In the works: www.light-emporium.com

I'm working on this here site to sell lighting fixtures. It's still heavily under construction though I'd like some input regarding what's together so far.

Working sections include: Home, Contact, About, Product and Sunderballs under Product

Thanks in advance.
Light-Emporium

Overall a nice design. The buttons seem a bit cartoonish, but if that's the look you're going for, then good job

Nice layout so far

Viewing from a Firefox.

The 3 sections, Products, Pay option and Copyright, looks *detached* from each other. Or is that the way u wanted them to be?

Other wise its gud, but as said above a bit cartoonish. Are looking to attract some serious business or jus sum kid 4m high school ( make it junior school)


Khader69

Thanks for the comments.

Although I'm not sure what you mean by the sections are "detached," mind clarifying?

I had inteded originally for the buttons to be a bit cartoonish, but who doesn't like cartoonish looking buttons?

your colors are a bit crude, i feel tha they dont blend in well together it looks like u just slapped it on there...

i think you should do the buttons on the top and the text underneath each picture of the products more legible..
i would get rid of the blue too. your color combination makes it look cheesy i believe.
good luck!

It look sawesome to me, it looks like you're going to put custom <hr> in there. detached between main content, credit cards and copy notice
It also looks like you're going to make a mouseover effect on the main links.

Since I have my gamma and brightness higher for games, not much higher I use it 24/7, The blue content links and the background color seem to clash with each other.

maybe a duller green instead of the extreem bright green and medium purple but like i said my monitor settings are not normal...well maybe normal for a fps gamer

That's about all I can offer good luck

Okay - I agree with the Firefox thing, your vertical sections are detached - i.e. there's a line of blank space between them - and I also agree with the blue/green, they're too similar and not of the same colour blend. If it's a site you are wanting people to buy from, I would strenuously advocate clear, non-cartoony text and a less cluttered design - people want to see what they're buying and they don't like clutter on a pay-site; they inherently distrust it, in my experience, and may wish to shop elsewhere.

You'll need sections for Cart/My Account, or something like that so visitors can always see what they've bought. Also a Register/Login area, or something similar. But you know that.

Also, pay very careful attention to your spelling and grammar. I would never buy from a site which had spelling mistakes; they might've made similar mistakes in their code and I'd feel unsafe giving them my CC number! (Note the glaring misspelling of "jewellery" in the main nav, to the right.)

Only other thing - try to keep navigation simple; your visitors should have one place to look for links. Having several methods of navigation (cartoony buttons with light images, circular buttons at the top, nav down the left hand side) can confuse or lose a visitor. If the first page looks too crammed, or a visitor can't immediately see what they're looking for, you'll lose them - the first ten seconds are crucial.

Hope this has been constructive.

J
My Home Page

Some of my recent sites:
Goodley PR
Goshin Ju-Jitsu
Laura Fantacci
Get Turner

Much appreciation for those comments gentlmen.

I've got a few questions now.
1) Would it be a good idea, as eightballfreek suggested, to place a register/login area? I thought at first that people more than likely wouldn't want to have to register, and if someone did then what could I offer to those who took the time to do so?

2) If not that green/blue, does anyone have suggestions as to which should replace one and/or both of those colors? They were pretty much randomly chosen, though I'm partial to the green, with "neon" in mind.

3) How can the navigation be more simplistic than the core site sections at the top and products on the left? In the actual page I've thrown in some things such as "Newest Products" and "Most Popular Products" out of desperation due to lack of space.

Thanks again all.

Dude,

1) A register/login area wouldn't necessarily be a requirement; I didn't really explain myself well there. If people wanted to buy often from your site, or subscribe to an email newsletter, etc. then you should have the function available to those who wish to use it. Visitors like options and the ability to have things made easier for them.

2) I don't think the problem is the green and blue, but the *amount* of green and blue and their proximity to each other. To keep the site clean, you could have it in white and "splash" the blue and green - possibly in lines, as neon lightstrips go. Maybe study some neon signs and borrow some design ideas from them. You could even go for black, and have hi-contrast neon colours splashed across the site.

3) It's not the simplicity of the navigation, it's the number of different ways to navigate. Usability gurus warn against having more than one (at most 2) ways of navigation - most people plump for a nav bar/area and then in-text links. You *know* your site inside out, but visitors don't. If they see something confusing, they will leave - and most likely never come back. Design a navigation system that is instantly recognisable, so users think they know exactly where they're going when they click a link.

Hope this helps.

J

Your comments have helped tremendously, eightballfreak. I'm about to go through a redesign to accomodate for the changes suggested. Thanks once again.