OK; why is the link text so small, low contrast and undifferentiated from regular text?  Blue underlined text might not be "cutting edge" but everyone + dog KNOWS it is a link without being told.

Also; why does a link reload the page I am on? - in the nav bar links reload the current page: confused visitors = people hitting the back button.  Note; I don't say delete the item from nav, just delete the link on the item that reloads the current page.

Any chance of a breadcrumb trail?

Also; why is the rollover the same as the downstate? - VERY confusing; differentiate the page you are on; navigation is not just there to tell you where you can go but also where you are now.

Your zoom photo feature is VERY good; when people click to see a larger version they REALLY want a larger version.  Any chance of stopping it moving outside the frame though?

When I click on add to basket why on earth does it not default to one item being entered into the field? As it is I see an error and assume the site is wrong and leave; how often do people want to order more than one item from you in any case? - why not default to entering one in the number field and then letting them change it?

Save for later feature is good - but the location of the check out now button was unituitive; why not have it below the  items in the basket as well as above? - people scan down pages primarily.

Also; why not clearly indicate the number of stages in the checkout process? - and remove the options whilst customers are checing out; when people have something in their basket you do NOT want them to continue to shop - you want to take their money as quickly and cleanly as possible!

And - VERY nice use of white space.

Anyway; shout if you want to know more; you couldn't tell that I do this for a living could you?!

Sorry old chap; available time all used up!

You doing any formal usability tests? - and do you have the authority to ensure changes get made? - there is little more frustrating than having a load of usability / conversion rate issues identified and then having someone blithely ignore you!

You could always run an A / B test; make all of these edits to one version of the site and keep the original and then show people different versions at random; (obviously if someone gets version A then they will continue to get version A) - and then hopefully prove the difference to the bottom line when more people buy from the usability-enhanced version.

Hi there,

I've taken a look at the site. Here are my comments:

Navigation: to be honest I found it a bit of a nightmare, reason being is that on the homepage it shows the horizontal navigation which is nice and easy to follow, then you click into one of these sections and the horizontal nav goes and is replaced by a very confusing left hand navigation. I could work it out if I spent enough time on it but as a new user to your site I kind of think I shouldn't have to work at the navigation. I expected to have the horizontal nav remaining on all pages so that I could switch from category to category and then the left hand nav would show the sub categories within that main category. Then if there needs to be more than 1 page within the sub, the use of the page numbering comes in (which by the way you can't define what page you are on as the numbers don't change in appearance).

I felt that as a user it's safe to assume that if I'm in the bedroom category then you only need  to show me the left hand nav that relates to that, not all others as it's way too much. It also means if you only have the items relating to that category you don't need to have the sub sections as a roll over, which is also confusing.

I then noticed that the site used some main page navigation i.e. http://www.cotswoldco.com/uk-c/clearance.html (under new year sale intro) - way tooo much navigation going on with the site. I think it's acceptable to have maximum 2 main areas of navigation (excluding admin areas such as legal, request brochure etc) otherwise the user gets very confused.

The landing page layouts seemed to follow different templates which was a bit confusing i.e. http://www.cotswoldco.com/uk-c/bespoke.html is very different to http://www.cotswoldco.com/uk-p/storage/index.html but is on the same left hand navigation.

That for me sums up the usability as well, I really like the Cotswold Company but I know I would get frustrated because as a user I should always know where I've been on the site and where I am and how to get out of where I am and I didn't feel like that at all on the site.

Product Range: I think there is a fantastic product range but with the above comments I think there is the risk users won't/can't take advantage of it all as the organisation of it prevents this. In terms of value I kind of looked through the site and felt that the confusion around usability made me think less about the product quality/value (interesting perception) so I ended up thinking that the products were slightly over priced. This shoe rack is £27.95 http://www.cotswoldco.com/uk-info/storage/4_tier_shoe_rack/a865.html, of which you can get exactly the same from Ikea for less than half the price - unfortunately online does allow total comparison. The vast range of product does make it very attractive in terms of there's lots of 'things' to look at and hence makes you have a positive association with the brand.

I like the fact the site is on white, I like the font and the use of some of the colours i.e. green and burgundy. I think there is a gap between the price of products though vs the branding on the site i.e. the branding doesn't match up to the price.

I hope this is useful and not too negative :(

cheers
Vickie Birnage

On 10:10:00 6 February 2007 StephRidley wrote:

Hi all, I am after some honest comments on our website - http://www.cotswoldco.com - we are carrying out various research and testing in the next couple of months ahead of a website refresh and i also wanted to give you guys the chance to comment. In particular in terms of navigation and usability / product range / value and range perception....Much appreciated guys

Steph Ridley, Cotswold Co.

Hmm... thats really useful thanks Joe! Much appreciated

Stephen I have to commend you on the use of this forum (albeit I do share Chris's view....)

We are based in the Cotswolds and are a specialist web agency with a focus on user centred design and usabiliity. I'd like to meet - can we speak today?

Simon