Review my site. Bring it on. Thank you.

[erichar11]

Hi all,

Please take a moment to review my site. The site is about 70% implemented so there's some work that I need to do.  I'm hoping that I can have it ready in about a month or so.  Please let me know if you can understand what the site is about from the home page and suggestions to improve it. I'm working on validating all pages but this will not happen till next week.  I'm still working on the flow of the site, but there are some things I have to implement prior to getting it working correctly. In other words, making it super simple to use. There are some issues with css but I'm working on them as well.

Any and all comments appreciated.

<a href="http://www.myphotomojo.com/?utm_source=phpfreaks.com&utm_medium=forums">www.myphotomojo.com</a>

Thanks

Eric

[Ninjakreborn]

I think the following

* The photo of that lady looks dumb, she looks like she has kneck problems.
Maybe that's part of the style of the site (personal opinion obviously)
* Functionality is amazing, especially that instant photo editing ability
* Navigation (original view) looks a little broken (not exactly the way you probably wanted it to look
* Again that image on the homepage annoys me.  It's not just the image, but I see the same one three time so it get's me aggravated, everytime I hit the homepage, not a good emotion to stir up.
* It's done in tables, that really sucks
* if it was done in css, validated, and the annoying image (atleast 3 time's) changed or the other 2 taken out, I would love everything about it

Good job

[erichar11]

Hey businessman332211,

Thanks for the honest opinion.  The photo of the lady is just from a stock photography library and I agree it's not the best.  The reason I choose to show the image multiple times is to illustrate to potential customers that they can take an image and place it on multiple products.  Any suggestions you have on communicating this better would be appreciated.

Regarding, the navigation, can you elaborate on what you mean by broken?

Lastly, we are currently moving the site over to css.  The home page has been pretty much rewritten in css but I haven't uploaded it yet as we have some problems.  We are pretty new to css and have run into problems with having multiple css files on a given page and having the same selector in multiple css files.  We're doing some rewriting this week and hopefully will have a better css enabled site up next week.  And hopefully validation of pages too.

Thanks for the imput.

[steviewdr]

Looks nice overall.
A few things:
The Online Photo Editor doesnt work in Opera (well my version of 8.5). The front page has a blemish also with Opera - The bottom of the Sign-Up botton is cropped/chopped off.

In IE6 there are css problems with the border of your page. When switching between the blog and the Home page - it becomes noticeable.

In the footer you have a GeoTrust logo. Is your site valid and certified by GeoTrust? Its only a minor thing if you do get the shop working.

Lastly - on your home page: you have the 3 elements at the bottom as links:
Frames | Crystal | GiftBoxes

I didnt even realise they were clickable - let alone going to different categories. I would like to see text beside these 3 images.

-steve

[erichar11]

Talented, thanks for your input.

We've only tested the site with IE and firefox.  We are planning to test Safari and Opera next.  I'll update everyone when we have tested those additional browsers.

Regarding border problems, well aware of them, we have some untangling of our css files (same selector across multiple css files which is causing some problems. 

Regarding the geotrust logo, the shopping cart is not up and running yet, but when we do, you can be sure that we will have a valid ssl certificate and the appropriate logo to go with it.

Lastly, I'll add links under the 3 elements to make sure people know they are clickable.  Thanks for that tip, I completely over looked that point.

Eric

[obsidian]

OK, this may be picky, but are those three items you're showing actual items you've made with that stock photo, or are they superimposed on there for the website (if I had to vote, I'd choose the latter). If this is the case, I'd definitely recommend you show the actual products rather than mockups of them.

[SharkBait]

I like it. It's nice on the eyes and stylish.

I would probably make your foot run to either side of the page like your header does though.

Perhaps place text in the category images so that people know they can click on them or do a rollover type thing with them so they know their links?

The online photoeditor thing is cool too.

[erichar11]

obsidian,

The items items are actual items with the stock photo on them.  We are not super imposing an image on them like we do on the product pages.

With that said, here is what I ideally want to happen.  When a user comes to our site, they register, they select a photo sharing service that they would like us to integrate with.    We can auto-magically grab their photos and hopefully a user will be able to "select a default image".  That default image will then be super imposed, where ever you see the "lady with the dog" on the home page.  It creates a more personal experience as their photo appears on the home page every time a customer returns to the site.  However, there are several other issues that I need to resolve before I attempt to do this. 

So to answer your question, the three items are created as images with the stock photo.  However, in the near future I would like them to be superimposed on a product with the default image a user selects.

Hope that makes sense.

[erichar11]

Hi, just to let everyone know, there is a test account so you can see sample photo's on the catagory and product pages.  I don't think I mentioned this before.

Just click the login link at the top of the page (any page)

email: test5@myphotomojo.com
password: test5

We grab photos from a test flickr account.  Remember, we are still working on the preview an image on a product functionality.  All catagories with the exception of crystals work fairly well.

Eric

[erichar11]

updated the home page to have text links for the 3 items which represent catagories.  Also added a link to checkout to the home page.  Take a look:

<a href="http://www.myphotomojo.com/index.php?utm_source=phpfreaks.com&utm_medium=forum&utm_campaign=Review%2BMy%2BSite">www.myphotomojo.com</a>

[Ninjakreborn]

What I meant by broken was
You had the boxes like this

[  ][  ][  ][  ][  ]
it looked like you wanted to left side of the box, to look like it was faded behind the right side of the previous box.

What happens is, the first 3 look like that, hten the last 2-3 look like they are on the same level, it detracts (for me) a little from the navigation.

If that makes any sense, if not then I am not quite sure if I can explain it well enough to pass my point across.

[steviewdr]

Looks better. But them 3 headings need to be styled more. Remove the underline. Put a a:hover with a underline. Currently them 3 topics look like google ads!. An idea would be to put the Text "Frames, Crystal"... into the image itself.

-steve

[Deltran]

Only did a quick first-impression, but here is my $.02.

The first thing I noticed was the large blue image with the girl, flower and dog.  I didn't read it, though - I had a hard time making myself figure out why that picture was there.
I liked the pictures of the products on the front page.  That really helped.
I didn't really get lost on your page, I think it's navigation is all right.
Your mascot is cool, but it seems a little understated/weak until you see him over the rest of the site.  I donno, that's me; don't take opinion on icons.