Hey there, folks...
I've launched a website this year called Aviationhere.com... I've managed to get some traffic but the site is not performing as well as I hoped.
If you have a spare minute, I would appreciate some feedback.
I'm not asking you to buy anything (though feel free to do so if the urge hits) I'm really looking for your honest feedback on what you think about the format, etc. And maybe some suggestions.
If you want honest critique, please read on. If you are easily offended, please skip the rest of my response:
Your site feels clumsy. It doesn't have a UI that makes me feel overly confident in the products you are selling, and that impression is probably the most important when it comes to buying online now (even moreso than the little lock icon that everyone claims is so important). To fix this, perhaps a little less JavaScript effects, and more stylish graphics. Your masthead feels like a personal homepage rather than a store.
Your site doesn't scale with different resolutions. For example, change the resolution on your computer and see how the images/menus are just flying about everywhere but where they're intended to be.
Having mouseover graphics can improve your site a lot in look and feed, but only when its done properly. Adding checkmarks over the image is not the right way to go. A glow, or subtle shadow helps it feel more like a professional site, as does your choice of changing descriptions below (that's really good, and will help the confidence issue).
Perhaps a few suggestions:
The background color is good. Try putting a white box in the middle and having all of your content within the white box. Nothing screams professional like dark background, white box, and black text on white background. For reference:
http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/ecommerce/. Get a higher resolution logo at the top. In fact, get higher resolution images, period. Maybe ditch JPEG and go with PNG, because there's a lot of artifacting in your images.
If you're using DreamWeaver's visual editor, stop. If you're using any WYSIWYG editor, stop. The site definitely feels that way.
You have a good idea, and some good basics in there. Touch it up, make it look professional, and you'll be golden!
Some examples to look up to:
http://store.apple.com/us
http://www.momastore.org
For a lot of great info:
http://www.storesonline.com/
In case we need to give credentials for our opinions, know that I do this type of critique for a living. Unfortunately, I am prohibited by law from giving you examples of sites that I manage (because this isn't an age controlled area), but if you know anything about me, you can probably guess which sites those are.
