Thread: any comments or criticisms wecome

Hi everyone
I have recently published our first website and would be glad of any comments to make it a better site.
I have made a few adjustments derived from comments of friends and family but would appreciate any further advice from those in the know, especially those from the female persuasion as the site is aimed mainly at the female population.

Thanks

Allanl

Hi, nicely laid out and easy navigation ... very pretty too!

Just a couple thoughts

the calendar of events on your main page ... sept 2nd & 3rd is over, so the calendar should maybe be current, or if you have any info about that event or photos, you could link to that date, showing what it is you do at those types of events .....

The use of flowers with your jewellry is very nice, I wondered if it distracted me from the jewellry, but I don't think so, but see what others have to say, I couldn't decide ... lol

The links on the bottom of your page are nice additions too, but I noticed the one on each page linking to orders seemed to open in a separate window, which is unnecessary since you have the nav bar and links on every page, which is what I really like ... so you could consider not having the target on that link set to _blank, just leave it empty ...

Nicely done, excellent job ... oh yeah one more thing

Your site does not actually necessarily have to be geared to the female population, as we do appreciate men buying us jewels, so hopefully they will shop there for us ladies.. :)

Good Luck!!

Thanks LadyEye for your comments very much appreciated.
After I had posted the thread and read it I feared it might appear to be sexist which was not my intention,just that I know women are more discerning when it comes to buying jewellery and we men need some ideas what to buy.
As regards the orders page it does not come up in a separate window
for me(on aol)but I will look at that in IE.
With the calender of events we have only done the one craft fair at the moment,with the other one to do in the future,I thought it would appear that we were more active if I left it in.
I think it is a good idea to link to some images about the event and will look into that.
Thanks
Allanl

yw allain

about the orders link

it's the menu bar at the bottom of the page that opens in a separate window for me, not the nav bar on the left ... that is perfect ...

not to worry, you didn't appear sexist to me, and yes agree with you about you men needing ideas, lol ...... but then us woman need to understand, we should like what we get, instead of looking for the
receipt to return .... lol

Allanl: Beautiful website! I'm like Ladyeye, in that I can't decide on the flowers. They are beautiful photos and I really like the concept and idea of intertwining the jewelry with the flowers, however, the colors in the flowers are so eye poppingly beautiful that I am finding myself looking at those, more than the jewelry. I'm not sure I have a suggestion for you on that, since your entire site is themed on the flowers. I guess it's just my opinion and something to consider. Beautiful work and well laid out. Congratulations on a job well done.

Thanks for the comments
I have put a page up about the event in September,does that justify keeping it in?
Allanl

most certainly does, and what an awesome job ... great pics, nice write up too ....

great job!!

Maybe you should do the same for the upcoming event, that way your page will already be made and you could add more info on it now, maybe you could even offer a coupon or discount, who knows what you could do there ??
:)

I like the idea of the flowers - although some stand out a bit more than others - and that might be the problem. An example of one that might be overpowering is the "green" and one that I think perfectly works is the "purple". However, the purple is the only one I think doesn't overpower - coming close 2nd is the pink. You need the jewelry to stand out over the flowers, not the other way around. (I'm talking top pics on pages on these comparisons).

On the home page, the background makes the text hard for me to read. I'd like to see the background more subdued so the text is readily able to be read.

Are you going to add to cart buttons and take online orders? I highly recommend it as most people won't do your order as you have it set up. Too much work :). If you decide to do so, just make sure your prices are adjusted to reflect the percentage you'll have to pay to paypal or whoever you select.

Good job, nice jewelry.

I like your site. It flows well, and I like the pictures of your products. I own a cosmetic business, and I'v been looking for a camera which will allow me to take pictures of my products to post it on the site similar to how you did yours. Any suggestions would be great.

Your sight looks great!

Hello again everybody
Thanks for all the comments, we will take them all on board.
We do have plans to use pay pal or similar in the near future.
I think the comments about the flowers are justified maybe the
colour of the flower should match the jewellery and be smaller in
size, that is a project for the future as it is such a big task
getting the photographs to look ok on the site.
As for the orders link I had them all set at blank in the beginning as per the tutorial, this made the pages come up in separate windows so I changed them to self but did this in control panel.
I have since uploaded different versions of my pages but had not changed the target from blank to self in bv they are all over the place now.
I will have to sort this out when time permits.

Hello tmphilli40
It is a long and weary way
I use a fuji finepix 700 digital camera,I did a lot of research on lighting
and the general concensus is to use a light box. If you do a search for lighting jewellery you will find a lot of ideas.I made my own using an
old plastic toy box lined with white paper. I then made a board with six low energy lights fastened to it and suspended it from the top.
I used a piece of white silk between this and the object to diffuse the lighting.
You have to be able to set the white balance to manual on the camera and then take several shots with different exposure settings.
You can download a shareware photo editing suite called THE GIMP http://www.gimp.org/
this is fantastic for manipulating the photo and airbrushing the background.
Good luck
Allanl