4 bedroom, 2 baths, 2-story 1930's Colonial home for rent in downtown West Palm Beach close to Palm Beach, the Atlantic Ocean, City Place and Clematis Street,
olivewpb@yahoo.com or call us at 202-787-3819
$3900 month
 Owners
olivewpb@yahoo.com

I just thought of something else. Amazon has a 'people who bought this, also bought....' feature. I am not enough of a web expert to know how easy that is to set up, but I think it is a cool idea.

Another possible thing to nick from Amazon is the wish list. Especially for people expecting a child, it is great to be able to tell grandparents, friends, etc where to buy something they actually want. Perhaps you could make this even more attractive my joining with other baby related retailers (eg selling cots, bedding, etc etc etc) and have some kind of joint wish list. Linking with others may also improve your search engine positioning. The wishlist should be easily emailable to others with just a couple of clicks, if possible. again, a real techie would need to tell you how to do this.

If you do set up a subscribers newsletter, please could you send me an email at deviclark@newleaf.fslife.co.uk and I will subscribe.

Good luck!

Fantastic website with a great "child-friendly" feel to it. The clothes look wonderful (coming from a dad to a gorgeous five month old girl) and I really wish you all the best. I have worked as a usabilty/customer experience 'person' just to let you know that my comments are based on experience and years of watching people use the web to study how they could best achieve their goals. I'll limit my comments to just 3 rather than become a bulletin board hog.

Firstly, your home page can retain all of that fab look and feel while still achieving more. This is a great place to have billboards pointing to specials, new designs, best sellers, etc. This could be in the form of small blocks of text with links to the relevant web page.

Secondly, you could make you main navigation a short cut for returning visitors by using 'fly-outs'. To see an example of what I mean by this visit www.propertygenie.co.za and mouse-over the Find A Property link on the to navigation. What I mean by this is that your Shop link could expand into a set of quick links to the pages showing tee shirts, bodysuits, etc. (I'll sneak another suggestion in here - put your main navigation at the top of the page like other sites do - convention is wise to follow on the web).

Lastly, the page where customers select size, quantity, etc needs to bring together the decisions so that they appear near each other i.e. the drop down boxes and the call to action. All the 'clicks' on this page need to be closer together - size, gift box, quantity and ADD TO BASKET. This will make it easier for customers to move on in a vital stage of the shopping process. The Add to Basket link could look more like a link by adding an arrow (>>) to it possibly?

good luck
rajhev

rajhev@greenfiremarketing.com

Someone else may have pointed this out but 'exquisite' is spelt wrong in your description of the gift tag under 'gift sets'.
Best of luck with the business.
Adrian

Message for Devi

Thank you so much for your comments. We are certainly planning to make a number of the changes that you have suggested so please watch this space.

At the moment you can only register if you buy from us ( again) we are working on this. If you do want to be kept in touch, then do email us at info@littlebluedog.co.uk, and we will let you know our news.

Thanks again for taking the time and trouble and good luck! Emmax

Well, I am pregnant, so I confess there was some self interest in checking out this site. And my first reaction is : how beautiful! I love your front page. It is fun and appealing. Its only downside for me is that the buttons end up off the bottom of the page, and if I didn't scroll I might not see them. Easily corrected, I think.

Then, I still like the style overall, but I really wanted to see actual photos rather than drawings/logos of the products in the shop section and it took me three click to do this. Once I did see the products, I thought they were delightful. I think I would take advantage of your quality and put a little about the 'premium quality cotton' etc in the part about the products, rather than the 'about us' section. And rather than 'accessories' I would name the items here.

I notice you don't have testimonials on your site - though I can't believe you haven't received any. Why not put them on the site?

When I get closer to the date and thinking about clothing, I may well buy from you. I would love to sign up to some sort of email offers list. Might you create one?

Hope this is helpful.

Devi

Edited by author 24-04-2005 01:41 PM
Some great advice so far. Ben, can you explain your scoring system. Am I right in thinking that 10/5 means 5 out of 10, or are you using some other scoring system?

Kind Regards,
James Saunders
Site-Report.com Limited
http://www.site-report.com
Does your site have the conversion factor?
Call free on 0800 0436908

A huge thank you to everyone who has taken the time to leave feedback, some of you really got stuck in - so cheers. Emma and I have found it extremely useful and will be making some changes to improve the site - so watch this space.

This is a very attractive site and I'm impressed by the way the animation runs without slowing the site. I also particularly like your info section which answered all the questions I could think of.

It would be good to have the navigation at the top so people with smaller screens can see it without scrolling. It would also be good to have your logo and name on every page - when people come into a site via a search engine, they don't always arrive on the home page.

The biggest problem at the moment is the shop. When I click on an item, I have to wait ages for the picture to arrive (even with a broadband connection). Lots of people won't wait that long - they'll just move on to another site. You could improve the download times by dropping the resolution of the pictures. You should be able to do this quite a bit without any noticeable deterioration on screen.

Good luck
Diana

www.wordpooldesign.co.uk

Edited by author 23-04-2005 05:29 PM
Hi
Great site - coming from a mom with a 3 year old and a baby of 6 months...

My 3 year old liked the little flying bird - though if the site is "blue dog" then I reckon the focus should be on the dog - like waggin his/her tail... just a thought!

The "tell a friend" is a great idea!

And - this is just me - I love seeing little kids in the clothes - could you have a picutre of the outift on it's own and one with a kid in your outfit?

Also - I love reading about the owners and founders and seeing pictures of them with their kids... Could you get a picture of yourselves up there?

And how about a capture place for emails - so you can send out emails about new products and designs?

Another though is a colouring-in picture of the little blue dog - have the home page as a black and white outline for kids to colour in...

Great stuff.

Im into recycling babies clothes - using friends stuff etc wouldn't buy these - a lot for something they'll be out of in a few months.

Love the little dot showing you where you are - though don't like like that I have to scroll down to see it... Not so great for people with rsi - repetitive strain injury (from doing too much scrolling!!!)

And being a big fan of breastfeeding I like your "I love milk too!" shirts!!!! Would love it to say "mommy's milk too!!!"

Love to you
Natalie

http://www.grantandnatalie.teamflp.com

I thought your site was visually stunning. Totally different from the norm - which means that it should stick in people's mind. I loved the simple to understand navigation via the bar at the bottom, and also the quirky idea of hiding links to other pages in the illustration too. This, together with the bright picture gave it a childlike quality, which is exactly right for your product/market.

Too often, the temptation is to overdo animation. Some websites can be a little like those dreadful PowerPoint presentations - you know the ones where it seems the presenter has just learnt how to add sound or graphics, and thinks that the more he/she includes, the more impressed we'll be. I felt you'd got your animation about right - simple and visually appealing, but not distracting. I would add though that I'm browsing the site using broadband; you may want to check how quickly your pages load with a normal dial up. I only mention this because some of the shop pages did seem to take a long time to load, even on broadband – but more about that in a moment.

I liked the info page. However, I'm very internet literate - I seem to spend most of my life on the internet, and I wonder if it will be obvious to everyone that the questions are links to the answers? A simple explanatory note might be beneficial.

Now, to my areas of concern - where I'm probably going to echo comments made by others. I was a little disappointed with the limited range available, and also found it difficult to identify on occasions whether I was looking at a photograph or an illustration of the goods on offer. This is perhaps where the childlike qualities of the site come a little undone. Thinking about what others have said about the images not being visually appealing enough to make visitors want to buy – I wonder if the problem here is a lack of bodies? It might be that including pictures of your clothes actually being worn by cute babies would lead to a better connection with the customer. Always remember, with the internet customers are already missing out on the ability to touch and feel (and even smell) the product. You only have one of the senses to appeal to (unless you include sound in your website – interesting idea – perhaps you could include the sound of happy children?) Anyway, the point is you need to make your product as visually appealing and ‘three dimensional’ as possible. The pictures of the clothes are very flat.

My other major concern with the shop was the load times for certain pages. I compared the load times to our own website (www.trainerslibrary.com) and there was a significant difference. What made the problem worse, (perhaps) is that when I clicked on some of the links, I couldn’t even see signs that the page was loading (i.e., the waving flag in the top right hand corner of Internet Browser). This led me to wonder if the site had ‘crashed’. Be aware, we internet shoppers are very impatient – if the page doesn’t load ‘just like that’ we’ll probably click the ‘back’ button and head straight back to Google.
One final thought – why are you encouraging visitors to leave your site by having a links page? It could be that you have a reciprocal arrangement with the sites you are promoting, or some other commercial interest in these other sites, in which case fine (probably). If not though, remember, you’ve worked hard to get someone to visit your site – you want to keep them here as long as possible and not encourage them to pop off elsewhere!

Hope this helps.

Rod Webb
Glasstap Limited
www.glasstap.com
www.trainerslibrary.com

I really liked your site. It was easy to navigate and in no way over the top. I like easy sites where you can see at a glance where you are going or wanting to get to.. The only downside was the fact that the products didn't tempt me to buy (although probably quite a big disadvantage). I would of made the products easier to look at and see rather than going through the whole lot. A Little like the snapshots that you get with your photos!! Overall OK.

Good graphics, selection of links is wise. I think to convert more browsers to buyers you could try putting small pictures of the product (click to see bigger picture) rather than having to look through several pages. Just to speed it up. As a mum, I don't get that much time to browse, especially as I have to use works internet (don't worry, it's a family business therefore I am slave labour)so if I could see perhaps the whole range of sleepsuits for example, I could pick the ones that caught my eye. Speed browsing, if you like. Perhaps change "info" to "FAQ's." It's impressive overall.

Nice looking site - most of the key issues have already been pointed out e.g. flash, browser compatabilityand so on. I don't think amyone has mentioned that the keywords should actually reflect and be contained in the text on the page. As there isn't any HTML text on the pages the keywords are essentially useless. Search engines only read up to a maximum of 50 keywords and start discounting once any particular word is repeated more than about 5 times.

Do the sites to which you are linked carry a reciprocal link to your site?

On our scoring system you scored :

For legal compliance 10/5
For DDA Compliance 10/5
For operational usability 15/11
For search engine optimisation 14/9
Total 49/30
(The second figure is the score that shoould not be exceeded! - contact me for more details.)

Importantly there are no Terms and Conditions of sale and no mention of delivery charges that I can find.

To make this website really work for you there's a fair amount of work still to be done!

Ben Coker
Business Developments Limited
http://www.bus-dev.com
0800 458 3091

Hi,
I really like both the idea and the home page.

My sister's 3rd child is due in 2 weeks and your site gave me some ideas for gifts....but I wasn't tempted to buy from your site, so sorry.

I am a bloke and the stuff was categorised by design, not age.
Also I did not understand the benefit of the propostion...100% cotton, washable, well received. I felt only the people who had your product would understand.

I really hope this helps. I will bookmark your site!

I can't even view the site. Is there a quicktime video or something on the index page? I get a quicktime icon in the middle of the screen at that's it. It might be a querk of my PC setup (I'm not a novice, been an IT professional including the internet space for 20yrs+) but this might limit your sites exposure.

I thought the homepage was lovely but was a bit disappointed when I reached the shop that the products didn't seem as bright and colourful as the homepage image I was expecting. Also, I was surprised by how small a range of designs there were for each product type, but I guess that will expand with time.
Overall, I thought it was cute though.

Wish my kids were under two again!

I thought the site was original and tempting but whilst I liked the concept of the home page I thought it was slightly confusing to navigate. I clicked on info first expecting background on Little Blue Dog and instead got frequently asked questions.

When I visited the shop I had to use the navigation arrows to see all the designs and consequently missed the invitation to click on the drawing for a photo. Hence I didn't immediately find the prices. I agree with the comments about having a baby model the clothes, there seems little point in having a photo which is a replica of the drawing. I would have been tempted enough to buy by the illustrations but I would have liked some washing/care symbols (my kids are not so old that I can't remember the mess their bodysuits got in!)

These are small points intended to help you make a success of what seems to me a very promising business. Good luck.
Glenda Shawley
www.thetrainingpack.co.uk

Hi,

A charming site - well done. I thought I was going to be the first to comment on the site's search engine situation but I see that Glenn pipped me. Being built in Flash, the site has a zero Google Page Rank and I couldn't identify any backward links.

The alternative to creating an html 'mirror' is to research keywords and create optimised html pages that will link to the site. You might be able to offer useful information about baby care etc - remember, the net is for information - give and thou shalt receive.

Have you thought about an affiliate scheme?

Good luck,

Paul http://www.incisecomms.co.uk

Edited by author 21-04-2005 06:58 PM
Hi,

Visually I think your site is very good. My only critism is that you have used Flash to create it, this pretty much rules out any chance of getting indexed on the search engines. If you are looking to generate traffic from search engines then I would suggest you create a mirror site that is built on HTML.

The other advantage of using html is that you can dynamically add pages for new products as your business grows. I imagine this is quite fiddly in Flash.

I don't mean to harp on about Flash as it is a great tool for building presentations. But it is a non starter for the search engines, which will be where most of your potential customers will be looking.

I hope you find this useful...

Company Formation Wizard

Thanks for all the fantastic suggestions so far. There is some really useful stuff here. Brickies are great!!!!

Apologies if the site is running a little slow. The 600 hits ( WOW!) we have had today has certainly highlighted a bandwidth problem!

Keep em comming

Emmaxxxx

First impression - excellent. I had quite a few comments to make, however having read the other critique's comments I feel they have stolen my thunder.

The most important issue i believe is to show more happy smiley kids wearing your gear and instead of having to click on the diagram to show the picture it should change automatically every few seconds.

best of luck - Barry

Hi,

I can only agree with most of thew other comments on this noticeboard. Your site looks lovely - great use of colour and the right kind of visual style for your product - it makes it look very appealing!

I can only recommend a few things: correct the typos, provide an html version of the site for those who don't have broadband, correct the alignment issue (it jumps from left aligned to centre aligned sometimes, add some real-life shots of kids wearing the outfits, add the testimonials and make all the links have the change of colour when you hover over them - it's a little inconsistent at the moment that's all.

I hope this helps! :-)

http://www.carnihan.co.uk (web designer)

Edited by author 21-04-2005 05:15 PM
Lovely looking site.
I will be
repeating some other comments I guess, but here is my view.
1. Home page: Is it really necessary? Perhaps you could go straight to the shop rather than looking at a pretty picture and then clicking through to where you actually want to go. Perhaps a dual role home page as someone has suggested would be the answer.
2. Images: Photos yes, drawings no. also you cannot zoom in on the drawings so you cannot see what the design looks like.
3. I agree with the points made about Flash. An element of flash can look nice, but I think it would be an idea to have an HTML version of the site, or a mixture of the two, particularly as many people are still on dial up.
The rest I like a lot..... Good luck
Steve.

The home page is great - unique and appealing. I love the logo and the icons, however, it took at least 3 clicks before you actually see the product. I think if I was shopping I would get put off by drawings, and may give up early on.

I also agree with some of the other comments re testimonials and happy kids. Something to show mum they are making the right decision.

Lovely site and design. I really like the home page design but it annoyed me when I clicked on something and had to wait for the bird to fly off before I went through! I also agree with some of the other comments that perhaps your main shop page should be the home page, with the art work worked around that to reduce the number of clicks needed.

I didn't like having to say no to a gift box - should this not default to no (or yes?).

The site was really clear and easy to use.

Is there any way you can show the quality of the t-shirt material? I sell a number of brands of baby giftwear and there is a huge difference in quality.

Good luck

Laura
www.playtoyshops.com

Loved the front page, but couldn't get on to any of the other pages.
Good luck
Alison

Mel and Emma,

First off, your site is great fun - bright and smily - which is as it should be for your line of retail product.

My biggest issue with it really is that it's built using Flash. Flash sites work really well for companies like BMW or Heinz - where the object of the site is more to do with branding and image and very little to do with directly selling products. If you made a list of what you would consider to be the top 10 most successful retail websites in this country....I'd hazard a guess that you wouldn't find any of them using Flash. They will all follow a very different pattern - getting straight to the point on the front page and making sure that there are plenty of product images right from the start and plenty of opportunities from page 1 for the visitor to buy. They will tend to look much simpler and cleaner, less 'clever' if you like...but they are fine-tuned for their one single goal - selling the product via the internet.

The other disadvantages of using Flash are

1. it is nigh on impossible to get decent search engine ratings with a Flash-only site - unless you are paying to have a separate, parallel set of content developed that is tuned for the search engines.
2. it is usually quite hard to change it quickly - if for example you change your contact details or add some new products or product categories - how easy is it to do this - do you have to go back to your developer (and keep aying repeat fees)?
3. it is quite unfriendly for anyone who is visually impaired or who is relying on a sight reader to use the internet.

So that's my views on Flash-based retail sites....it looks great but if you ever have a redesign - consider a non-Flash site next time - I'm certain the online sales from a non-Flash site would prove me right.

And finally, some minor typos and stuff......

In the questions section, specifically under 'how is my little blue dog item packaged?'

there is a type in the second paragraph - you're should be your

Another typo on the page about looking after garments - it's should be its (without the apostrophe)

In the shop section, the navigation is a bit difficult. I put something in my cart, and then tried to use the home button and the other buttons at the bottom - and these didn't work. I moved back into the shop and could then go to the home page. If I do go to the home page and then back into the shop a second time, I can't get back to the basket unless I go into a specific category.



I hope it's useful feedback. Best of luck with the new venture.


Annette
http://www.gardenopoly.co.uk
http://www.picnicworld.co.uk
http://www.papernation.co.uk

Loved the 'Feed Me' with the baby bird!
Not too sure of the Home Page, took ages to load, perhaps it should load gradually?

I cant really fault this website. Its got everything. Couple of tips maybe? How about adding an online brochure for download, with an order form? Or Offering a mailed brochure so people can share it with their friends who havent got access to a PC and create mail order? Also the links, to other baby related clothing, are you associated with them>?...you could be driving custom away from your site to theirs!!

http://www.londonlifeclinic.co.uk

Loved the overall look and feel of the website. It's nice to see an e-commerce website that does not look like every other. As a first time father myself I was interested in your site not only from a critic point of view, but also as a potential customer.

My main concern was that I could not buy anything.

I looked though your shop and chose a product, I then clicked on 'add to basket' nothing happened. When I went to the cart it was empty. Now I know am in a minority as I use Safari on an Apple Mac, but do you know if your website has been tested on different browsers and different systems? Apple users only account for 3% of all internet users, but that runs in to millions of people.

Also I loved the style of the shop, I felt it really fitted in with the product, but I was slightly disappointed with the photography. I know as a small business budgets are limited, but with an e-commerce site such as yours photography is critical to its success. What people see on your site is what they expect to get, and the pictures I feel do not properly do justice to the quality of the goods. I apologies if this seems a little harsh, but showing white clothes on a pure white background made them look dirty and unclean (http://www.littlebluedog.co.uk/products/GSWT.htm). The brilliant white background overpowers the white clothes, and it should be the other way round.

Overall I think you have made an excellent start and have really captured a unique look and feel for your business. It looks friendly approachable and that you understand the needs of parents.

All the best in your new adventure.

Nigel Lamb
http://www.x-vc.co.uk

I love it!

Really - as soon as someone I know produces, you can be sure I'll be back. It's a great site.

Just a couple of comments:

On the 'shop' page, the icons at the bottom don't have any info with them at all. Perhaps a pop-up box with descriptive text that appears when the cursor hovers over would help?

I do agree about the photo's: perhaps a seperate page with examples could be attached to each section. As a customer, I need to know what the colours are really like, what the fabric looks like, and how it actually fits a child. I don't want to get over-excited and use my imagination, in case I'm disappointed when the goods arrive.

Good luck!

Sarah
The Datca Soap Company
http://www.datcasoap.com

Excellent and engaging, good use of flash, could increase range by using embroidery to enforce the branding ie embroidered bibs with personalisation etc.

I think this site looks to be more or less there - very good well done. I would focus on marketing it.
Didn't have any problems with the shopping cart system and I think the thing you now need the most is customers!

A couple of small things:
Testimonials, happy customers?!
A gallery of cute/funny pictures of baby's in your gear? (not sure about this one...)

Good luck

Robin@win-it.com

Great clear graphics. Simple and unfussy web. Very user friendly with good information

The home page was very fresh with great colours and a good 'childlike' feel to it. Does it remind anyone of a 'fuzzy felts' picture?
My main problem was the use of the cartoons instead of pics showing the actual products. Compare your product pages with the ones on your linked maternity t-shirts site. Their pics really show off the product and get the viewer more involved. Personally I would not be comforatble with buying from an illustration.
Best of luck
Steve

Firstly, loved the design - great use of cute illustrations that really bang home the corporate identity.

Love the dog logo too.

The only real criticisms I have are with the shopping cart system.

The little icons that you use to navigate between sections weren't immediately obvious, leading to a few seconds of confusion and a move back to the home page before I realised what I should have been doing.

Design-wise, all of the site uses anti-aliased text except for the shopping cart, so when you get to the cart pages, it feels like the cart is a bit of a plug-in - layout isn't as good on those pages too (quantity box too far away from the 'add' button, and text not centered on the right hand side)

I'd try removing the anti-alias from the front pages, and use the same font throughout to keep the continuity.

I'm just being picky because that's what you've asked for though - it's a great site, well done.

Paul McGillivray
Remote New Media
http://www.remote.uk.com

Edited by author 21-04-2005 12:56 PM
Love the concept and the clothes, but am I be the only person so far who's eyes were first drawn to the catch-phrase (which is nice, make more of it), then to the cloud with 'info' on it above - problematic as I then tried to find the answer to the question 'how do i shop' in the list of useful answers to your questions, and then had to go back to the homepage and spot the kennel saying SHOP.
Sounds stupid, but if it isn't immeidately obvious that it is an online shop you may lose out.

How about having a pic of a baby in the clothes on the homepage as a 'featured item' every week with a if you click on it to the sales page for it? The baby would stand out (because its a cut out picture not a cartoon), and instantly be recognisable as a demo of what kind of clothes you could find on the site.

Best of luck from a future customer also!

Jan Harrison
The Really Special Events Company
01625 521113
www.reallyspecialevents.co.uk

Edited by author 21-04-2005 12:52 PM
Well, I've visited your site half a dozen times already so you must be doing something right!! ;-)

On my last visit, I only just noticed the links to the major sections within the main area of the home page. The big red boxes were very prominent and my eyes were drawn there instead. Because of the attraction to the red buttons, I also missed 'The Home of Infantly recognisable babywear'. This is what your site is, but the message gets a little lost in the home page. What are your unique selling points, what do you offer visitors that other baby-clothing sites don't? These are the messages you need to use to persuade visitors deeper into the site.

I use a tool called No!Flash from http://www.bbshare.com/noflash/ which temporarily disables Flash for Internet Explorer. I recommend that you install it, run it and then look at the home page. This is what 3% of your visitors will see. An empty browser screen. Nothing to entice the visitor into the site to spend their money and make you both millionaires. I personally believe that Macromedia's claim that 97% of webusers have flash installed is an exaggeration. Let's say that it's 5% (I think it's possibly even more than that), one important question to ask is 'can you afford to lose 1 in every 20 possible shoppers?'
 
With regards to the domain name, are you in anyway connected to http://www.littlebluedog.com/?

That's all for now!

Kind Regards,
James Saunders
Site-Report.com Limited
Safebuy-accredited internet consultancy
http://www.site-report.com
Call free on 0800 0436908

Nice bold bright design for the home page, but no sales message. The home page could get this sales site off to a better start by promoting the benefits of this great range of clothes, preparing the customer to make a purchase.

I didn't see any "special offers" or copy telling me that I am getting a good deal/low price/etc - really pushing sales. Also the benefits, quality, cuteness of the products could be more prominent.

I'd rather see pictures of the goods rather than cartoons which kind of lowers the tone a little. What about some models?

You might like to look at www.asos.com, a very successful fashion site. When you land at the home page you have products right in your face, with prices, and I particularly like the ability to click through and zoom in close to look at the products.

Firstly - love the name. Anything that matches a commonly known object (dog) with a colour that isn't natural, will certainly help the name stick in the mind.

Homepage: On an 800x600 resolution the main links (tabs) at the bottom of the page are below the fold, and although the links are duplicated in the main area of the homepage - these links don't immediately look like links. (800x600 is still quite common - see Google Zeitgeist for a breakdown percentage of users.)

1024x768 - a lot better and the tabs are visible without scrolling. However, I would still make the navigation tabs available at the top or at the left hand side of the screen.

I would also make more of your tag line: "The home of infantly recognisable babywear." I don't mean change it - I just mean make it more prominent on the page.

Rest of site:
From an SEO (search engine optimisation) perspective, all of your ineternal pages have the same title, meta tags.

ie <TITLE>little blue dog baby clothes</TITLE>

Without getting into a massive spiel on keyword density, keyword prominence and body text, the TITLE element is one of the main on-page elements that the search engine's look for. So in order to make the most of this, you should have a page that is optimised for all of your different elements of stock.

For example, on your tee shirts page:
http://www.littlebluedog.co.uk/tshirts.htm

the title should read something along the lines of:
Baby T Shirts from LittleBlueDog baby clothes.

This will help you gain greater coverage in the SERPs (search engine results pages) for multiple keyword terms, rather than just "baby clothes".

Hope this hasn't sounded too in your face. on the whole - like the feel of the site and the graphics. I wish you all the best.

Kind Regards

Barry Smith

SkyScanner.net
http://www.skyscanner.net
Cheap flight price comparison

Edited by author 21-04-2005 12:34 PM
Here are some great books that will help readers improve their ecommerce websites. They focus primarily on site usability:

Submit Now: Designing Persuasive Websites - Chak (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0...026-2355882-2998860)

Don't Make Me Think - Krug (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0...026-2355882-2998860)

Call to Action - Eisenberg (http://www.calltoactionbook.com/)

Each of these are very helpful to help website owners and designers improve the usabulity of their websites in order to increase conversion.

Also, although rather more expensive, Neilsen have the E-Commerce User Experience Series at http://www.nngroup.com/reports/ecommerce/

Kind Regards,
James Saunders
Site-Report.com Limited
Safebuy-accredited internet consultancy
http://www.site-report.com
Call free on 0800 0436908

I like the design, very clean and menus are easy to follow.

Might I suggest some photos of babies wearing the clothes. That is what I really wanted to see. What do the items look like on a baby.

Best,

Rob Worth
Worth Solutions
tel : 020 7739 3861

Edited by author 21-04-2005 12:25 PM
A few more things have come to mind having taken a second look.

Most ecommerce sites fail to tell visitors much about their products. This is a key problem. When trying to sell online, you need to enthuse visitors to dig deeper into your site and then persuade them to purchase. Currently, as a visitor, I'm left wondering what material T-Shirts are made from, is the emblem dyed into the fabric, or a transfer, etc, etc.

Also, the prices of the products are a little small and easy to miss. Make these more prominent and also mention the £3 per order delivery charge and that'll be a big improvement.

Grandparents and Great-Grandparents love to buy for young children. You therefore have a captive audience. It would be worth thinking about cross-selling opportunities. You've bought the T-Shirt, you might also be interested in the hat and the sleepsuit and hey, you know they'll love it, the sleepsuit too! This adds a little more complexity to the back-end system, but would open up the opportunity for larger orders. Of course, you could also look at database marketing to ensure when visitor X buys the T-shirt that a week later the email newsletter they have subscribed to includes a special offer on the sleepsuit in the same style with a nice clear buy now link that takes them to the page with the size pre-selected! OK, so now I'm getting carried away, but hopefully you get the idea.

Back to a technical issue.... On closer inspection, the product pages of the pages within the site are primarily HTML with Flash used for the menu at the bottom of the page. I'll be frank and say that you could achieve exactly the same effect without Flash.

Again, good luck with the site. I think it has real potential.

Kind Regards,
James Saunders
Site-Report.com Limited
Call 0800 0436908 today for a free consultation about improving the conversion rate of your ecommerce site
http://www.site-report.com/summary_report.php

Overall, the site looks clean, fresh and fun. The choice of creatives gives it a fun feel and I'm sure that first-time shoppers will enjoy interacting with it.

However, there are some improvements that could be made.

The site currently uses Flash movies on each page. It's worth noting that the movies are different per page and have been embedded in HTML. However, while this makes it great to look at, but not likely to rank well within the major search engines because any text seen on the site isn't accessible to search engines. Macromedia also have a search engine optimisation software developers kits that allows the textual content from a Flash site and produce a static HTML version of it. However, this approach is not very good (IMHO).

The idea of providing a text only version is ok. Although, I personally believe that it isn't an ideal solution for an ecommerce site where there is a lot of interaction and where visitors need to be able to see the products that they are purchasing. A HTML version of the site would be a better solution all-round. By using CSS cleverly, the site can be read using text readers, so everyone is happy.

Congratulations to the web designer on not disabling the browser back button!

Of course, the other issue with Flash is the time that it takes to download. On a 56K modem connection, the site would take about 11 seconds to load. This is actually great. I have recently viewed sites that take over a minute to load!!

From an accessibility perspective, Flash sites can be made more accessible, and Flash MX (the latest version of the Flash development tool) has a number of options to improve accessibility.

From a search engine optimisation perspective, it is essential to make sure that every page has a different title and description. At the moment, I believe all pages have the same title and description. Make the title about 60 - 70 characters long and the description about 140 characters long.

From a usability perspective, the add to basket button is too far away from the options dropdowns. For example, on http://www.littlebluedog.co.uk/products/TSWP.htm it is easy to click the add to basket button without remembering to select the options. By placing these closer together, the visitor is more likely to remember to select the options. I would also recommend that all options default to an accepted value. For example, the default selection for 'do you require a gift box' should be no. This means that the visitor does not need to select a value for every option. Failing to select an option takes the visitor to a fairly un-friendly page.

To ensure that your site has a good chance of conversion, it is important to remember to clearly display:
- delivery charges and times
- stock availability
- contact information in the case of a problem
- refund policy
- privacy policy
- methods of payment
- whether prices include VAT


Although some of this information is listed in the Info page, it would be great to remind the visitor on every page.

One of the biggest flaws at the moment is that after a visitor adds an idem to the basket, there appears to be no way to view the basket or checkout if they move off to another page unless they view a product page.

Another thing to consider is that visitors like to be able to see as much detail about the products they are considering purchasing. Although some products have a couple of images (front and back), many don't. It would be helpful to show some of the emblems in a little more detail.

Credibility is a major issue with ecommerce sites. It's important to include a terms and conditions page as well as clearly state your limited company registration number (if you are registered). It's also helpful to show data protection act registration number if you are registered. You might also like to consider membership of one of the Trust organisations, such as Safebuy.

As part of the checkout process, it is always useful to provide a link back from each product in the basket back to the product page.

ANother bugbear (as well as unclear delivery prices on many sites) is the need to register before a purchase can be made. This is a major cause of abandonment. It is much better to simply collect the vital information needed to complete a purchase and then ask whether the visitor would like to register (with clear benefits of why it makes sense to) once you have collected payment for their purchases.

Finally, always tell visitors where they are in the checkout process and how many steps they have to go. This can be done by numbering the steps and clearly showing what's left to do.

Kind Regards,
James Saunders
Site-Report.com Limited
http://www.site-report.com
Helping small busiesses do better business online

First thoughts; cute design, works well with the target market. Shame it doesn't work on smaller resolutions, though, particularly as the navigation is at the bottom. This means that people may miss it if they don't scroll down.

Extending Jason's excellent earlier points about using Flash exclusively, another downside is the fact that by Macromedia's own admission, 3% of browsers don't support Flash (of course, they word it as '97% of browsers supprt Flash') - with no alternative version, this is akin to Tesco telling every 30th customer that they're not wanted because they're wearing the wrong shoes.

I tried to place an order but couldn't because I have cookies disabled for all but a few sites. Nothing wrong with relying on cookies, in my opinion, but it's a simple job to display a warning if the person viewing the website doesn't have them enabled - without a warning it just seems like the site is broken.

If you accidentally order two of an item (because you click the button twice or something) you get an opportunity in the View Basket page to amend the quantity. However, you have to place 'enter' after you make the change or it doesn't work. If you had an 'update quantity' button next to it, it would avoid confusion for the less computer-savvy.

Where you have products requiring personalisation, if I was designing the site I'd have a separate input box on the order page where you can type in the name. Your current system, where the customer has to remember to put the name in later in the order process, in a box which is labelled 'Gift Box Details', is unnecessarily complicated. I would expect that about 50% of your customers won't remember to type it in, and will need a time consuming call or email to ask them.

Apart from that, it works, looks different, and I wish you luck with it.

Iain.
------
Iain Row
Prominent Media Ltd
http://www.prominentmedia.com/

Great site, chirpy and cheery and cute.

I would do a few little things:
use photos
make the text on the homepage bigger and more obvious
maybe use 'frequently asked questions' instead of info, the stuff in there is really useful

PS what's wrong with fluffy bunnies?! I don't have kids but I persoanlly feel that all babies should wear outfirs with ears...

Edited by author 21-04-2005 11:44 AM
Lovely first impression, my kids are well past this age but when they were little I would have found this quite appealing.

A pity that the page with the individual suits on doesn't have photos, means an extra click to see what they're really like. Also, I expected a bigger range of suits.

I think you should have an 'add to basket' button on the page with all the suits listed - I might browse around a bit and then just want to pick from the list rather than go back down again.

Otherwise very nice and clear - should do well.

Regards

Gill www.skillfair.co.uk

Great looking site.
Its very user friendly and was a pleasure for me to navigate but I have to reiterate the accessibility angle especially where you have text.
Because the text is an image it cannot be enlarged by a partially sighted person so even if you have an alternative method of seeing the page you still have that issue. Also, when I print a page I get a blank.
Another problem is the navigation buttons. When I have my browser set at 800x600 (which I often do) I can't see them. Its fine having links at the bottom of the page but if they are critical they need to be at the top or left.
Its a shame to point out the weaknesses because as a project its excellent but as a website it has issues.
Chris, Choctaw

Mel & Emma
Nice site that is quick and works efficiently. Because you have kept it simple it will work. Product looks good, I'm sure the quality will match.
Animation is nice, but can everyone get that?
Good Luck you've chosen a tough area to work in, but by sticking to that niche market it should help.
Debbie Short ~ JeaP
www.jeap.co.uk

A few quick thoughts on littlebluedog.co.uk

Nice bright & fun Site done in Flash. Nothing wrong with using Flash provided you bear a few important points in mind. The Site has no alternate means to access the content or navigate to the other areas; it’s all in the Flash movie. The makes it virtually invisible to search engines and also falls foul of UK disability legislation. (Hands up how many other site owners are guilty on that score!)

How to avoid these pitfalls? Build sites with Flash elements integrated into html pages wherever possible. Ensure there are alternate text links to all pages. Provide a separate text-only version if possible. This will benefit disabled users using screen reading software and help you get indexed in search engines too!

Best of luck with the business to Mel and Emma.

Jason Lennick
metacosm.net

(Look out for our brand new, Flash-integrated, all singin’ all dancin’ Metacosm website - launches end of April)