Website Review and Suggestions

**BoSolaris** · 09:46 AM

I had a thread a while before about my website http://www.ptipackaging.com and I received a lot of great and useful feedback. Now, I have completely re-designed the website and launched it as of 7:51 am on the morning of Tuesday, June 5th 2007.

I need some serious in depth reviews. As of the launch, everythign has been doing good, except our orders have fell in volume. Our visitors are the same if not more per day, but orders are down and I would like to have some DEEP reviews of the site. Please help me out with this!

**john546** · 06-06-2007, 04:46 AM

The sites colors and design is fine. One problem that may be major to others is the site is pushed to the left of the higher resolution sized screens. Infact some of the writing is behind the hard plastic of my monitor so I can't even see the full amount of the first letter of some of the words due to this. Maybe you could center the whold of the site.

**BoSolaris** · 06-06-2007, 02:04 PM

Your suggestion is noted and I like it. When I centered the site, it looked akward, it's design and flow is based on a left margin alignment.

**john546** · 06-07-2007, 12:27 AM

It looks better now as I can see all of the font on the left. Although I notice that your site doesn't expend for larger screen resolution sizes. So if someone was using a larger screen resolution size than what the site size is then the site says to the top left corner of the monitor. That's entirely alright, but I had a site once and I prefered it centered and also for it to automatically expand with the resolution size so it always fits the monitor size.

That's just my opinion though and others may have different opinions on this matter.

**BoSolaris** · 06-07-2007, 08:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by john546

It looks better now as I can see all of the font on the left. Although I notice that your site doesn't expend for larger screen resolution sizes. So if someone was using a larger screen resolution size than what the site size is then the site says to the top left corner of the monitor. That's entirely alright, but I had a site once and I preferred it centered and also for it to automatically expand with the resolution size so it always fits the monitor size.

That's just my opinion though and others may have different opinions on this matter.

I understand your suggestions and feedback and they are completely valid. I am taking these into consideration for improvements down the line.

**BagelPirate** · 06-07-2007, 01:59 PM

I'll be honest, I don't really like it;

I know its a business website, but it can be jazzed up a little bit. Expand your 2 color range.

Most of your button have jpeg distortion. Re-make them, either save them as .png or keep the colors down and save it as a .gif

The layout is good though, very organized and easy to navigate.

Layout = +
Design = -

**BoSolaris** · 06-07-2007, 03:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BagelPirate

I'll be honest, I don't really like it;

I know its a business website, but it can be jazzed up a little bit. Expand your 2 color range.

Most of your button have jpeg distortion. Re-make them, either save them as .png or keep the colors down and save it as a .gif

The layout is good though, very organized and easy to navigate.

Layout = +
Design = -

You can only work with what you have got. The colors suit the company and it intention, simple and clean with easy direction. I don't want to confuse or dazzle them with colors, I want to funnel them and create sales. Thank you for the comments!

**BagelPirate** · 06-07-2007, 03:26 PM

I'm not saying dazzle them, but just because its a business site doesnt mean it can't be aesthetically pleasing, there are middle grounds.

yes your site works for generating sales, but it also looks like its from 1998. I guess it represents the packaging supplier world well :P

Get rid of the jpeg distortion too.

Its not bad the way it is, I would buy from there if I needed a truckload of tape.

**BoSolaris** · 06-07-2007, 03:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BagelPirate

I'm not saying dazzle them, but just because its a business site doesnt mean it can't be aesthetically pleasing, there are middle grounds.

yes your site works for generating sales, but it also looks like its from 1998. I guess it represents the packaging supplier world well :P

Get rid of the jpeg distortion too.

Its not bad the way it is, I would buy from there if I needed a truckload of tape.

What other colors do you suggest? The jpg distortion is a valid point, but the images I have to work with are already in their final jpg form when I get them.

**ADAM Web Design** · 06-07-2007, 04:46 PM

BagelPirate touched on your issue: you can't go much further than you have as far as the layout is concerned without potentially alienating the industrial market that you target. As much as we'd all like to see it look prettier, you just can't go down that road. It won't work. Industrial types like industrial-looking stuff, and this looks industrial. Quite frankly, I don't know what else you could do in that regard. I'd leave it alone from the aesthetic point of view for now.

I like that you don't have as many clickthroughs to get to products; you've got it down to 1 or 2, which is good. If you can get it down to 1, you'd be all set from that regard.

You've got some minor typos (e.g. the word "cartridg" on your Loveshaw page); get someone to proofread your copy for you. Or leave it for a few days and do it with a fresh set of eyes yourself.

You should also lose the "Featured Industry Links" (I think I mentioned that before, but I forget, so if I did, at least it's repeated). Those links don't do you any good for the most part, and don't do your users any good for the most part either.

Some of your images (most notably your header image containing phone number and hours) should have alt text to describe them. You use a blank alt attribute, but that's an obscure accessibility issue (you're apparently not supposed to do that).

Other than that, I'd run with this the way it is. You might have to tweak it here and there (mostly cosmetic, but nothing major), but I think you've built something that would appeal to your target market, which is the important thing.

**BoSolaris** · 06-08-2007, 08:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ADAM Web Design

BagelPirate touched on your issue: you can't go much further than you have as far as the layout is concerned without potentially alienating the industrial market that you target. As much as we'd all like to see it look prettier, you just can't go down that road. It won't work. Industrial types like industrial-looking stuff, and this looks industrial. Quite frankly, I don't know what else you could do in that regard. I'd leave it alone from the aesthetic point of view for now.

I like that you don't have as many clickthroughs to get to products; you've got it down to 1 or 2, which is good. If you can get it down to 1, you'd be all set from that regard.

You've got some minor typos (e.g. the word "cartridg" on your Loveshaw page); get someone to proofread your copy for you. Or leave it for a few days and do it with a fresh set of eyes yourself.

You should also lose the "Featured Industry Links" (I think I mentioned that before, but I forget, so if I did, at least it's repeated). Those links don't do you any good for the most part, and don't do your users any good for the most part either.

Some of your images (most notably your header image containing phone number and hours) should have alt text to describe them. You use a blank alt attribute, but that's an obscure accessibility issue (you're apparently not supposed to do that).

Other than that, I'd run with this the way it is. You might have to tweak it here and there (mostly cosmetic, but nothing major), but I think you've built something that would appeal to your target market, which is the important thing.

I've been battling to get rid of those links for some time now, unfortunately the one who has the ultimate say so for that is at odds with me right now. Some aesthetic proofreading is in order, I agree.

Thank you for the comments and feedback, let me know if you see anything else that could be improved or redone!