Why the inconsistency?

SystemSkins · #1 11-14-2007, 12:34 PM

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?

intel352 · #2 11-14-2007, 01:09 PM

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

SystemSkins · #3 11-14-2007, 01:10 PM

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.

carpeperdiem · #4 11-14-2007, 01:47 PM

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.

SystemSkins · #5 11-14-2007, 01:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by carpeperdiem

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.

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.

carpeperdiem · #6 11-14-2007, 02:23 PM

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?

intel352 · #7 11-14-2007, 02:34 PM

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

SystemSkins · #8 11-14-2007, 02:48 PM

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.

balinor · #9 11-14-2007, 03:17 PM

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.

intel352 · #10 11-14-2007, 03:19 PM

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?