For me, the key to revising this site is to look at each element and say: does it help or hinder the customer?
I was tempted to abandon the site at the home page. It’s not just the design but the shoddiness, the lack of any attention to the detail of it.
The images of the credit cards are poor, unnecessary as the web abounds with suitable images. The menu should surely sit top left rather than hanging around in the middle?
I’m not sure what the intention is in reducing the visibility of the text, red and blue text on a blotchy grey background and avoiding any colour or font (size) theme. The red is not easy to read on the grey blotchy background. Basically this is a case of, have web design package’ therefore use it. And it gets worse, move on to the store – why is there an intermediate page – and the list of products positively vanishes.
I guess that most critics will say – use a web designer, however I can point to any number of designed’ sites that make just the same mistake – see http://www.halcrow.com tiny text which turns into tiny grey text on a dark background when looking at the site.
I believe the fundamental mistake, as with many web sites, is the site owner misses the point of the web site. A shopping site is for one person only, the potential and actual customer. They are not interested in font colours or clever navigation, they want to see if you are providing the type of products they are interested in, find them, find the price and details, find out availability and hopefully buy them, all as easily as possible. Nothing else!
Looking at it from that point of view, perhaps there really aren’t that many initial changes to make. The site loads quickly so not much wrong there, however the database is slow so you might consider reviewing your service provider (register now fails).
The text can be quickly changed to white on black, I would also suggest sticking to a consistent legible size (apart from titles) and font and hopefully populated with some images? Perhaps thumbnails that when clicked take the user directly to the relevant shopping page.
As to navigation, I would suggest that as the only reason to visit this site is to buy something, why not combine the store directory page and the home page, seems a bit pointless making the user navigate through an extra page.
I don’t know whether people buy this sort of stuff online, but realistically, looking at the nature of the product it is not like buying a pack of discount nails or a TV that is cheaper on line, I guess the act of purchasing is as much a part of the “pleasure” of ownership as having it sitting on a sideboard? Unless of course it is a gift – I don’t see any part of the site that builds on that aspect. Otherwise, give up now while the going’s good, I am sure that you will find plenty of web designers who will do their damndest to convince you that spending a few thousand will transform your fortunes.
By the way, everything that I clicked on was out of stock or otherwise unavailable.
Otherwise, good luck, you need it.
Simon Mallett
swan group plc
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