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Some Helpful Hints for a Better Shop
by T-Shirt Tommy from NekkidTees.com
Graphics
Graphics are a MAJOR part of ANY website. Notice I used caps? I can't count the times I've made a site and been handed the worst product photos you have ever seen in your life. Lets face it if you're selling a product people want to see that product. And those images need to look at the very least decent.Navigation
Clean and clear navigation keeps visitors from getting lost. On all my shirt pages I have a BIG back button. I have a top, bottom and side navigation along with links in the main content area to different sections of my site.Colors
Make sure you use colors that blend in or go well with each other. Blue Text on a Red Background just isn't something your visitors want to see!A couple Examples of color meanings are:
Red - blood, fire, passion, power
Blue - corporate, intelligence, stability, faith
Yellow - sunshine, happyness, food
Black - authority, death, eleganceThe list goes on and on and on... google 'color meanings' for more details.
Flash
Sites built mainly out of flash annoy me to no end. If i wanted to watch objects fly around the screen I would take a break and watch southpark or something. Search engines can't read flash links unless you plan on doing a lot of additional code. Visitors on dialup will have to wait twice as long and as a result will usually go somewhere else. With that said I don't think all flash is bad. It's great for showing new product items and etc in smaller areas. Also music that plays when you load the site isn't a good idea either unless you're trying to annoy the world.Site Width
How wide to make your site is up to you. I make mine at 770px which equals 800x600 in IE on Windows XP. I do this because sadly some people still use 800x600, mainly at work, and I don't want to rule those people out yet. Statistics show the percentage of people using this resolution is dropping.2 column spreadshirt site fits nicely at 800x600 and 3 column sites fit nicely at 1024x768+