X-Cart forums

[Barnastil]

Okay, I understand this is a very stupid question, but itб╢s one I need to ask. If anyone feels the need to cyber pimp-slap me, go ahead....

How do you guys make such nice sites? I got into this by accident and have almost no webdesign experience. Is it a question of making an html/flash site and applying the links or is there a grand secret?

Thanks in advance for the advice

[balinor]

You can't simply make a site and apply the links, no. You need to edit each template individually until the site comes together. You will need to know html/css/smarty to do it correctly, so if you aren't familar with those languages, get yourself a book or take a class, as you really can't do it without at least a core knowledge of those. It isn't a grand secret, but it is a pretty steep learning curve if you want to highly customize an X-Cart site.

Good design is not something you can learn from a book however. Many of us went to design school of some sort, or have a creative background.

My suggestion is to buy yourself a pre-made template from X-Cart or a third party vendor like 7dana.com to start. That will at least give you a decent looking site until you are ready to take it to the next level.

And don't use Flash...it has no place in an E-commerce site.

[cotc2001]

Also to add to the above, don't just work on how a design looks but also how it works and how the customer will interact with it.

You can have the best looking site in the world but if the customer can't get through it with the minimum of hassle it aint gonna work.

What I do is after a site is pretty much finished is hand it over to some beta testers (including a 70 year old surfer) and listen to what feedback they say.