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My first CC attempt


Guest plusdev

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Guest plusdev

Thanks for the cool feedback all. Yes, its CC */* I just made it fit what the client wanted. It was not too painfull thanks to the MVC design in CubeCart and the clean coding.

I can't wait to start my next CC project. This one was really fun to do.

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Here is my first attempt at a Cube Cart website. What do you all think? I spent a few weeks on this one. It is hopefully almost done.

http://relaxafternoon.com

The site is lovely and I agree with all the acolades that remark on how different it is from a canned CC skin. However . . .

There is more to a web site than looks.

That 189 px banner is a huge waste of the most valuable space on the browser - and the waste is repeated on virtually every page. Show me one major home page that does this. Look at the examples of the great communicator's sites. (Yahoo, Amazon,Google, ABCTV. etc.)

That same design could be done in 100 px and still look good, but without, in effect, shouting at the customer on every single page, telling him where he probably already knows he is.

I know I will be flamed for what I'm going to say. I'm not trying to insult peple. But what I have to say needs to be considered by anyone who is working on any web page. Graphic designers are talented people and so are programmers but it is a mistake to assume that either - or even both together - is enough.

If you are going to build web sites for ecommerce, you owe it to yourself and your clients to consider the other elements of web site building and pomotion. Study how people look at and navigate a page. There's a huge body of eye-motion and comprehension studies available. Study the issues of legibility as they are affected by colors and fonts.

Putting the menu on the right runs counter to every navigational intuition and practice based on experience. I suspect it's there just to be different. That is not a good excuse for a design that makes it harder for people to use the site.

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Guest magicpaul

I disagree with your comments about the size of the header, I think it works well. It could perhaps be a little smaller, maybe 50px but I don't think it's a major flaw in the design.

I do agree that the navigation on the right is bad - it's a real pet hate of mine and it rarely adds to the functionality of a site.

But I must say you've done a wonderful job. Well done! */*

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Guest Brivtech

That 189 px banner is a huge waste of the most valuable space on the browser - and the waste is repeated on virtually every page. Show me one major home page that does this. Look at the examples of the great communicator's sites. (Yahoo, Amazon,Google, ABCTV. etc.)

That same design could be done in 100 px and still look good, but without, in effect, shouting at the customer on every single page, telling him where he probably already knows he is.

Agrees, but the larger banner helps to build a brand perception where one doesn't yet exist. Something the likes of Yahoo, Amazon, etc no longer need. Perhaps a drop of 75 pixels would better achieve the same affect.

Putting the menu on the right runs counter to every navigational intuition and practice based on experience. I suspect it's there just to be different. That is not a good excuse for a design that makes it harder for people to use the site.

I don't agree, I think sometimes it's refreshing to see something unconventional, and it's clearly laid out enough not to be confusing. One thing I would add to the menu though is the hyperlink indicators - At the moment, the text is underlined and the arrow goes bold. It's a bit on the ugly side for such a pretty site. There is CSS code that is cross-browser compatible that will allow the whole bar that the option sits in to change colour - I'd personally suggest the light lime colour that the top header fades from. It would make the choices more obvious and finish off the look nicely.

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Agrees, but the larger banner helps to build a brand perception where one doesn't yet exist. Something the likes of Yahoo, Amazon, etc no longer need.
That's an interesting observation - but the facts behind it supports my opinion.

The Yahoo banner is now 44 pixels high and to my recollection, going back when they started, it has never been higher. The file size of all the elements in the Yahoo banner is roughly 2kb. They have always been the Gold Standard for speed of first-time download, less than 6 seconds over almost any 56k connection. THAT was the secret of their success, not a huge banner taking up virtually 1/2 of the screen on your typical mailslot 600pxhigh display and requires a download of 17.13 KB - which is what the one under discussion does.

Amazon doesn't even have a banner as we know it. Just active tabs that take the customer directly to the products (what a concept for a site that sells things!).

Google built their brand by delivering rapid downloads with minimal self-promotional shouting. That reticense, more than any other single thing, was the biggest contributor to their success againt people like AltaVista whose home pages were jammed with banners and blocks of redundancies.

You cannot build brand recognition by putting a billboard in the user's face on every page. That's how you annoy users and send them elsewhere.

So, with sincere respect and admiration for the attractiveness of the subject banner, it sends the wrong message by delivering inapprporiate information. It's about itself, not the products and not the customer.

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Guest Brivtech

The observation is actually a well researched marketing communications topic regarding building a brand identity, besides It doesn't annoy everyone, I quite like it. */*

I think we'll have to agree to disagree about exactly how much the size of the banner would make people click away.

But the banner should at least be a little smaller. :D

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Guest vrakas

It seems that we are all stuck on the banner heigth, i think it will be up to the owner if he wishes to change it or not :)

We all want it a little shorter but i do like it as it is and everything else is looking nice and matches nicely :on2long:

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Guest plusdev

It seems that we are all stuck on the banner heigth, i think it will be up to the owner if he wishes to change it or not :)

We all want it a little shorter but i do like it as it is and everything else is looking nice and matches nicely :blink:

Thanks to you all for the very helpful comments.

I am personally very aware of usability issues & especially carefull when it comes to making a site user friendly. However this was just a "fun" project to do. The reason I chose the unconventional design here is to be exactly that, Unconventional. The client wanted something very different and they only have 3 products, therefore the design is basically there for fluff.

I do agree with the comments personally as well, and if this were to be in fact a heavy hit site I would not recommend such a design. Still I might consider a lighter header for the sub pages. I'm sure it will be quite easy to figure out how that logic works in CC :D

Thanks again

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