ArmChair.ie - revamped - Irish SEO, Marketing & Webmaster Discussion

blacknight · #1 (**permalink**) 12-08-2006, 12:20 PM

Even though it was only launched the other week it's already been overhauled
Irish Ecommerce Directory - Online Shopping in Ireland

Let me know what you think

RedCardinal · #2 (**permalink**) 12-08-2006, 01:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blacknight

Even though it was only launched the other week it's already been overhauled
Irish Ecommerce Directory - Online Shopping in Ireland

Let me know what you think

Nice

One or two suggestions:

1. the main navigation icons in the banner - personally I would have put a semi-transparent block behind them so that they sit out from the image - you would still be able to see the image behind but it would make the nav area/icons stand out more.
2. The icons used for the categories don't really do it for me. Now I couldn't draw to save your life, never mind my own. But they are small and maybe not suggestive enough IMO.
3. maybe a little more contrast to make different areas stand out/back more (e.g. top ten and news)
4. drop the bullets in the unordered lists and maybe give items a background/border? also maybe give the list items some padding top & bottom to break up the lists a bit more?
5. Vary the font sizes/colors a bit to make items stand out/back more??

None of the above is criticism in any way. Just opinion.

It looks very nice - far better than last version. Well done!

blacknight · #3 (**permalink**) 12-08-2006, 03:33 PM

1. Can you give me an example of a site that does this? I'd be curious to see how it looks

2. I can't draw either

I got a stock icon set and Alan added a couple to it for me.

If you come across any suitable icon sets please let me know.

3. I'm considering removing those blocks completely, as I don't want the main page to scroll as much as it does.. Thoughts?

4. Which unordered lists do you mean? The only ones I can see are the ones in the two blocks on the main page.

5. Which items?

Thanks for the feedback so far

RedCardinal · #4 (**permalink**) 12-08-2006, 03:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blacknight

1. Can you give me an example of a site that does this? I'd be curious to see how it looks

Hard to explain but basically you would stick a (e.g. black) layer between the armchair pic and the icons and set its opacity to maybe 20-25% so it becomes semi-transparent. It just gives a bit of contrast and helps the icons step out. If you look at the industrial cleaning co in my sig (no plug) the navigation bar is the same as the banner image with this effect so it stands out a bit more.

2. I can't draw either

I got a stock icon set and Alan added a couple to it for me.

If you come across any suitable icon sets please let me know.

Will have a look but most decent ones are commercial with licence.

3. I'm considering removing those blocks completely, as I don't want the main page to scroll as much as it does.. Thoughts?

Maybe but downside is you loose the refreshing content and page becomes static. You could bang the login up into the banner or search bar? It takes up a fair bit of real estate there. Opening paragraph really needs to be resized and emphasized - maybe a background color or something to draw attention.

4. Which unordered lists do you mean? The only ones I can see are the ones in the two blocks on the main page.

Yep there the ones - if you're getting rid of those sure it doesn't matter.

5. Which items?

Opening paragraph
top 10
news
sub-categories? You could also highlight these with an icon/arrow/>> (can never remember the html code &187; or something)

Any reason why you dont carry the green theme into the page proper? Page could do with a bit more colour maybe? Unless you are hoping to keep only one main contrast - between page and adsense

Thanks for the feedback so far

No probs - response in quote. Sorry my bad

blacknight · #5 (**permalink**) 12-08-2006, 04:02 PM

I'll mull over those points....

Regarding the icons - I don't mind paying for them if they are worth it

RedCardinal · #6 (**permalink**) 12-08-2006, 04:14 PM

Michele

have you got a .psd file of the banner or similar?

if so and you want me to mock up what I mean send it over to me richard at redcadinal.ie.

RedCardinal · #7 (**permalink**) 12-08-2006, 04:21 PM

Result: 0 errors / 14 warnings

line 237 column 1 - Warning: trimming empty 
line 241 column 1 - Warning: trimming empty 
line 245 column 1 - Warning: trimming empty 
line 249 column 1 - Warning: trimming empty 
line 253 column 1 - Warning: trimming empty 
line 257 column 1 - Warning: trimming empty 
line 261 column 1 - Warning: trimming empty 
line 268 column 1 - Warning: trimming empty 
line 272 column 1 - Warning: trimming empty 
line 276 column 1 - Warning: trimming empty 
line 280 column 1 - Warning: trimming empty 
line 284 column 1 - Warning: trimming empty 
line 288 column 1 - Warning: trimming empty 
line 292 column 1 - Warning: trimming empty 
Info: Doctype given is "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
Info: Document content looks like XHTML 1.0 Transitional
ErrorId: 23 / Desc: trimming empty ...

The above is from your page.

Dont bother putting W3C onto anything with Google syndicated content. Never validates.

blacknight · #8 (**permalink**) 12-08-2006, 04:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rgh

have you got a .psd file of the banner or similar?

Nope, but thanks anyway

blacknight · #9 (**permalink**) 12-08-2006, 04:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rgh

The above is from your page.

Which page exactly?

Quote:

Originally Posted by rgh

Dont bother putting W3C onto anything with Google syndicated content. Never validates.

They were part of the default template footer, so I just left them there

Cormac · #10 (**permalink**) 12-08-2006, 10:57 PM

the banner is quite nice but personally i don't like the orange elements. The green banner over powers the orange too much and i wonder what the colour orange is doing on the site because of that. If orange featured in the banner then i would understand but since it doesn't.....

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