Website Review and Suggestions

#1 (permalink)

I am currently working on a clients website and looking for opinions. My client sells Mike Schmidt baseball cards and memorabilia. He asked for something that would be old fashioned.. almost grungy. I have been in somewhat of a designers block lately and could use some suggestions.

Here is what I have so far:

http://mikeschmidt20.cactusflatsdesign.com/

Keep in mind the site is not finished. I am basically designing 3 separate pages (home, product details, and product list) and the client is going to do the rest of the site. So far, he seems happy with the design, but I feel there is something off... I couldn't come up with anything else for the left navigation.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks

Sam

__________________

#2 (permalink)

I am not sure what your client wants exactly. But I think it would be cool if certain aspects of the sight mirrored certain aspects of the game. I think you could use a close up picture of some really green grass as the background. It would really set off that brown and bring a little of the grass and dirt into the page. You kind of got that going already. That off white in the center is kind of the color of the ball after its been roughed up a bit. The brown around the edges of your content windows is basically the color of the dirt in the infield. Think of the players that played in Mike Schmidt's era: Pete Rose, Cal Ripken, Nolan Ryan, etc. No A-Rods here.. Man those were tough guys. If those guys weren't getting dirty, man they just weren't playing. Take the site and make it look like something pristine that got dirty. Like a Hall of Famer in the 7th inning.

#3 (permalink)

Very inspiring comments! Thanks for the review. I tried the grass background, but it seemed off to me.

__________________

#4 (permalink)

yeah maybe not on the grass. I was trying to give you a way to pull other aspects of the game into the site. I loved baseball as a kid and collected ballcards(I still have them in my closet). I can tell you that collecting ballcards and memorabilia is all about nostalgia. I haven't watched a ball game in a couple of years but the game still has a place in my heart. I can still remember the way the dirt smells.. the way the sun bakes the infield so that it burns your feet through your cleats when you stand on it.. playing catch with my dad.. spending everyday of the summer playing marathon games that only ended because the sun went down. I think the more of the game you can pull into the site, the more the viewers will recall those memories of their own where baseball touched their lives. That would influence me to buy.

These might inspire you a little:

"If you could equate the amount of time and effort put in mentally and physically into succeeding on the baseball field and measured it by the dirt on your uniform, mine would have been black." - Mike Schmidt (taken from his official website)

#5 (permalink)

When I first loaded it up I thought my browser screwed up and loaded only one of two columns of your site (I could initially only see down to "1983 - 1987" under "Search by Year") cause "Collectables" and "Search by Year" look like they're part of a sidebar (cause of their width and the amount of empty space around it), but after scrolling down and seeing "Are you a Mike Schmidt Collector?" and "Have something to add?" I found that's just how it's meant to be.

One thing that I find weird is that collectors, ideally, want pristine collectables. So why the grungy apperance of the site? I wouldn't want to spend my money on a baseball card with stains and burnt edges.

I like the font you used at the top where it says "#20 Mike Schmidt Super Collection". It has a mixture of clean, classy and retro. That is the type of collection site I would like to visit (clean, classy and retro), not "grungy".

Those are just some thoughts I had. I'm new to all of this Internet stuff. I'm not an expert, so if you like it the way it is then keep it the way it is.

#6 (permalink)

Hi I will preface my comments with I am not a fan of baseball so...
- I found most links are broken
- I think the home page needs a central focus, it dosen't feel like a home page. (Your eye is drawn to left corner with color image.)
- I would add more color images of Mike playing baseball to front page.

__________________

#7 (permalink)

Originally, I was trying to lean towards a design that was more old fashioned and "from the old days".. however, it turned out a little more grungy.. however, the client like this more than the other designs I presented.

I agree that a site selling baseball cards should be a little "cleaner" looking, but I did my best to represent the "old days".

__________________

#8 (permalink)

Thanks for your review. The reason for the broken links it that the contract is only for 3 static pages... The client is going to implement the rest of the pages himself since they will be static (not dynamic).

I can kinda understand what you mean about the homepage. When the visitor enters the site, they will first see the #20... followed by the bright image, which is one of Mike's baseball cards.. then hopefully, their attention will be drawn to the bit about mike or the first box with the figurine. So, I think I have archived the user process I was going for.

__________________

#9 (permalink)

I really like the look of the site, Baseball fan or not it has an old school baseball feel, but to me its more of the dead ball era feel(like Ty Cobb) then the Mike Schmidt era. Still I think its got a great look and baseball feel.

Personally not a fan of the Scotch tape images, or at least not repeated. An idea I had (granted I am totally uncreative it just popped in my head and maybe you could make it work) is something like an old shoebox image for the images in the got something to add area. I googled and this fits the color scheme but not exactly what you would use just for reference.

http://lh5.ggpht.com/balrogbz/RzSiQT...aUA/adidas.jpg

But an image looking down into an old shoebox with some memorabelia in it?

Also maybe you could use a baseball image like a dirty home plate like

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/147/3...c36550.jpg?v=0

Under you navigation on the left? Hehe I think it looks nice as it is but sometimes even a bad idea gives me something to work with when Im stumped.

Good luck, I really like the look of it as is.

__________________
If you think you can or think you cant, your always right!

Please login or register to view this content. Registration is FREE


Please login or register to view this content. Registration is FREE

#10 (permalink)

I think its a pretty good design actually. i can feel what you feel in the sense that something seems to be missing to give it that wow factor. I definitely think the background color should be more along the lines of a complentary color as opposed to monochromatic, i think that will help set it off a bit. I'm also not sure about the image of mike schmidt in the header. Maybe something that is more transparent might work better there and possible blended in with a transparent gradient.

Overall I think its a nice design. i like your company website design also, though there is an issue with the items on the pricing link. some of the text in each price box is getting cut off and that is with a fully expanded browser window.