Please review my site, still in production

[erichar11]

Hi all, Please review my site at www.myphotomojo.com (http://www.myphotomojo.com/index.php?utm_source=miva.com&utm_medium=forum&utm_campaign=Review%2BMy%2BSite) Well, I've been working hard to get our site up and running. The site is focused on allowing customers to create personalized gifts using their own photos. We are using php for the main site and the miva shopping cart for users to purchase goods. We are in the process of implementing a online photo editor were users can modify, crop, edit, and add effects to their photos. Not 100% working, but gives you an idea of how it will work. - Miva shopping cart is working with a few minor exceptions (namely login stuff) Any and all comments appreciated. If you have any problems with different browsers(IE, Firefox) please let me know. All comments are welcom. Thanks Eric

[seahawkfan]

I checked out your site. I like the scheme. I did notice a few things though.
1. On the home page you have 3 picture links, they all have the same alt tag yet they go to diferent sections. I found it a little confusing

2. The About Us page says nothing about you. It only says what you do and how it works. I though that would be more suited for the home page.

3. When you open the photoeditor, there is no instruction about how to use it.

4. When adding a product, you have no checkout link until you go to review the basket. I have just added the product therefore I don't need to review. People might like the option of going straight to checkout.

5. The checkout has the miva standard nav bar. It is confusing seeing this and wondering if I have went to a different site.

Always try to remember that your customers may not be very smart on the Idea of purchasing on line, so make it as easy as possible for them. These are just my opinions, but I hope it helps. It is an ongoing battle to make customer friendly pages instead of developer friendly pages. You know what you want so it always looks different to you than it would a potential customer. I hope this helps somewhat. If you have the time, could you also check out my site at www.stop-crime.com (http://www.stop-crime.com) and give me some ideas also.

[Red Flare]

I tried to personalize one of the gift boxes. The instructions say:

"Click your photo to make it appear on the product. Use the scrollbars to align and zoom your photo. You can also drag your photo for better placement on a product."

I am confused where am I suppose to click, I haven't even uploaded my photo?

[DesignExtend-MSI]

I stand in agreement. While it's tech savvy, you need to "dummy down" instructions and tools so your average user will understand. My bet is a big part of your market will be folks like my father-in-law, who may want personalized photo products, but he has to call me whenever he has an alignment problem in Word or when he needs to crop a photo. Thus, instruction is key.

Also, you need links to pages for privacy and security. That's key on a site like this, where people may be uploading pics of their children.

[erichar11]

Hi all, thanks for your comments. I'm going to create different post responding to each of you. I hope thats Ok. Please note that this site is not really live yet, much work to do on the text, css, shopping cart integration and so forth. I wanted everyone to see the direction I'm heading in and to get suggestions and thoughts prior to launching the site. That way I can incorporate feedback now rather than later. Seahawkfan., Re, #1: On the home page there are three pictures that link to the their respective catagory pages. I agree, this is confusing so we are going to add text over the images that say something like "click here to see products in this catagory" wording I haven't come up with yet. Re. #2: Yeah, need to work on the about page. Nuff said. Re. #3: Instructions on how to use the photoeditor are a must. I just haven't come up with them yet. I need to have a simple set of instructions that tell people how to use it. This is a high priority as the target audiance will be mostly mom and pops, as mentioned in another posts. Re. #4: I think what your saying is that I should add a checkout link in the top navigation. Something like: View Cart | Checkout | Track My Order | Customer Service. Is this correct? Re. #5: This is a known issue, just haven't modified the Miva template to conform to our site. Anyway, please provide any additional comments to my responses. Thanks again for the help.

[erichar11]

Red Flare, once again, your comments are appreciated.

Looks like I forgot to include the demo account. In order for us to grab photos from a service such as flickr, you must be registered and supply a username to access your flickr photos.

I setup a test account: Just goto the login button, click it and enter the following info:
email: test5@myphotomojo.com
password: test5

Now when you go to any catagory or product page, you will see photos from the test5 account which are actually photo's stored on flickr. You can then click on a photo and preview it on a product (still working to improve the functionality)
I understand that this needs to be better explained and I will work on it.

[erichar11]

Hi Pamela, I couldn't agree with you more regarding the instructions are key. In addition to getting the site to work technically, one of my biggest challenges is simplifying the site so that it's very easy to use with a complete set of instructions on how to use it.

I was thinking about an online tutorial that can be accessed from the home page that walks a user through the process in addition to step by step instructions on the various pages. Regarding instructions, I think my biggest problem is where to put them without cluttering up the page even more.

Lastly, privacy and security are of most importance and I will be sure that these pages are included when the site goes live. It's extremely important.

Eric

[seahawkfan]

Hi all, thanks for your comments. I'm going to create different post responding to each of you. I hope thats Ok. Please note that this site is not really live yet, much work to do on the text, css, shopping cart integration and so forth. I wanted everyone to see the direction I'm heading in and to get suggestions and thoughts prior to launching the site. That way I can incorporate feedback now rather than later. Seahawkfan., Re, #1: On the home page there are three pictures that link to the their respective catagory pages. I agree, this is confusing so we are going to add text over the images that say something like "click here to see products in this catagory" wording I haven't come up with yet. Re. #2: Yeah, need to work on the about page. Nuff said. Re. #3: Instructions on how to use the photoeditor are a must. I just haven't come up with them yet. I need to have a simple set of instructions that tell people how to use it. This is a high priority as the target audiance will be mostly mom and pops, as mentioned in another posts. Re. #4: I think what your saying is that I should add a checkout link in the top navigation. Something like: View Cart | Checkout | Track My Order | Customer Service. Is this correct? Re. #5: This is a known issue, just haven't modified the Miva template to conform to our site. Anyway, please provide any additional comments to my responses. Thanks again for the help.

Erichar11,
Yes, the checkout link in the top navigation would be great. Glad I could help and if you have any other questions I would be happy to answer them to the best of my ability

[erichar11]

Hi all, I made a quick modification to the site http://www.myphotmojo.com You no longer have to login to see photos on the catagory and product pages. For any customer that is not logged in, I will display our own photos from flickr. You can then click on a photo on a product page to play with it on a product. (Crystal catagory is not yet working correctly, however all others should work) Eric

[erichar11]

The url is incorrect in the previous post. It should be http://www.myphotomojo.com. Sorry.

[Red Flare]

Its all too complicated.
If I was in a market for personalized items, I would want the following:
1. go to the site
2. select the product
3. upload picture
4. tweak the picture
5. checkout (at the same time with an option of immediately deleting the picture from your database)

I have no clue what fickr is.

[erichar11]

red flare, I'm trying to understand your frustration so bare with me a sec. You should be able to <br>
1. go to the site http://www.myphotomojo.com <br>
2. Select a product by going to any of the catagories<br>
3. Upload a product (assume for now, the images that you see are already uploaded by you)
4. Click an image to place it on a product. Try resizing the image.

Can you get this far? If not, let me know where your experiencing a problem or what you don't understand. Forget about flickr for now.

[Red Flare]

3. Upload a product (assume for now, the images that you see are already uploaded by you)

You probably meant "upload an image".

That is what I am trying to get at: IMHO within each of the products you have (crystals, boxes etc), there should be a button that says "upload your image". Right now I don't see that option at all.

[erichar11]

red flare,

you are correct, that functionality is not yet added. So if there was a button that allowed you to upload your photo what would you expect to happen next?

My assumption is that you would want to

1. edit it (ie. add text, colorize, and minipulate the image anyway you want)
2. Save it
3. Use that modified image on a product.

Let me know what you think should happen. I do appreciate this.

[Red Flare]

When editing I would like to
1. Be able to rotate the image, since some images are not dead on centered
2. It would be extremely important for me to be able to preview the final product. Or at least see some pictures of the actual product samples.

A couple of other issues:
1. When product is added to the cart there is no indication of this happening. Perhaps it is better to use the buy now button? On my site there is a mini-basket enabled, which confirms addition of a product to the cart
2. When I view cart it would be nice to see a thumbnail of the final product. Right now if I am within the cart and click on one of the products there, it takes me to a product page, but now with a image missing icon instead of the picture I so painstakingly edited.
3. As I stated in my older posts, there should be a clear option to delete the image I uploaded from the database upon exit, or at least a verbatim assurance that this would be done (for privacy reasons)