Website Critique for

RosieDays Florist

This critique is for a florist's website in Dublin, RosieDays. 

My initial reaction was that the site was absolutely beautiful – the quiet elegance of it matching the theme very well. A lot of websites are too cluttered, but this one is pleasantly simple and it works very well. 

The issues I spotted with it were as follows: 

The menu headers (i.e. the Home, About etc sections) were too small. I know this is just a small image of it here, but even in real life, they were a little bit lost. They had loads of space, so I recommended making them bigger. This would make them more prominent and also easy to read.

I also suggested changing the headings' order, i.e. from greater to lesser importance from left to right, except for the Home button which is correctly in the top left. My suggested order of the ones that are there would be: Home, Floral Services and Advice, Floral Design Portfolio, Recommendations, About Me, Contact. Having said that, I also suggested giving her 'Advice' section its own page, and renaming 'Recommendations' to 'Testimonials'.

I advised that the grey font was too hard to read. I pointed out: " We should be all about making it easy for the website visitor. I cannot stress enough this point. You wouldn’t find a real-world business that made their customer push through a stuck door, for example. (Or, you shouldn’t!) And even then that would be better as a visitor to a shop has made some sort of commitment and effort to get there, and will persevere a little. A website visitor has no such commitment. The Back Button always beckons. Black-on-white, while not very innovative, is what works. (The website visitor doesn’t care about innovative, they care about easy.) The size of the font is excellent, however."

She had a slide-show on her portfolio page, but it took a bit of figuring out how to advance the slides. In the end it turned out that if you hovered the cursor over the image the 'forward' button appeared. I pointed out that we really need to make it easy on the visitor, that I had persisted because I was doing the critique but that a normal website visitor might not have. Again: The Back Button Beckons.

She had a heading, 'Seasonal Arrangements' but only had images of Christmas arrangments below that. I pointed out that headings lead the visitor to think there'll be more than one section, but there wasn't. So I suggested that she re-write that page to say: "Our portfolio includes a large variety of floral arrangements and displays to suit the different seasons throughout the year. Here's an example of our Christmas arrangements."

I recommended that she put links from one section of the portfolio to the others (e.g. from Wedding Flowers to Seasonal Arrangements), rather than - as she had - making the visitor backspace to the main Porfolio page and reselect. Again, it's all about making it easy for the visitor, and even details like this matter.

I recommended a slight change to her testimonials page. She had dates against the testimonials and they weren't very recent. This immediately would raise questions in the reader's mind. So I suggested she simply take the dates out.

The testimonials themselves were wonderful, so I suggested taking one of them and putting it across the top of her home-page, to use some of that unused space to good effect.

The Home Page:

Originally she had the following text:

Here at RosieDays, we can create the floral look you have always dreamed of: Demure, dramatic, sophisticated, or spectacular. We have a wide selection of information, advice, inspirational images, and lots more available here on RosieDays.com.

I recommended changing it to the following text. Note that words in square brackets indicate where I suggest a link should go. This is important because it's inviting the visitor to come further into the website, indicating to them where they should go, and making it easy for them.

Passion. Beauty. Artistic flair. Originality.

They’re what you get with a RosieDays flower arrangement.  

As you’ll read in the [About Me page], I’ve been studying floristry all my life, and I’m delighted to be able to share those skills with you, to provide you with bouquets and floral arrangements full of that passion, beauty, artistic flair and originality. And all at a price which is cost-effective. 

I invite you to have a look around my website. Check out my [portfolio], and read [what others are saying about my designs].

And when you’re ready to talk to me about your own requirements, then I invite you to [contact me] for a no-obligation chat.

The 'About Me' Page:

The 'About Me' page is an excellent opportunity for:

1. Letting the potential customer feel they know you (and remember, people buy from people, so that's important), and
2. Subtly reminding them of what benefits you can bring them.

Bearing that in mind, here was RosieDays' original 'About Me' text:

Based in South Dublin, RosieDays aim to help you keep your costs down and yet still have beautiful floral arrangements! We are passionate about floral design, and creating the right look in keeping with our clients needs.

RosieDays has created the floral displays for many weddings, as well as a selection of arrangements for the MagicMum Charity Ball 2008. Based on this, RosieDays has received the contract to design the floral arrangements for the MagicMum Charity Ball 2009! 

RosieDays continuously attend floral design workshops and classes to ensure that we can provide our customers with the most up-to-date, striking, and visually pleasing arrangements.

Contact us now to discuss your floral needs and let us surprise you with our inspired ideas and reasonable quotes!

Here's what I suggested for her instead.

Although this reads very casual and chatty, there is a lot of art in there, a lot of subtle selling. See the notes below the section for more on that. How many of these ideas could you use for yourself?

My name is Sinead andI've been wiring flowers and making bouquets since I was knee-high to my (rather short) nana¹. She was passionate about flowers, and passed that passion onto me, along with years and years of training, technical know-how and that indefinable artistic flair that brings true heart to a flower arrangement.²

As a very young girl I started going to the Flower Club with her, which brought more learning and inspiration. To this day I keep up with the Flower Club and regular trainings and classes, so I’m guaranteed to always be at the forefront of floral design and trends.³

Bridal work is my speciality. There is such scope for creativity there. And it brings me huge joy to see the delight on the brides’ faces when they see how beautiful their floral arrangements are, and how much they complement their own beauty for that special day.⁴

I can honestly say that my designs are tailor-made for each bride and whilst this does cost me more, it doesn’t cost the brides any more. This is because I don’t have huge overheads and so I pass those savings straight onto the brides.⁵ (Oh yes, and because it’s only me, you can be sure that I’ll personally be doing every bit of your work. There’s no passing things onto trainees involved^.6) 

I can work to any budget and every bride is guaranteed to have the most beautiful memorable flowers regardless of how much she has available to spend.  

For a small budget I concentrate on the bouquet – because that’s what gets all the attention (along with the bride!) and what’ll be in the photographs. I make savings by using less-expensive - but still full of impact - flowers for the church, as those arrangements are seen only from a distance. I also use trade secrets to make sure the bouquet still looks like a million dollars, and only the bride and I know the secret of how little it really cost.⁷ 

I’ve created the floral displays for many wonderful weddings (see some of these arrangements [here⁸].  

Also I did a selection of arrangements for the MagicMum Charity Ball 2008, and they were so pleased with what I did that I’ve been awarded the contract to design the floral arrangements for the MagicMum Charity Ball 2009!

Although I specialise in bridal work, I’m also available for [list the other things you’re available for, as links] and each of those arrangements gets the same attention to detail and RosieDays flair as the bridal work.

As you can see, I’m passionate about flowers and about making sure you get the most beautiful possible floral arrangement. I invite you to [contact me] to see how I can contribute to your special occasion with the perfect flowers.⁹

Sinead.

1. The reference to her learning at her (rather short) nana's knee is extremely humanising and builds a connection. Sinead actually wrote that sentence verbatim in another place, and I seized on it as being the perfect introduction.
   
2. The statement about learning the technical know-how and the artistic flair is a subtle way of reminding the reader that she does have that know-how and flair.
   
3. The constant training and being at the forefront of trends is very important to say. Potential customers need to know that.
   
4. This sentence is ostensibly about the joy Sinead gets from doing this, but in reality it's about how beautiful the bouquets are and - even more importantly - how beautiful the bride will be with one of those bouquets in her hands.
   
5. This is an mportant mention that the customer is getting much more for their money. Also RosieDays is a one-woman band, and it's important to make a virtue out of this rather than hide it or be ashamed of it.
   
6. Likewise, the reference to the fact she'll do all the work herself is emphasising the benefits of going with such a small outfit.
   
7. This lets the potential customer know that Sinead really knows her stuff. 'Trade Secrets' are very important, and it's a subtle way of showing that she knows them. And the benefits of those trade secrets to the client are shown - a small budget that looks like a huge one.
   
8. [here] would be a link to her bridal bouquets' portfolio.
   
9. Always end by telling the visitor what you want them to do next.

What she said about the critique:

"I love all of what you have written and there are excellent suggestions too ! Thanks so much, even i'm impressed with how brilliant I sound ;) "- Sinead of RosieDays

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