I think you've done a great job - love the index page! Was it all made with VSD?

How did you get the pages to transition with the fade effect. I think that is very cool.

Your site is very well laid out and easy to navigate, and by the way you have great flower arrangements and products.

Love that impressionist look...really awesome...and a great vogue menu.. offers some fresh ideas..it's a cool site for those who are critics of VSD.

If this is your first site, good job.

Now let me be Simon Cowell from American Idol.

(Note: Simon Cowell known for being "mean" is the only one to give actual REAL advise. The issue is how we interpret his advice. We think he is being mean as we are all brought up not to point at the fat person, or laugh at the idiot. Thats great if your trying to win social butterfly of the year award but does nothing to actually HELP someone.)

So Jessica, DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER if your sensitive to criticism.

My guess is you prefer that your business is profitable?

I think the initial impression of your website might be costing you some clients. The problem with that is you'll never know how many (you may get an idea if you track conversion rates vs visitors etc)


1) I get the idea with the "flowering" effect, but for the entire front page is just too much. It causes or has the potential to cause the eye to try and simultaneously foucs the blurry parts while trying to focus on the wording within the pictures.

2) Your link fonts are to small.... try making them bigger and bold. You chose the "handwriting" style of fonts and It is appropriate for a flower shop, but in smaller font styles it becomes harder to read. I suggest going online and trying to find a "cleaner" handwriting style font (there are many out there)

3) the "?" on the table.....you should write that it is the "about us" page. Web users are more familiar with "about us" than trying to guess what the "?" stands for.

4) ALWAYS show your product on the front page. You can post a pic, or if your shopping cart supports have a best seller (or sellers) displayed on the front page.

5) Your about us page is well written.... but HEY! if you have been mentioned or featured in those magazines than get your butt over to their sites, get their logo or press kit (press kits have logos etc) and post those awards or "as seen in" accolades on your front page. Also get those charities you support posted on your front page...BE PROUD OF YOURSELF!!

6) The chalkboard with the "happy new year" that leads to the wedding portion of your website... you need to indicate that you do wedding arrangements !! Thanks for wishing us a happy new year, but a lazy web user may just surf on out because they needed wedding arrangements and it didn't look like you do them.

7) The "see our designs" page. Great lay out, but I had to squint to realize you identified whats in the pics by placing the text in the pics. Thats a no no.
Identify what the individual arrangements are by putting it below or on top...just OUTSIDE the picture.

8) The navigation links at the bottom of the pages.... MAKE THEM BIGGER if your not going to have a a link menu on each page...people have to be able to move around your site easily.

9) The "order online now" button on your front page should go directly to your store or order form. The page it leads to actually tries to talk people out of ordering online. Your quote "As a personal flower shop, the best way to buy from Periwinkle Flowers is to call or visit" Get rid of that... let the customer decide the best way for them to order..they know what their capabilities are.

10) The big pictures of the arrangements on the page you are directed to after clicking on the page where the images have the text in them, when clicked open a new window with a picture not much bigger than the one they clicked on. Do away with that as you just took them away from your site (not technically, but figuratively).

11) Some pages show arrangements with prices, but when clicked they open a new window with just a picture. These images should lead to the checkout or at least to a page where the customer can buy them. I you can see visitors and clicks for your site pull up the data on how many clicks they get.... those WERE people making an initial commitment to buy, but we're only shown a picture... your making it hard on them to buy.

12) The purchase button.... small and only slightly darker than the background and its sitting in bottom corner of the pages. Again your making the task of ordering difficult for the customer. Make that button a bright contrasting color, make it big an put it in a conspicuous place on every page.

13) Look up what a favicon is.... this will add perceived validity in your customers mind.

Again no hard feelings

I think the site is quite nice. For me, the hard part was trying to read the information. It was blurred and tired my eyes. I thought maybe the site map could be organized a little better to not look so much like a list. I agree with others regarding the question mark. You do not want people clicking it out of curiosity, but rather to find answers to their questions. Actually, I had missed it until I read others comments about it and I went back to the site and there it was. Now, with all that being said, I am not an expert in website design. All I know is that I cannot stay on the site long because it tires my eyes.

We've updated the site a little. What do you think?

Jessica,

Your site is incredible. Is it all done with VSD? I need to sit at your feet and learn. I have been working on my (first) site for about 5 months with VSD and I would like to add some of the features that you have.

A quick critique...while exploring your site, it took me a while to find the little tiny links at the bottom of some pages. We wrestle with the best ways to help people around our site.

What additional Coffee Cup products did you use? I've only added the flash menu.

Mortar
www.mortarandpetals.com

Site of the day is a great idea!

It would be awesome if the links had some sort of rollover, also your logo at the top is not quite as sharp as it could be. I suggest you make it a .png instead of .jpg. It will be a slightly larger file, but this is the masthead of your entire site so the colors should be bright and sharp!

I like your site good job!

Additionally, the logo at the top of the page would lend itself very well to being created as an animation in Flash Firestarter. That would be awesome! To open the page and see the logo assemble itself from a few different directions

Hi sorry long time no post.

Our site has been updated using many of the suggestions found here. Thanks for your critiques and suggestions, they have been taken to heart, and we really appreciate your help.

This is truly an ALL CoffeeCup site and we look forward to more great stuff from the team. Keep up the good work!

And once again if you have any criticisms or suggestions, please do not hesitate.

Thanks.