I'm a newbie and need feedback! Thank-you!

[nicksrandall]

Hey fellow OscMaxers,
I have launched a new website built on OSCMAX 2.5.1 and I would love any and all feedback on how I could improve its design or functionality.
Thanks for taking a minute to review my site: Baby Laundry and More : (http://babylaundryandmore.com/catalog)

-Nick

[niallb]

I would lose the green chevrons before someone has a fit and sues you.
Other than that it looks fine

[nicksrandall]

@niallb Thanks for reviewing my site. I appreciate it. Also, is the chevron pattern trademarked or something? Why should I worry about somebody suing me? I tried looking it up online and I couldn't find anything about it being protected.

[pgmarshall]

Firstly, congratulations on getting your store live!

- Like the store finder
- Like the custom 404 mesage - however it says "Please use the navigational links to the right to locate additional resources and information." - but the links are on the left! If you click the sitemap link you find the sitemap.php issue below.

I have a few points (none of which are major and are more down to personal taste!)

- I personally don't really like the buy now button above the images in product_listing.
- Your banner in FireFox has shifted to the right a bit - I am not sure you can shift a <td> using left in all browsers.
- I would put the box back round the review, wishlist and buy buttons on product_info - you can see the white background and it looks a bit messy.
- I would change the catalog listing count to be divisible by 3 - eg. 12, 15, 18, 21 - It just means you don't have spaces when the products list to more than 1 page.
- This page has a crash - Site Map : Baby Laundry and More (http://babylaundryandmore.com/catalog/sitemap.php)
- I would run Yahoo Smush It on your images to reduce the page load overhead.
- You are also scaling some of your images in the browser - very slow! For example, : Baby Laundry and More (http://babylaundryandmore.com/catalog/index.php/clearance-c-9) - the image in the category header is actually 381x571px but you are displaying it at 298x446px. The image is also 194kB which is massive in the world of the web! If you scale to the correct size and compress for web you can make it much smaller - so scale the image, change the dpi to 72dpi (no need for more on a PC monitor) and then save for web in your image software. I have attached the resulting image which is 49kB.

756

Regards.

[niallb]

@niallb Thanks for reviewing my site. I appreciate it. Also, is the chevron pattern trademarked or something? Why should I worry about somebody suing me? I tried looking it up online and I couldn't find anything about it being protected.
What I meant was that I wouldnt be surprised if the chevrons moving as you scroll induced an epileptic fit in someone, who may then sue you:D

[SMurphy]

The zig zags are a bit sore on the eyes when you scroll.

I would say to make the background static. Tried it out (using firebug) and although the red part in the middle is part of your background, it looks ok when scrolled.

Just encase your not sure how to do it;
Open your /catalog/templates/new/stylesheet.css file and on line 19 you should see;
BODY { background: #ffffff; color: #000000; margin: 0px; background-image : url(../../../bg/bg6.png); background-position:center; }

Change that to;
BODY { background: #ffffff; color: #000000; margin: 0px; background-image : url(../../../bg/bg6.png); background-position:center; background-attachment:fixed;}