I do have something to compare with, having been there the first go
`round. Jeff, the "Best darn dip..." is the result of a flurry of
discussion over on the tagline topic. DipLady went round and round,
looking for a tagline that picked up attention.
The whole discussion went up and down, and ended up with the tagline
NOT because it`s a provable statement. Instead, it`s chutzpah,
memorable, and stands out. Point being that if someone wants to run a
set of experiments to test the validity of the statement, that`s fine.
But they too would have to buy a lot of dips. :-)
Now, as to my impressions of the new site. One thing I`d like to see is
the banner at the top being clickable to return to the home page. Since
there isn`t a navigation bar on the left, I want a quick way to exit
out of what I`m looking at to return to the start of the tour. The
little "Home" link in the upper right is too hard to see, too easy to
miss.
When I clicked the shelf graphic and went to the Order page, there was
no way at all to get back to home without hitting the "Back" button on
the browser. This is a "no-no" in elegant design. Nobody should have to
ever click the "back" button, but should have internal links to move
throughout the site.
This is why people also use tabs along the top, or a menu bar. Why go
all the way back to the very start, when all I want is to move
"sideways?"
I was quite annoyed that no matter which picture I clicked on the home
page, I ended up at the order form. Only then were the pictures taking
me to the actual products. As such, the pictures on the home page don`t
work for me at all.
Even with a 19" monitor, I had to scroll a full screen to get down to
seeing the "Our Dip mixes, Dressings, and spreads" link. That`s too
far. So here`s what I`ve been doing as a workaround. I use a Windows
PC, so don`t know if it works on a Mac, but I change the display
properties to 1024x768 when I want to test the amount of scrolling, and
my side-to-side visibility.
My intent is that all important information should be directly visible
without any scrolling at all, even on a 17" CRT monitor (tube). Because
I`m developing on a 19" LCD at 1280x1024, it`s too easy to make
mistakes in font sizes and scrolling areas. (I`m not a developer at
all, and use Nvu for only our own site.)
Your fonts are too big. From my own reading, I`ve found that if you can
set the default for the entire site (through the <body> tag or
styles), it should likely be "small." Then all other fonts should be a
% of that. For example, your <p> paragraphs would then be 100%
size, meaning the same as "small," which works out to something like
10-11pt. on most monitors, with most browser settings.
I think the "About Us" page is fine, because I believe that page should
be set aside for a personal discussion with the online visitor. Many
people still are concerned about sending money across the Web, and so
having a way to actually "meet" the person at the other end is a good
thing. I`d maybe put a nice portrait picture of your "store," or
yourself, or something, to put a face to the company. Even if it`s a
caricature of yourself, people do tend to relate better when they have
a sense of personal interaction.
Summarizing, my biggest complaint is the non-traditional navigation. I
saw the various site areas down in the footer only on some pages. I
found a "Home" button only on some pages. I expected a navigation bar
and tabs, and there were none. I had to work too hard to move through
the site, and ended up at the same place too many times from the home
page.
Otherwise, I do like the site much better than the original. When I got
to the products pages, they worked much better. The expanded thumbnails
were a good size, but it would`ve been nice to have a "close" button to
return to the products list (instead of the "back" button). :-)
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