SITE REVIEW: Industrial Classifieds and Auction

The feedback left here was for and older design that we are no longer using.
The feedback left here is from a very old request for feedback on a website design we are no longer using, it does not apply to our current website desgin. Date of this update message 4-21-2009.

Please visit us at.

http://www.industrialCandA.com

Interesting concept. You've quite possibly found an untapped and niche market that could become burgeoning site. If marketed and designed properly. And a BIG "if"!

By design I mean a more professional look (I by no means consider myself an artistic guru - that's why I got someone else to design my site). As it stands your site doesn't inspire much buyer confidence at all. Sure, its functional and it works, but so did the Yugo car when they released it.

I'm not being overly critical here but you must realise your playing with the big boys in the world of online auctions and anything less than 50% of what they offer will not suffice. I give you full credit for what you've achieved so far, but with a little make-up, shake-up and perseverance you could have something quite good on your hands.

Regards
George

Im sorry. This reeks of ebay!

Not too bad to start out, but some suggestions:

- I would never ever mix serif and serifless fonts. Doing so leaves a careless impression.

- Also, you have three blocks of credit card and paypal icons dominating your front page. This is like shouting "PAY!!!!!" Not really a good strategy to attract customers. Some of this valuable desktop space could be better used to attract visitors or improve useability.

- Rework the header, it´s neither attractive, useful nor does is help remember your page. On subpages, you are really wasting space

- Generally, use of pictograms and color is not bad, but don´t overdo it. Too many colors and symbols may look funny, but they may scare away people looking for a 100% trustworthy place to place their auctions

Good luck!

Martin

IP Address security site
ipinfo.info

I'd say that aswell, but it seems as if ebay looks more visually appealing. Ebay is both functional and good looking as it is a simple layout with simple colours and graphics.

Your site seems to be very fuctional but the visual side of the website doesn't seem so appealing to me.


I agree with Martin on that.

The navigation on the website is abit like ebay, but i would try to clean it up a little bit more so as the navigation is clear and simple. I would also make the page abit thinner so as the navigation isn't taking up more than 50% of the page

Looks good so far, good luck in the future

It isn't bad at all, I would dump the paypal logo you have at the very top of the page and replace it with a well designed logo for your company, also the column on the right hand side of the page looks like it could be a little intimadateing, too many commands there.

Thank you all for giving me your input. As to the PayPal logos the top banner ( 460 x 55 ) is a pay banner advertising for customers who want to add there banner to my rotating system. That’s why you see so much of the PayPal logos right now. If I had other customers who placed there banner in my system you would only see the PayPal logo at the left and bottom. I know it needs some finessing I just don’t know what? That’s why Im here, to get some feedback.

I think there's an underlying and prevailing message for all beginner sites such as yours, and that is, how serious are you about taking your site to the next level? Do you want to gain massive popularity and or make money from your site? What are long-term plans? The fact that your doing an EBAY-type site means you better be dead serious and motivated and hungry!

These are questions that need to be asked, evaluated and then put into action. If this is a hobby, the take your time, educate and learn from other sites. Study their layouts, design, code, etc, and then adapt some of it to yours. Study popular sites that look good and copy their best features (without violating copyright of course).

But if you have grand visions (or delusions) then the most intelligent thing is to get someone professional to design your site. I'm speaking from experience here - I've been there - when I say that you either have an artistic touch or you don’t. Facts are - you don’t lennyc!

By getting someone professional (maybe you have a gifted friend that you could bribe or entice into helping you out) you'll fast-track your development and in turn, have more time to concentrate on other issues such as SEO, improving functionality, improving back-end code, investigating other technologies, etc.

Sooner enough, you'll see whether your site has true potential or not. I mean, why toil for years when you can fast-track the truth!

I guess what I'm doing is posing the big questions. Indeed, look at the bigger picture to understand where you’re really at.

Like I said – how serious are you!

Hope this helps lennyc.