Why the inconsistency?
 

I just realized that when going through the checkout process: add to cart/view cart, checkout page, and a few others do not share the same home.tpl Why not? I loose all my menu links on the left.



Is this intentional or did I happen to delete something somewhere?

Re: Why the inconsistency?
 

i believe it's intentional, to change the *focus* on each of those pages. annoys me too though.

Re: Why the inconsistency?
 

yeah, I agree it is annoying because it messes my background all up. Working on changing it to fit inside my content area atm. Just PITA uneccessary work.

Re: Why the inconsistency?
 

It's a good practice.

One philosophy of retail -- once the customer is prepared to pay, get the money fast, and make the checkout free of all distractions that could take the customer away from completing the transaction.

There are countless books and articles about this.

You don't have to hide the menus at checkout --- but I think you should.

Re: Why the inconsistency?
 

Well.... If you go to my site (http://www.systemskins.com/sscart/home.php) add a product to your cart, notice how it messes my background all up.

Notice in my header I have the top of the category menu in my header, this is to give the illusion that the category menu is higher on the page because of the background that I have with the whte text box going through the package it places the menu too far down so I had to modify the category menu to appear higher.

Would I be able to write a simple smarty tag to say that {if} add to cart or checkout include header2 instead of original header? so then I could just put in the repeated background and not have to worry about the "category" menu title in the header.

Re: Why the inconsistency?
 

Doug,

Your header is HUGE! Try constraining your viewable page to 1024x768 and watch how quickly you cut your vertical use of your header by 75%. Or is it that your customers all have mega-screens?

Re: Why the inconsistency?
 

i agree with Jeremy, your header is too large, I'd reduce by 50-75%...

also, middle of the banner, that blue bubble with text is near impossible to read. i like the inventiveness of using the controller buttons as link items, but i easily miss those links

Re: Why the inconsistency?
 

Well, I do have a 23" widescren with 1680 x 1050 resolution, so yeah it looks fine on my screen, and I realize not everyone has a screen like mine, but when I move the resolution down to 1024 x 768 it still looks good.

My girlfriends sister has a 15" monitor and she loaded up the site. Said she had no problems with it. /shrug

But you guys know best cause it's what you do :)

So.. I guess if I did shrink it down, what would you guys recommend as the max header area? I did make my site at 970px wide so that 1024 users wouldn't get horizontal scroll bars. If I did make it any smaller than what it is now, I would loose the ability to make links in the controller. Granted the controller buttons aren't my main navigation links, just the most frequently used and I thought it would be a cool idea to have them there. Thats why I made the header area like it is now, big and all.

Re: Why the inconsistency?
 

It isn't the monitor size, that is a common misconception. It is all about resolution, and currently the majority of users out there are on 1024x768. If you don't size your site for that audience, you are going to really hurt yourself.

Re: Why the inconsistency?
 

I understand your desire to hang on to the controller navigation (and it's still possible maybe, just not necessarily displaying all of the controller or have the lower part of the controller become part of the background of the main content area)

the primary focus should be to bring the user directly to your content (products). i'm running 1152x864 resolution, and i only see maybe 2 inches of your actual content area (which right now is just your welcome message). the main focus of the site becomes the header, but there's nothing in the header that is selling me any products.

i think you can still pull off the header concept, but you'd have to get a bit more creative to get it smaller and still usable. maybe check with other design guys for ideas?

Re: Why the inconsistency?
 

What is a recommended headder "height" ? or just the smaller the better?

Re: Why the inconsistency?
 

The smaller the better...you want as much content (i.e. product) visible at any time as possible.

Re: Why the inconsistency?
 

Doug,

I'm not a web designer "pro" -- but as a business owner, I needed to learn as much as I could over the years... one thing I AM is a web consumer and I buy almost everything in life online - from groceries (freshdirect.com) to electronics -- and as a consumer, I know what kind of stores I like, and what store experiences are easy...

If all the big boys do it one way, there may be something to learn from them. Granted, Amazon.com's checkout may be a bit extreme (ever try to add something to your cart once you've started checkout on amazon? it's not easy!) -- however, if you visit the top-ten sites in your space, you can learn something.

My primary screen right now is a 17" laptop 1680x1050 - but I also have a Dell 30" in my studio and also have a bunch of 1024x768 screens -- my wife's laptop is 1152x768. If a page doesn't put the good stuff into the top 90% of a 1024x768, I probably can't expect the user to scroll. What would Jakob Nielsen say on this?

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/screen_resolution.html

Re: Why the inconsistency?
 

carpeperdiem,

yeah, I read that article before I started designing my site, thats why i made it "optimized" for 1024. But I ignored the"fold". My girlfriend is working on resizing the header as we speak. She's down to 375 from 500 already. Going to try to work it down to 250 i think.

Re: Why the inconsistency?
 

Ok,

I have redesigned my header from a wopping 489px height to a small 233px height. A big difference. I lost my ability to place my searchbox in the header and am left to think of a new location for it.

I was originally happy with the dea of the searchbox in the header and on the other side (not designed yet) I was going to put a minicart on the left side above the products menu.

But back to the main focus of my initial post topic.
You suggest that I do not place my category menus or any links in the cart/checkout pages eh? It just seams naked without anything on the left IMO.

Re: Why the inconsistency?
 

Strip EVERYTHING out of the checkout...don't give the customer any chance to back out. Look and feel has no value whatsoever here, and can in fact be a negative if it makes the page more confusing. Once they commit to buying, you don't want to do anything to distract them. I've done a lot of conversion studies on this, and if you strip out all of the links, you'll find a significant increase in customers completing their transactions.

Re: Why the inconsistency?
 

By the way, MUCH better on the header, although the logo still looks fuzzy to me...

Put the search box right above the product menu.

Re: Why the inconsistency?
 

fuzzy huh.... The System Skins Logo on the left you mean?

My girlfriend got frustrated last night and went to bed early, so she's not done with the background images being all smooth and all

Oh, and I did what you said about the checkout. No left side links.... I guess I can take them out of the header as well then too

Re: Why the inconsistency?
 

Yea, the text does not look sharp at all...maybe it is just the outer glow...

Re: Why the inconsistency?
 

much better header design, i can see the page navigation and products now :-D