Visit to Tessies, Newland Avenue

Today I have been to one of the boutique shops on Newland Avenue called Tessies. I have been emailing a girl called Nicola about the project and she has always been very interested in this from the start. I had arranged a date and time to visit the shop so they knew I would be coming but unfortunatly Nicola wasn't there on the day because she was busy sorting out a new factory for the business. Instead, I met a girl who worked there full time and she was called Anna and she was very helpful and was very interested in what I was doing. The first thing I did when I got there was to speak to Anna about my project and I showed her the booklet I had prepared of screenshots of my website so far, some with notes and some without notes. After we had finished chatting and looking at the screenshots I asked her to fill in a questionnaire for me which was about the look and feel of the website and what her thougths were about it. The feedback she gave me was very helpful and below is what she thought:

1. Do you like the colour scheme that has been used on the site?

A: Yes - Fun and clear colour - not too over the top either.

2. Do you like the layout for the homepage?

A: Yes - Easy to read - layout is clear - large fonts are good on the search buttons.

3. Do you think customers would find it easy to use?

A: Yes - Clear and concise layout - easy to follow.

4. As a shop member who would be able to log into the site, do you think you would find it easy to use?

A: Yes - Again very clear and easy to read drop down menus etc. I am used to using Elsy which has a similar layout.

5. Do you think the design of the site needs changing to reflect the theme of shops on Princes and Newland Avenue?

A: Yes - If you want to promote local businesses then perhaps you could have imagery of the area..?

6. Any other comments/ thoughts/ changes that could be made:

A: *Images of the local area could end up making the layout too confusing/ cheapen the overall look.

* Perhaps in the about section you could have a map of the area?

* Underneath the title of the website you could have a brief line about the local area e.g. Peekapressie 'unique gifts from local businesses!'

* How do the gifts make it to the front page - is it if they've been clicked on many times? Perhaps have info about this function for sellers when they log in?

This feedback was very helpful because it made me think about things on my site that I hadn't previously given much thought to like how the products make it to the front page etc.

Whilst she was filling in the feedback form, I went around the shop and picked up a number of different products and made sure they were different colours too. After I had picked some, Anna took me into the back as they had a photography corner with white boards and three photography lights. I took my own digital SLR camera and after I set up how I wanted, I started to take some photographs of the products. I also wrote a short description of each item on a piece of paper with the price of each one next to it so I knew how much things were when it came to uploading them onto my site.

I also took some photographs of inside the shop from different angles to use on my scrolling image on the homepage of my website.

When I had taken all the photographs, I asked Anna to pass the booklet onto Nicola as Nicola had previously asked me to leave it so she could take a look and also give me feedback. Anna also said if I ever needed to go back and take more photographs or want to have a chat with updates, then just to pop back down and see them whenever. She also asked me to add them on Facebook as another way of being able to contact one another.

Overall, I feel the visit to Tessies went really well and I have now got some real products to add to my site.