# New to the business, Need Feedback



## cerebsound (Oct 16, 2005)

Just started my ecommerce t-shirt business. The url is www.raggamuffinsapparel.com I need all around feedback, comments and suggestions. Thanks so much!

-Sylvester Parsons


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## sarafina (Jul 27, 2005)

cerebsound said:


> Just started my ecommerce t-shirt business. The url is www.raggamuffinsapparel.com I need all around feedback, comments and suggestions. Thanks so much!
> 
> -Sylvester Parsons


I like your site. I use to live in Jamaica and so the Caribbean culture is still near and dear to my heart. Congrats on the tee launch and goodluck!

Now for the critique. You should really have navigation links from all the pages so that when i'm on 'about we' I can link back to home or any other page without going back first.

Your links needed to be added for i.see real t-shirt ii.enlarge image.

The colour scheme is nice, fits your product. 

Its fine now but when you have more tees you may want to present them in a more evident way instead of having me click on teez and scrolling to each individual one.

Also, who is your market for this? I'm sure the general public has no clue what the alot of the sayings represent.


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## jdr8271 (Jun 16, 2005)

Your site is hard to navigate. and then it is hard to click on them, since they arent staying the same size. You should make them just change color, not size. It also seems like every page in the site has a different design. The whole site was very disorganized to me. I like the design you used on your faq page. If I weere you, I would add the links across the top of the page, and use that as a template for the whole website. The sounds on the homepage are also really annoying.


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## Twinge (Apr 26, 2005)

I would advise not using flash for the website. Search Engines can't navigate flash, and it has several other problems as well (similar to the ones you'd get using frames) such as the inability to bookmark specific pages and the inability to use traditional (back/forward arrows) navigation.

As jdr said, the sounds are extremely annoying; not professional at all. I suggest you remove the sound effects entirely - if you must keep them, have a clearly labeled option to turn the sounds off at the start of the flash (and make sure this stays consistent between all the other pages).

'exemplatory' is one word.

Basically... needs some work. I'd say remove the flash content ENTIRELY, and the annoying sound effects along with it. After that, work on making a consistant website with easy navigation.


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## Solmu (Aug 15, 2005)

Twinge said:


> 'exemplatory' is one word.


Err... no, exemplatory isn't a word at all.


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## Twinge (Apr 26, 2005)

Solmu said:


> Err... no, exemplatory isn't a word at all.


Ah, indeed - my mistake. 'exemplary', then.


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## monkeylantern (Oct 16, 2005)

I always panic when a customer asks for Flash content in a website....in very few cases is it a positive aspect to a site.

However, the Flash is professional, and clearly has taken time and skill to produce, so you may not be willing to remove it. If you could, I would, but I can see why you wouldn't want to.

If nothing else, remove the sound as stated above, or make it very easy to switch off before entering the site.

The Golden Rule:

Sound + website = very rude

Most people think sites with sound are taking advantage of their computers, and loathe it.


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## Chris (Sep 19, 2005)

monkeylantern said:


> However, the Flash is professional, and clearly has taken time and skill to produce, so you may not be willing to remove it. If you could, I would, but I can see why you wouldn't want to.


I _could_ cover my furniture in gold leaf, but it'd ruin the lines and effect of the pieces. Some people think that gold = classy, however.

A commerce site needs less 'flash' as a general rule, they're not buying the site. If you've got it, it better be invisible, seamless, and intuitive. Sound is annoying, period.


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## monkeylantern (Oct 16, 2005)

Chris said:


> I _could_ cover my furniture in gold leaf, but it'd ruin the lines and effect of the pieces. Some people think that gold = classy, however.
> 
> A commerce site needs less 'flash' as a general rule, they're not buying the site. If you've got it, it better be invisible, seamless, and intuitive. Sound is annoying, period.


I totally agree with you. But if someone spends 4 hours making a flash graphic, they may be grumpy to remove it...


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## Chris (Sep 19, 2005)

monkeylantern said:


> I totally agree with you. But if someone spends 4 hours making a flash graphic, they may be grumpy to remove it...


Therein lies the rub.. a designer wants all the bells and whistles, but isn't necessarily qualified at effective marketing. The best designers are equal parts of both, IMHO.

Just remember that at some point you have to step back and ask yourself "if you should". 

"Because you can" isn't the answer you want.


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## Twinge (Apr 26, 2005)

If it only took 4 hours to make, I wouldn't get too attached to it. I hate to waste my time too, but sometimes you just have to realize it was a mistake and move on  Not that he necessarily has to remove the flash portion, I suppose, but I definitely think it would be to his benefit in the long run.


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## Chris (Sep 19, 2005)

Upon a second review, the first thing option you're given on this site tends to rub the consumer the wrong way. 

"Hey, come over here and SPEND SPEND SPEND yourself into debt!" 

Lose the $$ signs.


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## monkeylantern (Oct 16, 2005)

Twinge said:


> If it only took 4 hours to make, I wouldn't get too attached to it. I hate to waste my time too, but sometimes you just have to realize it was a mistake and move on  Not that he necessarily has to remove the flash portion, I suppose, but I definitely think it would be to his benefit in the long run.


That's if it took 4 hours 

It may have taken days if he's new to Flash, or even paid for it from an outside source. Both makes it harder to let go.


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## bjmason32 (Jul 1, 2005)

Twinge said:


> Search Engines can't navigate flash, and it has several other problems as well (similar to the ones you'd get using frames) such as the inability to bookmark specific pages and the inability to use traditional (back/forward arrows) navigation.


I agree completely. The 1st priority is getting visitors to your site. It doesn't matter how cool you website looks if nobody sees it. Would you rather impress your friends or sell some shirts? Companies with established brand names can create elaborate flash websites because they have people actively searching for them. Unless you plan on releasing a multi-million dollar ad campaign in the near future or if you've found the a ton of $.10 keywords that will get you a bunch of PPC clicks, then.....I would recommend stripping the flash and focusing on optimizing your website for the major search engines. 



You should start by changing your meta tags to the keyword phrases you're targeting. If you haven't given any thought to those keywords, please do your homework as this will probably be the most important aspect of your website.


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