Sitecritic.net Website Reviews – How can your website be improved?

Form

The website has dull colours of slate blue, white and aqua, which assist in making the products stand out a lot, but don’t make the design especially memorable. However, the colours and style do indicate a professional web presence and are only hampered by the electric blue and orange text which do not fit into the colour scheme at all. Changing the text to another slate blue, grey or dulled aqua would help stylize the colour scheme. The logo is simple, has an image of a light bulb and some textured text. The idea for the logo is on the right track but this logo did not grab me as “The Lighting Solution Center” has too much space between it and “Businesslights.com”. Some more work with making the logo elements fitting together better and maybe some simplifying (ie a better globe image) would help this.

The traditional e-store three column layout is suitable for the business and customers know where to look due to the standard layout. Product categories, a shopping cart, bestseller list, general information and a search box work in the left and right columns. Featured products are down the bottom under the main paragraphs. If the three paragraphs under the main bolded paragraph were made into one, the featured products table could move up a bit and this would help people with smaller screen resolutions and look tidier.

The text at the bottom with the address, product index and contact details, while in the right place, should be in the same font as the rest of the page. Regarding design, the bolded first paragraph text also doesn’t quite fit in with the page and might be better in the standard font but bolded and a different colour.

Function

Product categories are in alphabetical order and clicking on these brings up a page of products to choose from. It was good to see that there are actually lots of products to look at and that pricing is included on them. By clicking repeatedly on the product, it is possible to navigate to a full description of the product. The shopping cart appeared functional but Australia is missing from the Country menu. The search box works well and so does the Manufacturers menu, although some manufacturers have no products listed. Overall, the navigation is extremely good and an additional suggestion is to put a FAQ or Help link near the “My Account | Cart Contents | Checkout” links at the top for customers who share common queries. Also, more could be made of the handy “Product Index”. Rather than having it at the bottom, why not display it in a prominent graphic or prominent text link on the left or right, so customers can go to it as soon as they see it?

The coding is php (standard for an e-store) and seems to be a modified php template that works efficiently with no errors. Loading times are fast and lots of customers will appreciate this.

Conclusion

Businesslights.com is an efficient, fast loading and average looking e-store that sells light bulbs, Fluorescent Lamps, Ballasts, Halogen lamps, light fixtures…etc. Honestly, if I was comparing Businesslights to other lighting websites out there, I would say that it is useful, but not memorable. For an example of how to make an e-store look memorable by using exciting colours and graphics, check out DVD Orchard or even Lighting.com. Using the same layout they currently have, Businesslights.com can make their business look more exciting quite easily – by putting some work into the main banner where the logo is, changing colours and even creating some ads for products to spruce it up.

fig 1. Electric blue text doesn’t match colour scheme

fig 2. Business Lights Logo

fig 3. Nice Shopping Cart Layout

fig 4. Contact Us Information