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Posted by: greentempleviper May 24 2011, 05:34 PM

Hi, I would like to have some feedback on my website: http://www.mikesdaylilies.net

It is my first functioning site. I am not fully finished with it, but it does generate customers for our flower business locally. I think it is pretty straight forward, but some of our customers seem a little confused. Most of them like it. Every now and then we get someone that doesn't seem to understand what is going on. I would like some honest opinions. I appreciate any help or corrective criticism. Thanks.

Posted by: Darin McGrew May 24 2011, 06:54 PM

The first problem I noticed is that you use HTML to resize images. For example, you display field.jpg as 400x300px, even though the image is 3648×2736px. Instead, create a copy of the image that is the correct size, and use that.

Posted by: greentempleviper May 24 2011, 07:54 PM

Okay, thank you. Does that help them load faster?

Posted by: Darin McGrew May 24 2011, 10:15 PM

Absolutely. A 400x300px image should be much smaller than a 3648×2736px image.

Posted by: pandy May 24 2011, 10:40 PM

What are your customers confused about?

The thing I notice, even if it isn't confusing, is that the color of the text in your logo makes it hard to read against the black background. Too low contrast.

Posted by: greentempleviper May 25 2011, 07:55 PM

Well, yesterday there was a lady that had some problems with it. She couldn't figure out where to find the daylilies. Then when she called us with a list, half of the ones she named off weren't even on the site. I figured that maybe the font was hard to read. I don't want to just assume people are stupid. I would rather rule out anything that is my fault first, lol. So that is what made me want to get some expert opinions. There have been a couple of people complaining about some pics not loading, but I think Darin's advice will fix that. I will also work on the logo pic, I had been wondering about the color. That was one I came up with when I first started playing with photoshop. It's time for an update, I think. Thank you both for your help.

Posted by: pandy May 25 2011, 08:20 PM

I found the daylilies right off and I'm not the sharpest knife in the box when it comes to orienting myself on a new site.

Posted by: newwebseo May 27 2011, 05:12 AM

site is good loads faster. The only thing annoys me is the background color of your site.

It is your taste for design then its ok, but most of the time sites prefer to have white or light blue background and text in black.
This makes easier for users to read.

Posted by: greentempleviper Jun 3 2011, 10:52 AM

Thank you all for your input. @newwebseo, I just like the black background because it makes the color in the pictures pop. If it were a more text based webpage, I probably would use a lighter color.

Posted by: Chris Martucci Jun 3 2011, 10:56 AM

I agree with newwebseo -- I'd go with a light background. The design of your website should match what you are selling, and most people associate flowers with bright sunlight, not darkness.

My biggest criticism was that I had no idea what the purpose of the website was at first glance. It was not easy to tell that you were selling something.

Here are my suggestions:

1. Go with a light background
2. Use headings (h1, h2, h3) to help explain the purpose of the website. For example, on the front page, you could have three sections:
- Welcome
- What you will find here
- How to order
3. I think you need to rename your navigation links. Most people expect certain things to be in the navigation bar. For example, people expect an "About" or "About Us" page and a "Shop" button for a store.