[thelist] site for critique c:

[Kevin D. White]

1) The links in the right channel are improperly colored.  Your hover color,
a dark blue, is counter-intuitive.  Things should light up and say "Hello"
when I rollover them.

2) The rollovers in the two left-side boxes are bad.  The flickering box is
visually and cognitively disconnected from my actions.  Also, since the hit
area is so small that a slight twitch of the mouse causes the box to
disappear.  Finally there are so many of these rollovers that they actually
go below the fold.

3) Your site is very product heavy.  Your search function is incredibly
important and should be useful.  Instead it is pushed almost to the bottom
of the page.  For you, I suggest giving search equal prominence with the
navigation.

4) Your nav needs to be streamlined and re-categorized.  This is an
e-commerce site.  The primary nav should be focused solely on e-commerce.
Relegate the careers and company info stuff to the footer.

5) The left channel disappears when inside the site.  This is okay since the
info is not critical.  Consider ditching it entirely

6) Once inside I have to say I am totally lost.  Your secondary navigation
looks like just another set of text links.  It is visually connected to the
body links.  Navigation is special and should look special.

7) Drastically simplify the home page.  This is the last place people should
linger.

8) I have no idea what "OEM Division" and "Distribution Division" signify.
Nor do I care.   Nor will I ever care.  Try to make this distinction
irrelevant.  If you cannot then you must clearly and simply get me to care.

I have lot's more but it's almost past my bed time.  I advise you to take a
very close look at the following sites for comparison:

-Amazon (still the best damn e-commerce site around)

-Lands End (possibly the second best)

-IBM (good example of corporate info + e-commerce)

-CDW (not incredible but easy and consistent)

A nice comparison can help you avoid major issues.  You will also start to
notice commonly accepted practices that users will expect from your site.

-----Original Message-----
From: thelist-admin at lists.evolt.org
[mailto:thelist-admin at lists.evolt.org]On Behalf Of C Williams
Sent: 2001, July, 18, Wednesday 21.42
To: thelist at lists.evolt.org
Subject: [thelist] site for critique c:


Hello,

Well, time to rip in to the site I have been working on for a while.  C:

http://www.computermodules.com

It orginally started with four different templates for their site...same
company...Goal was
1.  Improve navigation..original site had no navigation!
2.  Develop consistant look and feel
3.  Simplify design to allow easy addition of pages.

Started with 110 pages, and it has grown to over 200, plus the store.  The
store will be migrated to our own look and feel, as I have found Miva
Merchant a bear to customize, but I did the best I could working alone, and
having never used Miva before to apply a similar template. An interim
developer designed the banner, and worked on a lot of the javascript.

We are an oem distributor for video products, as well as a VAR for name
brands.

Anyways, I would appreciate your comments and criticisms very much.  Some of
the top pages need pictures...check out the company....and click on the
staff link... c;

Thanks,

Chris



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