Short comments can be just as helpful as lengthy analyses. Here are the short items sent in by readers regarding the Toolup.com site:
First impressions are everything as far as I’m concerned. The site is way too busy with different sized logos and the navigation looks too confusing. If they want to list a line card of sponsors & manufacturers, I would at least streamline all of the logos to be the same size and not so large on the page.
Also, the heading “NOT Your Everyday Dot COM” includes information that really doesn’t mean anything to me as a consumer. It doesn’t provide any benefits for me as an online shopper. They should just simply have a seperate link that brings you to the location maps without all of the extra bla bla bla bla.
On a positive note, the products are displayed very nicely with great pics and easy cart access.
– Teri Goff
The first thing you MUST do is stop that “Tool Sales” button from jiggling around. It bothers the eye and looks like a mistake. If that page is so important, it should be your main page.
Also – and this is a critical error – when I view the page using https:// (which I would always do if I intended to purchase something), the “Categories” links are not visible. Why are you not using simple text links for this?
Kimberly Van Ginkel, Webmaster
www.thehawkeye.com
Only two peeves for this site:-
1. Length of time to load – we have a leaseline connection and high two way bandwidth, but it took at least 8 seconds to load – anyone out there with 56K Modems would have been able to relax, make a brew, read war and peace, and then still have time to wait for the final images to appear – or of course just move on! If I want to buy something my ideal is to fast track navigate to the item and THEN the pretty pictures [preferably fast loading thumbnails with the option to view large-scale if I want]
2. Two much information on the home page – sort of hits you with info overload!
Having said that, if I was looking for power tools the site is well set out and easy to navigate with a feeling of continuity – no annoying pop up windows, silly fonts or the biggest no no of all time, resizing the window – so I probably would stay to buy!
Regards
Dave P Nottingham
http://www.inter-claims.com
The site looks good, the only thing i would suggest is the “categories” box needs to stay the same throughout.
Navigation could be a little easier if you coud go from “safty equipment” to “cordless tools” without going home first. Maybe expanding the categories with the sub-headings where relivant.
Mike
My organization has an older browser – Netscape 4.7 – as it’s default. I’ve attached a screen capture of what I got when I opened the toolup.com site in this browser. (Note from ed. – capture not included in email.) Unfortunately I can’t really click around, because the yellow graphic takes over the site in this browser. Probably most places have upgraded to Netscape 6, but for those of us who haven’t ….oh well.
Mollie
toolup.com has a very good opening presence. You know there selling something right away. Yellow and blue jump out. I think the blue should be toned down a bit. You want a subtle and calming enviroment. Something like a 3399cc or 0099cc? I think the biggest thing to suffer on this site are the products themselves. “Image Quality”, I worked construction growing up, and I know a makita drill very well. Your images are blury, and low res. These are products that you want to sell. I feel that you used alot of Gif’s to shirk up the file sizes. This lead to some “sawtooth” of images. There are many images which would diplay better in jpeg format (img qlty “8-10”). Below are two samples of images.
makitaimage.jpg – this is from another online store selling the same drill your site has on it.
toolup.jpg – this is the same image from your site.
I visited the Toolup.com site and I found the first impression very hard on the eyes. It hit me and made me not want to continue on my first visit. It is too crouded with little pictures and you can’t follow one section because it is just too bothersome. Perhaps a little clean up or rearrangement of pictures like text in the middle and pics on the sides, perhaps a little more spacing between one paragraph and the next one.
I design sites my self and as a designer I have found that the simpler and plainer the better. You dont have to leave anything out, just keep it neat.
– Nathan C.
Overall, the site views well and loads quickly. However, when I clicked on the link for the clearance item, code only appeared; no products.
Other problems I had with the site:
Sale items are listed towards the bottom of the page, I needed to scroll to find them. Maybe Kevin should consider rearranging his items on the home page so that his manufacturer advertising is located near the bottom and his sales items are nearer the top.
Home page is entirely too long. Most shoppers would not scroll down to search for items.
Specials and email list registration is also inappropriately mixed in with ads and are listed near the bottom of the page. These should be moved also.
– Valerie Way
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