Constructive criticism on my website required!
Discussion
If anyone would like to offer some constructive criticism on the new look www.aceparts.com before I go spending money on advertising, it would be much appreciated 
Its really plain. R-E-A-L-L-Y plain, nothing catches your eye on it. Is there a back ground theme that loads up at the end? I got bored with the little progress bar showing 90 odd percent loaded after about a minute and just started trying to search for bulbs (on DSL, thats a pretty slow load up).
Anyways, did a quick search for bulbs for my car. 1994 Toyota Celica ST20x chassis variant. Make - Toyota, Model - Celica 2.0/GT/GTFour, Model year - only option 90-95. Celica's ran generation 5 from 89-93, then gen 6 from 94-98. Selecting 90-95 on the website says my headlights are H4's. If it was my 1992 Celica then yes, my 1994 Celica is an HB4. I dont want to come across as being pedantic, but if I didnt know my car was HB4 equipped I'd have got the wrong parts and probably wouldnt be at all impressed.
I think I actually preferred the old site as there were fewer subsections with bigger headings. I think you need something graphic on the site which actually suggests you have arrived at a vehicle lighting site.
Anyways, did a quick search for bulbs for my car. 1994 Toyota Celica ST20x chassis variant. Make - Toyota, Model - Celica 2.0/GT/GTFour, Model year - only option 90-95. Celica's ran generation 5 from 89-93, then gen 6 from 94-98. Selecting 90-95 on the website says my headlights are H4's. If it was my 1992 Celica then yes, my 1994 Celica is an HB4. I dont want to come across as being pedantic, but if I didnt know my car was HB4 equipped I'd have got the wrong parts and probably wouldnt be at all impressed.
I think I actually preferred the old site as there were fewer subsections with bigger headings. I think you need something graphic on the site which actually suggests you have arrived at a vehicle lighting site.
I've also checked my car, volvo S60, and the dipped and main beam bulbs are the wrong way round in your listing...
[OBN]I know this as one of my bulbs blew over the weekend, and I ended up ordering a replacement set from your eBay site[/OBN]
As for the site being 'plain', I'm never too impressed by overly flashy sites, and the AceParts site allowed me to find a listing of what bulbs my car needed, and then present the options to buy. Although I didn't notice the same "bargain bundle" (of dipped,main and sidelight bulbs) that I bought from your eBay site (which was an "up sell" as I only needed a single dipped bulb).
[OBN]I know this as one of my bulbs blew over the weekend, and I ended up ordering a replacement set from your eBay site[/OBN]
As for the site being 'plain', I'm never too impressed by overly flashy sites, and the AceParts site allowed me to find a listing of what bulbs my car needed, and then present the options to buy. Although I didn't notice the same "bargain bundle" (of dipped,main and sidelight bulbs) that I bought from your eBay site (which was an "up sell" as I only needed a single dipped bulb).
It's very easy to use - even an internet shopping technophobe like me managed to suss it using your "step 1", "step 2" system!
Thought it was a little bland, though. It could do with a few more graphics, but that should not detract from its ease of use which is excellent, in my opinion.
Thought it was a little bland, though. It could do with a few more graphics, but that should not detract from its ease of use which is excellent, in my opinion.
sort your keywords out..
<META name="description" content="X-Cart: full-featured PHP/MySQL shopping cart software & ecommerce solutions for the best ecommerce websites">
<META name="keywords" content="x-cart, xcart, cart, shopping cart, php, php4, mysql, shop, e-commerce, store, web store, gift certificates, wish list, top sellers">
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<META name="description" content="X-Cart: full-featured PHP/MySQL shopping cart software & ecommerce solutions for the best ecommerce websites">
<META name="keywords" content="x-cart, xcart, cart, shopping cart, php, php4, mysql, shop, e-commerce, store, web store, gift certificates, wish list, top sellers">
D
Couple of things:
1. The links on the top right (shop home, contact us etc) are not really noticeable as links.
2. You need to make it clear what the "H1, H3..." list is along the top. For example, add a heading to the left or above it saying something like "Choose your bulb type if you know it:"
3. If you select a vehicle (eg Ford, then Mondeo) you get a list of products for this vehicle. However, if you then click something like "Side Repeaters" under Categories, it only gives you Mondeo products. I would expect this to give you all Side Repeaters as it is part of the main navigation.
4. The customer login box is in the wrong place, it should be far more prominent. After all, you want customers to log in!
5. As others have said, the colour scheme is not really designed in such a way as to make the important bits come to the fore.
Just my 2p!
1. The links on the top right (shop home, contact us etc) are not really noticeable as links.
2. You need to make it clear what the "H1, H3..." list is along the top. For example, add a heading to the left or above it saying something like "Choose your bulb type if you know it:"
3. If you select a vehicle (eg Ford, then Mondeo) you get a list of products for this vehicle. However, if you then click something like "Side Repeaters" under Categories, it only gives you Mondeo products. I would expect this to give you all Side Repeaters as it is part of the main navigation.
4. The customer login box is in the wrong place, it should be far more prominent. After all, you want customers to log in!
5. As others have said, the colour scheme is not really designed in such a way as to make the important bits come to the fore.
Just my 2p!
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