Here are a few tips to make the site in question less forgettable :
1. Change the Color scheme. The gray background, which (normally) helps to make text more readable, evokes a gray concrete wall of a warehouse. Collectibles should be perceived as rare and exotic and the color gray is too dull here. A Pastel shade would create a sense of elegance, understatement or both, if that is what is desired by the site owner.
2. Eye candy could also create the required ambiance. Animation and sounds make even the worst of the web receive heavy traffic. People will buy the tackiest of items if they are presented in the right light!
3. Headers : Separate them from the text body by additional spacing so that it’s not one long muddy page of words. The simple effectiveness of the left-hand menu on the Home Page is lost by text running all over the place. Break up the monotony and clutter of the first page by reducing the amount of text.
4. Fonts with different styles and colors would be a welcome change to break up the monotonous text-driven Home Page.
5. Get some help with Grammar usage and Spelling. It’s ‘Knick-Knacks’, not ‘Knick-Knack’s’ and if quotation marks are used please include the source of the quotes. Too many of these appear on the “Home Page” 🙂 As bad as those people who walk around making those ‘Quote’ gestures!
6. ‘Search’ option/ Product availability: If products are unavailable, soften the blow to the prospective buyers by pointing them to the closest substitute, by offering info on future availability and not by offering them the ‘Go Back’ option which routes them to the same unavailable product. This is a ‘Blind link’ in my opinion. Offer a new ‘Search’ option, which leads to perhaps a Partner site. No dead-ends there.
Reviewer’s note : Just 2 from a non-webpro who hopes the tips will be of some use. Continued success to the entire staff,
Fred Miller
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/virtualpoona
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