Design Cocept, Please Let me know what you think

My name is Takashi and I run a retail business in Canada, the shop is doing very well but simply because I am the only shop in town that has this concept. My next business plan was to expand at a international level, more specifically targeting the american market. The cost effective solution as you know was to go online. I and my partner has created a website that literally took 3 months to make, the postive side is we did it with no cost at all except for the domain name and hosting. My questions to you markting Gurus is first what do you think about the website we created? Please be honest even if it's mean or rude. Second how can I imporve it. I have read the internet marketing research site and I plan to read each categpry and apply it to the website. But as you know creating a brand in my opnion needs creativity, somthing that will make a emotional connection with the customers so that he or she will come back.
I guess what I'm really trying to do is create a brand online and how do I do that? Simply put marketing on internet is completely different than markting in my local area and I need help on the online is concerned. Please visit my website at www.yankodesign.com Please keep in mind that it is still under construction and the minor details such as company info is not on yet.

[YvetteKuhns]

The index page shows your business name and some products. For those who are not very Internet savvy, they may not know what or how to click to enter the website. I actually clicked the image of one of the products to enter.

As I see the website, the links menu has small text. The small horizontal lines on the background pull the eyes away from the products and to the lines. Try a solid background color. I really love the header graphic.

The products have thumbnails with names and prices but no descriptions. It saves space and has a cleaner, neater design. Anyone can click for more info. When I clicked for more info, I saw the price in the upper right corner of the screen. It would be more visible to appear somewhere below the product name, description or image on the left or in the center of the page.

The prices can be viewed in US or Canadian dollars. The company info has not been included yet, though the payment, refund and privacy policies are. The contact us page is simply a form asking for the visitor's information. It should include the business name, address, phone number, email address and business hours.

The design is nice, but a hint of color would be nice. Even a subtle color of blue - it looks as though you tried to do that with the buttons. The neutral background does not compete with the images which makes the images stand out as desired. Very simple, clean and attractive.

[oatesj77]

nice site, top rate graphics, navigatin worked well and the whole uc/canada price thing is a nice touch.

Header graphic is sharp, and works very well with the rest of the design and site layout. the background is appropriate, doesn't compete with images or text.
on the downside, your site loaded very slowly, each page took quite a while to load, enough that i probably would not stay and browse through your site long enough to uncover come of the cool products you are selling. that said, nice work, design complements the content in a way that adds to the overall design. work on making it load quicker and you should have a great site.

Originally Posted by yankodesign

But as you know creating a brand in my opnion needs creativity, somthing that will make a emotional connection with the customers so that he or she will come back. I guess what I'm really trying to do is create a brand online and how do I do that?

I think perhaps the term for the type of site you wish to create is "experience design." One of the professors I studied web design from used this term to refer to sites which create an overall unique experience for the user; something interactive and immersive.

Perhaps the best way to achieve this with your product line would be through 3D inspection of the objects along with / instead of providing pictures from various angles. I know I would like to examine the fabulous Breadbin from more than one point of view. Of course, there are many techniques of presenting products, and this is just one of the them. The important thing is to seek out and test new ways of presenting your products.

Another important factor in creating an online brand identity is consistency throughout the site. Your frontpage is excellent and reminds me of exactly the sort of shop you seem to want to convey. However, the inside of the site looks more like a news portal. It loses all of the strong, yet not necessarily blatant lines present on the frontpage. Also, the inside text should have more contrast with its surroundings. Your products would catch the eye in the home, and your text should do the same thing...As you remind visitors from the beginning "Form follows function."

Along these same lines, usually when I see a dotted or dashed line around a box, it is a coupon in a magazine or newspaper. The sideboxes on your site have this same feel to me; they lessen the visual quality, and in a sense, this is transferred to your products -- there is nothing cheap about them in price or quality, but they have little "coupons" floating all around them.

I hope my post has been of some help.

[YvetteKuhns]

Your frontpage is excellent and reminds me of exactly the sort of shop you seem to want to convey. However, the inside of the site looks more like a news portal. It loses all of the strong, yet not necessarily blatant lines present on the frontpage. Also, the inside text should have more contrast with its surroundings. Your products would catch the eye in the home, and your text should do the same thing...As you remind visitors from the beginning "Form follows function."

Along these same lines, usually when I see a dotted or dashed line around a box, it is a coupon in a magazine or newspaper. The sideboxes on your site have this same feel to me; they lessen the visual quality, and in a sense, this is transferred to your products -- there is nothing cheap about them in price or quality, but they have little "coupons" floating all around them.

I was thinking that, but then I thought it was just my mommy mind going into "shop mode".

[MacTech]

Your front page reminds me a lot of apples index page, but thats ok cause it isn't copying (yes i mention this a lot cause i am mad about many copying apples page) anyway I like it a lot, great graphics and shows exactly what your products are. I would consider something to differ from the black background to the white but probably doesn't need it.

as for the rest of the site, personally I think needs to follow the black theme i my mind with the index page. however it does look good and very easy to follow. only other thing i would think about is making some frames for images but probably again doens't need to be done.

nice work.