How bad is my navigation?

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How bad is my navigation?

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minimegeology

posts: 143

Jul 20, 2009 4:03 PM ET Quote Report Abuse

Points: 0 Vote

Hi Everyone,

I was wondering if you would please take a quick look at my website www.GivernyOnline.com and tell if how critical you think that it is that we change our navigation for our shopping pages. I got a quote from my web developer to change the navigation but it was more than I want to invest in it right now. On the other hand, if the site is really hard to navigate and I`m losing potential sales because of it then I should deal with it now.

Thank you so much.

Kind Regards,

Tracy

-------------------------

Tracy Barnhart, Owner
Giverny, Inc. / Mini Me Geology
http://www.GivernyOnline.com
http://www.MiniMeGeology.com

Jarrod1937

posts: 85

Jul 20, 2009 4:31 PM ET Quote Report Abuse

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Out of curiosity what changes does your web guy propose?
While the nav isn`t 100% perfect, its sufficient in my opinion for your use. I would change some design things though, but i think you`re good on the navigation for now.

NorthCountryDesign

posts: 103

Jul 20, 2009 5:13 PM ET Quote Report Abuse

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I think your navigation is fine.

Check out my navigation - looks pretty standard... not everything has to be all flashy / blinking / action sequences. :)

My website

minimegeology

posts: 143

Jul 20, 2009 7:07 PM ET Quote Report Abuse

Points: 0 Vote

The designers didn`t propose anything. I asked them because I think the site is very hard to browse for shoppers. We have no navigation down the left hand side or top for our shopping categories. I am also limited to only 10 categories for our products which makes it really difficult to break everthing down. I worry that people can not move around the site and see all of our products without already knowing exactly what they are looking for.

I agree that some design elements need to change. In fact, have a long list. My biggest worry now is that shoppers can not easily shop, especially if they are new to the site. None of our customers have complained. I was comparing it to my other site which has left side buttons and realized how hard I think it is.

Tracy

-------------------------

Tracy Barnhart, Owner
Giverny, Inc. / Mini Me Geology
http://www.GivernyOnline.com
http://www.MiniMeGeology.com

Jarrod1937

posts: 85

Jul 20, 2009 8:15 PM ET Quote Report Abuse

Points: 0 Vote

Oh, i didn`t know about the limitations of the cart. Personally, if you ever want to expand i would get out of mightymerchant. I just checked their pricing and its rediculous for the product limits. For example, 10 categories? There is no technical reason for that, they`re just milking you for money.
If you do have a web guy i`d seriously recommend something like oscommerce. If your guy can program you will be set for now and for the future.
Checkout the site i run for what osc can do, though keep in mind our store is heavily altered:
factorydirectcraft.com

betsybee

posts: 7

Jul 20, 2009 10:04 PM ET Quote Report Abuse

Points: 0 Vote

Hi, after reading all comments, i went to your site and did some "pretend" shopping...i had absolutely no problem with the navigation, and no problem with my cart..i actually added some items, removed others, etc. and again - no problem (cool products by the way...if i wasn`t strapped for cash i would be doing some "real" shopping!! soon....) anyway, good luck!

CraigL

posts: 9051

Jul 21, 2009 3:24 AM ET Quote Report Abuse

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I thought it was fine. No problems at all. The only thing I`d change would be the tab name for "Show Now" to "Store." Other than that, it was intuitive, I could go right where I wanted, and had no trouble at all.

minimegeology

posts: 143

Jul 21, 2009 7:20 AM ET Quote Report Abuse

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Thank you everyone for your comments. You`ve made me feel so much better.

Jarrod1937 - You are right about the shopping cart. It is very easy for me to use and manage but somewhat limiting. The 10 categories isn`t the shopping cart though, it is because of the way the home page is designed. To be able to have more categories I`d have to change to a navigation that would allow a list of categories down the side or something.

Thank you everyone!

Tracy

-------------------------

Tracy Barnhart, Owner
Giverny, Inc. / Mini Me Geology
http://www.GivernyOnline.com
http://www.MiniMeGeology.com

egumball

posts: 45

Jul 24, 2009 11:19 PM ET Quote Report Abuse

Points: 0 Vote

Not to be picky... but i would utilize a "mouse over hover" method on your tabs. Whereas the menu tab would either highlight or indent on "mouse over"... this would help define your navigation menu better

I would also consider, maybe, adding more spance between the banner and the menu and the bottom of the menu and the search boxes with some sort of line <span> or shadowing effect so that your navigation bar is easy to find. It is a bit blended in...

But overall.... I would give it a 9.

-------------------------

eGumBall, Inc.
8687 Research Drive, Suite 200
Irvine, CA 92618
"Local Internet Marketing"

Call 1.800.890.8940

http://www.egumball.com

vwebworld

posts: 1237

Jul 25, 2009 6:28 PM ET Quote Report Abuse

Points: 0 Vote

Definitely add a mouseover (hover) feature to your tabs.

But I agree... your shipping pages are hard to navigate.... well, hard to find things.

The viewer must scroll down the page to view each product.

Typical and user friendly eCommerce web pages have a menu of product categories, even sub-categories. This not only helps the viewer find products but also help in your SEO efforts (assuming you use targeted key words for your category names).

I see you have categories at the bottom of the page... but viewers will not think to look there (first) for a category.

So, you may lose customers because they can not find what they are looking for...

~Roland

-------------------------

Web Design | Best Beef Jerky | ecommerce articles | Follow vwebworld on Twitter

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