TITLE:introduction/newsletter_archive/design/design34A.html

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.