Can I get some critique on my site?

**Calliander** · 16 Jun 2009, 06:58 PM

Honesty:

Most important... NO FLASH. Get that shit out of there.

Tell your boss he needs to understand his target demographic better. Mothers-to-be and current mothers are going to be drawn to pastel colors and crisp design, not blocky layout. Columns only work on blog sites nowadays and for tech specs.

The color choice needs to be rethought.

The fonts need to be different and bigger. Think 24-30pt Helvetica Neue or Lucida Grande, not Tahoma or whatever is there now.

The landing page should not have news updates or other stuff in prominent display. It should have a promotion of the week/month/whatever or new product that is readily visible immediately. The updates and such can be at the bottom of the page.

**Detour** · 16 Jun 2009, 07:24 PM

Appreciate the comments all. I'll take another run at it this week and get back to youse guyz.

**Brand X** · 16 Jun 2009, 08:16 PM

Originally Posted by Calliander

Columns only work on blog sites nowadays and for tech specs.

That's just blatantly false. Column layouts are used in nearly every site on the web in one facsimile or another. I'd actually be amazed if you should show me an example of a site without columns being used.

Another recommendation is significantly tweak the tertiary navigation on the products page. At a glance it's extremely difficult to distinguish what section you are currently on. Giving the navigation a selected state (aside from the down arrow) would be a solid start, as well as making the second level nav stand out more. I also like Mike's idea of putting an e-spot on the homepage as opposed the "updates", especially considering the products are what you should be featuring and not "updates". Which is where the dedicated updates page could come in handy.

Oh, and make sure to cross browser test, your footer is a mess in IE6.

**Hero** · 16 Jun 2009, 11:38 PM

I did a lot of newborn designs at Disney last year, and they made me look through the following sites. I'd recommend getting your boss to do the same if he won't budge on some of the color/design choices. Sometimes if you can show a quasi-proof of concept, it helps them let go:

http://www.pumpkinpatchusa.com/
http://www.gap.com/browse/division.do?cid=43184
http://www.gap.com/browse/division.do?cid=5997
http://www.babiesrus.com/shop/index....=PPC:204310368

What Calliander said about colors is true - soft pastels is a strong point. Also, why not have pull the green out of the middle circle of the logo? You could use the negative space in it, color the top and bottom circles their own colors, and infer a "mother cradling a child" in that kind of treatment. Right now it just feels like planets orbiting each other.

Right now it definitely feels professional, but for a different industry. Like health, pharmaceuticals, marketing, engineering, etc. As long as you can convince your boss that a mother-oriented site needs to play up to mother's sensibilities, you should be able to make more leeway in shifting focus on the project.

I have a giant list of kids clothing sites (a cheat-sheet from back in the day). If I can find it I'll link to some more mother/maternity/newborn pages.

**Pineapple** · 18 Jun 2009, 04:14 PM

I actually really liked the site, but I think the "...and those wonderful first years of watching your baby grow." portion on the left is out of place. It feels like there should be more there, like a picture or something besides open space.
Overall I like the colors and the feel of the site. Nice job sir.

**Doc Holliday** · 18 Jun 2009, 04:25 PM

I know the babies are probably just stock photos, but I'm just not feeling it. Is it in the budget to do a shoot with the Aborigines using the products, using the car seats to carry firewood, setting crocodile traps with the exercisers, and such. I think that would really sell the product.