Critique new website
Discussion
Hello PH collective!
We have just launched a new website and I was wondering if anyone would be so kind as to take 5 minutes to browse and critique the website, please kindly let us know about the things you like, dislike and what you would recommend we improve upon both from a UI and technical perspective.
https://www.t7design.co.uk/
We do have a list of issues and changes we are working on and now would be a fantastic time to add any additional notes or improvements to our to-do list.
Please be honest, but also respectful
Cheers!
We have just launched a new website and I was wondering if anyone would be so kind as to take 5 minutes to browse and critique the website, please kindly let us know about the things you like, dislike and what you would recommend we improve upon both from a UI and technical perspective.
https://www.t7design.co.uk/
We do have a list of issues and changes we are working on and now would be a fantastic time to add any additional notes or improvements to our to-do list.
Please be honest, but also respectful
Cheers!
I think it could do with having less clutter on the main page, but it's quick to use and feels like a professional website. Performance wise it's quick to respond and all loads well, I did notice some sub pages seem to load quicker than others but nothing seems to hang. Some small improvements you could make but I think it's a nice website and seems to be well made, I definitely didn't see anything that would put me off using it. Out of interest, what are you hosting it on?
Edit: Works spot on on mobile too, really well formatted
Edit: Works spot on on mobile too, really well formatted
Edited by aaron_2000 on Monday 31st January 21:29
aaron_2000 said:
I think it could do with having less clutter on the main page, but it's quick to use and feels like a professional website. Performance wise it's quick to respond and all loads well, I did notice some sub pages seem to load quicker than others but nothing seems to hang. Some small improvements you could make but I think it's a nice website and seems to be well made, I definitely didn't see anything that would put me off using it. Out of interest, what are you hosting it on?
Edit: Works spot on on mobile too, really well formatted
Cheers for taking the time to reply. The home page is a difficult one, we need to highlight certain products or brands plus key information but your right, too much and it gets cluttered and not read/viewed anyway! At the moment the blocks are all similar colours so I do think we need to have another look there.Edit: Works spot on on mobile too, really well formatted
Edited by aaron_2000 on Monday 31st January 21:29
We are using Cloudfare for hosting, the speed and operation is fine but I was unimpressed by their sales tactics and unclear pricing. A Quad core server with 16gb ram seems to spring to mind.
HJG said:
No complaints here, works well on mobile device.
Useful company too for my line of work...bookmarked!
Ah good! We have found about a 50:50 mix between mobile and desktop users which does surprise me how many people use mobile, our new website is far easier to use when viewing on small devices than the old one, definitely impressed there!Useful company too for my line of work...bookmarked!
Ah no problem, give us a shout if you need any help with anything!
take-good-care-of-the-forest-dewey said:
My hopefully constructive feedback.
It's not clear what the company does / sells.
It seems to specialise in Honda parts but has BMW on the front page.
As the site stands, if I wasn't after a Honda part I wouldn't use it.
Thanks for the feedback.It's not clear what the company does / sells.
It seems to specialise in Honda parts but has BMW on the front page.
As the site stands, if I wasn't after a Honda part I wouldn't use it.
What stood our immediately upon opening the page, or what element drew your eyes first? Perhaps a summary of what the business does and offers in a few simple words towards the top of the home page would be a good idea to give a business overview upon initial arrival on the website. We don't have any data yet as to what percentage of new visitors actually land on the home page first so perhaps getting an about us page on the top is a good idea also.
anxious_ant said:
Nice site, do you use Magento?
Might want to check out deprecated functions and CSP errors. (F12 in Chrome)
Yes, it's the latest version of Magento 2, we started completely from scratch with no database migration, we imported all customer and product data via CSV after thoroughly going through it to fix errors and remove any legacy products.Might want to check out deprecated functions and CSP errors. (F12 in Chrome)
Cheers, will pass this info on to the developer to get his thoughts!
Mudgey said:
take-good-care-of-the-forest-dewey said:
My hopefully constructive feedback.
It's not clear what the company does / sells.
It seems to specialise in Honda parts but has BMW on the front page.
As the site stands, if I wasn't after a Honda part I wouldn't use it.
Thanks for the feedback.It's not clear what the company does / sells.
It seems to specialise in Honda parts but has BMW on the front page.
As the site stands, if I wasn't after a Honda part I wouldn't use it.
What stood our immediately upon opening the page, or what element drew your eyes first? Perhaps a summary of what the business does and offers in a few simple words towards the top of the home page would be a good idea to give a business overview upon initial arrival on the website. We don't have any data yet as to what percentage of new visitors actually land on the home page first so perhaps getting an about us page on the top is a good idea also.
A company strap line towards the top of the home page, located centrally, but stretching across the page....something along the lines of "T7 Design......The Home of Thermal Design & Engineering for the Motorsport Industry"
I otherwise wouldn't have a clue what you did as a company without delving into the "about us" section or indeed the small blurb at the bottom.
Otherwise I like it! Good luck.
Edited by MattyD803 on Tuesday 1st February 09:00
My main criticism would be that the site performance is pretty poor - it scores 29 out of 100 for performance from a Lighthouse audit (which is a common standard). That will have an impact because people simply will not wait for a site to load. They will simply go somewhere else instead (particularly on mobiles).
Also, it has images for text on the homepage, it's not easily navigable by keyboard and the markup isn't very semantic which is all bad for accessibility. You're hampering / excluding some potential customers there.
But the layout is decent overall and you can get to what you want quickly enough. You don't want to go wild with the design of an ecommerce site - things should be where people expect them to be and it looks like that's the case here.
Also, it has images for text on the homepage, it's not easily navigable by keyboard and the markup isn't very semantic which is all bad for accessibility. You're hampering / excluding some potential customers there.
But the layout is decent overall and you can get to what you want quickly enough. You don't want to go wild with the design of an ecommerce site - things should be where people expect them to be and it looks like that's the case here.
MattyD803 said:
Mudgey said:
take-good-care-of-the-forest-dewey said:
My hopefully constructive feedback.
It's not clear what the company does / sells.
It seems to specialise in Honda parts but has BMW on the front page.
As the site stands, if I wasn't after a Honda part I wouldn't use it.
Thanks for the feedback.It's not clear what the company does / sells.
It seems to specialise in Honda parts but has BMW on the front page.
As the site stands, if I wasn't after a Honda part I wouldn't use it.
What stood our immediately upon opening the page, or what element drew your eyes first? Perhaps a summary of what the business does and offers in a few simple words towards the top of the home page would be a good idea to give a business overview upon initial arrival on the website. We don't have any data yet as to what percentage of new visitors actually land on the home page first so perhaps getting an about us page on the top is a good idea also.
A company strap line towards the top of the home page, located centrally, but stretching across the page....something along the lines of "T7 Design......The Home of Thermal Design & Engineering for the Motorsport Industry"
I otherwise wouldn't have a clue what you did as a company without delving into the "about us" section or indeed the small blurb at the bottom.
Otherwise I like it! Good luck.
Edited by MattyD803 on Tuesday 1st February 09:00
I run an Ecommerce store myself, so from my perspective here's what I think.
- I don't immediately know what you do / sell, you need to make it glaringly obvious what you're selling otherwise people will simply click away and check out another website. I would suggest making the first slide in your homepage banner an image or combination of image and text that explains exactly what you offer. You only get a few seconds to grab a potential customer, make that first impression count.
- I would also add a few words somewhere near the top of the page with a brief overview of what you do.
- If you click on the about us button, it doesn't actually do anything, it just brings up a drop down menu talking about brands you distribute, but nothing about your company in general / what you do.
- I would make your returns policy clear on your returns page, rather than requiring people to contact you to ask about returns. People like to know where they stand in regards to returning items.
- Add a little information to your homepage title, will help with SEO
- When you get to checkout, the box where you may add a discount is hard to see, perhaps change the text colour here
- Load times on most pages appears to be quite slow, we're talking 3-4 seconds to load. Have you been compressing your images?
- I don't think you need the massive clearpay banner on the homepage either, as you have a smaller banner above it stating your accepted payment methods, plus further information in your footer. (If you click it, it also returns a 404 error)
- If you hover your mouse over your opening times in the header, it appears like you have an option to click it, however if you do click it nothing happens. Not sure why this is, empty hyperlink perhaps?
- I would make the image in your header where it says 'free next day delivery*' a clickable image linked to your shipping page.
- Your 3D laser printing information page looks quite wordy. I appreciate that the information is probably quite important and needs to be there (which is also good for SEO) but have you considered making a short video containing the relevant information and embedding it at the top of the page for people who simply won't read all of that information?
Overall though you've done a good job, it's easy to navigate and your products have a lot of product information which is great.
- I don't immediately know what you do / sell, you need to make it glaringly obvious what you're selling otherwise people will simply click away and check out another website. I would suggest making the first slide in your homepage banner an image or combination of image and text that explains exactly what you offer. You only get a few seconds to grab a potential customer, make that first impression count.
- I would also add a few words somewhere near the top of the page with a brief overview of what you do.
- If you click on the about us button, it doesn't actually do anything, it just brings up a drop down menu talking about brands you distribute, but nothing about your company in general / what you do.
- I would make your returns policy clear on your returns page, rather than requiring people to contact you to ask about returns. People like to know where they stand in regards to returning items.
- Add a little information to your homepage title, will help with SEO
- When you get to checkout, the box where you may add a discount is hard to see, perhaps change the text colour here
- Load times on most pages appears to be quite slow, we're talking 3-4 seconds to load. Have you been compressing your images?
- I don't think you need the massive clearpay banner on the homepage either, as you have a smaller banner above it stating your accepted payment methods, plus further information in your footer. (If you click it, it also returns a 404 error)
- If you hover your mouse over your opening times in the header, it appears like you have an option to click it, however if you do click it nothing happens. Not sure why this is, empty hyperlink perhaps?
- I would make the image in your header where it says 'free next day delivery*' a clickable image linked to your shipping page.
- Your 3D laser printing information page looks quite wordy. I appreciate that the information is probably quite important and needs to be there (which is also good for SEO) but have you considered making a short video containing the relevant information and embedding it at the top of the page for people who simply won't read all of that information?
Overall though you've done a good job, it's easy to navigate and your products have a lot of product information which is great.
JayRidesBikes said:
- I don't immediately know what you do / sell, you need to make it glaringly obvious what you're selling otherwise people will simply click away and check out another website. I would suggest making the first slide in your homepage banner an image or combination of image and text that explains exactly what you offer. You only get a few seconds to grab a potential customer, make that first impression count.
This! If I don't know what you do immediately from your HP I won't bother to sit there trying to work it out.
The whole HP looks far too busy and everything is competing for attention. You could halve the content easily.
I wouldn't worry too much about the homepage explaining what the business does. People generally don't land on websites by accident. 
Most traffic will likely come from a search engine which should only ever return your site if you provide what the user is looking for. That means when they land on the site, they already have an idea of what it's for.
I would guess most traffic will land directly on a product or category too rather than the homepage.
Most traffic will likely come from a search engine which should only ever return your site if you provide what the user is looking for. That means when they land on the site, they already have an idea of what it's for.
I would guess most traffic will land directly on a product or category too rather than the homepage.
Some really good feedback in this thread, my 2 pence:
1: Declutter the homepage, I would lose the payment methods image and clearpay banner, you have these advertised in your footer and on your product pages anyway.
2: I would have a fullwidth banner for the 3d scanning and printing, with something like - Need a Custom Part? Check out our Complete 3D Scanning and Printing Services
3: Lose the keep up to date image and instead add a title to your Instagram reel, with Check out our Latest Instagram Posts and your handle
4: 3D scanning page is quite word heavy, possibly add it a couple of images of the process in with the text so customers can see what happens, similar on the printing page.
5: You don't have an about us page, it is just a dropdown to distributors etc
6: Might just be me but I had a warning on the contact page with the map, saying: This page can't load Google Maps correctly
7: Ran your homepage and a product page through pagespeed and the scores aren't great. I would also recommend trying uptrends speed test as well, I would but I'm currently doing lots of website speed tests!
Overall though, the site looks well thought out and professional.
1: Declutter the homepage, I would lose the payment methods image and clearpay banner, you have these advertised in your footer and on your product pages anyway.
2: I would have a fullwidth banner for the 3d scanning and printing, with something like - Need a Custom Part? Check out our Complete 3D Scanning and Printing Services
3: Lose the keep up to date image and instead add a title to your Instagram reel, with Check out our Latest Instagram Posts and your handle
4: 3D scanning page is quite word heavy, possibly add it a couple of images of the process in with the text so customers can see what happens, similar on the printing page.
5: You don't have an about us page, it is just a dropdown to distributors etc
6: Might just be me but I had a warning on the contact page with the map, saying: This page can't load Google Maps correctly
7: Ran your homepage and a product page through pagespeed and the scores aren't great. I would also recommend trying uptrends speed test as well, I would but I'm currently doing lots of website speed tests!
Overall though, the site looks well thought out and professional.
Mudgey said:
Yes, it's the latest version of Magento 2, we started completely from scratch with no database migration, we imported all customer and product data via CSV after thoroughly going through it to fix errors and remove any legacy products.
Cheers, will pass this info on to the developer to get his thoughts!
interesting. I work in IT specifically to solve this problem. Automated inventory on line, and enhanced imagery, descriptions. It allows for more product to be put online, faster, handles price changes from suppliers and gives you an exception report if you want to make or withhold changes as well as correcting errors, and it's all linked back to the original supplier so you can manage stock more effectively and be sure that the correct part number or price is displayed at all times. Cheers, will pass this info on to the developer to get his thoughts!
It will revolutionise e-commerce solutions simply in terms of the reduction in development time required. You can contact me if you want to know more and save yourself a load of development costs.
Have only looked at homepage but I would echo what other commentors have said regarding clutter. With a slider whizzing along the top, two carousels at the bottom and everything else squeeze between it's a bit of an assault on the senses.
I would also agree that it's not obvious what your business / the website does. I'd defintely put a line or two of clear, concise text above the fold to summarise and sell what your business does. Remove the clutter or at least add some horizontal padding to space everything out. Remove payment methods and social media links, these should be in the footer only. I'd also be linking to my categories on the page to point visitors in the right direction, rather than relying on the nav and letting them work it out themselves.
I would also agree that it's not obvious what your business / the website does. I'd defintely put a line or two of clear, concise text above the fold to summarise and sell what your business does. Remove the clutter or at least add some horizontal padding to space everything out. Remove payment methods and social media links, these should be in the footer only. I'd also be linking to my categories on the page to point visitors in the right direction, rather than relying on the nav and letting them work it out themselves.
I think it's actually a really nice site but needs a little bit of tickling - so here are a few of my comments (in no particular order):
1. The slider is moving so flippin fast, I don't have time to actually read what's going on other than the fan slide
2. The slide detailing your sponsorship of Volkscraft is cool looking, but it would be even more cool if your logo was front and center on the car. Can you photoshop it onto the bonnet?
3. The payment methods rectangle is a waste of valuable screen real estate
4. The social media rectangle is a waste of valuable screen real estate
5. The 3D scan/print services are interesting - why not make more of a feature of this?
6. Your phone number in the top right and in the footer is not a link to make a call tel:xxxx
7. The most popular products section doesn't seem to have what I'd consider "hero" products on it. I suspect if someone was looking for an "AN10 Straight Swivel Seal Hose End", a search engine would take them straight to that page in your site. I would have higher priced, higher profit products listed here. The photos are also all predominantly black which doesn't look so good
8. Same comment for recently added products - of no use to you at all
9. On the product page, the heart and the bar chart have no tooltips when you hover over them. I presumed the heart was some sort of favorite but no idea what the bar chart was until I clicked on it. After clicking on it, I saw the thing pop up telling me it's on the compare list - but I have no idea where to go now to actually compare after the banner disappeared!
10. On your comparison page, there are a number of logos that don't display properly
That's all I've got so far - gotta run. Hope it's helpful.
1. The slider is moving so flippin fast, I don't have time to actually read what's going on other than the fan slide
2. The slide detailing your sponsorship of Volkscraft is cool looking, but it would be even more cool if your logo was front and center on the car. Can you photoshop it onto the bonnet?
3. The payment methods rectangle is a waste of valuable screen real estate
4. The social media rectangle is a waste of valuable screen real estate
5. The 3D scan/print services are interesting - why not make more of a feature of this?
6. Your phone number in the top right and in the footer is not a link to make a call tel:xxxx
7. The most popular products section doesn't seem to have what I'd consider "hero" products on it. I suspect if someone was looking for an "AN10 Straight Swivel Seal Hose End", a search engine would take them straight to that page in your site. I would have higher priced, higher profit products listed here. The photos are also all predominantly black which doesn't look so good
8. Same comment for recently added products - of no use to you at all
9. On the product page, the heart and the bar chart have no tooltips when you hover over them. I presumed the heart was some sort of favorite but no idea what the bar chart was until I clicked on it. After clicking on it, I saw the thing pop up telling me it's on the compare list - but I have no idea where to go now to actually compare after the banner disappeared!
10. On your comparison page, there are a number of logos that don't display properly
That's all I've got so far - gotta run. Hope it's helpful.
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