Website Feedback

Jeffrey, I checked out your site on iPad - very well laid out and easy to navigate. The front page is beautifully presented and enticed me further - I'm unsure if it's only on iPad but there is rather a large blank white space in the centre of the front page that seems to want something there, but that may well be just iPad. Other than that, I really like it!

It looks good but I'm confused. Are you selling prints outside of FAA? And you put the 'cart' before the 'shop' tab. That threw me for a minute.

because I like links that work: www.grandkinstudios.com


edit add: Well - looks ok - but just two works? and I realize that "art" is a product - but I don't think I would put it "Product Description". and rather than "shop" it would seem you should have "Gallery" or something.

Just my two cents Jeffrey.

Grrrrr... I wrote a fairly informative reply and FAA lost it! :(

Suffice to say, I would suggest:

1. Remove space in menu bar so everything in on 1 line and rearrange what you have
2. I don't care for seeing tags and prefer a Search box, which is easily added
3. CSS/HTML coding can intimidate one who isn't familiar with it, but I would adjust your margins/floats/paddings/positions of content. One thing I find very helpful is using Firebug with FireFox. With it you can make changes and see those results before adding code, figure out what code to use to make changes, etc.
4. When creating a page, at the very bottom you will see boxes to click on: box with X, full box, box with ride "aside", etc. You don't have to use "asides" if you don't want to for Archives, Related items, etc. or you can change them
5. It is advised when making changes to CSS you use either the custom.css that comes with theme(if avail.) or create a child Theme.css

I see you're using WooCommerce. Did you set it up just to send order to you, then you order it from AW or FAA? Thus putting in the customers info for shipping? Or did you directly incorporate it somehow with FAA?

Also did you add taxes for your state?

Roy, to change things up with WooCommerce can be a bit tricky. Cuz usually you need to add Functions and if done wrong you can render your site to just a white screen or even lock yourself out. :( I know I've done both! lol But now I rarely have that happen and if it does, I know what to do.

Jeffrey,

Nice and fresh. As just mentioned, people are looking for "Gallery" or "Portfolio" and like to see a range of images. A lot of white on pages,where the image should be much larger,less white space. On your PDF sheet, you only offer canvas,prints and greeting cards?

Banner seeems to be pretty busy and I would remove some of the buttons and then make a drop down list,instead.

No mention of the artist(s) there at the studio either,which people like to relate to,

Rich

I think its best you ask your customers who you have a buying relationship with ... they will look at it with the eye you are looking for. That is what I did and boy did I learn a lot.

Thanks for the feedback.

Many of the things mentioned here are limited by the theme package. I can contact and ask for workarounds, but unless I learn css coding I may but stuck, or have to find another theme pack if I find it bothersome. Ideally, I would like to put the cart - account - checkout at the top of the page.

Yes, Roy, have only loaded two products at present to test.

Charly, right now I will input to FAA and have things shipped.

Jeffrey, your Theme shouldn't limit you at all, albeit if using WP.com there are some minor restrictions. Although not knowing code certainly can limit one and trust me at 50+ learning it can be frustrating! :(

If you are interested learning a bit of code or would like me to help with your site, your welcome to contact me via email to discuss some options. :)

I've developed both of my sites via WP and one has WooCommerce already on it. I started with the free WooTheme Mystile. One I just about completely redid, the other close to the same

Imagery by Charly
Prints of Italy

I'm still working on both, but think you'll get the idea of how far or not you take your site.

Edit: BTW, I went to your site, opened Firebug and was able to change the look of your site. So I know you can do it to yours :)

Charly,

Yes, I'm getting used to the options to change things without having to css. I'm wrapping my head around, albeit slowly, as this is my first attempt with Wordpress.

Jeffrey, Can I ask..why do you use the word "we" throughout? Do you mean yourself and FAA as a partnership or do you have staff? Not being sarcastic or critical...just curious.

Mandy

Mandy,

Never thought about it, actually.

I feel your pain Jeffrey... My first site in WP was Imagery by Charly and it took me 6 months to get that far. Then again, I drastically changed it up and spent weeks on things I was told couldn't be done, yet figured it out on my own. ;)

I can tell you this though, rarely can you do much w/o using CSS/HTML. Also it's good to keep the plugins you use to a minimum.

Charly,

Sent you a PM regarding CSS.

I like your website, Jeffrey. Very clean and easy to get around. Everything worked well except one thing I found...I added a print to the cart, proceeded to checkout and received this message: That page can't be found.
It looks like nothing was found at this location. Maybe try one of the links below or a search?

Not sure if you intended that to happen because you're still tweaking things, but if you weren't aware of it, I wanted to let you know. :)

--Jai

I'm having the same issue now, Jai. Thanks.

Upadate: Jai, I had the Checkout section set to 'private viewing' as I made some changes. As you can see I'm very new to Wordpress and learning as I go.

Question: I currently have three sliding images on the home page, but thinking of expanding to five. Overkill?

I think five would be fine. And maybe even more than that. I have a lot of featured images on my front page slide show on my site. Don't know if that's a good thing or not...I've never really thought about it. :)

I'll experiment with three to five and see how I like it.

It's looking very professional.

Lisa, thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it.

Now, the long task of filling with content, which is not bad. But it's all the SEO requirements that need to be met - metadata, keywords, descriptions, etc. Just to upload one fine art product takes about 40 minutes, or so.

Hi Jeffrey,

If possible I would place the menu links under 'Fine Art Prints' underneath one another; vertical prints now doesn't come up until you hover over horizontal prints. Not sure, but maybe you've made a mistake in the site lay-out here where 'Vertical Prints' is a subpage of 'Horizontal Prints' rather than Fine Art Prints?

Also, the images in the viewer under the menu bar look somewhat soft too me; I'm sure that in a full size print which is viewed from a distant this is not an issue, but on your website it might make customers wonder about the quality of the print. The actual images (like here http://grandkinstudios.com/product/heceta-head-lighthouse/) should be bigger, too small really to entice customers.

Hope this helps!

Dean,

Fixed the sub-category issues, I appreciate it.

As far as image display quality, I temp-loaded thumbnaiils. I'll try some larger sizes and see what happens.

Thanks.

Hi,
Sorry if many comments have already been posted...
And I'm only giving constructive comments on what I think could be changed. There's good points but I'm not focusing on them.
1. Make you header area smaller (less high) as it takes up a lot of space.
2. Rename blogs to 'blog'
3. Homepage- it looks like your missing content; you have 'photogrpahy Burg', 'Welcome' and then a blank space.
4. You have the large dark navy circles that look odd. Is there meant to be a graphic in them?
5. There's a lot of text in the 'photography brug' blurb.
6. The 'Welcome! Blurb seems out of place. I would put that a my main text as it's your 'intro'.
7. Remove Archives if you only have 1 month in it.
8. About page- you don’t sate where you are located.
9. About- show some samples of your work in clients locations (if they permit it).
10. Blogs- I don’t' like the layout. I'd expect one blog post per row.
11. Blogs- try to remove 'Category Archives: blogs' and replace with 'Blog'
12. Contact- include e-mail address, phone number, social links, physical address.
13. FAQs should be questions- e.g. What is our return policy?
14. FAQs- seems a bit empty with only 2 items in there.
15. Fine Art Prints- do you need to have horizontal and vertical sections?
16. Fine Art Prints- add more content! It's too empty.
17. Fine Art prints- remove the tags; way too many!


There's a site fiverr.com where you could request a developer to make changes that are complex. Normally 1 job cost $5 but for coding it'd probably be more that 1 job.
If it's a business (and you're charging high prices for prints) then you should spend a few hundred dollars on fine tuning your site imho.

Good luck,
Patrick

Great inputs, Patrick. It is my brand new site, I'll see what I can incorporate.

Thanks.

Overall it's clean, professional and easy/quick to maneuver around. I won't duplicate comments by others but I noticed when I went to the About tab the screen is occupied by a single image. It's a lovely image but the text is pushed completely off the screen below the image and may be missed by many viewers. Is it possible to post the image and text side by side so they both appear on the screen at the same time?

The 'About' text & image should now be updated, great catch.

Nice looking site, Jeffrey. Bravo Zulu!

Hi, Jeffrey.

If it were me I would connect your name with Grandkin Studios immediately. (In the about section)

I do find your first name but not your last. And while your phone number is listed there is no representative's name offered.

Should a potential client calling your studio be expected to be connected with a member of the staff of, Grandkin Studios, or with the artist himself?

And where is this studio located? It is an online gallery, or a brick and mortar studio with a physical address?

As well, you state: “...most-respected giclee printing companies in the world with over 40 years of experience of producing museum-quality prints. All of our prints are produced on state-of-the-art, professional-grade Epson printers.” And yet there is no mention of the name of this printer/POD.

I naturally assume that you are speaking of the same printer as faa uses. Is that right?

Do you offer mats, and/or frames?

Oh wait. Upon reading more there is a mention of frames and mats in one of your blogs. Yet this seems tucked away (on the verge of being hidden) and I would think you would add this bit of information on the homepage.

Oh... okay. Now I see you are using faa pretty much as a drop shipper.

A good idea, but again I would make sure any potential customers could quickly find the printer you have 'teamed with', and make sure they know that you are referencing a printer that is easily verified.

On your about page I find this: “which enables us to deliver you (sic) variety and choice regardless of environment.”

I would add the preposition “to”.

I too am working on my own website. I had one through webs.com but it was so very terrible I closed it and am building another.

Building a good website can be a daunting task. Believe me I know. I've been working on mine for a couple of months now! LOL. Mine is not yet ready for public viewing!

At any rate, you are to be commended for accomplishing what you have, Jeff.

Good luck to you, sir.

Thanks for the inputs. I'm sick as a dog and not doing anything today, but sleeping :-)