Hello, in the message below I analyze the web site librariasophia.ro.
Some initial notes:
– If you wish to print the current review, it’s best to print the PDF version, it has the biggest chances for both the images and special characters (diacritics) to show up correctly;
– I will repeat the most important things at the end of the review;
– (+idea) – This text shows an idea, something new, original, which can be implemented in the web site; it’s a novelty for the web site; I will repeat them at the end of the review;
– (+important) – This is how the points which I consider very important start; I will repeat them at the end of the review;
First of all, I expect you to have already read this article and all you need to do now is apply it:
“Creare site: Ghid complet pentru realizare site“;
Contents:
A. General web site analysis (elements that can be applied to many pages)
A1. Copywriting
A2. Design
A3. Structure of information
A4. Usability
B. Analysis of the main elements in the homepage (cutting the homepage into pieces)
B1. Header
B2. Main content
B3. Sidebar
B4. Footer
C. Analysis of web site pages (the most important pages of the web site, analyzed separately)
C1. Special categories – New entries, List of titles, Most popular titles, Recommendations, List of publishing houses, 50 percent price cuts
C2. Category page
C3. Product page
C4. Search
C5. New account
C6. Shopping cart experience
C7. Contact page – Libraria SOPHIA – Contact
D. Competition analysis
D1. LIBRARIE.NET – carti online la preturi minime
D2. Librarie online Elefant.ro – carti online, muzica si filme
D3. Carti online – Cele mai multe carti in stoc
D4. Librarie online – Carti, Muzica, Filme
D5. OKIAN.ro
E. Conclusions
E1. Idea generation
E2. Important things, to be implemented as soon as possible
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A. General web site analysis (elements that can be applied to many pages)
A1. Copywriting
+You generally speak an OK Romanian language.
1. Your texts lack attractiveness to me. Pretty much boring. Pretty much uninteresting.
2. Instead of putting information as a large block of text, how about using bold, italic, colors to clearly emphasize what’s important in the texts?
3. (+idea) If I were you, I’d write the texts with diacritics, in Romanian, and have a Romanian check speller check the texts, to avoid big errors like this one:
“Autorul imbina rigorile teologiei cu exigentele culturii actuale, oferind un valoros instrument de lucru addresat (sic!) mai ales seminaristilor si studentilor in Teologie, dar si intelectualitatii crestine in general. ”
After this, I’d convert the diacritics to usual texts.
Details on the two procedures:
- Verificare ortografică – cum se face în mod automat? – Fii eficient!
- Cum scăpați de diacritice într-un text? Soluție pentru eliminarea diacriticelor – Fii eficient!
4. I’d write with diacritics in the whole web site.
5. You do write sometimes with diacritics, and other times without. That’s bad. Keep the consistency.
6. How about a newsletter?
+Lots of text description for the books.
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A2. Design
+I’m a personal fan of red color. Very intense.
1. While I do appreciate the functionality of the web site (I can order a book), I’m not a big fan of the design. It’s not elegant, it’s complicated, somehow aggressive (too many call to actions), it doesn’t look that good.
2. The photos in the web site are, for a lot of times, small.
3. You use a lot of small things – icon, fonts. It’s a web site difficult to use for people with small screens or for those with vision difficulties. Even for the regular folks, it’s a discomfort.
4. (+important) In the recommended books below any book, you list a list of recommendations. They look clickable, but only the cover is. The text is not clickable. That’s a shame.
5. It’s not clear what the call-to-action for any page is.
+With all the problems, I can get a job (order a product) done nicely. Thanks.
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A3. Structure of information
+I like the categories above and the menus. Nice.
1. (+important) You have no “About us” page. Hugely important to have one.
2. (+important) You offer no details on delivery time, costs. You don’t list the VAT on your web site. You give me no details how fast will my order process. You have no fast courier services. Are you sure you’re an online store?
3. How about some videos, instead of (or as an addition to) texts only?
4. (+idea) How about listing more books on a single page?
5. (+idea) I’d love to read a blog of yours.
+It’s easy to get to the books, even if they’re on page 43. Good.
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A4. Usability
+The logo is clickable.
1. I visit the web site, you show me an overlayer with an ad. Sorry, I don’t like this. You should have better options than this. Even in this overlayer you have problem with small font size. That’s incredible!
2. Some of the texts are written in blue on light color, but not clickable. That’s a bit strange.
3. The breadcrumbs don’t work the way they should.
4. I should have a confirmation prior to deleting something from the shopping cart.
5. The main slider is rather unusable.
6. (+idea) I’d put a phone clearly visible in the header.
7. (+important) Come on, how can I visit librariasophia.ro (without the www.) and get an error?
“Oops! Google Chrome could not find librariasophia.ro
Did you mean: www.librariasophia.ro”.
I visit a lot of web sites on the Internet. Mostly, I don’t type the www., it’s unnecessary. The web sites I usually visit redirect me to the web site correctly.
I feel I’m in an old place in the Internet if I see a page which doesn’t load without the www.
How old are you?
+The search box, the cart, the account menus – they’re all where I expect them to be. Great!
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B. Analysis of the main elements in the homepage (cutting the homepage into pieces)
B1. Header
+ You have the most important elements in the header.
1. The logo:
– You use Red, Yellow (orange, actually), Blue, for the logo graphic. I wouldn’t necessarily identify Orthodoxy with the Romanian flag, but still, I think that’s nice.
– The graphic looks like either three birds with open wings, or three books. Flying birds inspire me to aim for freedom. Three books? A rather simple metaphor (we have a books web site, we have the logo of a book. Not excessively creative, I might say).
– The logo itself is pretty dull. Three books / birds, the name. Red & black. Normal font & Bold font. I would suggest, if you ever try a new logo, to come up with an idea behind the logo. Don’t just say “Web site about books = this is a book”. The birds and freedom are nice, but not too much.
2. Below the logo, you list the fact that the web site belongs to a publishing house and of a distribution company. Unfortunately, both names are irrelevant to me. Yes, I like that right from the header you want to give me trust into the web site. That’s a good thing. But choose something which really makes me trust you. I may be wrong, and it may be a famous publishing house. But I would suggest you, for this idea (trust right from the header), to pick a more popular association.
3. “Utilizator necunoscut.” – Unknown user? You criticize me? We’re strangers? You act funny?
I wouldn’t mention to my users negative affirmations. Just avoid it altogether. You want to create the visitor a pleasant experience, your main aim is not to get the user’s data. And this is, anyhow, a bad choice to do so.
4. You have so many categories, that you list them on two rows and there’s another menu below the row of categories.
Three rows just to understand the main idea behind the web site. This is too much. Cut. Show fewer items. Separate them for easier access.
Right now, the header area looks very complicated to me.
5. The “Advanced search” link is written in a larger font size than the usual search. Why is that?
6. Why would you put a symbol for search (the magnifier) which is not clickable? A lot of times on the Internet, when users see the magnifier, they tend to click on it to search. On your web site, it doesn’t work.
7. (+important) You have this issue in the whole web site: too many colors. Just have the look at the header area and count the colors. Or look at the whole homepage. There are just too many, and it’s a too big diversity. You vary other things, also: bold/non-bold, CAPS/No-CAPS, font size, italic/non-italic, font name. It’s too much. Try to make the web site easy to navigate.
8. (+important) You have this issue in the whole web site: too many call-to-action colorization.
Do this: open YouTube – Broadcast Yourself.. Visit any video page. Have a look at the colors used. Mostly black & dark gray. They use blue color for some of the links. They used to have some call-to-action buttons for the most important items (subscribe, upload). Now nothing, in the whole page, nothing is marked as call-to-action. The most important item on the page, to them, is the video itself. If the upload button was the most important, I think they’d have made it colorful. But that’s it – a few items with a different colors.
Now do this – visit Libraria SOPHIA – librarie ortodoxa – magazin online – oferta carti ortodoxe – livrare prin posta.
Count the boxes with white text on intense red. I saw:
– Promotions.
– Special offers.
– Search.
– Download whole offer.
– Download religious books offer.
– Recommendations.
– More (OK, this one is a little button, but still, it uses the same chromatic).
Also, on the homepage, you have a yellow line with black text and bolded characters.
About 7-8 call-to-actions on the homepage. It’s so huge. It’s so much too much.
Advice: choose wisely. If you really think you need 7 call-to-actions on the homepage, keep them. But if you think the user experience will be enriched if you’d cut some of them, then do it.
To me, the most important items on your homepage are the featured products on the homepage.
It’s also important to see the categories and the promotions list.
The homepage should help me get in other places fast, but also have a glimpse on what the web site has to offer.
Help me do so via the call-to-action buttons.
9. (+important) Special offer – 50% off.
On eMAG’s Black Friday event, they cut the prices on the whole web site with 10%. I could assume that this is a relevant percentage for the Romanian market – I would say, based on this (they wouldn’t sell in loss, even in that day), that the profit margin for IT is about 10%.
What will I say, by seeing that you sell 110 books at 50% off? I might think that your profit margin is about 50%.
Sure, if I want to buy one of those 110 books, 50% off sounds great. But if I want to buy any of the other books, I’d feel I’m, somehow robbed, compared to other profit practices on the market.
I wouldn’t put 50% discount on 110 products. It makes the other products look too bad.
10. I would remove the advanced search altogether, and only leave it to refine search after something has been searched.
11. The font used to write this:
“Un site al Editurii si al societatii de difuzare Supergraph.”
is very small.
12. What should I expect to find in the category “Titluri” (Titles)? It’s like entering a store and finding a category “Items” or “Objects”. What sort of category is that? If you want to list all the titles, make it clear and say it like “All titles” or “All books”. The category “entities” is not really a category for an online store. Everything in there is an entity.
13. Everything looks crammed in the header. Small everything, little to no spaces. I’ve got no air to breathe.
14. What’s with the period obsession?
“Utilizator necunoscut. | Autentificare | Ma inregistrez.”
15. (+important) You did a very wrong way of implementing breadcrumbs. I’ve never seen breadcrumbs more poorly implemented.
First of all, breadcrumbs are meant to help me find my way in a web site. They are most useful in the upper categories / final pages (so, in a structure, I’m most easily confused when I visit the link most further from the homepage).
Now, your breadcrumbs:
– Are not clickable (I can’t click on the element).
– Are present exactly where they needn’t be all that much (you have no breadcrumbs in the product page, you have one on the homepage, where it’s not that important).
– Are not hierarchical (in the category page, you don’t list the parent page, which is the homepage).
Perhaps you’ll say that your breadcrumbs are not really breadcrumbs, they only present the title of the page. I would suggest making them breadcrumbs and making them work like they should.
When I first saw them, I immediately thought – “Breadcrumbs! Great! I like them”. And, when I saw them in action, I was deeply disappointed. The role you have assigned them – page titles -, doesn’t fit them well.
16. “SPECIALA : 50%”
Why the space before “:”?
You’re working with printed words, you should know better grammar.
17. (+important) You do this very often: are you even aware that texts in CAPS are considered yelling? Would you imagine a decent Orthodox Publishing House yelling at its visitors?
18. (+important) You sometimes write with diacritics (ș, ț, ă, î, â), at other times you don’t. Wouldn’t it be lovely if it was all the same in the whole web site?
Also, wouldn’t it be lovely that you, as a culture-providing institution, strive to write only with diacritics?
19. I like what you have put in the header – account authentification, shopping cart, search. Why not also put some contact data, like a phone?
+ I like the fact that you consider the promotions to be important.
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B2. Main content
+Good quality books.
1. Do you see a comma missing?
“Din cauza condițiilor meteorologice întâlnirea cu părintele Amfilohie Brînză de la Librăria Sophia se amână pentru 6 martie 2012 ora 17.”
Because I see two:
“Din cauza condițiilor meteorologice, întâlnirea cu părintele Amfilohie Brînză de la Librăria Sophia se amână pentru 6 martie 2012, ora 17.”
2. (+important) I visit your homepage, you inform me that you have 30% off on some book packages, and then you give me … no option to click on this. Very poor usability feature.
3. Would you present me a list of 18 books with the title:
“Book of the day”?
So 18 titles are “book of the day”?
4. You use Flash to show special fonts on your web site. Why do you need this?
5. (+important) You show me a rotating slider, which moves very fast (it only stays for about three seconds). Now in that 3 seconds, which I have to see the book, you expect me to: read the title, read the description, see the price, and add to cart? Right from the slider, you expect me to add to cart?
But there’s more. You actually trick me. The add to cart function is not there, it’s only a slider in Flash, I can’t click on adding to cart button.
Finally, there’s even more. This is one of the poorest sliders I’ve seen. It’s in Flash (problem with display on mobile devices, slow loading, slow rendering), it’s not clickable (this is huge! You show me 18 books, you give me no clue on how many books are there (there are only next and previous buttons, I can’t go to the 13th book, and I can’t click on anyone of them. The only clickable item is the Publishing House, at the bottom).
6. (+important) You don’t seem to know what a slider’s purpose should be. In my opinion, it should only briefly present an idea, a thought, something simple. That’s it. To you, it’s like a book. You have a lot of things to tell to me. Title, publishing house, price, add to cart, more books by the author, more books by the publishing house. This is way too much. You should have a simple idea, with a call to action (call, buy, find out more, add to cart). One idea. Very simple.
7. The fonts you use in the rotating slider are miniscule.
8. There are three options for a book to be new:
– It can be the first edition, brand new book for the market.
– It can be a new appearance of an older edition.
– It can be new only to your web site (so, an old book, but new to you only).
If I were you, I’d list on the homepage mostly new entries. These are things which really interest me. You have a book on the homepage, which you say is new, but it’s at its third edition. I think that, if I’m really interested in that book, I would have bought one of the first two editions, wouldn’t you say so?
9. (+important) You give me the following information about a book:
– Title;
– Author;
– Publishing House;
– Price;
– Small image of the cover.
This is it. The image is barely visible, and the title doesn’t always fully describe the book.
Now, based solely on this information you want me to share the information on Facebook. Just by looking at the title of the book, you expect me to share it. More than this, you have two buttons, a Like and a Publish button.
This is absurd.
10. What’s with the price – “8.72 lei”?
a. For one, the Romanian separator for decimals is the comma, not the period/dot. Don’t give me a Romanian flag, while writing prices in the American/British way.
b. Then, what’s with the “.72” price? Should I expect you to give me change 1.28 lei for a 10 RON bill? I would much rather see prices with one decimal only. The second decimal is useful for the situations in which I buy 100 books. But, in that case, I think it would be nice for you to give me a discount.
11. You show me “add to basket” and, below it, the price. Where’s the sense in that? First, you want me to add the item in the cart, and then you tell me how much it costs to do so. Honestly?
12. The “Add to cart” text is written very small.
13. The icon for the basket is hardly visible.
14. I knew that “Saint” and “St.” are written with an initial Capital. Isn’t it so?
15. Why the need to write the name like this:
“Tracy, Brian”?
Who likes this way of writing?
I think you use this to sort data easily. If I were you, I’d have two fields – a field in which you sort authors based on the current way of showing data, and another field, used specifically only to be displayed (properly) on the web site.
So, use a field for sorting, and write the name, again, in another field, specifically to be shown on the web site.
Or, if you use “First name” and “Last name” in the CMS, show, on the web site, “First Name – Last Name” display option.
16. Isn’t the book “Fiire și timp” also present on the Romanian market in a better translation, by Gabriel LIICEANU?
17. Your method of displaying a book is the following:
– On the left the book cover.
– To its right some book information.
– On the very right of the box the price and “Add to cart” box.
What’s with the huge space in the middle? It doesn’t look that nice.
18. You have on the first page a list with the most recent titles. Let me give you an example of a web site which I like a lot:
It has:
– The top selling products.
– Most commented products.
– Most searched for products.
What’s more than this, it has a “see the full list” link. So, even if I don’t see the whole list on the homepage, I can click on “see full list” to see all the products.
19. I would like to have, right on the homepage, options to filter / sort data.
+I like the fact that I can add books in my basket right from the homepage.
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B3. Sidebar
+A rather simple sidebar, that’s cool.
1. (+important) I couldn’t believe it. You have in the sidebar two links to download the offer on the web site.
The first thing that stroke me was the fact that it’s an XLS (Microsoft Excel Document). An Internet user doesn’t always have this software, so my first thought was – why not convert it to PDF? Excel 2010 has a “Save as PDF” option by default, and in previous versions you can find options, sometimes as easy as installing an Excel 2010 add-on provided by the people from Microsoft.
The second thing that stroke me was the fact that the XLS file is not an XLS file, but a HTML file. If I change the file extension form “XLS” to “HTML” OR “HTM”, I can open the offer in Chrome, Opera, Firefox. Yes, I can open the HTML file in Excel, but people don’t generally do this. People on the Internet don’t generally browse the Net with Excel. Sure, it’s an option, but people don’t generally do this.
If I were you, I’d make the HTML offer open in a new page. If you really want to, you can let people download the offer as CSV (for Excel, easily done), or manually convert the file to PDF.
XLS is a bad option, CSV is better than XLS, PDF is better than CSV, and HTML is better than PDF.
2. Why do you have different fonts for two buttons which do the same thing (the download buttons)?
3. “transportul este
gratuit !!
pentru comenzile
mai mari de 100 lei”.
Let me count the errors:
– The sentence doesn’t start with an initial capital.
– This: “!!” does not exist in Romanian. Sorry.
– The usual way of writing “!” is without any space prior to it. Yes, there is this option (leaving blank spaces), but it’s rather uncommon.
– Who puts “!!” in the middle of an affirmation?
– Why did you leave two (instead of one) blank spaces prior to “100”?
– Are you familiar with writing numerals like this:
“100 de lei” versus “100 lei”?
4. “10 %” and “20 %” should be written without any space.
5. You write both “RON” and “lei”. I would pick one. And from the two, I’d pick “lei”.
6. You have discounts:
>100 lei – free transportation.
>200 lei – 10% discount.
>400 lei – 20% discount.
Now, if I just want to buy a book, what is my feeling? I will have to pay both the transport and your commission, which, judging with the discounts above, is higher than 20%.
So, for a 20 lei book, you’ll surely earn more than 4 lei. And I will have to pay my transport.
I really don’t agree with your discount option. It’s great for buying lots of books, not that great for buying just one book.
7. You list in the sidebar recommendations. Based on which criteria you make these recommendations? My previous views of books on your web site? Editorial recommendation? How do you pick?
8. I don’t get it. Why do you write prices like this:
“65.00 lei”. Why not:
“65 lei”?
9. I click on “more” link and you show me almost 300 books. So, you recommend me about 300 books from your web site. Sorry, if you can’t focus, I can’t buy.
I would understand anything from 10 to 100, based on what I estimate your size is.
Who will read 300 book titles? If I were you, I’d cut the list.
Or, at least, make an “Top 50 books” and you can leave, from my part, the whole 300 list, as an extra.
10. Why do you write the title of book with the smallest font size? It’s smaller than the price and author.
11. You write:
“Martiri si marturisitori romani din secolul XX. Inchisorile comuniste din Romania
Autor: Seiche, Fabian
Pret: 45.00 lei
Adauga in cos”
This is all great to be on the homepage. On the sidebar, though, I’d write either:
“Fabian Seiche: Martiri si marturisitori romani din secolul XX. Inchisorile comuniste din Romania (45 lei)” (no add to basket) or:
“Martiri si marturisitori romani din secolul XX. Inchisorile comuniste din Romania, de Fabian Seiche (45 lei)” (no add to basket).
That’s it. KISS.
12. (+idea) How about a mouseover? I’d love to see this on the sidebar. When I roll over the mouse pointer over a book in the sidebar, you should (and you have the technical ability to do so) show me a small window with detailed information about the book. Quite cool.
13. (+important) I give you a list of the most popular movies on my web site. They’re 15. You come again tomorrow and find out that the list radically changed. You come again the next day and the list radically changes.
You then see a note on my web site:
“I like 200 books, and out of those 200, I randomly pick 15 and show it to you”.
You feel mislead. “The most popular movies” means I show you the 15 most popular movies. Had I said “Popular movies”, I would have had an excuse.
You do the exact same thing on the sidebar. And you offer no explanation.
14. (+important) Your sidebar should adapt to the pages I visit. While I’m on the science category, avoid showing me religion texts. While I’m “Kids” category, don’t show me religious books. Show me, in the sidebar, books related to the category I visit.
+Blue links (sometimes) on light background. Good.
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B4. Footer
+I like the collections links in the footer.
1. (+important) You are the first online store I’ve analyzed in the past year which doesn’t have a link to ANPC:
2. (+idea) If I were you, I’d look for solutions to increase the trust in the web site. You can do this by adding logos of:
– VISA / MasterCard.
– GPeC / ARMO.
– Price.ro / ShopMania / Compari / etc.
3. When a person reaches the footer area of a web site, that person either want to leave the web site, or to leave the page. You can help a person find other sections in your web site which you consider to be important.
I’d put in the footer quite a few links to other sections of the web site.
4. When I see this:
“Copyright © 2009”
I wonder if you ever visit your own web site.
The typical copyright notice is either:
“Copyright © 2009-2012”, or
“Copyright © 2012”.
Is it a minor thing? Yes. Still, does it matter? Yes.
5. ListaFirme is known on the Internet for having poor procedures on SPAM, data protection and so on. Are you sure you want to be partners with a company which basically sells data about other companies, in a somehow unethical way?
6. I don’t like the way in which the partners of your web site look. Dark blue background, white background, white background, light blue background. I would look for more unity in this.
7. Your footer notice says:
“Copyright © 2009 – Cyber GRUP SRL – ROMANIA – a Corporate Support & Solutions Company”
I think that Cyber GRUP only made your web site, they don’t own the copyright. But this is not what the footer says.
Also, you paid some money to have the web site built. You don’t have to list them as web site creators. You may, but you shouldn’t be forced to do so. I can take a logo out, if I so desire.
8. I would put the trafic.ro logo in such a way that it doesn’t occupy a whole row.
9. The very first partner link doesn’t work.
+Although not mandatory, it’s good to have a copyright notice in the footer.
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C. Analysis of web site pages (the most important pages of the web site, analyzed separately)
C1. Special categories – New entries, List of titles, Most popular titles, Recommendations, List of publishing houses, 50 percent price cuts
+You do offer some basic information about the books, that’s fine.
1. Libraria SOPHIA – lista noutatilor
– Sort by default sort? What kind of sort is this? Sorry, this is a poor solution.
– Why don’t you say, in such a special page:
a. The date at which the book was inserted in your store.
b. If it’s the book’s first, second, third … edition.
c. If it’s a brand new book on the market.
d. If it’s first translated in Romanian.
– (+important) It amazes me that you don’t have sort by something relevant. You offer sorting for price and name. What about sorting for number of sales. What about sorting for number of views of a book. What about sorting for the times a book has been clicked on based on the searches made on your web site?
– You say:
“Să înţelegem media. Extensiile omului , Autor: McLuhan, Marshall, Editura: Curtea Veche”. Problems:
a. Prior to a comma, you shouldn’t leave an empty space.
b. I would write “Author” and “Publishing House” without initial capital.
– Again, you have place the “Add to basket” button above the price, not below it.
2. Libraria SOPHIA – lista cartilor
– Again, you find it normal to open HTML files in Excel. Good luck with that.
– “Pagina 1 din 310”. It is, most likely, unuseful for 99% of your viewers.
If I were you, I’d put more sorting / filtering options. So, sort by a lot of criteria and filter by a lot of criteria. In this case, yes, I may find the 310 pages useful.
Let’s say I filter by price – 10 to 15 lei books. Or, I filter by author’s origin (only Greeks and Russians). Or, I filter by Publishing House (only International publishing houses). Or, I sort by how much a book has been searched for in the web site.
These are valid information and I would love you to show me 300+ pages with it. I can filter / sort fast? Great, show me all the data. No? Then, don’t bother.
3. Libraria SOPHIA – lista cartilor in colectia Cele mai populare
– You show me 174 books. How are they sorted? The most popular first? The most popular last? Do you add books in this list and you show me sorted via added date, instead of popularity? What’s the criteria? I have no clue.
– What does “popular” mean? Most … what? I gave you above examples, which of them have you picked (comments, views, searches, sales, recommendations)?
4. Libraria SOPHIA – lista cartilor in colectia Recomandari
– Who recommended the books?
– Again, how have you sorted the list (see above, at 3.)?
– How come on the first page, you have one book by Cathisma and the rest are from Sophia? Why do you do this like this?
Libraria SOPHIA – Lista edituri
– Does this sound Romanian to you?
“Alekis (1 carti)”?
– I would make a formula and correctly place “de” preposition (“60 de cărți”).
– Wouldn’t it be great to see a list of top 20 publishing houses in your shop?
– Why don’t you list the publishing house location?
– “Libraria Sophia va ofera carti de 362 edituri.”
Doesn’t a “la” belong there?
– On a personal note, I’d prefer more Catholic books to be there.
Libraria SOPHIA – lista cartilor in colectia Reducere 50 la suta
– I don’t agree with such price cuts.
+I like the fact that I can get to page 200 easily.
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C2. Category page
Libraria SOPHIA – lista cartilor in categoria Religie
+I like the add to cart function. Great.
1. Poor placement of price.
2. “Stoc epuizat” Why do you still list such products?
3. I’d make a mouseover box with other information about the books.
4. Why do you cut words right in their middle? It’s not nice:
“Din impasul tragic în care a ajuns omul contemporan nu există decât o singură ieșire, o singură „cale” poate să ducă la izbăvirea lui: Dumnezeul-om Hristos, Izbăvitorul lumii. De aceea, având ca temă centra […]”
“Despre retorica rousseauista intre clasic s […]”.
5. (+idea) I’d love a function to subscribe via RSS / email to new titles in a specific category or search page.
+Large font for titles.
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C3. Product page
+Large picture.
1. Why list Last name as first in the author’s name? Place it like people usually talk in Romania:
First Name Last Name.
2. Isn’t it a “de” missing there?
“336 pagini”?
3. Why do you use “Recommend” instead of “Like” on Facebook?
4. Why the need for two different Facebook buttons (Like & Recommend)? Pick one.
5. You recommend me other titles:
– (+important) It’s absurd to recommend me books which are not available in your stock.
– Some of the titles are incomplete. I would rather show a complete title, than list the price, for example.
6. (+important) Your “Add to cart” button is very poorly made. If I can understand a small button on the homepage, and even on the category page, on the product page the “Add to cart” function is the most important one. Yet, you have a tiny-little button.
7. (+idea) I would color the “Add to cart” buttons differently.
8. On the product page, I should be able to add more than one item in the basket.
9. What is your VAT?
10. (+idea) I would love a detailed photo on the mouseover.
11. I would put more than one photo, the cover, on the product page.
12. (+idea) Why don’t you allow people to comment on your web site?
13. I would make a graph with the product’s price evolution, the way PC Garage does.
Details:
14. (+idea) I would make videos with a person talking about a book, the way Dan C MIHĂILESCU does. So, pay someone to read your books and let that person speak for 2 minutes about a book. Also, someone in your publishing house surely reads a book prior to publishing it. Let that person speak for two minutes about a book. You will get better at this with time. The effect can be huge (as a plus, not as a minus).
15. I would not list in categories products which are not in stock, I would not list them on the homepage either, but I would keep the product page intact, in case a visitor has saved a link to the page and in the future might come back on the web site looking for some information about the book (so, not buying, but some basic info).
16. I would read this text to improve the way in which you make the product page:
17. Also, have a look on how to improve the description page:
+Clear price.
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C4. Search
+I can use the search function, this is pretty OK.
1. Don’t you find this funny? Only 250 results?
2. “Cautare dupa “religie” in Toate cartile“. Why the underline? The link doesn’t work, it’s strange.
3. A lot of times, on the Internet, if I click “Add to basket”, I’m sent to the basket. On your web site this doesn’t happen. How about renaming the button as “Add to basket and continue shopping”?
4. (+important) Libraria SOPHIA – Cautare avansata – while I don’t generally use advanced search on a web site, when I do, I expect it to work naturally. You have tabbed options, but, unlike the tabs I’m used to, yours don’t keep preferences. So, if, on the tab one, I only choose to search the most popular books, when I click on the second tab the preferences are lost.
Not a very advanced search, I might say.
5. (+idea) I would love to have an autofill, for both the search and the advanced search. So, if I start typing something, you should help me get the right name.
6. (+important) How come the “Advanced search” link is only present on the homepage? Very poor usability.
7. (+important) I can’t sort the books for any criteria. Very poor usability.
+I like the fact that you offer advanced search. Great.
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C5. New account
+Easy to understand form.
1. I’d look for a different name than “Mă înregistrez”.
2. You say the fields in red are mandatory.
a. Your red is hardly visible.
b. It’s much more common to use * to mark mandatory fields.
3. I am sorry, but my address should not be mandatory just to create an account.
4. (+important) I created an account, when I tried to login, I couldn’t. I clicked to recover the password, you gave me a redirection to the homepage. No message, no “sorry”, no nothing.
5. Do you spellcheck?
“Mai jos poti vizualiza datele inregistrate pentru profilul tau. Poti schima (sic!) dealiile (sic!)”
6. “Completeaza urmatoarele 2 rubrici doar daca doresti sa schimbi parola.
Parola contului:
Confirma parola:”
a. Shouldn’t you ask for my previous password first?
b. It isn’t clear which password you ask – new password or old password.
7. “Vizualizare profil” is actually “edit”, not “view”.
8. Sorry, this is poor Romanian knowledge:
9. Comma missing:
“precum si datele de facturare daca este cazul.”.
10. How can “Sohpia Publishing House” be a delivery method?
11. If I can choose to pick up the books from you, then why do you ask for my address as mandatory?
12. If I were you, I’d also ask for Bank Account and Bank Name for the bills.
13. I would avoid having horizontal forms to fill in.
14. (+idea) How about having a special “Comments” box, in which I could specify, for example, a special delivery method? Or I could ask something like “call me prior to delivering the products”. Something like that.
15. I would write “două rubrici” instead of “2 rubrici”.
16. Are you familiar with this web site? Are you aware that it is mandatory to have a policy regarding personal data? Do you know that each time you ask for data, you should have a policy somewhere in the page (even as a link) to it?
+The forms look nice.
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C6. Shopping cart experience
+I like the “instant add to cart” function.
1. (+important) So, let me get this straight – you are a publishing house and you actually pay people to check texts of your books? And you still write like this in the most important form on your web site, the order form?
“Prenue”?
2. Also, “Nr.Crt.” is written: “Nr. crt.” (space, Initial Capital). The rule of “prof.dr.” (no space) doesn’t apply here.
3. (+important) “Valoarea comenzii este sub valoarea minima de 30 lei.”
This is illegal. You can put a tax (processing tax, let’s say it) to force an order to become more expensive, but it’s illegal to have a minimum order. If I wish to buy a 6 lei book, I should be able to do this.
It’s also unethical to force me have a minimum order.
Also, 30 lei is quite a sum.
4. (+important) Do this: add a 5 lei book. Go to the basket. Choose the quantity as 6 items. Click “Update”. Now change the number of items to 1 and click on “Finish the transaction”.
You force me to go back to the store.
But I don’t want to go to the store, I want to finish the transaction.
I can’t, you force me to go back to the store.
5. (+important) Your delete button:
– Asks for no confirmation (I can click it unwillingly).
– Is very confuse, once I’m in the basket. When I mouseover it, it says “Present in the basket”. Sure! I want to click it. Only when I click it, I find out that the button is an on/off function, and I’ve just removed it from the basket. “But I didn’t want to do this!” Bad luck.
6. (+important) If you see a bill, it usually lists prices on below the other, aligned at right.
On your shopping cart, the prices are not all aligned at right, one below the other. And you should also have “.05” lei aligned (so the decimals part).
7. If I already have products worth 500 lei in my basket, why do you keep saying this?
“* Pentru comenzi mai mari de 200 lei se acorda discount 10%;
* Pentru comenzi mai mari de 400 lei se acorda discount 20%;”
Or this?
” Comanda minima este de 30 lei.”
8. Can you spot a comma missing?
“Daca livrarea se face la sediul firmei pretul afisat pentru transport devine 0 lei.”
9. You have no option for leaving comments in an order.
10. Do you know what I expect to see when I click “Confirmă commanda”? Exactly this – I want you to give me an option to confirm it. Show me a preview, and I will say “yes” or “no”. To you, this means “the final step of the command”. Nope, it’s wrong.
11. After I order, you tell me, wrongly:
“Cosul de roduse (sic!) este gol.”
Then you say to me:
“Total: 0 lei
Transport: 8.00 lei
Total de plata: 8 lei ”
So, you want to deliver a zero products order? And ask me 8 lei for this?
12. (+important) After an order, you should give me a confirmation, specify when will my order process, give me detailed information on when should I expect the package, tell me if you will phone me for the final confirmation, give me details about how can I track the package.
All you feel like telling me is that the basket is empty. Great.
13. (+important) You give me no details on how you will deliver the products.
14. Why do you write this on the email?
“CNP: – cnp -”
If you don’t have it, don’t show it.
Also, you shouldn’t send sensitive data via email.
+Discounts are quite big.
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C7. Contact page – Libraria SOPHIA – Contact
+Phone, email, map. Great!
1. I visit the Contact page, and I’m not sure which your main publishing house is and which your book shop is.
2. Your phones are not clearly visible.
3. Why are the fiscal data more prominent than contact data?
4. No contact form?
5. Since not everyone knows what these are about, I’d explain them:
“J40/ 1954/ 1999
RO 11620024”,
like this:
“Nr. Reg. Com.: J40/ 1954/ 1999
CUI: RO 11620024”.
6. No space?
“Program:Luni”.
7. No comma?
“Str. Ion Minulescu nr. 36”.
8. No country?
“Str. Ion Minulescu nr. 36, 031216, sector 3, Bucuresti”
“Str. Bibescu Voda nr. 19, 040152, sector 4, Bucuresti”
9. Are you sure it’s:
a. Legal.
b. Ethical.
To take a map and not even list where it’s from?
+The map looks good.
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D. Competition analysis
D1. LIBRARIE.NET – carti online la preturi minime
1. The graphics are stunning.
2. The footer has links to other places to visit.
3. I can clearly see what I’m looking for. Easy to navigate web site.
4. They have both an “About us page” and a page with details about ordering.
5. The photos of their books are larger.
6. A lot of the books have no prices with decimals.
7. They write Emile ZOLA, not ZOLA, Emil.
8. A lot more recommendations. The recommendations are:
– Other books bough by the customers of the book.
– Other books by the author.
9. They have a Facebook news feed, so I can see what my friends have shared.
10. Their breadcrumbs work fine.
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D2. Librarie online Elefant.ro – carti online, muzica si filme
1. A slider with numbers, with only 7 items, with enough time to see each slide, with large texts.
2. A top 50 books, not top 300 books.
3. A list with books of the month, not the book of the day.
4. While they do list all the categories, they do this with a small font.
5. Quite a lot of books on the homepage, and I can easily go to page 2, 3, 4.
6. On the homepage they have:
– New books.
– Recommended books.
– Top books.
– eBooks.
– Awarded books.
– The personality of the month.
– The authors of the month.
Quite nice, I’d add.
7. You can buy a set of books, and have a discount.
8. You can just enter a phone, and an operator will call you. Right from the product page.
9. You can add an item to the basket or to the wishlist.
10. The footer is filled with other places to visit.
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D3. Carti online – Cele mai multe carti in stoc
1. Four slides. That’s it. Four. Move on, please.
2. A lot of secure items – Trusted, VISA etc. The logos are greyed out.
3. They do have a blog.
4. Better Facebook / Twitter integration.
5. The categories are listed on the left, with small fonts.
6. They have people writing texts about the books, they do reviews.
7. One can add a comment to a book.
8. Plenty of details on how to buy a book, what are the costs and the delivery times, right from the product page.
9. Their breadcrumbs are awesome.
10. I like the graphics a lot more.
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D4. Librarie online – Carti, Muzica, Filme
1. The homepage is crammed with just a snippet of a category, I can easily go from there to other pages.
2. They do have a newsletter.
3. Trust seals in the footer – VISA, MasterCard.
4. List of publishing houses in the sidebar.
5. List of new entries in the sidebar.
6. I can just add a phone number and quickly order an item.
7. A comment form.
8. Two Facebook boxes, one with latest news, and one with an activity feed. And a Facebook “Like” button.
9. Information on how the order takes place.
10. They do have book details on the blog.
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D5. OKIAN.ro
1. Lots of white spaces, the pages are easy to navigate.
2. They have a community. When creating an account, I can be part of a community.
3. Options to filter books by language.
4. Integration with ShopMania, Compari.ro and others.
5. They have RSS feeds with all the books, promotions only, featured products only:
If I were them, I’d also add email subscriptions to those RSS feeds, via
6. A lot of options for sorting and filtering books in the categories.
7. Options to recommend a book via Facebook, Twitter, e-mail.
8. Options to promote their books on my blog, via affiliate marketing (2Parale).
9. Their logo is very cool, simple, with an idea.
10. They use the colors in the logo in the whole web site.
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E. Conclusions
E1. Idea generation
1. If I were you, I’d write the texts with diacritics, in Romanian, and have a Romanian check speller check the texts, to avoid big errors like this one:
“Autorul imbina rigorile teologiei cu exigentele culturii actuale, oferind un valoros instrument de lucru addresat (sic!) mai ales seminaristilor si studentilor in Teologie, dar si intelectualitatii crestine in general. ”
After this, I’d convert the diacritics to usual texts.
Details on the two procedures:
- Verificare ortografică – cum se face în mod automat? – Fii eficient!
- Cum scăpați de diacritice într-un text? Soluție pentru eliminarea diacriticelor – Fii eficient!
2. How about listing more books on a single page?
3. I’d love to read a blog of yours.
4. I’d put a phone clearly visible in the header.
5. How about a mouseover? I’d love to see this on the sidebar. When I roll over the mouse pointer over a book in the sidebar, you should (and you have the technical ability to do so) show me a small window with detailed information about the book. Quite cool.
6. If I were you, I’d look for solutions to increase the trust in the web site. You can do this by adding logos of:
– VISA / MasterCard.
– GPeC / ARMO.
– Price.ro / ShopMania / Compari / etc.
7. I’d love a function to subscribe via RSS / email to new titles in a specific category or search page.
8. I would color the “Add to cart” buttons differently.
9. I would love a detailed photo on the mouseover.
10. Why don’t you allow people to comment on your web site?
11. I would make videos with a person talking about a book, the way Dan C MIHĂILESCU does. So, pay someone to read your books and let that person speak for 2 minutes about a book. Also, someone in your publishing house surely reads a book prior to publishing it. Let that person speak for two minutes about a book. You will get better at this with time. The effect can be huge (as a plus, not as a minus).
12. I would love to have an autofill, for both the search and the advanced search. So, if I start typing something, you should help me get the right name.
13. How about having a special “Comments” box, in which I could specify, for example, a special delivery method? Or I could ask something like “call me prior to delivering the products”. Something like that.
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E2. Important things, to be implemented as soon as possible
1. In the recommended books below any book, you list a list of recommendations. They look clickable, but only the cover is. The text is not clickable. That’s a shame.
2. You have no “About us” page. Hugely important to have one.
3. You offer no details on delivery time, costs. You don’t list the VAT on your web site. You give me no details how fast will my order process. You have no fast courier services. Are you sure you’re an online store?
4. Come on, how can I visit librariasophia.ro (without the www.) and get an error?
“Oops! Google Chrome could not find librariasophia.ro
Did you mean: www.librariasophia.ro”.
I visit a lot of web sites on the Internet. Mostly, I don’t type the www., it’s unnecessary. The web sites I usually visit redirect me to the web site correctly.
I feel I’m in an old place in the Internet if I see a page which doesn’t load without the www.
How old are you?
5. You have this issue in the whole web site: too many colors. Just have the look at the header area and count the colors. Or look at the whole homepage. There are just too many, and it’s a too big diversity. You vary other things, also: bold/non-bold, CAPS/No-CAPS, font size, italic/non-italic, font name. It’s too much. Try to make the web site easy to navigate.
6. You have this issue in the whole web site: too many call-to-action colorization.
Do this: open YouTube – Broadcast Yourself.. Visit any video page. Have a look at the colors used. Mostly black & dark gray. They use blue color for some of the links. They used to have some call-to-action buttons for the most important items (subscribe, upload). Now nothing, in the whole page, nothing is marked as call-to-action. The most important item on the page, to them, is the video itself. If the upload button was the most important, I think they’d have made it colorful. But that’s it – a few items with a different colors.
Now do this – visit Libraria SOPHIA – librarie ortodoxa – magazin online – oferta carti ortodoxe – livrare prin posta.
Count the boxes with white text on intense red. I saw:
– Promotions.
– Special offers.
– Search.
– Download whole offer.
– Download religious books offer.
– Recommendations.
– More (OK, this one is a little button, but still, it uses the same chromatic).
Also, on the homepage, you have a yellow line with black text and bolded characters.
About 7-8 call-to-actions on the homepage. It’s so huge. It’s so much too much.
Advice: choose wisely. If you really think you need 7 call-to-actions on the homepage, keep them. But if you think the user experience will be enriched if you’d cut some of them, then do it.
To me, the most important items on your homepage are the featured products on the homepage.
It’s also important to see the categories and the promotions list.
The homepage should help me get in other places fast, but also have a glimpse on what the web site has to offer.
Help me do so via the call-to-action buttons.
7. Special offer – 50% off.
On eMAG’s Black Friday event, they cut the prices on the whole web site with 10%. I could assume that this is a relevant percentage for the Romanian market – I would say, based on this (they wouldn’t sell in loss, even in that day), that the profit margin for IT is about 10%.
What will I say, by seeing that you sell 110 books at 50% off? I might think that your profit margin is about 50%.
Sure, if I want to buy one of those 110 books, 50% off sounds great. But if I want to buy any of the other books, I’d feel I’m, somehow robbed, compared to other profit practices on the market.
I wouldn’t put 50% discount on 110 products. It makes the other products look too bad.
8. You did a very wrong way of implementing breadcrumbs. I’ve never seen breadcrumbs more poorly implemented.
First of all, breadcrumbs are meant to help me find my way in a web site. They are most useful in the upper categories / final pages (so, in a structure, I’m most easily confused when I visit the link most further from the homepage).
Now, your breadcrumbs:
– Are not clickable (I can’t click on the element).
– Are present exactly where they needn’t be all that much (you have no breadcrumbs in the product page, you have one on the homepage, where it’s not that important).
– Are not hierarchical (in the category page, you don’t list the parent page, which is the homepage).
Perhaps you’ll say that your breadcrumbs are not really breadcrumbs, they only present the title of the page. I would suggest making them breadcrumbs and making them work like they should.
When I first saw them, I immediately thought – “Breadcrumbs! Great! I like them”. And, when I saw them in action, I was deeply disappointed. The role you have assigned them – page titles -, doesn’t fit them well.
9. You do this very often: are you even aware that texts in CAPS are considered yelling? Would you imagine a decent Orthodox Publishing House yelling at its visitors?
10. (+important) You sometimes write with diacritics (ș, ț, ă, î, â), at other times you don’t. Wouldn’t it be lovely if it was all the same in the whole web site?
Also, wouldn’t it be lovely that you, as a culture-providing institution, strive to write only with diacritics?
11. I visit your homepage, you inform me that you have 30% off on some book packages, and then you give me … no option to click on this. Very poor usability feature.
12. You show me a rotating slider, which moves very fast (it only stays for about three seconds). Now in that 3 seconds, which I have to see the book, you expect me to: read the title, read the description, see the price, and add to cart? Right from the slider, you expect me to add to cart?
But there’s more. You actually trick me. The add to cart function is not there, it’s only a slider in Flash, I can’t click on adding to cart button.
Finally, there’s even more. This is one of the poorest sliders I’ve seen. It’s in Flash (problem with display on mobile devices, slow loading, slow rendering), it’s not clickable (this is huge! You show me 18 books, you give me no clue on how many books are there (there are only next and previous buttons, I can’t go to the 13th book, and I can’t click on anyone of them. The only clickable item is the Publishing House, at the bottom).
13. You don’t seem to know what a slider’s purpose should be. In my opinion, it should only briefly present an idea, a thought, something simple. That’s it. To you, it’s like a book. You have a lot of things to tell to me. Title, publishing house, price, add to cart, more books by the author, more books by the publishing house. This is way too much. You should have a simple idea, with a call to action (call, buy, find out more, add to cart). One idea. Very simple.
14. You give me the following information about a book:
– Title;
– Author;
– Publishing House;
– Price;
– Small image of the cover.
This is it. The image is barely visible, and the title doesn’t always fully describe the book.
Now, based solely on this information you want me to share the information on Facebook. Just by looking at the title of the book, you expect me to share it. More than this, you have two buttons, a Like and a Publish button.
This is absurd.
15. I couldn’t believe it. You have in the sidebar two links to download the offer on the web site.
The first thing that stroke me was the fact that it’s an XLS (Microsoft Excel Document). An Internet user doesn’t always have this software, so my first thought was – why not convert it to PDF? Excel 2010 has a “Save as PDF” option by default, and in previous versions you can find options, sometimes as easy as installing an Excel 2010 add-on provided by the people from Microsoft.
The second thing that stroke me was the fact that the XLS file is not an XLS file, but a HTML file. If I change the file extension form “XLS” to “HTML” OR “HTM”, I can open the offer in Chrome, Opera, Firefox. Yes, I can open the HTML file in Excel, but people don’t generally do this. People on the Internet don’t generally browse the Net with Excel. Sure, it’s an option, but people don’t generally do this.
If I were you, I’d make the HTML offer open in a new page. If you really want to, you can let people download the offer as CSV (for Excel, easily done), or manually convert the file to PDF.
XLS is a bad option, CSV is better than XLS, PDF is better than CSV, and HTML is better than PDF.
16. I give you a list of the most popular movies on my web site. They’re 15. You come again tomorrow and find out that the list radically changed. You come again the next day and the list radically changes.
You then see a note on my web site:
“I like 200 books, and out of those 200, I randomly pick 15 and show it to you”.
You feel mislead. “The most popular movies” means I show you the 15 most popular movies. Had I said “Popular movies”, I would have had an excuse.
You do the exact same thing on the sidebar. And you offer no explanation.
17. Your sidebar should adapt to the pages I visit. While I’m on the science category, avoid showing me religion texts. While I’m “Kids” category, don’t show me religious books. Show me, in the sidebar, books related to the category I visit.
18. You are the first online store I’ve analyzed in the past year which doesn’t have a link to ANPC:
19. It amazes me that you don’t have sort by something relevant. You offer sorting for price and name. What about sorting for number of sales. What about sorting for number of views of a book. What about sorting for the times a book has been clicked on based on the searches made on your web site?
20. It’s absurd to recommend me books which are not available in your stock.
21. Your “Add to cart” button is very poorly made. If I can understand a small button on the homepage, and even on the category page, on the product page the “Add to cart” function is the most important one. Yet, you have a tiny-little button.
22. Libraria SOPHIA – Cautare avansata – while I don’t generally use advanced search on a web site, when I do, I expect it to work naturally. You have tabbed options, but, unlike the tabs I’m used to, yours don’t keep preferences. So, if, on the tab one, I only choose to search the most popular books, when I click on the second tab the preferences are lost.
Not a very advanced search, I might say.
23. How come the “Advanced search” link is only present on the homepage? Very poor usability.
24. I can’t sort the books for any criteria. Very poor usability.
25. I created an account, when I tried to login, I couldn’t. I clicked to recover the password, you gave me a redirection to the homepage. No message, no “sorry”, no nothing.
26. So, let me get this straight – you are a publishing house and you actually pay people to check texts of your books? And you still write like this in the most important form on your web site, the order form?
“Prenue”?
27. “Valoarea comenzii este sub valoarea minima de 30 lei.”
This is illegal. You can put a tax (processing tax, let’s say it) to force an order to become more expensive, but it’s illegal to have a minimum order. If I wish to buy a 6 lei book, I should be able to do this.
It’s also unethical to force me have a minimum order.
Also, 30 lei is quite a sum.
28. Do this: add a 5 lei book. Go to the basket. Choose the quantity as 6 items. Click “Update”. Now change the number of items to 1 and click on “Finish the transaction”.
You force me to go back to the store.
But I don’t want to go to the store, I want to finish the transaction.
I can’t, you force me to go back to the store.
29. Your delete button:
– Asks for no confirmation (I can click it unwillingly).
– Is very confuse, once I’m in the basket. When I mouseover it, it says “Present in the basket”. Sure! I want to click it. Only when I click it, I find out that the button is an on/off function, and I’ve just removed it from the basket. “But I didn’t want to do this!” Bad luck.
30. If you see a bill, it usually lists prices on below the other, aligned at right.
On your shopping cart, the prices are not all aligned at right, one below the other. And you should also have “.05” lei aligned (so the decimals part).
31. After an order, you should give me a confirmation, specify when will my order process, give me detailed information on when should I expect the package, tell me if you will phone me for the final confirmation, give me details about how can I track the package.
All you feel like telling me is that the basket is empty. Great.
32. You give me no details on how you will deliver the products.
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Bottom line: I enjoyed very much using the web site librariasophia.ro.
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