Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

hi guys,

I am working with an entrepreneur who has set up an online T-shirt business. His market is outdoor ( surfing etc.) and adventure sports minded people. Please can you guys comment on very basic usability and design issues you notice. According to me the site ha some basic issues need addressing. Site is at: http://www.mrcapac.com

 

Thanks in advance

Well, it`s a really interesting starting page! Very cool concept. The down side is that it makes the site appear to be selling luggage tags. :-) Is there any way to use the concept, but to highlight tee-shirts?

hmm....I`m wondering if you could maybe replace the overall image with a sort of wrinkled tee-shirt lying on a surfboard, where maybe only part of the board is visible, but the tee is very clear. Then you could show a useful design on the front of the shirt which would lend itself to the menu?

I don`t get what these images of deserts and old stickers have to do with tee-shirts, I guess is my main objection.

When I clicked on anything, the only thing that changed was the faded photograph. I`m not interested in buying a faded, cracked photograph of something. :-) I want a tee-shirt, right? So how come I can`t see pictures of tee-shirts?

What would be cool would be to carry the "theme" of the imagery across to other pages, but where those pages are like a traditional layout for stores. In other words, suppose you sell tee-shirts with an animal theme. Your home page is a jungle, but when you click on something like "our products," the background of that page continues the jungle theme, with tee-shirts lying on rocks, plants, or in a clearing.

Anyway, the visuals are cool....they just don`t sell the product at all.

I can see why you went with the graphics. A lot of boarding companies
seem to lean towards looking like a collage. I see it at my local skate
boarding shops... I`d imagine surfing is a close cousin, if not older uncle
(=

One thing I would suggest though is trying to make the design a little
more sparse. I feel there`s a lot going on along the top and right that
causes the text to get lost. I find some of the dificulty of going with a
collage is that it`s sometimes dificult for the user to determine what is
clickable and what is not.

I also think the type of the copy is way too small. I understand you`re
trying ot fit it within your layout, but maybe try to come up with
something that`s not a static size.

I feel there also needs to be something in the background to make it look
complete. The white background makes it feel unfinished.

A bit as to what CraigL is saying, you`re trying to sell shirts so try and put
more emphasis on that.

Thanks Craig and Tobin.

You have presented some great insights. The designer insists upon having a no-scroll bar design, hence the small copy and a static size, as you mentioned Tobin.

As you say Craig, the site is about selling Tee Shirts so it should focus on them, but I also think the design and visual side is taking a centre stage. I also think that the background should be reduced and the central design increased in size. And ya the consistency in theme throughout the site is missing as well.

Keep your comments coming guys http://wwwmrcapac.com

Hey, I love your t-shirt ideas - I even wanted to purchase one for my nephew -

Unfortuanately, the link doesn`t allow me to view the entire web page, for some reason I can only see the bottom half of your pages.... ????

I`ll try again later here... is it a tech issue on your end?

The tags make me feel like I`m going to travel... I know this may be your intent.... How about T-Bags? that`s what the tags reminded me of.....Can you separate the collage of tags to make it easier to navigate....I kind of get lost there.... hope this helps.

Thanks Kristine,

Ya there is some browser issue at the moment. May be if you open in a different browser it should be okay. And ya the theme is of `surfing`, `water sport`, `outdoor travel`.

Navigation needs to be addressed and overall simplicity. Keep trying any sale would greatly help my client at this stage.

With IE6:

 It looks like the top of your (home) web page is cut off. ...and as noted only the bottom part of your other pages appear.

With FireFox:

The top seems to be cut off (unless that is your design) on every page.

~Roland

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

Also, your background image (page.png) is quite large 195.38 KB. So, it will be slow to download unless the viewer has a higher speed connection.

~Roland

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

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

Speaking of .PNG files, it`s my understanding (and my own experience) that they`re not well-supported yet by all browsers.