly decent background image. I like the placement of the pig face. However, the site doesn't have proper boundaries. Notice how the top frame window spans the entire screen and the bottom one doesn't? It makes the letter T. Suggestion: Lose the frame format. There is no reason this site must be in a frame set. Move the logo and the rollover links down and nestle that banner ad in there under the most important stuff on the page. Right now the site looks like two separate pages put together. Make it one and keep the borders set in the bottom frame.
2. Concern: You may be able to see this in the screen capture, but if not the rollover links along the top left of the page stay rolled after the pointer moves over them. They change back if another link is rolled over, but if not, they remain flipped to the brighter color. Suggestion: Rewrite the code so that the flips flip and then come back after the mouse leaves. It's a common practice to alter the color of the page that is displaying. By not flipping your links back, you are sort of going against the grain. People might wonder if the page changed because your navigation is suggesting it had. 3. Concern: You have a link that asks the user to click for help. I clicked. I got this dialogue box:
Suggestion: I can see this sends a message and such, but it seems to be little more than an email. I expected an FAQ. If there's one on the site, I don't see it. I believe that in terms of e-commerce, do your best to answer every question you can for the user. Email should really be the last resort. See if you can't put together a pretty full FAQ. 4. Concern: I went to the store and attempted to buy something. When I clicked to see my shopping cart I got a bit of a surprise. The item wasn't listed as having been bought. I went back and tried again. No luck. It seems I had made the mistake. When you use your shopping cart, you expect the user to put in the number of items he or she wants to buy. That's OK, but I think you're taking it to the extreme even expecting me to put in that I want one of the items. Suggestion: Do your users a favor and put in one so that when they click they automatically get the number one in their shopping cart. 5. Concern: The shopping cart was very easy to follow and helped me greatly. The navigation was easy to follow. There was just one problem. It wasn't in a secure server. Suggestion: You simply must put your check out in a secure server. Overall: Pigs. Pigs. Pigs. The site still needs some work. I think the colors are a little loud and the text in the colorful columns is a little too squished together, but I think you have a nice start to a nice niche market. Keep up the good work and get that shopping cart in a secure environment! >>>>>>>>>>>>> That's that.
Joe Burns, Ph.D. Always Remember: When it comes to designing your Web site, the most important person is not you, but your user. |
