Review Request: www.whitesparkpromotions.com

openmind wrote: ... wanted to get a professional opinion ...

Oh well I'll put in my 2c anyways

First up am a little concerned about your online designer, if they will be live shortly are they working from the 'other side'

Anyways, the layout is very clean but maybe a bit to simple with the big coloured boxes on the front page (reminds me of baby blocks).

I've recently been getting quotes on some printing work so this should be interesting.
I know it's not your site as such but the biggest thing I found when inquiring is the printing terms, like 300gsm for example, I know it's the thickness of the card/paper as have had business cards done before but to average joe is just confusing. A6 has page size but A7 doesn't. I know what A4 is
[edit] I found out what size A7 is on the 'How it Works > Design' page [/edit]

Some of the links are confusing, using black links and black titles.
Not to much to fault, loads fast, easy to use (navigation could be ordered and 'how it works' higher up or seperated) . One personal per peeve is the forms, having it submit automatily is great but it's not normal so you choose your option and go to click the update button but the page moves (refreshes)

Thanks busy for your "professional opinion"

I agree with the nav, we're going to change that so there is a break between the main links like contact us, FAQ etc and then the product groups below.

We're also going to hard code a link in so that it goes directly to the FAQ article on sizes etc. I'll also have a play with the link colours...

I like the design and the blocks, it's nice and clear but you could argue there is not enough content for the amount of pages there are?

Looking at the code, you should remove pretty much all of the meta tags. I'm not sure where you got the info from that they'd help you out but all they are doing is stopping bots from getting to content rich text.

Adding to the SEO point of view, i would like to see some keyword rich text on the home page! The only bit of text on the page is about a million lines down!

You have no keywords or description tags listed? Why not? MSN still likes them. Plus, your title tag needs to be more descriptive. For EACH INDIVIDUAL page. Don't copy and paste the same stuff for every page..

Nice site

-Rob

I think you could be a little more direct about what this is. It took me a little bit of reading to figure out what was going on here. A simple heading across the top of the coloured boxes (which I like, BTW), saying "Quality print jobs, deliverred to your door!" or something like that might make it more clear.

I agree with Rob about the large number of links on the left. That big navbar seems to conflict with the simple boxes in the middle. You've got simplicity on the right and complexity on the left. Maybe combine the options into larger categories. You could then list multiple options on one page to avoid some clicky-ness. Also separate the navbar into sections for administrivia and actual printing work respectively.

I think it would be really good to have more package deals available. Business packages of varying levels would be good, for example. I also think the product pages should have some samples to display, especially for promotional items.

Delving depeer into the functionality, I was a little confused at fierst about the "select" boxes. I think an "order now" link would be more clear. I shouldn't have to read some instructions on how to order. It should be intuitive. I didn't see the "Please click here to continue" button at first either. It should be on the right side along the same line as the "select/order now" options, and I think it should say "place order" instead.

Now I'm on the upload page. It doesn't say what file formats are accpeted so I'm a little concerned that what I put in might not be accpeted. How do I know? Something should say that here. There are also links here that look like plain (bolded) text. Those should be coloured so people can tell the difference. I had an eps file handy so I tried that. And now I'm back to the home page ?!?!??! Is this the part that's not finished yet??

Overall a good job, despite my pickiness. I like the logo and the overall look & feel.

Some excellent feedback there, many thanks.

Rob - The site has only just launched so we need to look at the SEO stuff

Megan - Soe of your points are going to be down to the client so I will need to discuss with him, some are down to me. Odd that you were booted back to the homepage after uploading though, you should have ended up at the cart... I'll check on that.

I guess you followed all the suggestions above, I visited your site and well its quite neat and clean... Simple but effective...

Guess youll have to repost when you go live...

Haven't actually implemented them yet and the site's live?

like the design, but have to agree with Busy, the blocks are a bit big for my taste. and the same as megan in that it took a little while to work out what it was all about.
I found that the "Pay Online" jumped into my face as soon as I opened the site which is either good or bad depending on your angle. Else clean and neat but some pages a bit sparce on content, maybe too many links that could be included on the one page?

Yeh I agree the nav bar is the same issue that keeps coming up...

Will speak to the client on that one...

quite a clean cut design. Think you should have a much more clean cut title though to say what your website is actually about. When I look at any web page I want to know what it is generally about almost instantly.

The £50 for 5000 buisnes cards sounds interesting. If you'd offer me £10 for 1000 you'd have a sale, 5000 is a bit much for me - i'd need to eat them or something.

I mean the designer

This design is a bit plain. Also, I found the column of radio buttons with the 'Update' button at the bottom confusing. Update what? Some instructions please, or detect the browser and if JavaScript is on and do what is required.

Peter

The website is quite cool but like some of the other users on here I feel it's a bit plain. There is too much white space and not enough content.

The navigation bar could do with being divided and put into groups of related links. As it is it's just a long daunting list that is a bit difficult to find exactly what you are looking for.

I definitely think that it's got the potential to be great. I reckon if there is more content on it and the design is tweaked a bit and the space used more efficiently it could be great.

I like the sparse use of colours too. It's not harsh on the eyes and really easy to look it. I also really like the logo in the top left corner. It's simple but effective.

Good work so far.

I'm going to go ahead and put my vote down for adding more keyword-rich content Maybe intersperse text with the blocks.

Also, robfen is right, no ones gonna miss those obscure meta tags, using only title, keyword, discription and character set.

As for the structure of forms and other interactive areas and functions, they look pretty good. I didn't test everything but you should to check for bugs so your users do not find them first.

As I am looking, you haven't corrected the fact that nothing jumps right out at you that declares what the site is, as locatepeople stated. Perhaps that contigent on your meeting with the client.

I'm a big fan of simplicity when it causes the user to focus on content rather than the prett gizmos. All in all, a nice job!