Procast website

Hi all, with Kieran's permission, I just put up a post to let you know I've revised the website and reduced product costs. Postage for all non-lead products is free (lead being that bit heavier will be charged at the lowest cost I can get for you with is "Standard Parcel" rate ).
Images have been made a bit clearer and load up a bit quicker, though I still have a bit of work to do with some to speed it up a bit.
Feel free to offer constructive criticism !! (be nice !!)

All the best,
Conor.

Conor,

Had a quick look. The load time seem good but I have a good connection so maybe someone on Dial-up can help there. Some of the pictures are good, to me it looks like the ones that you've taken yourself. The pictures of the soft plastics are too small and there is not that much detail in the shot. I know that these are hard to photograph but I think it would be worth having a go at. I would suggest a couple of card backgrounds of different colours like White, Grey and maybe blue. If you need any tips on photographing these let me know and I'll post a few tips. Anyway back to the site. I've seen this type of layout before and it seems like it is being generated by software. Either way, is it possible to move your text and price or maybe just the text under the photograph where it will read better and not be so congested. To be truthful it is actually annoying having all the text bunched together like that and I honestly think it will put people off reading it. I really think that you should look at changing the existing layout.

I know you have put a lot of work into the site as I have build one or two myself so please don't think I am knocking your work just trying to help by giving an honest opinion.

Good luck and if you need any tips on the photo aspect I'll do my best to help.

Kev

Hi Kev,
Cheers for the advice. The images are too big at the minute. I'm working on reducing them so the text can be spread out a bit more. I can alter the layout of the shop pages, but it's fairly limited as to what you can do because , as you say, the shop end of it isn't designed by me, it comes with the package (it's free so I'll not compalin too much) , but it is restrictive.
Hopefully I can get it sorted this weekend, unfortunately time is not something I have a lot off, so advice will be acted on (eventually) .
Thanks again.

I was looking again and I see what you mean. Can you remove the product code? or is it linked to a stock system or needed for the site. This might give you a little more room for the text. The pictures are big but the actual size of the plastic item is small. One thing to do would be to get nice and close up on the bait and try a pic that way. You could then use some pic editing software to crop the picture and reduce the size to 300 x 200 or even 200 pixels wide. You might even be able to go smaller and have a link to a bigger picture of the product or products opening in a new window so that they don't loose their browsing on the main shoping window.

Another thing to consider.... Do you set the window size for the shoping catalogue on the software. It seems that it is working to 800 pixels wide at the moment. I don't know anyone who uses the old screen res of 800 x 600 any more although a lot of sites still reccomment that you use this a base for design. A quick post here will give you a good idea of everyones screen size. I use 1024 x 768 and all the screens here in the office are set to the same one or two are bigger. You could make your catalogue window 1000 pixels wide if possible.

Kevin

One the Subject of your site Conor, Can you Send me the Procast Logo, or give me permission to nick it, in order to put a link off my site?? 8)