Please critique shopToyland

Nice site looks good easy to navigate but the subject did not appeal to me that much.

Hi,

Easy to navigate and use though all the coupon links on the left confused me as they mostly don't have anything to do with toys. But then again it does serve the purpose of referring on customers to other sites (and hopefully bring in some income).

Can the site be more colourful? Primary colours. The blue and grey are very business-like but don't make me want to delve in and explore the toys and buy, buy, buy (for the great nephew of course!). I think of when I walk into a store and come across the children's section with the bold colours and toys inviting me to play (actually ... umm ... purchase). Who can resist but to purchase in that situation? My great nephew just cannot do without that cute cuddly soft toy I found or that book that he's too young to read just now but was my favourite when I was a kid. This is assuming I'm shopping without the kids and they aren't tantrumming wanting the latest and greatest ... (Ahh, the joys of online shopping.)

An example of bright and inviting yet keeping a business look - http://www.uncommongoods.com/ - this came from one of the links on your left nav bar. I haven't chosen this site as the be all and end all - just came across it and it had the immediate effect of inviting me in to check it out.

The freebies and playground sections would get me to bookmark the site.

The domain name is a memorable one and I wish you the best with the site.

Cheers,

Annette

Hi Deborah,

I remember your other site. And I see that you still have the Fire Dept. site listed on your kids links page....Thanks!!!

I think it looks good but I do have a few things to point out that I would probably change. Hope you don't think I am nit-picking.

The HELP button is smaller than the others.

I would add a rollover to the links on the left so that it is a little more noticable that they are links. Maybe make the rollover color something eyecatching.

I don't particulary like the gray colored text that you used at the top and as the headers. You could add some color to the site by changing the color of these. Try using one of the colors that is in the little toy beside your logo. I think that would enhance the logo and the site. I think I would try the green.

Maybe add some text navigation at the bottom.

Don't know if you are going to put anything in the gray box that is below the left navigation and the join now box but it looks really empty and unfinished.

You have some really good resources for us penny pinching moms on your site. I like it.

Good luck,
disastermaster

I'm looking right now for a simple script that will allow the text in the left nav column to change color on mouse roll over. If anyone happens to know where a good one is I'd really appreciate your letting me know.
Thanks for all of the great advice and tips - I'll be making a few changes this week.
Deborah

What program/editor do you use to build/maintain the site?

I write my own html in wordpad and upload via ftp. Is that what you mean?
thanks for helping,
Deborah

Don't know if this is what you want but here is where a CSS Hover Text script can be found. Not sure if this works in Netscape of not. Maybe someone else can be of some assistance.

http://www.bravenet.com/reviews/archives/tips.php?view=50

disastermaster

A common suggestion was that the site looked too corporate and needed more primary colors. Could you please tell me what you think of the colors and new textual graphics ( a little more playful) at this temporary index I've uploaded:
http://www.shoptoyland.com/temp.index.html

Thanks,
Deborah

I couldn't get the temp/index to work but it looks like you have changed the main site. I like the purple and the new text. Nice touch!!

Did you change the headers too on the home page? I noticed that the other pages have gray headers and the home page has the blue headers. I like that too. The gray ones are too bland.

The only other thing that I would do is add the mouseovers to the left nav. I guess you are working on that though. Was that script in my last post what you were looking for? If not I will post another.

disastermaster

I too couldn't get the temp.index to work, however looking at the main site I like the purple but I'm not sure I like it with the blue though. I would have gone for a primary colour and I would even look at changing the grey box that contains the links.

As it's a toy shop I would make it much more colourful.

A reply to my request for a critique brought this code - not sure if it is what you want.

______________________________

This would give you an non-underlined hyperlink that changes color and underlines on mouseover

code:

STYLE
A { text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold}

A:link { color:#}

A:visited { text-decoration:none; color:# }

A:active { text-decoration:none; color:# }

A:hover { text-decoration:underline; color:# }
/STYLE

____________________________________________

I'm really only at HTML101 stage so haven't ventured into stylesheets or other coding yet. But there are some good sites around that will teach you or provide code. I understand that CSS isn't recognised by all browsers. A few sites to check (I can't recommend any personally but I have bookmarked them to get back to) -

http://www.webreview.com/style/index.shtml
http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/authoring/stylesheets/index.html

There would be many more.

Cheers,

Annette

PS The temp link wouldn't work for me either.

Hi, it's me again.

Some references for colour. I could not find the link I was searching for - re: primary colours and children and websites. There have been plenty of articles about regarding colour and the meanings and cultural interpretation of various colours.

Basic colour theory - good for a refresher -
http://www.webdesignclinic.com/ezine/v1i1/color

Colour and ecommerce -
http://www.colormatters.com/des_ecom.html

Try colour schemes online -
http://www.colorschemer.com/online/
http://www.paletteman.com/

Annette