Can someone please give me some feedback?

Discussion in 'Websites' started by Andrii_b, Dec 20, 2013.

  1. #1
    Hello everyone! I need to get some feedback before I start my marketing campaign on this website http://netcomonline.co.uk/

    The website was created with Magento and currently has around 140,000 products. Any ideas on what I should improve? Maybe changing the design a little bit?

    Side note: Some of the static pages still need to be finished; About us, so on but that will be done soon.

    Any feedback will be greatly appreciated!
    Thanks.
     
    Andrii_b, Dec 20, 2013 IP
  2. MGEBradley

    MGEBradley Greenhorn

    Messages:
    3
    Likes Received:
    0
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    11
    #2
    hey,
    I think this site is quite straightforward. What I don't think is such lucky is the main menu design. The hovers are quite slow but the bigger problem is that they could be more strong. They should get some highlight I think.
    have a nice day,
    Bradley
     
    MGEBradley, Dec 20, 2013 IP
  3. Andrii_b

    Andrii_b Peon

    Messages:
    6
    Likes Received:
    1
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    3
    #3
    Hey thanks for the feedback, great idea i've changed up the hovers, as for highlighting them i might use small icons for each link,

    Any more changes/recommendations?
     
    Andrii_b, Dec 20, 2013 IP
  4. D.O.Beast

    D.O.Beast Greenhorn

    Messages:
    69
    Likes Received:
    9
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    #4
    I think the design is great. Simple, functional, easy to use.
    As MGEBradley said, the hovers are a little bit difficult to navigate, but a two minutes on your website and it all begins to make perfect sense.
    Good design.
     
    D.O.Beast, Dec 20, 2013 IP
  5. deathshadow

    deathshadow Acclaimed Member

    Messages:
    9,732
    Likes Received:
    1,999
    Best Answers:
    253
    Trophy Points:
    515
    #5
    First thing I'd suggest is fixing the massive accessibility issues -- you have what I call the "trifeca of /fail/" at web design -- absurdly undersized fixed metric fonts, fixed width layout, and questionable/insufficient color contrasts. I'd also axe the space and bandwidth wasting image slider nonsense as it adds nothing of value to the page, or at least nothing that's worth the cost.

    Being Magento you start out saddled with bloated non-semantic markup -- so I'd also do what I could to gut out the excess unnecessary garbage. You've got 138k of markup for 12k of plaintext and two dozen content images -- easily three to five times what's needed on such a simple layout. Endless pointless classes to cover up a failure to grasp inheritance, javascript doing CSS' job (99% of the time you use the dated onevent attributes in your markup, you're doing something wrong), tables for layout, tables for forms, tables for nothing, bandwidth wasting redundant use of the TITLE attribute, endless pointless DIV for nothing, gibberish use of numbered headings... Basically the markup needs a good toss.

    Getting the file counts under control wouldn't hurt either, with the page taking ~15 seconds or so to load here. The ridiculous 1.8 megabyte page size and over the top absurd 500k of scripting (FOR WHAT?!?) really needs a giant axe swung at it, as does the 9 separate stylesheets coming to 85k -- almost double what ANY website should need. A good megabyte of the bloat could be axed by getting rid of the stupid slideshow crap (Can you tell I'm a fan?), and backing the hell away from the javascript... particularly the JS that's doing CSS' job!

    The main page is 69 files totalling 1.8 megabytes -- to do what I see no legitimate reason to take more than 16 files and 72k not counting the product images

    Though again, much of that is default crap Magento saddled you with -- which is why it's time to bend it over the table and make it your *****, by gutting out all the wasteful extra nonsense that does NOTHING to enhance the user's experience.
     
    deathshadow, Dec 20, 2013 IP
  6. andy999111

    andy999111 Greenhorn

    Messages:
    5
    Likes Received:
    0
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    11
    #6
    Your posts make me warm inside, Deathshadow.
     
    andy999111, Dec 20, 2013 IP
  7. ufshane

    ufshane Well-Known Member Affiliate Manager

    Messages:
    538
    Likes Received:
    29
    Best Answers:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    195
    #7
    Not going to go extreme like DS did, but the site does load pretty slow, so cloudflare might be a good idea. Also selling in the tech market, I would add an affiliate program if its built in. The design is simple, nothing really wow about it, but clean none the less.
     
    ufshane, Dec 20, 2013 IP
  8. andy999111

    andy999111 Greenhorn

    Messages:
    5
    Likes Received:
    0
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    11
    #8
    The design is simply shit. Sites like this just don't cut the mustard anymore.
     
    andy999111, Dec 20, 2013 IP
  9. ufshane

    ufshane Well-Known Member Affiliate Manager

    Messages:
    538
    Likes Received:
    29
    Best Answers:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    195
    #9
    That is what I mean by not having the "WOW" factor. It does not need to be extravagant but well branded such as bestbuy.com is a simple and pretty clean design but when you see it right away you know its best buy.
     
    ufshane, Dec 20, 2013 IP
  10. Bruno Albuquerque

    Bruno Albuquerque Peon

    Messages:
    4
    Likes Received:
    1
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    3
    #10
    Since your website is so simple, If i were you i would put a little more time into the logo. Make it stand out. Like ufshane said "when you see it right away you know its best buy." make a logo people can remember and a color scheme would not hurt.
     
    Bruno Albuquerque, Dec 20, 2013 IP
    ufshane likes this.