If anyone would be willing to look at my web site I would so appreciate input as to revisions I should make, thinks to add, etc. It's just been my husband and I working on it ( he does the web site, it's his first one) and I really need a third eye. He works on it whenever he has spare time so it's finally coming together. Does anyone think I need more pages with other types of info that I'm not thinking of. Also, I think some of my pricing many be too low, not sure. I'm also trying to build a more extensive portfolio esp. w/ wedding cakes so I don't want to charge too much right now. Is that the correct way of thinking? Thank you to all for any help you can give!

I think it's fine other than the gallery page. If there's a way to do it without the "bouncy bouncy" effect when you hover your cursor that would be better than how it is now. I couldn't even look at the pictures, it was making me seasick

I agree with costumeczar. Your website looks great and your husband has done a good job, but the constant movement bothered me. I do like the way it is very easy to pull up bigger pictures of the cakes, but (IMHO) it might be better if they don't move around.

I think your site is lovely The flavors section was not fully visible when I looked at it; somethings appear to be cut off.

I love your home page with the cartwheeling pictures! My only criticism is that it is very difficult to look at the pictures in your gallery. While the cakes are fantastic, the format to view them is off putting.

Great work!

I like the way it's organized over all. Your flavors are tidy and easy to read. As is your pricing page.

The pricing doesn't match up to your chart on the bottom.
If you get 8-10 servings, your fondant cake costs 6.25-5.00 per serving
If you get 12-16 servings it's 5.33-4 per serving
20-25 servings is 4.50-3.60 per serving
30-40 servings is 3.46 - 2.60 per serving!

....

To say you charge $4 for fondant is fine, I just don't know that I would go the chart route, ya know? Especially if the chart doesn't match your price per serving.


I really like your home page, with this pictures bouncing by, it's fun... they move... however, I don't know that the one in your gallery is good. I like to see all of the thumbnails, but if I go to look at one specific one in the middle, it takes some work to get there and gets kind of confusing. This may not be a problem if you are sticking with fun party cakes. But, if you want to progress in to wedding cakes, you may want it to be less wiggly and easier to look at the pictures.

A great way to build up your wedding portfolio is to get some dummy cakes. You can start with a plain one with a ribbon border, then add some flowers, take it all off and pipe on one side, pipe a different design on the other side... Put some pillars between it...

Hi I just looked at your website. I think you have a good start My only thought is when I went to the gallery, the "boinging" action of the pictures kind of made me sea sick......I was tring to look at the cakes, but the motion was a little to much for me I'm sure lots of others with websites will be able to give you better advice than me, but congratulations on getting started!

Thank you so much for all your wonderful advice. I didn't expect such quick feedback! I will definitely tell DH to change to boinging around as someone put it on the gallery page. Thanks also to to aligotmatt for some great input.

Just another idea on your gallery... maybe put the cake pictures into categories (wedding, adult birthday, kid birthday, baby, etc)....since you will probably add more and more pictures.

p.s. I LOVE that lobster cake!

It is a very good start. Personally I don't like movement on the screen it is distracting and off putting for some. The gallery tooka very long time to load on my computer and I have good internet speed. Are you pictures all downsized? Is the special effects taking up precious time to load?

Definately change the way your pictures are displayed. I got motion sickness looking at them. No offence meant!

You might like to put a picture of yourself on the site to show people who you are. Customers like an about us page, they will feel more comfortable if you supply some information and can put your face on the site.

It says ' This is my site, these are my cakes and I am proud to put my picture here'

I think its a really really nice website. It's one of the great looking websites I've seen. The fonts are very nice. I love the look, it feels young and sophisticated. I love the background but I would prefer the image to be sharper.

There are three things that "personally" bothers me: the constant movement in the homepage, the gallery and the quality of the pictures. With such a beautiful home page and clean navigation, the slideshow ruins it. If I were you, I would pick a cake picture, a logo, a picture of your shop (if you have one ), a picture of you or maybe a picture something that tells a story about business. I would put the image on the left side and then on the the right side, I would add the "About us" or an introduction of your business. Kind of like the same format as what you see in newspapers.

The gallery makes my head hurt and its really confusing. You have beautiful cakes but the way those picture pop (bouncy) out of the screen is a little bit annoying. I would suggest just making it simple and not add too much effects when you hover the arrow on the cakes.

I have to admit that you do know how to take good pictures. I like the picture of the egg shaped creation with the duck inside and flowers on top and I also like the closeup of the details on the cake with metalic accents. They have a soft feeling to it and it has great quality. To me, it has a professional feeling to it. As of your other cakes, I would suggest that you take a picture infront of a backdrop or a nice background.

I hope I wasn't so harsh. I was just giving you my own opinion.

Good luck.

I love the pictures and your cakes. I don't like the way you have to chase the pictures. It made me leave the site.

Your website is great!

The only thing that bothered me was the fact that the photos of your lovely cakes were bouncing around, it made it very hard to appreciate all the hard work you did on them.

Also some of the filling info is missing or cut off, but all in all you are off to a great start!

Good luck!

I wanted to add 'Well Done' to you and your husband. Obviously you have put much hard work into it.

I wanted to add 'Well Done' to you and your husband. Obviously you have put much hard work into it.

The font is too small. Baby boomers are into bifocals, now!

I am NOT a fan of special effects. I'm looking for information, not a showcase to display the talent of the IT programmer ... let him get his OWN website to showcase HIS talents! I want to see cakes!

Motion sickness, sea-sickness, cakes that look like they were underwater ... definitely get rid of the bouncy-ball effect.

Agree with others that you don't need that chart. If you sell by the serving, then you just need to list a serving price. If you sell by the cake, then use the chart. But the chart shows a "range" of servings with one price, yet you say you charge per-serving. It's a conflict of info.

I also think you're doing yourself a disservice with a wedding price of $2.50 a serving and then show a chart showing they can get a cake to serve 80 for half that price (80 x $2.50 = $200, yet your chart shows $100).

On the Flavors and Fillings page, I'd change it from "Flavors" to "Cake Flavors" just so it's clear (It took me a minute to figure it out).

What are the prices on the Specialty Cakes?

I love the layout of your site. You have a very nice hubby for doing this for you. But like everyone one else, i feel the constant movement and bouncey cake page is very distracting from your beautiful cakes.

I think the rolling pictures on the home page is really cool. I didn't think the bouncing on the galleries page bothered me, but now my eyes feel a little strained. The problem was that each picture enlarged as you went over it, so if you were aiming for 3rd cake, 4th down, you had a hard time getting the cursor over that particular cake because the square/rectangle was changing shape and position constantly. I really liked that each cake I rolled over enlarged right away without having to wait for a further download, but I didn't want every single cake to enlarge as I rolled around to my favourites.

Thanks to all of you for taking the time to look at my site and all the great advice you gave. Over the next week or two I will redesign some areas and have my DH implement it when he has time. The bouncing gallery definitely has to go, I didn't realize it was so distracting and the pricing section has to make more sense. Thanks again!!!

So I was just looking at this site: http://www.debbiedoescakes.net/home.html, and what happens there is that you can scroll over the thumbnails, and if you stop, then in another window, an enlarged picture will load. So I'm thinking on your bouncy gallery page, maybe all you need to do is to make it so that the picture does not enlarge unless you pause on the picture for a second or two. If they didn't all enlarge instantly as you were scrolling around, it wouldn't be so bouncy and it would be easier to get your target. And then when you scroll off, it goes back to thumbnail size and NOTHING enlarges again until you pause on another picture. Then you still get to use the cool stretch/compress effect, but not as much.

MargaretB-
Thanks for all your input. I'm going to have my husband read all your great posts on how to improve my website so he can get a better jist of the caker's point of view but also just how the gallery needs to be more user friendly for all, and I need an about me section as one person suggested, and I have to change the pricing section as another suggested...thanks for thinking of me a few days later!

I know you're going to change the 'special effects', and I think that's a good thing, because the general layout, colours, font etc are beautiful and very elegant.

Once those visual distractions are gone, it will be a really nice site. Good job to you both

Ok, my husband and I listened to all your advice and he changed as much as he could since he got home from work today. I think the only thing left to add is the About page with a picture of me as someone suggested and then later on I'll incorporate a logo as another said...I'll probably have to get someone to design the logo or I might try to give it a go myself. Anyways, I just wanted to say thanks to all of you...your advice was great and very insightful. The web page is now looking better and yes I do have a wonderful husband for doing this. Thanks again!

That's muuuuuuch better. No seasickness that time!

Thanks CostumeCzar

I think your web site looks great, I guess it is because you already fixed it.

I think it would be a great idea to read "about you and how you came about to start doing cakes".

Other than that your site is really nice.

Lomikesa

I am new to this. But, I dont see where I can find your website to pull it up And I would love to see it. Can you email me the website???

my email [email protected]

thank you
nancy

Oh goodie! I read all the comments and didn't want to repeat what anyone said about technical design so I can add something useful (I think!)

1. I would change your font to another standard font like Tahoma. New Times Roman screaming "default"... I didnt have the time to change it.

2. Great working pages, but I would change the colors back to classic white if you are going to use pictures for your bullets. They are coming out funny with a greyish background.

3. Try to be a bit more positive on your wedding page and add a few photos of a cake assembled at venue. The overall impression gives "sigh... if I HAVE to make your wedding cake, here is what I will be forced to charge you."... you might want to take a look at how other decorators are doing their wedding pages.

I know that's not the impression you mean to give. You are a cool bird! Just reviewing it as an outside, you know? Anyway, try to be enthusiastic and have your pricing info be more of a "here is what Ill be forced to charge you if I have the ultimate joy in being able to make your cake!"

It looks nice and is well thought out. I only have two suggestions.
On your cake flavor page, you are missing some flavors in your list although they are listed below...unless you don't want someone ordering red velvet with buttercream for example.
You also seem to have a mismatch of classy versus fun. For example, your background screams fun to me with the bright color yet inside the white box, the fonts and gold/silver theme seem much more elegant. Up top, the yellow is getting lost inside the gray boxes. I like each of the elements, but together, I think something is needed to marry them. Maybe bring something bright pink into the box such as a design or underline or text color change or take the silver or gold into your background. The same with your home page. The cakes flipping everywhere seems like birthday fun but not classy wedding to me. I like the animation, but maybe see how it looks slowing it down with less flipping or adding borders around the cakes to add more style. I think it also depends on which market you are trying to gear towards.
Even if you make no additional changes, it is clear and easy to navigate and very well done. Congrats.

Thanks Loriana and DrTina...those are all very good suggestions...all something that makes a lot of sense and I didn't think about... I'll probably have to wait a few days to bring it up to my husband so I don't get a major eyeball roll...like here we go again Tiffany...

Thanks again for your ideas...I had no idea the amount of work that goes into a web page...now I know and I'm not even the one actually doing it but just being the planner of the web page is a lot of work...having all your helpful advice makes it easier and it's changing for the better!