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hewunch

Member
Joined
Aug 5, 2008
Messages
4,705
Location
Albany, GA
Hi all, I would really love for you to visit my website and get your feedback on it. Good, bad, ugly. I know I am really opening up for some jabs here, but I want to know, really.
Thanks
Hans
 
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Hans ... Very nice website. I find your pictures to be very well done. About the only changes I might suggest is that you drop the "So that" from your opening page and simply replace the words with a comma. I find the original sentence to be a little bit difficult to understand clearly.

VERY nice Cyprus bowl and your pen finishes are right on. The Cross inlay pen is marred a bit in that the reflection of the light hides the Cross. Turn th pen down a bit or reposition the light in such a way as to get the reflection away from the cross.

Great work all around. Ya done good! Now add more bowls to the site ... :biggrin:
 
Nice site!

On your cartridge pens.....the cb, is that part of the kit or something else? How do you attach it to the brass?


Later,


Barney

Yes, the Cb is a part of a kit whether it is a slim, roadster or euro.

I cleaned up the wording on the front page. And thanks OZ, that might be why I get a run on them every now and then :smile:

Fred thanks for the comment about the bowl and you are right that I need to take another picture of the cross. I will do that the next time around.

Thanks all!
 
Hans, the website looks good and you come across as very personable. A couple of comments.

I found the pages loaded very slowly. I think you might be able to optimize your pictures so they are smaller file sizes without losing detail. Also you might create thumbnail images of the pictures for the page that shows all the Sierra's for example. That way that page will load quickly and if folks want to see a more detailed shot, they could click on the thumbnail and then the larger shot would open up.

On the Sierra page you say to click on the purple PCB pen for a more detailed shot but nothing happens when you click on it.

You also might want to think about putting the menu on the left that list the different pen styles on every page. At the moment if someone goes to the Sierra page there is no obvious route to get to the Jr. Series page. They either have to click on Pens by Hans to get back to the home page or use the back space button on their browser. If the menu stayed there you would save them the trouble of the extra clicks.
 
Hans, I noticed the "add to cart" buttons are covering the prices on a number of pens.

Also, you might want to explain what the flag is on the Sierra flag pen. I think I understand why you simply stated "This flag pen is not the Betsy Ross flag as it only has a red and a white stripe. Some of you will know what the flag is" It draws attention to the fact that it may be controversial, which may cause the exact thing you are trying to avoid. IMHO I think you should just describe the pen and the meaning behind it.

Other than that it looks pretty good to me.
 
Hans,

A few things ive noticed,

1) on all of the pen pages, the images are scattered and dont look good. Try lining everything up so it flows as people scroll down the page.

1a) make the text fit next to the picture, do not let it overflow past the picture

2) it took a while for the pens to load in, try using smaller images and doing popups as vizexp explained, it will make everything look better and load faster

3) the font on every page is really big, try making is smaller by a couple of sizes.

4) I agree on moving the menu bar onto the side, too much clutter on the top of the page

5) Raise your prices, some of the segmented work took a long time to make and you need to have your prices reflect that. especially the stars and stripe pens,

websites are hardwork and take a long time to get right, keep up the good work
 
I am not seeing that could you tell me, which pens and what browser you are using? I have found it makes a difference. And as the flag goes yeah, I was trying to figure out what to say there.

Hans, I noticed the "add to cart" buttons are covering the prices on a number of pens.
 
I am not seeing that could you tell me, which pens and what browser you are using? I have found it makes a difference. And as the flag goes yeah, I was trying to figure out what to say there.

Hans, it could be my browser. I am using the new internet Explorer 8 (I just downloaded it yesterday) Windows Vista OS. I noticed it on the Jr. gentlemens, and the Sierra's.
 
Hans, so far you've received some good advise so I won't add to what has already been said. Here are a few things for thought
1- I see your selling Rollerballs and fountain pens for the same price, why? They cost more and I have found that they actually will sell better to fountain pen users at a slightly higher price. Really!
2- IMMO it seems very hard to navigate, it just might be because the photos are mis-alinged and you have pop-down buttons on the top of the pages.
3-Prices-prices-prices.....way to low sorry to keep hammering this but you really need to check other sites....
 
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Hans,

You have put together a very nice site. I do website design and maintenance and know it takes a lot of effort to do what you have done.

Here are my comments about both your site layout and your pens:

First of all, I think you are really shorting yourself with your pricing. Assuming you are making your own segmented designs and blanks, they should go for much more than you are charging. Just your labor alone would add significantly to the prices. Take a look at other sites to see what the general pricing is for the various styles of pens. I think you will be surprised to see what they are going for compared to yours.


Site layout:
  1. Reduce the filesize of your images. Either use thumbnails (with the ability of the user to click on them and see a larger sized image) or use images that are no larger than 10 to 15KB each. That will improve your page download times dramatically.
  2. Your site is difficult to navigate. As has been suggested, place a navigation bar down the left-side of every page so the user can easily get to whatever they want to look at next. the important thing is to have navigation consistency throughout your website.
Overall, you've got a good site and with a little additional effort it could become much better.
 
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