Re: [OT] What makes a good miniatures web site

Dunno if your school project has already covered this, so if it's old
news,
just delete this post, but...

Surfers have VERY low attention spans. This is important for any site,
not
just miniatures, but it's becoming amazing to me how few site builders
understand this important fact.

Intergalactic Trading Company(or something like that) has a store front
that makes you drill down through at least five text-only layers of
indeci
to find out they don't have the item you seek. If you want five items in
five genre, you have to back out of each and drill down again.
Impressive
selection, some good prices, but I don't shop there anymore.

Even 50 year old guys know what they want, and they want it NOW.

Rapidity of loading is another must; the comment on thumbnails
underscores
this. Frames and java/javascript have both snazzy and fundimentally
valuable functionality (I know, you never thought I'D say it), but if
they
get in the way or slow down the load, then it's the old story of
marvelous
power misused.

Probably the most important feature: Should have been seen by other
folks
before me. Think playtesting game rules: you need people who don't know,
don't even think as you do, and listen to them when they're fresh from
trying your designs.

Sorry if this is OT to even your question, but I've too much of late
needed
to vent.

*** a bit later...

Hmmm, you certainly have opened the floodgates! In the time it took me
to
compose, admittedly at work, the above, it's been fast and furious. I
think
the points above are STILL valid.

There are some disagreements: 'must have images' vs. 'must have what I
want
easily found' seems big, though shouldn't be mutually exclusive. And, as
the web designer,  you have little control of the company's other
practices, such as shipping, timely new notices, etc. But you do can
have
an effect by having order processing software on the site working with
the
company's shipping dept., and having the What's New pages easy to
maintain,
but that's several whole 'nuther topics

Oh, Glenn? You can try to combine points in one post. ;->=

The_Beast

-Douglas J. Evans, curmudgeon

One World, one Web, one Program - Microsoft promotional ad
Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Fuhrer - Adolf Hitler