Teach Soap

A bit off topic but recently I designed a website for my sister. She owns SOAK - a retail bath and body shop in Newburyport, MA. I was hoping people could take a look and tell me what you think of the site. It's my first professional web design project. I'm a Graphic Artist (and amateur soap-maker). I had a blast designing everything and hopefully all my htlml is working properly.

Thanks!
Dawna

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Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring--it was peace." - Milan Kundera

You didn't leave a link, but I found www.soaknbpt.com and made the assumption this was the right one. The layout is nice and easy to follow, however, the site itself took a long time to load. Also, you may want to talk with your sister about listing ingredients of the products she's selling. Not a requirement, but sure is helpful to many.

The site looks nice though, good job!

Brandy

Sorry about that. The link: www.soaknbpt.com

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Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring--it was peace." - Milan Kundera

My computer loaded it very easily. I like the layout, the graphics. She makes very nice looking soap!
The only thing I did not like was the blue background frame. I think it competed with all the other blues. So why not try black or a contrast color like orange or yellow. Oh, and thanks for the countdown reminder to Christmas.... guess I should work on our Christmas letter!

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

The turquise blue lettering is hard for me to read. Could you maybe make the letters the darker blue like it's in the logo's bottom? She has cold process soaps for $7.50 each. Do they sell at this price? It would be nice to have an ingredient list and how much the soap weighs.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

I will try give some constructive criticism that may help, but realize this may be more working than you are willing to do. I have a business that does SEO, so I'm looked through the site trying to find issues that may turn away customers.

For one, I don't see much of any writing on the site. You need to have some writing on the pages with keywords or the search engine will have issues picking up your site. If you are doing this only for customers who have already used your products, that is fine, but you will not get a huge amount of traffic. A pretty site is only good if it can bring in customers.

I also agree with Soapbuddy, the font color is a bit problematic to read. You use your white space effectively, but realize that people are only going to look at a site for thirty seconds before they move on. If they have difficulty reading the site, you have a problem since they will just move on. You need to catch their attention quickly on the front page.

I would recommend that some of the information you use on the about us page go on the homepage. Tell the customer why they should buy from this store rather than your competition. Use headings, different fonts, different font sizes, and bullets. Make sure that any writing never goes over 400 words, however, since people will not read more than this on a homepage.

I hope that helped.

I agree with Lenoria and soapbuddy. You web site is neat and linear and could just use a different coor scheme. I am taking Web Design in college, and although that makes me no expert, one thing they did mention that would help you is more descriptions and more of a customer friendly tone. It seems like its just business on the web site, nothing personal to lure the customer in. My pages loaded quickly and as I said earlier, your schematics are great, but the color choice and font size and color makes it seem monochramatic. I understand that the look she might be going for is blue for serenity, water, bath time, etc., but it does kind of blend in and should contrast. Excellent form and good graphics!!

Sonya

Loaded easily for me and I loved the site. Only issue is a few of the buttons weren't working - "Perfume" link for one and the "Previous Page" at the top of each page (not the bottom) of each glycerine soap page. LOVED the glycerine soaps by the way - am extremely jealous!

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Soaper from Melbourne Australia
Founding member of Melt & Pour Soap Crafters ... find us on Facebook - we'd love to see you!

I couldn't find the natural or olive oil soaps.

Is this a resale spot?

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~bytheSEAsoap~ Mella bythesea, bythesea, bythebeautiful sea

海の皂

I like all your hard work. I wish I could do all that in a website. I really like the graphics of flowers, showering ladies, etc. that you used throughout the pages and the layout is great. I too don't love the blue on blue. I am just not crazy about the "Bubbles" theme at all. The wrapping on the soaps and other products is so colorful and lively and fun, I think the logo or webpage background should reflect more of this personality. I also agree, add the product ingredient and sizes. Thanks for listening and best of luck in the New Year.

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"Maintaining Balance Between People and Nature"

Check out the pics in the contact page. I have soap shop envy!!! If only I could make my shop look so inviting.

And btw, I think you have done a great job on the web-site.

Hi.
The "search" function doesn't work for me. Couldn't put anything in the box.
Site loaded instantly.
Nice and simple - I like that.
Love the photos - more ? Yes please !
Not fond of so much blue.
Could be easier to read.
See the really dark blue box with light blue "HELP" inside on the Help page ? Wow ! I like THAT color combo !
Techie stuff impresses me generally as I am SO lo-tech, but for a first website - I think you did amazing !

Hey everyone,

I'd like to apologize to everyone - I've been so busy I haven't had a chance to check back until today. Thank you all for the great info and advice! It was soooo much work and still needs some tinkering but considering it was my first website design, I'm pretty happy with the results.

She will be making a few changes based on some of your suggestions.

~dawna

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Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring--it was peace." - Milan Kundera

Overall I think the site is great!! I am working on a Bachelors in graphic design and studied advertising for 7 months. I like the colors and I think it is very professional looking!!

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Melissa