USVI-On-Line

Hello trusted web surfers.

So - the client didn't like the look and feel of the Gold Market site I shared with you a while back (after loving everything we had shown them prior). We have made some changes - if anyone wants to share an opinion I would love to hear from you: <b><a href="http://aurumitaliangold.com/">http://au ... om/</a></b>

As far as the name issue goes - we are working on a different URL so that it better matches the site.

As alway- thanks,

I think that it looks great! It looks user friendly.

I'm thinking nail the left gutter and use the right gutter for more product listings or house ads?

All of the products are below the fold on my 900p high Mac. I'd put a flash as the first image that cycles some products.

Cheers, RickG

In the Information section on the left when you mouse over the options it does a weird little jumpy thing and the text turns white.

I like the color scheme and the picture of the building in the banner at the top, but I think the letters in "Italian Gold from Florence Italy" are a little too far apart.

I'm not crazy about the slanty font on the vowels in The Gold Market, except I DO like the "O" in gold being different.

I like that the currency on the page will change when you use the drop down at the top, that's cool, and I really like that you can use it when viewing the list of products as well as if you're looking at one in particular.

A little odd that on some pages you can "sort" your results (good list of options for sorting though) and on others you "filter" your results by "starts with".

I agree with the letter spacing thing that Chickadee mentioned.

And this is just my personal preference, but the font that comprises most of the page is very basic and not appealing to the eye in my opinion (Arial?). I’m guessing you want to stick with a sans serif font to keep it easy on the eyes, but there are other similar fonts that are more attractive. Arial makes me think of an Excel spreadsheet. The tabs at the top have a better sans serif font (the ones that say “homepage,” “specials,” etc.).

Hope this helps

I think it looks clean, classy, and easy to navigate. The photographs look professionally done. I disagree with Rick in that I feel flash or other rich media can range from distacting to annoying, all on the negative side of the balance sheet.

Thanks for the feedback everyone - it is all good. The fonts are very much the same, and too plain - I agree on that one.

Rick I like a of what you said, but this cart/template I am using is a beast - I think I could turn on a right column, but not make the page width wider, which would really constrict the middle table.

This is Zen Cart - my first time working with it. It is powerful but cryptic. Unfortunately this was a pretty low budget job so I started with a template which is really hard to change without breaking something -

We did pay an agency for the pics - but a couple were still weak.

I think the biggest issue is getting some product above the fold.

Thanks again - it always helps to hear some real opinions.

Hi Anthony,

I think it's nice looking and the font doesn't bother me. I like the option of viewing in euros or USD.

When I'm on a retail site, I always select the "view all" option if it's available, because I'm just not patient enough to sift through multiple pages. Smaller shots of the product would help you get more per page, then rollovers or clicking would give details. Otherwise, whatever is on page 5 may never be looked at. I would organize by category: bracelets, necklaces, rings, etc. so people can easily find what they're looking for. (Then pieces that go together can be cross linked.)

I'm in a completely different biz, but if you look at this site www.inrule.com you can see how the tabs on top have sub headers that get you to a particular page. So for example when you put your cursor over Products on your web site, you could have sub heads for bracelets, rings, etc. Highest level could be 'view all'.

I'd also like to see more about what makes you unique, maybe from an "About Us" link. There's some of that on the home page but I'd like to hear more about your artists and how great they are, etc. I think it adds to the 'flavor' of buying something beautiful and unique.

Regarding flash images when a site first opens: most people I know hit 'skip' right away. We're designing a 'wrapper' for our site that will give a very high level description of what we do (because it's techie and some people don't get it), but the 'skip to home page' option will have a checkbox so you never get the wrapper again, because that stuff can get annoying if you're looking for something in particular.

Finally, I like the use of icons on sites that show up next to the URL and in IE tabs; like the sunshine on this VIOL site. I think it adds to the "polish" of the site.

Sorry if I got verbose; we're constantly working on refreshing/refining our site so I'm always looking at this kind of thing!