Can you show me a good website layout/design

mrsFitz

I am making someone work hard on my soon to be website, I am a complete beginner and have absolutely no clue as to what is good for a website, and what is not so good, other than my own opinion.

Can someone point me in the direction of a good/ user friendly website, and things I should watch out for/ should include on my site.

My (future)website is an e-commerce site, I am selling bicycles and accessories from Holland. (Dutch myself )

Kinetic^

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/

EIREHotspur

http://www.vondutch.com/

http://www.bridge55.com/

http://www.bigbrownbox.com.au/

http://www.cellyshop.cz/

DrivingTestTips: Brian

With the design:

• Make sure people can see the products clearly.
• Make sure you don't have to much clutter on the pages.
• Make sure your target market have the means of payment you choose. ( ie. "15 year olds don't have Credit Cards" )
• From point of "browsing" to making a "purchase" should be short.
  -Add to cart.
  -Details + Shipping.
  -Buy NOW
  -Payment Details.
  -Finished.

The Website:
What you need to do without a programmer/web-designer

• Make sure you can control you content.
• Make sure you can SEO your website.

The is done in what is known as a CMS.

Tangled

For design and layout inspiration have a look at http://www.coolhomepages.com - you can look at sites by categories, including e-commerce.

mikefm

I find Themeforest good for ideas

aquascrotum

Kinetic^ wrote: »

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/

Think that looks brutal tbh. Way too much text and too much scrolling required, for a front page anyway.

BostonB

The design is a bit meh, but functionality wise, I kinda like sites like that, that get to the point. Scrolling is natural to find things IMO. Much better then menus to the nth degree. Boards is brutal for that.

Cianos

For a bicycle website I'd recommend;

1. Emphasis on great photographs of the product. Invest plenty of time and effort in getting great shots. Maybe the suppliers already have nice photos of their stock that they can supply you with?

2. Make the photos very visible and presented in such a way that the visitor can see multiple photos easily and quickly. Don't make the photos repetitive. No point in having loads of photos showing the same thing - mix it up with small details of the product etc.

3. If you are offering good value pricing, be upfront about it and mark the price next to the bikes.

4. You probably won't be dealing with a massively extensive range of products, so the navigation should be designed to suit.

5. Do you have a physical shop? If you do, include very clear info about this, with a google map etc. If different shops across the country stock your bikes, include a map of the country with pins showing the location of each of the shops with the ability to click in for opening times, phone number and so on.

6. Use the online purchasing process to upsell other products, such as helmets, lights, bike locks etc.

7. Have clear info about your after sales policy. Free repair/service for a set duration? etc

Hope some of that helps

jjbrien

u should try looking at zencart its free open source ecommers sit works out of the box u have to set a few permissions but its quite easy

http://www.zen-cart.com/

Kinetic^

BostonB wrote: »

The design is a bit meh, but functionality wise, I kinda like sites like that, that get to the point. Scrolling is natural to find things IMO. Much better then menus to the nth degree. Boards is brutal for that.

Yup, functionally it's as sound as you're going to get for an online bike shop.

urbanachiever1

As your into Bikes you are probably aware of them already but if not
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/
Hugely successful due in part, I think, to user friendly website.
Great pics. easy to find what you want. Ability to search by brand, price, review etc.
Free delivery to Eire is great too.

mrsFitz

I got my website up, it hasn't as much products as some of the bicycle shops in the links but I think I am starting to get happy with it.

Don't know am I allowed to post the link to show you'se

What? Oh Rly!

mrsFitz wrote: »

I got my website up, it hasn't as much products as some of the bicycle shops in the links but I think I am starting to get happy with it.

Don't know am I allowed to post the link to show you'se

Post it up, should be fine.

Cianos

For some good feedback, post it in the website reviews forum as well.

bacon?

Pretty broad statement, depends on what site you're after.

I just put up a site reviewing sport cameras, Sport Camera

I'm happy with the look and feel of this site, nice graphics and video important, gives the user a sense of trust that they're on a site that hasn't just been thrown together.

On the other hand, take this site, Cheap Holidays From Ireland

Not very nice looking, but does what it's supposed to do, drive people to click the adsense ads.

Be very careful when it comes to "your opinion". I've been in this industry for over 13 years, and many a site has been ruined because a client has had too much bad input.

If your designer is competent, and has a good portfolio, let them do their job... They're the expert, not you.

Your designer should have a rough draft of what your site is going to look like, you should put this up on here for review, or another site, such as creativeireland.com... they're brutally honest over there.

Out of interest how much are you paying for your site? And are they going to rank it in Google for you, or is it just the site you're getting?