Input on Website Store

[Glassroots]

I am getting my web store together and wanted to see if anyone had some input. There will be many more categories and pictures to add. This is the basic idea just wanted to see how I could improve it. What would you want to see as a glass artist, what would you want to see as a regular customer?

http://shop.locallygrownart.com/main.sc

[mer]

it looks like you have the information organized pretty well. i'd like to see more eye candy on the front page to draw me in though.

also, this might just be me but i would make a few suggestions about the intro;

Welcome to Locally Grown Art. We invite you to browse through our store and shop with confidence. We invite you to create an account with us if you like, or shop as a guest. Either way, your shopping cart will be active until you leave the store.

i don't know if it's grammatically incorrect but i personally never dig it when the same phrase is used in consecutive sentences. the last sentence also sounds a little like i'm committing to using a shopping cart even if i just want to browse.

if i'm not being too presumptuous here perhaps you might consider something like;


Welcome to Locally Grown Art. We would like to invite you to browse through our store with confidence. You are welcome to create an account with us or to shop as a guest. For your convenience a shopping cart will remain available to you as you enjoy our offerings.


you might also consider adding a little one-liner about who you are/what you're doing at the top. it seems like you are offering work that embodies a philosophy. people love to attach an idea to an object. they would probably be interested to see more of your "art with an agenda" approach up front. something simple about what ideas you are trying to support or foster with your art.

it looks like you've been working hard. i like the layout.

[glassdocnc]

Looks nice. I was having trouble with seeing the goblet pics. The more images (within reason) the better. Good luck with this and the new studio. When are you planning to make the move?

[Glassroots]

Those are some good ideas mer, I guess I was a little dyslexic when typing the opening paragraph, I really dislike repeating sentences as well. I like your take on it.

Doc we are moving hopefully in the next 6 months but it really depends on how quickly we can build the new shop. Fortunately it will be right next door to where we are currently because we really like the community we are in.

Thanks for the input! J

[Swampy]

When I put anything together like an item description or flyer/wodeva, I brain storm and try to get some effective keywords.

Then put some skeleton phrases together whilst carefully placing those keywords.

The keywords trigger an image in the reader's mind, also the front page is their first impression of you and your product.

[mikejones]

Your website looks very nice, great use of CSS. Feels fresh and the graphics are well done. I would use this page as a main entry way to your shopping area http://http://www.locallygrownart.com/portfolio_ssp/portfolio.html (http://www.locallygrownart.com/portfolio_ssp/portfolio.html)

[mikejones]

If I wasn't to clear, I would take the image that says portfolio which is on your index page here http://http://www.locallygrownart.com/index.html (http://www.locallygrownart.com/index.html) and swap that with something like "enter our online store" or "buy glass now", once they click that they would be taken to http://http://www.locallygrownart.com/portfolio_ssp/portfolio.html (http://www.locallygrownart.com/portfolio_ssp/portfolio.html), where they can click on what they would like to shop for. I was always taught within three clicks they need to be happy. Also remember to the general public you have something like 6 seconds to get them to browse your site, so that index page is the most important page of them all! Also, the script you have for the gallery is great, maybe you can use a java script that has an automatic onload for a slide show on each shopping page so you don't feel like you lost your awesome gallery.

[Primathon]

+1 to what mikejones said. Also, you're using a div with the ID of 'header-content' twice per page -- switch from an ID to a class if you want to do it multiple times. The site itself looks very clean, seems to work well, and loads quickly; nice job :)

[Glassroots]

If I wasn't to clear, I would take the image that says portfolio which is on your index page here http://http://www.locallygrownart.com/index.html (http://www.locallygrownart.com/index.html) and swap that with something like "enter our online store" or "buy glass now", once they click that they would be taken to http://http://www.locallygrownart.com/portfolio_ssp/portfolio.html (http://www.locallygrownart.com/portfolio_ssp/portfolio.html), where they can click on what they would like to shop for. I was always taught within three clicks they need to be happy. Also remember to the general public you have something like 6 seconds to get them to browse your site, so that index page is the most important page of them all! Also, the script you have for the gallery is great, maybe you can use a java script that has an automatic onload for a slide show on each shopping page so you don't feel like you lost your awesome gallery.

good points mike, I'll see how I can fit that in to the design

[Glassroots]

+1 to what mikejones said. Also, you're using a div with the ID of 'header-content' twice per page -- switch from an ID to a class if you want to do it multiple times. The site itself looks very clean, seems to work well, and loads quickly; nice job :)

i am kind of confused, what is div and twice per page header content? I didn't do the site programming myself. Thanks for the compliments though I did a lot of the design.

[Mecha]

I do not really know anything about the coding, but the overall visual appearance of the site is quite nice. Good job on the design.

[mikejones]

div is a container of sorts used to hold or position content, what glass roots was saying is you need to reclassify the layout of one of your divs, basically....if you follow certain rules regarding layout and classification, search engines like google will be kind to you, also certain web browers are finicky so you need to have things coded right, your webmaster or the person putting your graphics together should be able to knock this out....off the subject of your site....are you blowing glass in the woods? must be a biatch to get oxy out there!

[Udai Hussien]

I am getting my web store together and wanted to see if anyone had some input. There will be many more categories and pictures to add. This is the basic idea just wanted to see how I could improve it. What would you want to see as a glass artist, what would you want to see as a regular customer?

http://shop.locallygrownart.com/main.scIf you don't mind me asking, where is your shop located? Im In NC also

[Glassroots]

are you blowing glass in the woods? must be a biatch to get oxy out there!

my driveway is almost a mile long and not in the greatest shape. They still come out here though.

[Glassroots]

If you don't mind me asking, where is your shop located? Im In NC also

I'm right outside of chapel hill in pittsboro. We met long ago at ugly rumors, I used to work there with remy.

[Glassroots]

+1 to what mikejones said. Also, you're using a div with the ID of 'header-content' twice per page -- switch from an ID to a class if you want to do it multiple times. The site itself looks very clean, seems to work well, and loads quickly; nice job :)

are you talking about the main page or the store? The main page is doubled up so that after you click"watch the movie" the main page will reload and play the movie in the flashbox on the main page. Not sure if thats what you were talking about or not.

[mikejones]

man i wish i had no neighbors, i'm jealous

[The Lorax]

i know this has nothin to reallllllly do with the thread but you gotta post more pics of the studio. is it a log cabin? looks so cool, and i love the idea of being surrounded by 100 acres of forest. I'm pretty happy with the few behind my house but you seem like you have the ideal shop

[Glassroots]

i know this has nothin to reallllllly do with the thread but you gotta post more pics of the studio. is it a log cabin? looks so cool, and i love the idea of being surrounded by 100 acres of forest. I'm pretty happy with the few behind my house but you seem like you have the ideal shop

Its all rough cut lumber. The guy who built it was a woodworker so he did a lot of extras like installing lots of 240 outlets and such.

Its actually over a 1,000 acres but we don't own it. Still nice to live here. Do you think that the video on the studio page was adequate or that I should add more pics?

http://www.locallygrownart.com/studio.html

[mikejones]

I would personally love to see more pics, your shop seems very unique to me

[Udai Hussien]

I'm right outside of chapel hill in pittsboro. We met long ago at ugly rumors, I used to work there with remy.Oh we did? Heh I apologize if i was a dick to you at ugly rumors. Well I try not to be a dick as little as possible. Plus I have lost a ton of weight from when I last met you. I'm sure we will hang out in the near future. anyway the site looks nice.

[Glassroots]

no, you were never a dick, you showed us your dick a couple of times when your were wasted, but its all good.

[Udai Hussien]

no, you were never a dick, you showed us your dick a couple of times when your were wasted, but its all good.well, what do you expect? you guys kept feeding me wine coolers.

[Glassroots]

lol

[J B]

where ya at around pittsboro ? I'm in sanford now ( colon road area )

[Primathon]

div is a container of sorts used to hold or position content, what glass roots was saying is you need to reclassify the layout of one of your divs, basically....if you follow certain rules regarding layout and classification, search engines like google will be kind to you, also certain web browers are finicky so you need to have things coded right, your webmaster or the person putting your graphics together should be able to knock this out....off the subject of your site....are you blowing glass in the woods? must be a biatch to get oxy out there!

Twas me, actually, but that's not quite what I was saying. Feel free to pass this link (http://www.tizag.com/cssT/cssid.php) on to your programmer, along with my first post. Certainly not a huge deal, but the site comes so close (http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fshop.locallygrownart.com%2F main.sc&charset=(detect+automatically)&doctype=Inline&group=0&verbose=1) to validation (http://www.tommylogic.com/tutorial-blog/web-design-tutorials/39-web-related/70-vailadte-xhtml-css), it's a shame to see it fail (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/249) on one silly thing.

Also, Google and the other search engines won't penalize you for not following layout and classification conventions (which were followed quite well in this instance), but they do prefer it (http://www.hobo-web.co.uk/seo-blog/index.php/official-google-prefers-valid-html-css/).

[shark bait]

Do you still have the long version of that vid you have on your site?

[mikejones]

primathon.....your right, not penalized, but preffered, i have had janky sites listed highly when no one else was competing for the keywords......sorry if i freaked ya out roots