Feedback needed on new site

Made for the small screens

the body margins arent equal in Netscape as in IE, use all 4 topmargin="2" leftmargin="2" marginheight="2" marginwidth="2" instead of just the top and left.

Even thou you have done well to make it fit the smaller screen size, I think you could just as easily make it mutli sized by using table=100% with a fixed right cell.

The sites, clean, simple yet does what it should but the colors are a little bland, and it could probably do with a logo.
I guess the other books would be on the eBook Store page? bit hard to say what it would be like with more than one book.
I checked out the preview and the first 3 or 4 pages are of nothing, just the title, the name of the book (again) and the contents, where is the "preview", I found it on page 6

Is the "Adobe eBook Reader" the same as "Adobe Acrobat reader" (havent the time to check it out from Adobe's site)

heres a question I didnt find answered, or mentioned, how and when would I get the ebook once I paid for it?

What is going on? I am seeing more and more of these sites that are huddled over in the corner trying to appease the 800x600 god. You don't have to fill the screen in all places but at larger resolutions, it looks like it is all bunched up in the corner.

1. Compatibily: Even though it was done in Frontpage, it is fairly compatible just remove your margins like Busy said. This will fix both NS and Opera.

2. Design: When I saw the title GrannyJo, I thought to myself what I could do with that logo. Yours was somewhat plain and disappointing. I am thinking something subtle like granny glasses incorporated into the logo would be cool.

3. Graphics: There really wasn't much in the way of graphics. You could probably spice the ones that are there up a little, though.

4. Navigation:Standard fare and the same on all your pages.

5. Color scheme: Little plain here on the color scheme. It is a site for kids so I would think that you would have a more vibrant color scheme than what you have.

6. Sales process: Seemed to work okay but not much in the way of product.

7. Overall appearance: Plain Jane.

8. Other comments: In the above statement, you need to fill more of the screen. As far as you code, it is the typical Frontpage site with lots of font tags which increase load times and things like height in a table which don't always work correctly.

1. Compatibily: Seems to be fine in my browser but I don't like how it's crammed into the corner there like that. Center the table and make the background one of those tan colours (maybe the darker one?)

2. Design: Looks good. I'm not too sure about the logo - I like the font you used on the "start reading today" text better than the one you have in the logo now - try that instead. I also don't like the use of the bright yellow, try something different for that.

3. Graphics: Maybe try a different icon for the help section, like a question mark or something

4. Navigation: fine

5. Color scheme: see above comments about the yellow

6. Sales process: The checkout page really remind me of Amazon, so that's good (people are likely to be familiar with that process.) Can you change that Click Bank page at all?

7. Overall appearance: I don't think it's too plain. Simple yet effective.

8. Other comments:

>>I am seeing more and more of these sites that are huddled over in the corner trying to appease the 800x600 god.<<

That 560 wide table actually looks pretty lost on the left side at 800x600 as well.

On ebookstore.htm the link "Little Rhymes for Bedtimes" on the left goes to a Barnes & Noble affiliate click-thru for "The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse" ebook by Ellen Schecter, Holly Hannon. What's up with that?

The "preview"... why is the second page just another "title" page? Get rid of it! The third page is nothing but a "by" author page. Get rid of it! The fourth page is nothing but a copyright notice page. Get rid of it! The fifth page is a table of contents page. Get rid of it!

Finally, page six to see an example of the "rhymes" I want to know if I'm willing to pay for. Most people wouldn't wait this long to get six screens deep. Now that I'm there, the text is almost too tiny to read.

It appears these are pages directly from the ebook? You need more llustrations and graphics... something on every page, I think. Because either one is reading at a computer screen with a kid on their lap, or they've printed the pages out and are reading them bedside. Either way, kids like to "read along" and pictures help keep them interested.

I think it's safe to say these meta tags won't get you any traffic and can be deleted:

meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 4.0"
meta name="ProgId" content="FrontPage.Editor.Document"

Overall, the colors are blah, the site is blah, doesn't entice me to want to buy anything. I'd also add something on the site about buying through a secure server.

Good luck with it.

I think it's all been said! The site is a bit bland in my opinion & definitely has the squished feeling to it. Centralising it all may improve this and probably wont look so daft at larger resolutions.

Needs a logo. Can't Sheila draw a picture of Granny Jo to be used as a logo? You need something to give the site an identity and everyone likes cartoons so why not create her.

You definitely need to have details of the secure server.

Quote: Originally posted by TheGizmoid
>>I am seeing more and more of these sites that are huddled over in the corner trying to appease the 800x600 god.<<

Isn't that annoying? And really there's no need to do that! All you have to do is center the table and it will look much better at higher resolutions. I also like it when the background is coloured around it instead of just leaving it white. The squashed look really bugs me particularly because it's so easy to fix! I imagine, though, that a lot of these designers are using WYSIWYG's....

Quote: Originally posted by Megan
I imagine, though, that a lot of these designers are using WYSIWYG's....

Don't tar us all with that brush please some of us may not code by hand but we do think about the design and centering a table even in DW isn't hard.

Thanks for the feedback.

>>Can you change that Click Bank page at all?<<

Unable to change it. I am looking locally for a bank that provides Internet Merchant Accounts. Using Click Bank we are losing $1.30 a sale!

>>That 560 wide table actually looks pretty lost on the left side at 800x600 as well.<<

I determine the width of the table from what I need to display. It just happened that 560 was all I needed.

Did anyone buy the book? It's only $4.00.

Gavin

Quote: Originally posted by The Webmistress

Don't tar us all with that brush please some of us may not code by hand but we do think about the design and centering a table even in DW isn't hard.

Sorry, I didn't mean to insinuate that no one who uses a WYSIWIG can make a site that looks good on different screen res's For some reason I tend to think that it's just more likely to happen in a WYSIWIG... why, I don't know... maybe I should take that one back

Quote: I determine the width of the table from what I need to display. It just happened that 560 was all I needed.

It's not the width that's the problem, it's the positioning!

>>It's not the width that's the problem, it's the positioning!<<

That's just my style.

Quote: I am looking locally for a bank that provides Internet Merchant Accounts

Considered paypal, or CCnow ?

Pay Pal doesn't cover the world like Click Bank.

I will check out CCnow.

Thanks,

Gavin

Busy,

CCnow's fee is very low. Now if I could only find a company like CCnow which allowed you to change the secure credit card processing page. You know so it looks like they never left your web site.

Gavin