Open to Criticism - Live Site looking for improvements

Miscellaneous Advertise Your Store
#1

Hi All,



Our site mediapc4u co uk



We are using one of the standard templates but I’m not to happy with the design of the site. I might look at getting a custom skin designed soon.



All items except for the Media PCs are automatically imported in to the site via a xml feed from our supplier.



I’m open to suggestion on how to make the site better and also open to constructive criticism :slight_smile:



Also interested in what people think of the speed of the site. Because every time you view an item the site checks stock qty and price with our suppliers xml feed before the item is displayed. So this might affect the speed of the site, what do you guys and gals think?



Regards,

Aleks

#2

Nice site … I just feel your thumbnails and images are too small, especially on your home page. Also, I only checked a couple of your products, but your larger images aren’t much bigger than your thumbnails.



The speed is not too bad but could be faster.



Also, by moving your shopping cart to the right, you now have a lot of blank space between your search bar and where the categories and content start. This can be easily reduced by reducing the top padding of your content div.



Just a few points that caught my eye while browsing.

#3

@Lyn



Thanks for taking a look :slight_smile:



The images are unfortunately also automatically imported from my supplier and that are the biggest pics they do. I also do think they are to small but unfortunately i cant do anything about it :frowning:



I will look at making my thumbs a little bigger, thanks for the suggestion.



I would like to reduce the space left by the cart but i don’t know what code to change, could anyone point me in the right direction please :slight_smile:



Regards,

Aleks

#4

Just had a quick look but am in a rush but general impression is neat.



Those images can be made bigger in admin for your product thumbnails see attached screenshot @120x120,



and for the featured products section size are see instructions below.



Featured products" block image sizes you need to make some code changes in the “small_list.tpl” file


  1. Open the “small_list.tpl” file located in the “skins/[YOUR_ACTIVE_SKIN]/customer/blocks/list_templates”
  2. Replace this part of code:



    {include file=“common_templates/image.tpl” image_width=“40” obj_id=$obj_id_prefix images=$product.main_pair object_type=“product”}



    with this one:



    {include file=“common_templates/image.tpl” image_width=“NEW_IMAGE_WIDTH” obj_id=$obj_id_prefix images=$product.main_pair object_type=“product”}


  3. Save the file.



    You may also want to change the size in the HOT DEAL block.



    To change the size of the images in the “Hot deal” block


  4. Open the “hot_deals.tpl” file located in the “skins/[CUSTOMER_ACTIVE_SKIN]/customer/addons/hot_deals/blocks/”
  5. Replace this part of code:






with this one:



where "NEW_IMAGE_WIDTH" is the new size of the thumbnails in the "Hot Deals" block (for example: "75")
3) Save the file.

The easiest way to do this I find is by turning on customization mode in admin and then view the store in this mode and edit them with the tabs there in the fly.
You may want to utilise the MY Changes folder, but thats your choice.
#5

ooops missed screenshot.





John

mediapc.jpg

#6

@John



Thanks for the detailed instructions, really helps a cut and paste coder like me to get things done.



I have now increased the size of the images in several places on the site for a much more visual pleasing look.



Regards,

Aleks

#7

Looks great, easy as good as ebuyer, fast enough for me I would easy buy from it and probably will do for my business as I am in UK also. I like the dynamic dropdown catagories menu, where did you get it ?. Youve mad good use of the Electro theme Good luck with the site.



also the robots.txt file isnt gonna work like it is just not wrapping on my pc, see this thread for some dos and donts.,



[url]http://forum.cs-cart.com/showthread.php?t=16357&highlight=robots.txt[/url]



John

#8

@John



Thanks :slight_smile: Looks better now with larger images. Now i need to find out how to adjust the padding where the original cart was located. Anyone know how to do this?



The dynamic accordion menu is a free mod done by “baballuci” (thanks).

[URL=“http://forum.cs-cart.com/showthread.php?t=11093&highlight=accordion+menu”]http://forum.cs-cart.com/showthread.php?t=11093&highlight=accordion+menu[/URL]



Regards,

Aleks

#9

Thanks for the link,

padding where the original cart was located , sorry what do you mean “original cart”



John

#10

@John



Sorry, probably not the best way of describing it. Please see the screenshot.

I wanted to reduce the white space.



And thanks for pointing out that my robots.txt file was a bit messed up, all fixed now :smiley:

white space.JPG

#11

the

padding , can be controlled in Styles css, line 749, change the padding to about 2 or so



#content {

background-color:#FFFFFF;

padding:20px 7px 0;



also I deleted the content tools


have a play around with it in firefox firebug first so youre sure. Also dont delete the div just comment it out, the you can easy stick it straight back in.



John

#12

missed image again

media.jpg

#13

You may want to check this thread also Aleks, I had a few complaints before I changed mine to this,

[url]http://forum.cs-cart.com/showthread.php?t=15625[/url]

John

#14

I have changed the padding to 2px, looks better now. But I’m not quite sure how to comment out the “content tools” bit in the styles.css. Do i just wrap it in /* XXX */ ??



Thanks again for your help John.



Regards,

Aleks


[quote name=‘johnbol1’]the

padding , can be controlled in Styles css, line 749, change the padding to about 2 or so



#content {

background-color:#FFFFFF;

padding:20px 7px 0;



also I deleted the content tools


have a play around with it in firefox firebug first so youre sure. Also dont delete the div just comment it out, the you can easy stick it straight back in.



John[/QUOTE]

#15

EDIT I managed to do this one by adding the code to the bottom of the styles.css :smiley:

================================================



This is also a pet hat of mine with the cart. Thanks for the link :smiley:



Do i just add:



.cm-notification-container {
right: 50%;
margin-right: -137px;
top: 50%;
margin-top: -27px;
position: fixed;
z-index: 16;
}




To the styles.css? does it matter where i put it?



Sorry for all the questions, im still learning the basics.



Regards,

Aleks




[quote name=‘johnbol1’]You may want to check this thread also Aleks, I had a few complaints before I changed mine to this,

[url]http://forum.cs-cart.com/showthread.php?t=15625[/url]

John[/QUOTE]

#16

the info is already in their Aleks, it just needs changing to as the thread. Use notepad plus or whatever text editor you have and cntrl f the section of text to your peramiters, I had to play around with mine a bit but youll get there.

and no worries I am learning too!



John

#17

also not in styles.css,



it goes in your skin/ styles.base.css, and then you will probably need to clear your cache to see the changes by doing yoursite.co.uk.



John

#18

[quote name=‘johnbol1’]also not in styles.css,



it goes in your skin/ styles.base.css, and then you will probably need to clear your cache to see the changes by doing yoursite.co.uk.



John[/QUOTE]



Thanks, changed it and it now works just fine. Personally i think that this should be the position where its displayed as default…


[quote name=‘johnbol1’]

also I deleted the content tools



have a play around with it in firefox firebug first so youre sure. Also dont delete the div just comment it out, the you can easy stick it straight back in.

[/QUOTE]





How would i do this? Not sure where to look.



Regards,

Aleks