Hi All,
Got my 1st website up, and could use some feedback on it.
I'm a big boy, so feel free to speak your mind.
Thanks,
Ron

www.thewoodwriteshop.com

Hi Ron, and welcome to the forum. A job well done on your first effort. I like the technique of your menu and background that blends into the theme of your site’s subject.

Just a couple of quick suggestions. Firstly, I would center the main navigation menu over each page. And, while your at it, open the Page Editor > Special Effects tab, and center your pages.

While you have the Page Editor open, go to the Title, Meta Tags tab and change the Page Title (the bit that appears in the browser tab) of each page to something more suitable, or the same as the Menu names. At the moment, it is set as the default of index, page2, page3 etc.

Also, may I suggest that you add a blank text object (three or four spaces) at the bottom of each page so that the visitor can scroll down enough to read and view the last item in a more user friendly way.

As you said, you’re a big boy (I’m just an old boy, but a big kid at heart), so I hope you take my suggestions in the right way.

Having said that, if Roma has a chance to take a look, she is very good at design, font choices, color choices etc. She may be able to expand on what I have said.

Hi Ron,
Just adding some points to what Terry already said.
1. I would advise on another choice of link colour for the menu. The blue is difficult to read on the brown, textured menu buttons. I would use the same font size as well as attributes on all buttons.
2. It seems that you change the order and placement of your menu buttons on the pages. My recommendation would be to stick to the same order and placement. The visitors like consistency . You can easily achive that in SS using the include option.
3. 'Pens' page - I would place the bolded text at the top right under the menu moving all images down a bit. If you want to use a centered text for picture captions I would place the captions under each picture. Current placement creates a somewhat disconnected feel between the image and the caption.
4. 'Engraving' page - some of the captions are bolded and some ae not. I would decide on one or the other. The same occurs on the 'Pens with history' page. On the latter I would also pay some attention to organising the images in a more structured way. At the moment I have a feeling that they are randomly scattered over the page.
5. Finally I would decide on one type of page transition. The random change from page to page can have an annoying effect on the visitor.

Those points are naturally only my personal opinions. Others might see things differently.

PS. Thanks for the vote of confidence Terry.

Hi Ron

Beautiful pens. I especially love the Greek flag one.

I'm looking at this with a European eye (well two actually) so my views may not be exactly aligned with US tastes and please don't be offended as my comments are made with the best of intentions.

I agree with most of what the others say however as these are craftsmen made items that have an intrinsic value far above their cost, I feel that the font for the site title cheapens them and reminds me of the Beverly Hill Billies (if you're as old as I am).

The choice of font is a very important part of creating the tone of a site and has a immediate psychological effect on the reader.

I understand your choice as it is suggestive of rustic, log cabin, hand crafted natural things, but to me it doesn't say value or quality or precision.

I would also chop the body content font size down to 10pt and dispense with the Times New Roman, as its painful to read on screen and in so doing you should be able to fit your home page onto a 1024x768 screen with no scroll bars.

Only a suggestion and my personal taste for this situation, but for your title, how about a font such as Chopin Script http://www.dafont.com/chopin-script.font and free to download.

I'm sorry, but I really, really dislike the page transition effects, it reminds me of a Powerpoint presentation and I've endured enough of those to last me a lifetime!

I feel the quality of your pens is such that you don't need cheesey effects (sorry) to sell the products, they will sell themselves, they look just so good!

Also, I would have a really high quality close up full page width of your pens on the home page perhaps as a page banner. I didn't immediately realise to click on the pen images to get a bigger version. (maybe I'm just thick)

Specific point on the pens page, IMHO could you edit the following text:

This is a sampling of some of the pens I have done to

Here is a small sample of the beautiful writing instruments I've had the pleasure of creating. I would be very happy to craft a pen to your exact requirements of style or type of wood. Simply contact me to discuss your requirements.

Another personal design thing. I would suggest a footer bar so that your visitors know where the page ends and this can be used to include things such as a copyright notice, email address etc.

Think quality, exclusivity, rarity, your pens are aspirational items to own and keep, sell them up.

As an example, have a look here, different style obviously but I think you'll get the idea.

http://www.montblanc.com/products/111.php

But irrespective of this, well done on creating your first site. Its a daunting task and you've done great and your pens are fantastic.


Geek-u-like

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'There is no website we can build that we can't change later'!