[thelist] win yourself some Amazon vouchers

[ted serbinski]

> the sort of feedback I'm looking for: any comments regarding 
> display, accessibility, download times, functionality issues, 
> browser related info, screenshots, usability comments.
> 
> home page URL:  http://www.accurum.net/estores/eurosimm.nsf/master


Off the bat, site looks clean and simple layout. But there are some
tweaks that should be made.

Home page:
This looks fine the way it is, but it is kind of uncessary. Just a
picture of what you offer and some links. This doesn't seem to
informative, especially if someone were to bookmark this site.
Displaying like the "offer of the day" or "latest new arrivals" or just
a couple of your top items would be far more appealing and productive.
It would give your users something to immediately look into, rather than
trying to figure out if they want to buy anything and if they do, what
they want. Also, would jazz up the page and bring back repeat customers
to see new items, thus driving up revenues.

Putting the account login on the main page would also be good, allowing
users quick and easy login to get to their accounts. Having a link to
"create account" would get more users to have accounts, further
increasing potential customers/sales.

Entire layout:
Frames aren't good. They break usability. Say one of your customers
wants to bookmark the "specials" page. Using most browsers (except for
like IE5+), the user isn't book marking that page, rather he/she is book
marking the main page think it is the "specials" page. In addition,
frames can render undesirable results/output on some
browers/systems/configurations leading to a decrease in usability/site
users. I know this might be a big change ...but it would be a good thing
to add to the list for version 2.

The colors look great and are distinguisable. However, the green blurs
aren't too appealing. In addition, users running in less than 16bit
color will notice pixelation and dithering, producing unsmooth graphics.
Sticking with a solid green and borders would be far easier to
distinguish and recognize, increasing the aesthetics of the site. Not an
important change, but a worthwhile one, especially in a version 2 of the
site.

Instead of having a search button, a search box is far more desirable.
It saves the user a click, and saves on your bandwith, making everything
just that faster. Sure you can have a link to advanced search options
for those users, but most will not need that so having a box can greatly
speed up their visit, thus increasing sales.

Other than that, good luck with the site.

ted