Amazon Store, critique wanted

[mikelbeck]

I just finished the first pass on an Amazon store for one of my sites:

http://www.discusscareers.com/amazon_store.php

I'm going to be adding functionality to allow selection of different categories (only ones that I define, though), different sorts, and the ability to add to your Amazon cart right from that page.

Have a look, let me know what you think!

The more I hack on vB, the easier it is... ;-)

[Gio~Logist]

I dont lkie the fact that theirs two big tables (guest message adn google add) between the navigation and main forum content. It seems a little vague and boring. Try adding some more color ro changing color scheme.

[Tony G]

I don't like the portal, the tables seem very unorganised and not ordered in any way. Plus they're of varying widths too, which doesn't look good.

To your forums, you have too many forums. ;) Half don't even have posts in them! Condense down to 10 I'd say, and expand as you get more activity.

Also, some unknown large gap between your guest table and forum list, might wanna rid of that.

[Guest190829]

I don't think your using your space in a very organized manner. Instead of showing the description of the book next to it's image, you can just have the images and titles of the books all in neat rows and columns. Once a book is clicked, it's own table it brought up with additional information.

[mikelbeck]

I don't like the portal, the tables seem very unorganised and not ordered in any way. Plus they're of varying widths too, which doesn't look good.

Varying widths? What browser are you using? I'm using IE & Firefox, and the tables are all the same size.

To your forums, you have too many forums. ;) Half don't even have posts in them! Condense down to 10 I'd say, and expand as you get more activity.

Ok, good idea.

Also, some unknown large gap between your guest table and forum list, might wanna rid of that.

I'm not seeing that, either. There's an Adsense block under the "Guest" block, are you seeing that?

Thanks for taking the time...

I don't think your using your space in a very organized manner. Instead of showing the description of the book next to it's image, you can just have the images and titles of the books all in neat rows and columns. Once a book is clicked, it's own table it brought up with additional information.

Yeah, I was thinking about doing that myself, that'd probably make more sense.

Thanks for the critique.

[Tony G]

It's the welcome guest table thats out of proportion to the other tables.

[mikelbeck]

It's the welcome guest table thats out of proportion to the other tables.

Oh, ok. I've gotten rid of it, I've always hated that and forgot all about it. ;-)

I've changed it so a DHTML popup is displayed for 10 seconds (only once) when guests visit the site.

I've made some changes:

1 - The main Amazon page doesn't show the detail of each item any more. Clicking on an item will bring the user to a detail page with more information about the item.

2 - On all of the Amazon pages I've removed the top Adsense block, so only the one on the left hand side of the Amazon table is displayed.

How's it look, any better now?

I'm still working on the shopping cart part of it, so users will be able to add an item to their cart without having to visit Amazon.

http://www.discusscareers.com/amazon_store.php

[Brinnie]

1) Your forum design is nothing to be proud of.
But in the same turn, it's nothing to be ashamed of. Simplicity rules in my book.


2) Here's a tip from the owner of vBulletin:
What are the most common mistakes you see new admins making?

The biggest mistake made by new administrators and long-time administrators alike is trying to create too many forums on a board. Unless a board has an extremely active membership of several thousand people there is almost no point in having the board subdivided into lots and lots of forums. All too often I see boards that give the impression of being totally dead because there are a hundred forums, each receiving only a handful of posts per day. It is far better to have everyone post to just a small number of forums so that everyone can see what everyone else is doing. This mixing of topics and people is the fundamental essence of community. Once you have a million posts and a few thousand unique posting visitors every day, then you can think about adding more forums so that topics don't get lost.


3) "This operation timed out when attemping to contact www.discusscareers.com"
Site is slow. Server sucks.

For these reasons I will be unable to complete this review.

[cmiller1014]

How did you set that up? I need something like that for 3.5!

[bigcurt]

I like this new setup you have it is VERY professional and well done A++

[mikelbeck]

1) Your forum design is nothing to be proud of.
But in the same turn, it's nothing to be ashamed of. Simplicity rules in my book.


I'm of the same mind... Simple is good, flashy and overloaded with graphics is bad. ;-)

3) "This operation timed out when attemping to contact www.discusscareers.com"
Site is slow. Server sucks.

The server doesn't suck. There was a routing issue that has been corrected, please try it again.

How did you set that up? I need something like that for 3.5!

I wrote it myself using AWS. When 3.5 is released and I upgrade to it, I'll upgrade this hack to work with 3.5 as well. Once I'm done with it, maybe I'll release it to the public. ;-)

I like this new setup you have it is VERY professional and well done A++

Thank you!

[bigcurt]

You made this using what? lol, only thing I know that is AWS is advanced warning system..maybe I am just sloww, I just woke up 0_O.

Also I bet a few people would like it if you release to public.

~Curt

[mikelbeck]

You made this using what? lol, only thing I know that is AWS is advanced warning system..maybe I am just sloww, I just woke up 0_O.

Also I bet a few people would like it if you release to public.

~Curt

Ah, sorry. AWS (Amazon Web Services) is now called ECS - the Amazon E-Commerce Service. Here's a link to an Amazon page about it:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html/ref=smm_sn_aws/104-6803208-5421546?%5Fencoding=UTF8&node=3435361

Also I bet a few people would like it if you release to public.


Once it's done... I've still got some stuff that I want to do with it.

[bigcurt]

oh ok, got ya about that AWS now ;).

~Curt