And another thing, Holistic Serums…
16. Feb, 2009 
10 Comments
Holistic Serums is providing 10 things with another first. Back in August of 2008, Holistic Serums (or Holistic Healing, as it was back then) was my first review.
A half a year later (almost to the day), Holistic Serums is my first Where Are They Now? follow-up. There are two reasons for this: 1) Esther came to me and asked for a re-review after making changes a while back, and 2) this is a feature I had planned on implementing. I think it will be interesting to see what has changed, not changed, or gotten worse at some of the sites and blogs I’ve previously reviewed.
So, Holistic Serums, here are some things I hate about your site now:
- The color scheme, still.
- The use of too many colors, still.
- Inconsistent links, still.
- Inconsistent navigation, still.
- Your look-and-feel is very dated.
- Something is wrong with your blog when viewed in Firefox.
- Your font is a little small.
- What is going on with the Aromatherapy Website link?
- Why is there a huge chuck of blank space at the top of the “Safety” page?
Details
The good news: this site does look better than it did last August.1 The bad news: many of the items on this list were in my original review.
- The color scheme, still. It’s very plain and drab. From August:
While your overall background color scheme isn’t terrible, it’s just really blah.
What does this mean? You still need a color scheme that highlights your products, not one that blends into the background. Here are a couple of palettes I think would work nicely.2
- The use of too many colors, still. Just like in August, there are too many font colors being used, and still no consistency with their formatting.
What does this mean? From August:
Color use should be consistent…ALL of your body font should be ONE size and ONE color. Then use the chosen 3-5 color palette to create headers, subheaders, links, etc.
- Inconsistent links, still. Why are some links bold? Why are some links default blue? Why are some links light blue? Why do some links change to red when rolled over, but others don’t? Why, why, why?
What does this mean? It means the same thing now that it meant in August. Your links need to have a consistent format.
I would recommend choosing two colors from your color palette: one for the link and one for the hover.
- Inconsistent navigation, still. The navigation on your home page is still different than the navigation on the product pages. And the navigation changes again on the “Disclaimer” page. While it is true that people are more and more internet savvy, that doesn’t mean they want to guess where to go or that they want the navigation to be different on every page. Experienced internet users find frequent navigation changes annoying, and inexperienced internet users just get lost.
What does this mean? First, you should have the same main navigation, in the same place, on every page. I am still considering the main navigation the horizontal links, starting on the left with “Home” and ending on the right with “Legal Notice”.
Second, you need to have this main navigation on the pages you are linking to in your footer. On these pages you are repeating the footer links in the header and you have removed the main links. There is no reason for this, except to “strand” visitors within these pages.
- Your look-and-feel is very dated. I don’t know exactly how old your site is, however, it looks like it was built in the mid-90s and never updated for the 21st century. Your bordered tables and grid layout are keeping your site in a time warp.
What does this mean? Your site needs a serious overhaul to make it more current. Starting with the recommendations above, you need to consider changing your layout to a CSS-based layout with some embellishments and some modern formatting.
- Something is wrong with your blog when viewed in Firefox. This is what I see:
What does this mean? There is something wrong with the theme you are using, rendering it incorrectly in Firefox. I haven’t look into the code, but it is obvious from the screenshot that CSS is not being linked in properly, or there is something within the CSS causing this problem.
- Your font is a little small. It’s difficult to read, especially with all of the color changes.
What does this mean? You need to bump your font size up at least one size. This will make your text easier to read, and will improve your line length.
- What is going on with the Aromatherapy Website link? The link indicates this is a different website, but it is merely a different page on Holistic Serums. While the layout is different, it does not come across as a completely different web site. I’m not going to start listing what’s wrong with this “site,” however. That would entail an entirely new article.
What does this mean? If “Aromatherapy Website” is intended to be separate, you need to give it its own URL and it needs its own identity.
- Why is there a huge chunk of blank space at the top of the “Safety” page? It doesn’t appear to be a broken image so I’m guessing there is a problem and for some reason this chunk of content is not appearing.
While I’ve mentioned that this revised version of Holistic Serums was improved over the site I reviewed last August, many of the things that I originally pointed out were not addressed. This site still needs some major overhauling to bring it current and make it aesthetically pleasing.
- Unfortunately, I learned to take screenshots after this first review, so you’ll just have to trust me. [↩]
- The links will take you to the actual palette on Colourlovers.com [↩]
This site actually has a lot of potential. With a bit of design changes here and there this could become a great site. I like your recommendations regarding the color schemes, it is here that I would start if I were to revamp the site. Once again a fair and good review.
This site does have a lot of potential, and I think Esther has some great products.
I’d love to help her out. I’m not a WP guru like you, websites are more my thing, and I’m not expensive.
Well, I can’t say anything about this because it doesn’t seem to be a blog, but rather a cobbled together storefront. It’s not working well as either entity and you’ve been very kind in not pointing that out.
Mean old Margaret….
Margarets last blog post..A Challenge Met
That’s the beauty of being a third party. You can be less politically correct.
Aagh..
Now I need to plan a time to stop doing everything else and redesign fulltime instead of at the side. And relearn design which I kinda stopped in around year 2000!
Arent you hitting that nail’s head!
But,
I worked on the navigation & thought it was more consistent now- and it was the biggest thing for me that you pointed out.
7,8,9 fixed coz they are the quickest!
I guess 3 months later, I will bug you again, Melissa, if you have the time
Thank you, for all the time and effort Melissa.
I don’t consider it bugging me.
I enjoy helping those who truly want the advice. It can seem like a daunting task to do a complete overhaul. If you’d like some input and/or a little help, just let me know.
I can’t write your posts because of your color scheme (gray/brown on black). Think about people who browse it with the “show images” browser option off.
Thank you for pointing this out André. I have changed the background color to white for users who browse with images turned off.
I was so sleepy that I typed “can’t write” instead of “can’t read”.
Thank you for changing the bg color. I can ***read*** everything now. 
I love this review.. it is EXACTLY spot on.
Here is a complete solution to ALL of your problems..
Install a shopping cart. OSCommerce is my favorite because there is an infinite list of addons that are structurally sound that you can add to your website to REALLY make it work for your type of store.
Then, hire a designer.. Or the other way around.
Having a website this dated can only hurt your business because people will see it and leave because they dont feel that they can trust your website.. OR they leave because they get lost and can never get back.
It seems as though your are designing your pages one by one.. starting with a blank page every time.. what you SHOULD be doing is using the same page over and over again (this will keep the navigation and layout consistent) and just change the main content or other elements.. THAT is how easy it is.. Copy and edit.
HOWEVER, if you use something like osc it becomes even easier. You design ONE header, ONE navigation, and ONE side bar and then just add content and content.. You will have a fully functioning website with a shopping cart that people can use to buy things and it will ALL look very professional
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