# Feedback on Website??



## melhrm (Jun 21, 2013)

Hi guys, I have been re-designing my website (very different from the white clean one I had before) If you have a few minutes, can you check it out and tell me if it's appealing or it's too much black?  thanks!!

www.iadora.com


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## lsg (Jun 21, 2013)

I really like it.


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## melhrm (Jun 21, 2013)

lsg said:


> I really like it.


thanks for taking the time to look at it.


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## Relle (Jun 21, 2013)

Overall, very nice, but you have a couple of spelling mistakes on the home page - Birthday doesn't have the H in it and receive is not IE its EI, something to watch for especially on the first page.


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## melhrm (Jun 21, 2013)

Relle9 said:


> Overall, very nice, but you have a couple of spelling mistakes on the home page - Birthday doesn't have the H in it and receive is not IE its EI, something to watch for especially on the first page.


ha, thank you for pointing that out.  I can't tell you how many times I've looked at the homepage and never noticed!  :roll:


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## Relle (Jun 22, 2013)

It wouldn't hurt to do a spell check on all the pages, just in case.


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## soapart (Jun 22, 2013)

I think it looks very classy.  Black always does IMO.


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## kazmi (Jun 22, 2013)

Like your site!  Colors are nice and the navigation is easy.  The video describing your body products is a good touch too which gives you a chance to 'sell' your products while personalizing it.


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## melhrm (Jun 22, 2013)

Relle9 said:


> It wouldn't hurt to do a spell check on all the pages, just in case.


  Yes, I agree, thanks!

Thank you everyone for taking the time to check out my site.  It was just a big change from my other site that I was a little nervous about all the black.  I appreciate all the feedback and now definitely feel more confident in my website.  Sometimes its just so hard to tell if something looks good or not, if you spend so many hours and time into it.  :grin:


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## ashleyrobertson (Jun 24, 2013)

Still very clean - even with black.

I have to ask -  what are your soap wrapped in?  Are they in adhesive bags?  I like your packaging!


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## melhrm (Jun 24, 2013)

ashleyrobertson said:


> Still very clean - even with black.
> 
> I have to ask -  what are your soap wrapped in?  Are they in adhesive bags?  I like your packaging!



Thank you, I wrap my soaps in plastic celo wrap.


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## lisamaliga (Jun 26, 2013)

You have beautiful looking soaps and packaging. I'm also pleased to see that your site is so social networking friendly. So I shared a couple of your soaps on Pinterest. That Kiwi Strawberry Soap is awesome looking!


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## ShayShay (Jul 1, 2013)

> ha, thank you for pointing that out.  I can't tell you how many times I've looked at the homepage and never noticed!  :roll:



Hi. From my experience, you really can't proofread your own work. You spend so much time looking at it and working with it, that you see what should be there, not what is actually there. So don't feel bad that you didn't catch those spelling errors. You need to get someone with a fresh eye (even if you have to pay someone) to do a thorough review of your site. Either that or you need to step away from it for several days and then do a fresh review (not as reliable as having someone else do it). I wouldn't rely solely on spell check, because you might find other errors as well. Otherwise, I think the site is great and love your soaps.


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## la-rene (Aug 5, 2013)

An old trick for proof reading for spelling is to read it backwards.  It stops you from seeing word "pictures" which is how we read.  Works like a champ.


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## obnaturals (Aug 10, 2013)

Overall the site looks good however all your photos appear to be taken indoors and have a grayish cast around them due to a lack of enough light.

If you start taking your photos outdoors in the NATURAL light you will notice a huge difference IMMEDIATELY in the late evenings around 6-7 pm when the sun is not blazing with a glare.  The outdoors method reveals the true colors and beauty of your creations.

I would give it a B+  only because of the photos.


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## DeeAnna (Aug 11, 2013)

Yep, I second the suggestion for better lighting when doing product photography. Your white background should be WHITE not gray, and the products should pop out from the background. An internet customer cannot smell, touch, or view your product in person, so your photos have to be eye catching -- crisp focus, well lit, accurate color balance, and excellent contrast.

There is a big video window below your Iadora banner on every one of the product listing pages and product detail pages that I looked at. It seriously interfered with my shopping experience to the point that I started to get discouraged. When I shop, I want to see and read about a product, not see the same video window over and over again. Consider putting the video in a More Info section so people who want to learn more can do so and shoppers can enjoy shopping.

Make product photos a consistent size. On the "New" page, for example, Juicy Fields photo is smaller, Lemongrass Sage photo is bigger, etc. All photos on a page should be the same size -- 40 pixels by 40 pixels or whatever you choose. Just be consistent.


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## onugs (Aug 11, 2013)

On my phone, all the photos seem to be pixelated. The audio in your video seems a bit muted. If you're going to start doing videos, I would invest $150 in a good lapel mic wireless if possible. This will greatly improve your audio on your videos.
Nice site. Web sites can be hard to do right.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Soap Making mobile app


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## soap_rat (Aug 11, 2013)

I think the site looks really nice--and I'm someone who easily gets eyestrain with dark backgrounds.  Your was no problem.  The only other suggestion I'd make has to do with the greyish product photos.  Brighter light, or raising the exposure in post-processing, should fix that.  If you have adjustments for saturation, clarity or contrast, try playing around with them, and you may not have to retake any photos.


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## DeeAnna (Aug 11, 2013)

I agree with Soap_Rat that the background is nice. Very elegant! And I also agree that a lot could be done in PhotoShop or your favorite photo editing software to tweak the photos.


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## DeeAnna (Aug 12, 2013)

We had a rainstorm that interfered with my satellite internet last night, or I would have finished my thoughts... 

I see you have been hard at work on your website updates. Bravo to you! You are doing some nice work.

I wanted to add these images to show what could be done with your existing photos, which are nicely composed and really attractive. First photo is an original image from your website, second has my tweaks to brightness, contrast, and saturation. I'm just an amateur at this; I'm sure a pro could do better.


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## melhrm (Aug 12, 2013)

DeeAnna said:


> We had a rainstorm that interfered with my satellite internet last night, or I would have finished my thoughts...
> 
> I see you have been hard at work on your website updates. Bravo to you! You are doing some nice work.
> 
> I wanted to add these images to show what could be done with your existing photos, which are nicely composed and really attractive. First photo is an original image from your website, second has my tweaks to brightness, contrast, and saturation. I'm just an amateur at this; I'm sure a pro could do better.



Thank you for your reply!  The photos have been so frustrating for me, I just don't know anything about it.  I've been trying to learn how to use gimp (free editing software) can't figure out how to fix the photo's.  If you can share what you did to the photo to get it so bright, I'd appreciate that!  Did you use photo shop?


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## DeeAnna (Aug 12, 2013)

PhotoShop is the gold standard. I use a less expensive program called Paint Shop Pro. Photo editing has taken me a long time to learn. I'm sure people who do this kind of work for a living can tweak photos like yours in no time flat. 

I've looked at Gimp and know some people really like it, but I used PSP before Gimp was made and am reasonably comfortable with it. I don't want to change horses without a good reason.

What I did to your photo was pretty basic. I did three things -- 1. made the photo brighter overall, 2. increased the contrast so the blacks are blacker and the whites are whiter, and 3. increased the saturation so the colors a bit more intense. 

There's only so much a person can do with photo editing. What I wanted to do, but couldn't, was make the front of the soap appear brighter without washing out the background or making the black printing on your packaging appear more greyish. That is something more easily fixed when taking the photo rather than afterward. The solution is to add more light to the front of your subject. You don't want a lot of glare off your shiny packaging, but it would work better if the front of the lavender soap is brighter in comparison with the background.

Here is a thread about product photography that you might find helpful: 
http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=33252


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## SoapyGoats (Oct 25, 2013)

I like it! The black looks very nice. Love how you wrap them! Just one thing; I'ld try keep the soap pictures all the same size...


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