Yet another reviews sought :) for a boys toys website

[wilfy]

Hi guys

We have just launched last week after 6 months of development. Just looking for a bit of feedback really. http://www.gadgetopia.co.uk

Before you say "just another gadget site" we have tried to personalise it and intend on developing our USP as the place to go for highend gadgets once we are established. We have tried to be competitive on price to help this.

Any feedback is muchly appreciated from my fellow interweb chums :)

Wilfy

[SillyJokes]

Interesting site which seems to a be a good attempt at reproducing the successful layouts of the mega gadget sites like firebox, IWOOT and Boysstuff.

I quite like Bub but I'm not sure about Gabe - he was a bit to, I dunno, 'Clinton Cards' for me. I don't feel I need to read a wholoe page of text about either of them.

I'm not sure where you are going with the Artemis Fowl font. It took me a while to remember where I'd seen it before and it was annoying me then I remembered and it made me think it was a poor choice as it is obviously a large part of their branding, not yours.

I got confused about how I got back to the home page, kept getting something about Gabe.

It's good you have your delivery info well shown (with the traditional van) but there are other essential menu items which only appear at the bottom of the page like contact, help and log in (please don't tell you have to sign up to shop)

The product pages seem well laid out. Plenty of info, which is good.

I think the biggest issue is the total confusion about what to click, there is so much going on and no clear navigation which acts the way I expect it to. I went to a Darlek Biscuit tin and a whole new crumb trail appeared which took me somewhere I didn't know existed called collectors items or similar.

I can tell this site has taken time and money. Have you tested with users much?

[creospace]

Nice site! But i'd like to see direct urls to products if i want to direct a friend to a particular product by sending a url.

[wilfy]

thanks for the comments guys

silly jokes - I know what you mean about the gabe comments but we wanted a yin and yang thing. we still have 200+ products to put on the site so comments will be reviewed once the major work is done.

The font we used is mason serif. being gothic based we thought it would fit our heaven/hell stlye. artemis who??? never heard of it until i searched for it on t'interweb. we are not trying to steal anybodies limelight.

To get back to the home page you can click on the gadgetopia logo or click the little button that looks like a house. just like most websites! click on either bub or gabe and you will find out more about them. You may think this is unnecessary but we quite like it. i think it gives the site more depth. it's supposed to be tongue in cheek.

you must have clicked on the dr who products button on the homepage to get to the biscuit tin quickly. basically it is a target search which groups these products so clicking into the product and finding yourself in the collectables category shouldnt be that much of a suprise surely???

we have tested it with maybe 50 friends. we havent done a testing program but we are a team of fairly well versed geeks/techys and regulary buy online so if anything we have been over critical in testing our website ourselves.

Creospace - I'm assuming you are using firefox. in ie the address is shown which you can copy and paste to a friend. we run the site using erol and therefore the site is loaded in a massive frameset. must be the way ff deals with framesets???? we are working on it though but erol isnt the most flexible :(

thanks again guys all comments really are appreciated!

Wilfy

[SillyJokes]

Hi Wilfy,

Don't get me wrong, I actually think the site will sell and maybe other people like the whole heaven and hell thing, I just don't 'get' it really but appreciate you have to do something to make your site stand out and think it is successful in this sense.

I still think the key menu items hidden at the bottom of the page should be in the first fold. Much of your valuable first fold is taken up with buttons asking me who is Gabe and who is Bub when as a busy customer with 15mins to make a purchase I couldn't care less about them and would rather see products I want to buy.

I'd replace one of these character intro buttons with your Red Hot Offers button as I'm sure this would receive more clicks and make you more sales.

You can tell I'm not a fan of cutsey site mascots. Maybe I'm not alone. I'm trying to think of other sites that use them. Bizarrebazaar maybe? Trouble with them is that they can never be universally liked.

It took me ages to find that little house that is the home button, and that's even after you told me it was there. I think part of that was I didn't even realise the banner at the top was a clickable menu I thought it was just in place of strapline telling me what you sell. In any case there was so much going on on the page I simply overlooked it.

Now I might sound like the most stupid person ever to stray across your website but I can assure I probably shop online as much as you do and I have run an extremely successful webstore for 7 years (next week). And I know where I like shopping and where I don't. I don't do Sizzle, I do Get in, Get Stuff and Get Out (and get back to work Goddamn it! Ka-tich)

What I'm trying to show is that if I am finding a few problems getting around your site or am dazzled by so visual stimulation with no clear 'click me' buttons then many, many more people with money to burn will find it even harder and will simply say, "What the hey, I'm not going to be able to figure this out. I know what I'm doing with Boysstuff, I'll go back there,"

There is an inherent danger is assuming that because you (self confessed geeks and therefore of undoubtedly high intelligence) can work your site that everyone else who visits will find it equally easy to use.

Anyhoo, you have a good site there and I'm sure you'll be testing different things to see how you can improve conversions and increase repeat orders. You have decided to go into an incredibly cut throat market which is a braver decision than I would have made and you look like you are going to make a good job of it.

I'll leave to others to let you know how likely you are to get good SE listings and whether the site conforms to the Disability Discrimination Act.

[PI Guy]

Claus,

I quite liked it, it's different.

[GNU]

I didnt get the theme at first, but now see your using the characters to provide two reviews of each product which is quite fun.

I didnt find the site that user friendly tho, Important things like the checkout took a few seconds to locate as nothing really stands out and you have a lot on the page.

Its only a minor point, but it may be worth trying to get the important functions (checkout, login, search), which are already grouped on the page to stand out a bit more.

The font makes some of the lines difficult to read, but I know its difficult getting the right balance between style and readability.

I found the site quite endearing, and despite not being quite as quick to use as more mundane online stores would persist with it (if I were a customer).

Yup, I like it :-)

Out of interest what platform / software is it running on?

[4dhosting]

I like it :)

It's different and a bit quirky - Has something to make it stick in your memory and keep you coming back.

[Rob Holmes]

Generally I really like the look and feel of it. The font takes a bit of getting used to.

I would give people a damn good reason to signup to your newsletter - "Enter your email address below to receive our monthly newsletter" isn't as enticing as it could be and the newsletter will be the way you record those people who are warm buyers but not quite ready so it's important you have it - make sure it's an opt-in system with IP, unique token and date stamp from day 1 else it's a waste of time.

I think theres one issue I really have - thats the Gabe and Bub thing - you don't explain it well enough - you might think you do but to a totally new person (like me) it's not clear and I was sort of left wondering - you have a good theme but it needs explaining in more simple terms. Don't try and force the visitor into the theme too much before they are familiar with it.

A simple thing that would help would be to merge the 'who are gabe and bub' pages and explain in very simple terms show they are there to help the visitor.

And I would lighten up on them - else you may alienate buyers - their descriptions are far too heavy for me - theres no way you'd introduce a stranger to another stranger like that.

A ying and yang approach yes but at the same time it's an approach that may leave people confused by having both thrown at them at once and having to decide between the two.

Lastly I'd say the left and right columns are just on the border of being too cluttered for me - combined with the smallish font and the style of the font I feel it may just be a little too much.

All in all it's a great looking site and although I think you've got a tough market to crack I think so long as you can drive relevent traffic to the site and either sell to them or get them onto your mailing list and keep mailing them (every 10 days or so) then I can see it being a success!

Rob

[Malcolm Cooper]

All very good points. Overall I have to say I really like it. You've worked hard. The graphics are great, the name is great and the logo/header is excellent. You're in a tough market but very well done.

[Comspec]

I agree with Rob on the Gabe & bub things.

I do like the site & having seen so many similar type of sites lately, your in the one which would stick in my head most.

Lighten it up a little, make it more fun & I cannot see how it won't catch attention.

Good luck.
Mark