YIKES !!! Comments needed for the website

[Hedgehog Toys]

Having just changed the logo and header i need to get the colour scheme right....can you give me some idea for colours.

Should I keep the background white, should I just keep the header background white .....i'm hopeless at choosing colours :oops: :oops: :oops:

[Astaroth]

I am colour blind so really not the person to be advising on colours but here is my two pence worth anyway....

Whilst obviously the age group for your products means that you are targeting the parents/ relatives rather than trying to appeal directly to the kids themselves. The website does feel a little too "serious" and bland for kids toys.

With a name like Hedgehog Toys I would have thought you could have much more fun with the design than just 2 hedgehods at the top and the foot print buttons with the rest of the site being solid square blocks of neutral colours (what ever colour they happen to be as I couldnt tell)

[sapphirewebdesign]

Hi,

I think a background colour would improve the website, maybe pale yellow or something.

Regards

Ryan

[SillyJokes]

NOOOO it looks about a hundred million times better - do not put a back ground colour on it.

I would experiment with the colour of the hedgehogs though as they look a bit washed out now.

Anyone landing on this page now knows exactly what it is you do.

What a great improvement.

[LindseyMHC]

As a mum (and marketing bod - depending on which hat I have on!) I think the white background is spot on. Other companies such as JoJo Maman Bebe, Blooming Marvellous and Little Dreamers who sell bits & pieces for kiddies all have a white background and I personally think they have got it right as it makes the colourful products stand out.

To add colour and a bit more life to your site I suggest you change the brown colour of your bars to something more vibrant (although I assume you have chosen brown as it goes with the hedgehog logo, nature etc).

Oh well, there's my two-penneth.

All the best,

Lindsey.

[mattk]

I like the white background.

You need to do something about the centre logo, it does nothing for me. I'd suggest only using one hedgehog and the text is just wrong.

I don't like the buttons on the right - they do nothing for me either!

One last thing - I'd consider putting a border around the product images you have that are on white backgrounds - they tend to look a bit "lost".

Have a look here (http://www.marksandspencer.com/IWCatSectionView.process?Section_Id=9267&RestartFlow=t&mnsCallingTemplate=sectionTemplate):

Clean, crisp, professional.

[Hedgehog Toys]

mattk

Do i just bring the images into Paint Shop Pro and add the border as there isn't an option in the template to allow me to do that ??

I agrre about the header, i think i need to make it a little bit more ....vibrabt, eye catching etc

[Rob Holmes]

I'm a 4 column max person, around 780 pixels wide rather than a full screen width sort of person.

You might find it fits more browsers that way, enhancing your customers experience.

Rob

[Hedgehog Toys]

I'll try that and see what it looks like ... :D :D

I'm glad i joined this forum...you guys (and gals) are flippin' great...

[Mwebb]

[design thoughts]
Keep it with the white backround....it looks clean and tidy. And contrasts we will the brown.
[/design thoughts exhausted]

[mattk]

Do i just bring the images into Paint Shop Pro and add the border as there isn't an option in the template to allow me to do that ??

I would look to do it in the template as that way you will get a consistant look and feel. It'll also save you alot of messing about with images in PhotoShop

[Hedgehog Toys]

yeah, i just tried one in PSP and it looks naff....

I will contact Shopmaker and see if I can do it in the template.

cheers

[mattk]

What do you get for your £30 a month?

[Hedgehog Toys]

Good question, :D .

I get a choice of basic templates, shopping cart that i can intergrate Nochex into, unlimited catagories, unlimited images customisable colour schemes....and thats about it.

I looked at a couple of good ones like 'Click'n'Build' but they don't have the facility to intergrate Nochex.

[Tin]

Hi Hedgie

I agree with what's already been said in that the site definitely looks much better. Your site doesn't have any seo at all and whilst I can't fix all the inherent problems you've got with it I'm happy to help you get it on the search engine ladder.
PM me if it's helpful. :-)

[coxadmin]

I love the products on your site - I'm a mum of a 3 year old and have bookmarked your site.

I agree with the suggestion of putting a border round the product pictures - I hope you find a way to do it.

I like the colours and agree that the white background is great.

[silverpuresilver]

Hi Hedgie

Great looking site - well done!!

Yes, keep the white background - love the cute hedgehogs, but could they be a more fun colour - just cause its a hedgehog, does it have to be brown????

As someone else said; clean, crisp and professional

I think you're doing really well (sorry, does that sound patronising, :? it's not mean to . . . .)

Regards

Karen

[soundimage]

Big improvment from when i looked last time.

Nice work! :)

[Coding Monkey]

It's an improvement over the horrible, horrible colours used in the last one, but it's still very amateurish, with alignment problems, font issues, buttons with bizarre sizes, lack of colour this time and horrible layout, even though it's the traditional 3 column. And I still wouldn't look at it for more than a few seconds before going elsewhere.

[Hayles]

:shock: You in a bad mood Tom? :wink:

I think it's 100% better than before and I stayed and had a nose about this time (unlike before). Yes, it doesn't look as if a professional super dooper web designer like Tom has done it, but it looks good (much better than many thousands of others!) and I think you should be really proud of it.

I like the colours and overall feel. Some of the images could be clearer but I'm sure you'll get it sorted.

Even if I didn't know you from here, I'd use the site as it is now.

[Hayles]

In fact I've just put an order in! :D

[MarkPearson]

I like your new logo :-)

I would think about putting some of your toys in your header to give people a preview of what you sell?

[soundimage]

One thing i would change is to have the special offers on a seperate page.

Have the icon stand out near the top though. Think it would make the whole site look `cleaner` if the right was left clear..

8)

[Coding Monkey]

:shock: You in a bad mood Tom? :wink:


No, not at all. Perhaps it's the industry I work in, or the people I work with, or the service that we strive to achieve, but I consider that a bad attempt (except the logo, which was done by Gary's wife) with nothing positive to be attributed to it. I'm not looking at it based on who created the website and whether it's their first attempt, but at an attempt to be a successful online store. I showed it to some friends (and my designer, but I guess that would go without saying) and they all agreed that it's a poor design.

Each to their own. Better for me to be honest than saying it's good. If our customers took the same route, we'd never get it right.

[SillyJokes]

Mac, you are right, it isn't perfect.

Sure a better job could be done but with his budget and length of time he has been running it is much better. If he continues to improve at this rate it will be really on song in a year.

Bottom line - that site will now get him some sales.

You and I are both pretty tough critics but I think even you must admit that more people will buy from this site.

[Whistle Ink]

Hi,

I agree with SillyJokes that it is a great improvement and I'd keep the background white. By having a white background the products images really stand out. The M&S site MattK linked to is a very good example. Do put borders around the images.

But I also agree with Tom that it's 'still very amateurish'. I'm slightly concerned by Hayles comment that 'but it looks good (much better than many thousands of others!) and I think you should be really proud of it'. I hope you aren't thinking this too!

Yes, you should be proud of your attempt - you should be proud of everything you attempt with as much enthusiam and interest as you have, but Hayles comment isn't the right kind of thinking! It's like acknowledging that it's crap, but not that crap!

It IS poor design. That's why you keep having a go at isn't it? Because you keep finding 'maybe it would look better with this or that', 'How about if I...'.

Where as if you got the template professionally designed you wouldn't need to touch it again for a long time. If you keep changing bits here and there - what are repeat surfers going to think?

I'm setting up an ecommerce shop myself using actinic and have attempted to copy the static sites design for the shop - but this is just to see what it might look like. But I ACCEPT that I can't design the template because I WILL keep making tiny changes and lose focus of what I'm doing. Plus I'm crap at it.

Well done with your attempt - but now is the time to get serious (as I might have said in the last post you did). Get the pros in. Don't have the money? Save up, ask someone! Get the design done by a pro and then move on and focus on selling - which is what is going to bring the cash in!

All the best!

Paresh :D

[Tin]

Hi Hedgie

As I said in an earlier post, the site is better now than the original version. Reading MacMyDay's post I have to agree, the design is still not great but you can only go up, that's the way I'd look at it. I remember when I started out in business I found it hard as there were no helpful souls out there to give me a lift so everything took me far longer than it could have, and that taught me a little but never forgotten lesson which was to chip in help to others where I could, so if you'd like send me a PM if you're interested I'll be happy to supply you with free seo advice as the site in it's current shape is not going anywhere useful on search engines.

Also, if you ask nicely you might find someone on here who can sort you're site url's out for you as each time a search engine bot visits your site he's seeing a different page but with identical content on it, this results in multiple indexes of the same page which finally get removed form the index.

I might be wrong but didn't Eagle ask if you had the original hedgehog drawing (might have been in another post :roll: ) if he did I'd suggest you throw it over to him as soon as :-), if he didn't you can always ask him nicely. :wink:

Hope that is useful and good luck with your site.

[Hedgehog Toys]

I will say one thing.... I appreciate all the comments, both negative and positive as it helps me to understand where I am going wrong. Admittedly the site doesn't have a lot of scope because it's of the shelf but as it stands at the moment it is generating sales which can't be too bad.
I am considering getting a copy of Dreamweaver and some help from the IT guys in work and from people of this forum (hint hint) even if it means paying for it... :lol: :lol: ....
Although I must say that the volume of sales over the last couple of weeks has been better than I expected so once I have got over this brief period of personal finance difficulty I will plough some cash into getting the site done properly.

TOM... if there is one thing I have learned from you.... you tell it straight :lol:

[Coding Monkey]

TOM... if there is one thing I have learned from you.... you tell it straight :lol:

Thanks, hedge ;)

95% of people who come to us already have a website. When I started off, I'd try and be so tactful about it and comment on the design in as positive a manner as possible. But, it suddenly dawned on me that every single person who contacts us has found us, not the other way around. Just like with yourself, you've approached 'us' about your site.

I've only ever received clients through Adwords/Yell and mainly customer recommendations, not cold calling or anything, so these people are approaching us for help. These people come knowing there's a problem with their site, they know it ain't great and me being anything but honest defeats the purpose of them coming to us. They wouldn't approach us if they were delighted with the site. I won't say just how bad it is unless someone asks what I think of it, but the first time someone asked what I thought of their current website (we were redesigning it at the time) and I was very polite about it, saying it could be better etc, I asked what they thought of it, they said to me: "it's utter ****". And they were right.

Just like when I see my lawyer about legal advice, and expect the truth - not what I want to hear - I work the same way with clients. And I've got a 100% recommendation rate, so I'm not Satan and must be doing something right ;)

End of that off topic rant.

[Hedgehog Toys]

:lol: :lol: I have noticed one thing though, the site seems to appeal to people much more as a white site. I think i was trying to be more' childlike ' in the appearance but then it dawned on me ...duh ...it's not the kids im after ..it's the parents /grandparents etc.. :roll: :roll:

[ewo]

I still wouldn't look at it for more than a few seconds before going elsewhere. I'm not sure it's as bad as all that. In fact, as it is it has a 'homely' feel to it; it looks to me like the sort of company that doesn't spend a disproportionate amount of time and money on slick marketing, and is simply passionate about what it sells. I think this will bode well with your customer base.

[Hayles]

Hi,

But I also agree with Tom that it's 'still very amateurish'. I'm slightly concerned by Hayles comment that 'but it looks good (much better than many thousands of others!) and I think you should be really proud of it'. I hope you aren't thinking this too!

Yes, you should be proud of your attempt - you should be proud of everything you attempt with as much enthusiam and interest as you have, but Hayles comment isn't the right kind of thinking! It's like acknowledging that it's crap, but not that crap!

Paresh :D



Paresh, I'm slightly concerned that you're 'slighty concerned....' :wink: :D

If you consider Hedgehogs circumstances at the moment, you'd realise that it was a case of having to do his own site, not necessarily wanting to.

He should be proud of the site - and he already knows that in the future, when money allows, he should try to get professional help with it for the improvements that obviously could be made.

At this moment in time though, it's a good enough standard for people to buy from it (unlike thousands of others). In time, no doubt it will be an even higher standard.

So considering all this, I see nothing wrong in encouraging and being positive.

Keep positive Hedgehog - it's definitely getting there!

[Hedgehog Toys]

:D Thanks Hayles......

Look out Toys'r'Us ....the hedgehog is coming.. :lol: :lol: :wink:

[Whistle Ink]

Hi,

I'm not aware of his circumstances so I can't comment. But if it's a money issue and if I had an off the shelf cart and I like Hedgehog believed in my businesses potential then I wouldn't hesitate asking friends and family for some cash to get this design done knowing I could pay them back.

you'd realise that it was a case of having to do his own site, not necessarily wanting to.

Anyway my point was about design. Hedgehog do you think your website design is the best it can be if you are doing it yourself? Or do you accept that it's not the best and plan to involve someone as soon as you can? My question is now if he honestly thinks his site design is excellent?

He should be proud of the site

I agreed with that in my post didn't I? A very good, if not fantastic attempt from someone who doesn't design wesites or a living!. And it does 'work' in one sense. You can still see the products and make a purchase.

If you walked past a toy shop window displaying a dirty stained material covered by only one or two badly displayed toy arrangements, and a home made hand painted sign dodgily (however you spell it) put up, what would be your impression about the shop?

The shop doesn't reflect the high quality of the products and the professional service of the great people behind it!

There is nothing wrong with positive thinking! But there can be something wrong with always telling people what they want to hear.

Anyway I have now expanded too much on my initial thoughts!

Bye for now :D

Paresh

PS Ewo- homely is a good word for self built non pro attempt! I like it! It's nothing to do with slick marketing - it's image. You don't get jewellery given too you in bubble wrap and a brown paper bag! :P