Website Layout Updated! Please Critique

[Shane]

I took many of your suggestions. Please take a look and let me know what you think. I know there are some broken links, I'll fix those shortly. Do you all think I should have a Fireplace Mantles section? What about venting? What other content would you expect from a hearth store site?

(broken link removed)

 

[Robbie]

Shane, looks great, how about online orders for things such as below ?

Tools, gloves, wood racks, wood carriers, rugs etc........I am only going by things I have been wanting to order online somewhere since I got my stove last fall.

Of course you may not carry these things.







Robbie.

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

looking good! man i wish i had those banker hours!

 

[hearthtools]

The requested URL /~aahcinc/Stoves_Fuel_Selection.html was not found on this server.

Sounds like you need to find a host for your own domain.

 

[Shane]

Yeah I'm just hosting it on the isp space for development. I think there is something wrong with my link name or something because I have a couple of those that are giving me grief.
Ryan I wish those were the hours I was actually there. I'm there at 7:30-8:00 in the morning and during off season I do get out of there by 5:00 but in season it's usually 6:00 then go do a bid so 6:30.

 

[suematteva]

Looks real good...like the way you incorporated everything..

 

[Roospike]

I see you have a link for "staff" does that mean we get to c your ole' mug ?! Ha . LookN Good.

 

[elkimmeg]

Looks great do you sell pellet stoves? If so maybe you should picture one up top

 

[begreen]

The requested URL /~aahcinc/Stoves_Fuel_Selection.html was not found on this server.

Sounds like you need to find a host for your own domain.

Rod, do you have javascript installed?

 

[begreen]

I took many of your suggestions. Please take a look and let me know what you think. I know there are some broken links, I'll fix those shortly. Do you all think I should have a Fireplace Mantles section? What about venting? What other content would you expect from a hearth store site?

(broken link removed to http://w3.tribcsp.com/~aahcinc/Index.htm)

I like the visual improvements. Works well for me. My only concern is that the site appears to be javascript dependent. If so, that may limit the viewing audience. Try looking at the site on the folk's Win 98 system as a sanity check. Also worth checking the site on a 56k modem. The front page should load fast. Customers are lost if they don't find what they want quickly.

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

I took many of your suggestions. Please take a look and let me know what you think. I know there are some broken links, I'll fix those shortly. Do you all think I should have a Fireplace Mantles section? What about venting? What other content would you expect from a hearth store site?

(broken link removed to http://w3.tribcsp.com/~aahcinc/Index.htm)

I like the visual improvements. Works well for me. My only concern is that the site appears to be javascript dependent. If so, that may limit the viewing audience. Try looking at the site on the folk's Win 98 system as a sanity check. Also worth checking the site on a 56k modem. The front page should load fast. Customers are lost if they don't find what they want quickly.

people still run win 98 and modems? Heck even way up where i live there is DSL, not the most relaible service, its all wireless from a town 30 miles down the canyon..... :blank:

 

[smirnov3]

I agree about keeping Javasricpt down to a minimum.

I use an old mac, and the web browsers that I have available sometimes screw up Javascript (either it makes the page load slow, or it looks funny).

As to the 56k modem / size issue: all of your links are graphics, it looks like - you should have a text option as well (maybe in fine print at the bottom of the page), just in case.

otherwise, it looks nice.

 

[begreen]

Yes, I maintain a friend's and my sister's systems. They are both still at 56K. For folks that don't do a lot of web surfing or are on fixed incomes, this is still adequate. (They are a lot more patient than me.) In many rural areas, due to the distance from the nearest switch even DSL tops out at below 256k.

 

[Shane]

I'm using dreamweaver so I would imagine it is very dependent on Javascript. I will add a text only site. Perhaps I should revamp it again so that I'm not using as many graphics?

 

[webbie]

I'm using dreamweaver so I would imagine it is very dependent on Javascript. I will add a text only site. Perhaps I should revamp it again so that I'm not using as many graphics?

DW itself only uses JS when you command it to.

I always try to provide at least two ways to navigate, for instance:

Assume a site with 12 pages and 3 categories

Product
Education
History

In each of these categories are 4 separate pages.....each with a subject.

Well, in this case, the front page can have - Products - Education - History - each with drop down menus to go right to the sub-areas - BUT, also clicking on the headings themselves (non-JS) will take you to a page than then navigates you to the 4 sep. pages in each category.....

That's probably as clear as mud....

Most browsers will work well with simple selection quick navigation - such as the one at:
http://www.hearth.com

Yes, sounds silly but you should stay about 5 years BEHIND the curve when developing a Hearth web site. It's not Sony Records! And consider all the Blackberries, Sidekicks and other stuff - these are bound to choke on some JS.

 

[begreen]

That's really your call. I have seen folks just move on if all they see is a grey screen on a site or are told they need to get a plug-in. To me the opening page should be attractive, but quickly accessible to all. In the case of your site's opening page, I don't see any need for javascript, though perhaps I'm missing something.

I haven't used DreamWeaver but would expect it to give you the option to use conventional HTML as well.

 

[webbie]

OK, I'm going to give you some of my "rules" of web development that will keep you from cursing either now or later...

1. do not use ANY caps in any page naming - windows and unix treat these differently - caps and no caps are all the same to Windows (don't get me started), but different...as they should be, on UNIX.

2. Name all pages with something that helps you remember what they are (you seem to have done this).

3. Do not use underscores,dashes or even numerals if possible when naming pages. This will make it much easier to link from one to another and also to advertise and email the links.

4. Keep page names as short as possible such as prod.html for products and about.html for about.
This is also for ease of linking and emailing, BUT, you will notice that certain web companies such as Yahoo and Google often have VERY short URL's for their complicated setups - like:
(broken link removed to http://finance.yahoo.com/p?v&k=pf_1)

Gets me to my Yahoo finance page.....

Why so short, when it is actually a complicated database query? Here is my guess - perhaps some of the software engineers here can confirm or deny. I think that over BILLION of requests such as Yahoo gets, the shorter URL saves a lot of bandwidth.....

 

[Shane]

The only thing that it could/would be using javascript for that I can think of is the rollover buttons and the navigation bar. I'll look through the source and see if I can find where it's using the Javascript.

Craig,

How do you make the drop down menus? I haven't figured it out yet.