Anyone who can't navigate to find what they want on that site shouldn't be allowed on the internet without supervision
While I agree the poll adds no value, I disagree fundamentally with your comment.
Andy doesn't have time / finances to update the site.
Equally, some people with money don't have the time to navigate the site to find something when another product which will meet their needs is both easier to find and purchase on another site.
It's not as black and white as 'can't navigate', it's grey around 'easier to get elsewhere'.
People are generally lazy, they'll choose the easiest option to get what they want if there's more than one route. Not everyone buys the miniatures because they're unique, people buy them to fit a need, which can be met other ways, and Andy *might* be losing out as a result. Whether the loss is worth an investment is a business decision (a typical cost benefit case).
On a technical level, the site uses frames, has text which is far too big, and takes up too much space in the browser. It looks old fashioned. The style gets in the way of the function.
Here's the landing page as it looks on my browser,
Three scroll bars before I even start, a huge logo which adds no value, and is repeated in miniature on the left, and some text telling me it's my fault for not having a big enough monitor or the right resolution for the fact that it looks huge (for reference, I have a 17" LCD running at 1280x1024 which is the native resolution). How many people are moving to laptops and netbooks these days and away from huge monitors and desktops?
and here's how another page looks,
why would I read that text? It's huge, in multiple confusing columns and doesn't even fit in my browser (I don't run any windows full screen, I use my screen for a lot of applications at once).
I want to say again. I have nothing but respect for Andy and *anyone* who gets off their arse to set up their own business and try and make a living, I certainly don't have the guts or courage to do that. In any job, you have a major skill and everything else you have to scrape by on. Mail order / internet shops are a classic example, and I fully appreciate all the complexity (because I have been involved at all levels). It's a cost benefit case for Andy if he thinks £X will generate £Y sales and hence £Z profit.
But claiming users are stupid if they can't use the site misses the entire point. Let's try and be honest and constructive from both sides.
Here's my advice - don't change the whole site. Lose the frames. Get rid of multi-column text mixed with single column text. Move to a site which only needs to be 800 pixels wide, move to a font size more in-line with other modern websites, and/or provide a way of changing the font size (so I don't have to keep using Firefox to reduce the text so it fits on one page). Lose the huge logos. Lose the instructions telling me it's my fault if the text looks big because I can't afford a 19" monitor.
Less is absolutely more.
But, don't do any of that if you feel that the cost benefit case isn't there.
Poll
