http://www.123ecominfo.com/

This is a site that I made to showcase some of the ecommerce related informations to the users. This is our second time making a site in xoops, so I'm really interested to see your responses. The site features XOOPS 2.05a and OScommerce with nautis modified theme.

This site is targeted for IT managers and ecommerce developers, so most will be surfing from a T1, so bandwidth isn't a huge problem, and there isn't much I can do about the images, but I'm working on optimizing them. Give me as much feedback about colors, fonts, layout, code, logo in the top-left corner as you'd like! I'd really appreciate a ton of feedback.

Feel free to take a look around the site and tell us how to make it better. Thanks.

I love the way you have done the colors for your site. When you click on the Articles, Forum and Shop links at the top, the pages they bring up are based on the same colors as the links. That's pretty cool to me! Good job with the look of your site!

Thanks ! I am also expecting few negative feedback for this site. Anything which you didnt like, or disturb you at first glance or need improvement !

Please give any feedback to help me understand what are the areas I need to work more.

I like the colors and features BUT I don't think it would serve well as a business site with those colors. BUT, then again, different people from other cultures have other tastes so I could be wrong.

My main complaint is the pop-ups. I hate those things and I am in the vast majority ;)

Max

Hi,

Thanks for the comment !

1. BUT I don't think it would serve well as a business site
2. My main complaint is the pop-ups.

REPLY: Point noted and first thing I will do is to remove the POP-ups and regarding color, you seem to be right in the sense that the website is Global and doesent belongs to any particular culture.

shivaji:

Here's my 2 cents abouthttp://www.123ecominfo.com/ as is:

1) Corporate sites --even IT ones-- tend to have a more restricted palette, less chromatic variety, so I'd suggest choosing a color and playing with saturation and tones.

2) If bandwidth is not a problem, I guess screen width shouldn't be a problem. Seeing the site in an 1152x864 monitor brings up a clone of your main logo image at the far right.

3) I know many advocate the use of dotted borders. For corporate sites, I don't.

4) You need to be homogeneous with regard to padding in the blocks. The Login, Make a donation! and New Product on Store blocks have practically no lateral padding so they look unprofessional. And on the other side, the unordered lists have a too wide left margin.

5) Since your welcome is built using a custom block, why fon't you use a larger font size there? The purpose of a commercial site whould be almost immediately visible. Also try to include an image that acts as a content locator so people identify the core business at a glance.

6) In your Spotlight module, I'd change the heading: there's no way a first time visitor can feel much attracted to a title such as "Spotlight - Articles". Build a selling headline for this.

7) Also in your Spotlight module, use a different image (not the default one for the spotlighted story, and put more text there. If it's an important story, it should have more text to entice the user into reading the rest.

8) Also in your Spotlight module, give the secondary headlines more characters. That'll make them look good in wide screens. As for 800x600 screens, the headlines will wrap, so organize carefully the UL tag in your stylesheet.

9) Get the top posters out of sight, at least "under the fold". A first time visitor couldn't care less about who's posted how many stories. The other blocks in the right are far more relevant from the business point of view.

10) If you need to put site info there, download Catzwolf's WF-Channel module and take advantage of the features it contains. This will let you take out from the front page the site info block and maybe the donation block.

That's about the size of it. Of course, this is just an opinion, but you asked for it, so here it is, clear and direct.

Cheers.

Dear hsalazar:

Here's my 2 cents abouthttp://www.123ecominfo.com/ as is:

REPLY: I think what you suggested is much more then $$$$. I took some time to change everything as per your comments.

1) Corporate sites --even IT ones-- tend to have a more restricted palette, less chromatic variety, so I'd suggest choosing a color and playing with saturation and tones.

REPLY: Changes. No Gradient !!

2) If bandwidth is not a problem, I guess screen width shouldn't be a problem. Seeing the site in an 1152x864 monitor brings up a clone of your main logo image at the far right.

REPLY: You can view at 1152 x 864

3) I know many advocate the use of dotted borders. For corporate sites, I don't.

REPLY: hmm.....I am sorry, i tried to give it single border BUT I am not sure what color to give so I keep the dotted for the time being !!

4) You need to be homogeneous with regard to padding in the blocks. The Login, Make a donation! and New Product on Store blocks have practically no lateral padding so they look unprofessional. And on the other side, the unordered lists have a too wide left margin.

REPLY: YES !! Excellent suggestion. I did !!

5) Since your welcome is built using a custom block, why fon't you use a larger font size there? The purpose of a commercial site whould be almost immediately visible. Also try to include an image that acts as a content locator so people identify the core business at a glance.

REPLY: I have given BUT I am not sure that what you mean? Please check and let me know.

6) In your Spotlight module, I'd change the heading: there's no way a first time visitor can feel much attracted to a title such as "Spotlight - Articles". Build a selling headline for this.

REPLY: Yes...:) Now its change.

7) Also in your Spotlight module, use a different image (not the default one for the spotlighted story, and put more text there. If it's an important story, it should have more text to entice the user into reading the rest.

REPLY: yes. I changed.

8) Also in your Spotlight module, give the secondary headlines more characters. That'll make them look good in wide screens. As for 800x600 screens, the headlines will wrap, so organize carefully the UL tag in your stylesheet.

REPLY: Please suggest how to ?????? Please clarify.

9) Get the top posters out of sight, at least "under the fold". A first time visitor couldn't care less about who's posted how many stories. The other blocks in the right are far more relevant from the business point of view.

REPLY: hsalzar, I thought about it a lot .. and now I have given only three poster and with a option for users to put their own (within three) Please suggest is it okay ??

10) If you need to put site info there, download Catzwolf's WF-Channel module and take advantage of the features it contains. This will let you take out from the front page the site info block and maybe the donation block.

REPLY: I downloaded the modulw..and let you know soon.

That's about the size of it. Of course, this is just an opinion, but you asked for it, so here it is, clear and direct.

REPLY: Yes, it really helps. Thanks for all your time and please check once and give me any more suggestions you have.

regards,
Shivaji.

Dear Max:

Thanks for your suggestion. I do take your suggestion seriously and did appropriate changes.

I like the colors and features BUT I don't think it would serve well as a business site with those colors.

REPLY: Please check, does it look little professional (biz)???

BUT, then again, different people from other cultures have other tastes so I could be wrong.

REPLY: Hmmmm..I took this comment seriously and what I did is first I remove our Avatars (I dont look good ;) ) and place a golbal avatars..he he :)

My main complaint is the pop-ups. I hate those things and I am in the vast majority ;)

REPLY: Yes, I remove the Pop-Ups. Thanks again for all your valuable comments. Please check and feel it free to put any more comments you have.

Regards,
Shivaji.

Site looks good. Just a couple of things:

1. I would move the top posters off the top of the page, too. I would definitely put that BELOW the "New Products" and "New Tools" blocks.

2. This is just personal preference, but I would also put the main navigation block on the left at the top, and the login block below it. I find it easier to navigate around sites when the main navigation is always in the same place, upper left. That's might just be me, though, and I would ask other people about that.

3. when I click on the "articles" tab, the article section comes up. However, when you look at the tabs it still looks like the "home" tab is uppermost. Usually, the tabs change to reflect where you are on the site.

In other words, when I am on the home page, the home tab should be light blue, and the others gray. When I am on the articles page, the Aticles tab should be light blue and the others gray. At least, that's how tabs usually work.

Thanks for your constructive suggestion. I made changes to everyting you suggested except the Navigational Highlight button which requires some time to built the button.

Regards,
Shivaji.