You could win $50.00 worth of Henna Sooq products for Happy Henna Friday!
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Just reply directly here at (and on) this post. REPLY DIRECTLY on this blog post, we repeat. We will not accept any other forms of submission. Please do not send it via facebook, nor via email. You must follow the directions in order to be eligible to win.
What should your reply include?
We’re looking for your feedback, insight, wisdom, great taste, recommendations, and guidance in bringing together ideas, and innovative designs, and formats for Henna Sooq’s website. We want to create the ultimate, amazing body art, henna and natural hair care website. Please go to Henna Sooq to review the site and get started.
This reply should include:
- Your name, and email should be included when you register your reply so we can contact you.
- MUST ONLY BE a reply pertaining to the website.
- Feedback and/or recommendations that would make Henna Sooq’s website more organized, a better shopping experience, and a wealth of information at your fingertips.
- Web development advice
- Web design recommendations
- Formats, layouts, forms etc…that would make Henna Sooq easier to navigate
- Shopping experience on Henna Sooq that would make it flow better
- Ideas from other websites you’ve seen. So do recommend with links and references to websites you’ve seen that you’ve liked and would love Henna Sooq to have those same features
- Any ideas, tips and realistic changes we can make to Henna Sooq to improve the website
- Be yourself, and give us honest feedback, and recommendations. Be creative, and make Henna Sooq flourish and grow.
What your reply should NOT include:
- A reply that contains no advice or suggestions
- Replies that state that no changes are needed and Henna Sooq looks amazing and perfect. Sorry, but we believe there is always room for improvement and changes are welcomed at Henna Sooq
- Any other replies that are not about the actual Henna Sooq website
- Malicious, non-constructive criticism, or rude comments in any form
Winner will be chosen and selected by May 25, 2011
First off, I love your site, but I do see ways of improvements. I am a member of the natural hair community, so everyone I know uses your site to order henna for their hair. The site does not offer a lot of info in relation to the hair. And for newbies, they really don’t know where to start. I would suggest:
1. including a link on your site that will take them to the free e-book by mehandi (http://www.mehandi.com/shop/hennahairbook/index.html)
2. (http://www.hennaforhair.com/) this website has a world of info on henna’eing the hair
3.(http://www.hennacaravan.com/how/mix.html) This site does a step by step photo directions on how to mix henna. Now this site also sells henna but it cost more than yours and your site has more options.
4. It would also be helpful if you included some of the videos from your youtube page showing what mixed henna looks like, the difference between Henna for hair and BAQ henna, the indigo one and a few others that I don’t remember.
5. lastly, when it comes to henna’eing hair, people need to know about doing a super moisturizing DC afterwards.
Just my imput. Thanks 🙂
Oh how fun 🙂
Here are some suggestions:
Your landing page (http://www.hennasooq.com/) should fit in a standard browser window with standard resolution and NOT need to scroll. Focus your main page on navigation and keep scrolling limited to other pages, such as long pieces of information and pages of shop inventory. Perhaps do a slideshow/rotating picture that takes up less space and displays your featured items one at a time. Like the rotating fruits and veggies here, but slower:
http://gurneys.com/Default.asp?splid=SPLID02
Also consider making your logo banner at the top of the page smaller. Right now it’s 175 px high, which is almost a third of some people’s screen resolutions. That AND your nave bar are 217 px.
Along those lines the top navigation bar is very cluttered. Home is good where it is, but I would move the standard items like Contact Us, Links, About Us, and Our Locations all to the far right (or even to the bottom of the page where they are most commonly found. Keep the more clicked on things, like Shop, to the left along with Home.
Consider an “Information” link that combines Henna in Islam, What is Henna, and perhaps Links under that one item.
To help with decluttering, shorten some of your link names. “Our Locations” should be “Locations,” “Henna BlogSpot” could just be “Blog” or “Blogspot.” This would also keep all the words on one line, shrinking the height of the nav bar and giving you more room to display content below.
Going right across the top nav bar… we discussed Home and About Me is good.
Services- There is VERY little content on this page, and no reason a user should have to scroll down so much to get to it. Consider more compact icons that stack three or four per line. Another idea is to have just the words down the left and have an image swap on mouseover to the right of the list.
What is Henna is good, save that it doesn’t fit in your background image. I think a good think to add to that page would be what is NOT henna and talk about the effects of PPD and metallic salts right there.
Shop- The main shop page here has the same issue as the landing page- to much information. Keep this to featured items and your store categories. Make it as fast and as easy for your customer to get to the item they want from that page. Details are for product-specific pages.
I think a layout somewhat like this would be helpful:
http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/index2.html
You could have a pretty images for your henna, oils, body bars, etc. and then more specific links for each. The photo visually groups like things together and lets you find a category without having to read all the way through the current long list on the left.
Things like plugging the You Tube channel, and sponsoring Henna Chai should be on the main page, perhaps on that rotating featured section I mentioned.
IMPORTANT information, such as having international customers get a quote, should be at the top of the page, not at the bottom.
Portfolio- Good, but the images don’t fit in the space allotted to them by the background.
Henna in Islam: The main image there doesn’t mesh with the rest of your website and the hard black box isn’t ideal at all. This icon: http://www.hennasooq.com/images/saws.gif inserted in line with text makes the text harder to read. Perhaps have it once at the top and describe its meaning?
Our Locations:
Perhaps do a Google Map on this page? Use smaller tables so that the information isn’t scrolling across the whole page, and any logos should be a transparent .gif or .png so there isn’t that strange box around them. When you go to that page the icon with the ladybug is the first thing your eye goes to, which isn’t what you want. Smaller columns and a good image would be better. Something like this:
http://www.zeronese.net/website-templates/screenshots/32800/32816-5-b.jpg
Contact Us: looks good! If a little drab. Spice it up with a picture 🙂
Links: Could these groups be given titles? Again, there’s no reason to have to scroll so much for the amount of content on the page.
I hope that helps! Overall I love your color scheme, your logo is crisp and clear, and your information good. 🙂
How about a live chat?
I suggest that you catalog your merchandise under 5 main categories: Body Art, Hair Care, Skins Care, Assessories and Advice/Tips. IMO, by doing so, this will lead customers to that area of interest and it’s sub-categories, thus simplfying the shopping experience.
I’d like to see more video tutorials on mixing colors, application, root touch-up, etc.
I would like to see more information about whatever products are being offered, a little history, what it’s good for, any reviews from customers, any tips on usage, if it smells, or stains etc.
Pictures of hair that has been colored, different designs of body art.
A kit would be very nice, if you need to use more than one product, such a henna and indigo, to have it all in a pre-measured kit and include an essential oil, small bar of organic soap or shampoo bar. Maybe offer a complete sample kit with a little of everything to try out, maybe one for hair, one for body art and another for soap shampoo bars?
About the page itself, I find it so hard to order anything, I have trouble finding the order page, using the page without getting the order mixed up, things like that. The http://www.mehandi.com/ site was much easier to use and get my order set up and out quickly with no confusion. Amazon.com also has a sales program the includes a storefront and shopping cart that is pretty straightforward and simple. I found it a little confusing to keep up when I set up my shop because it was all in the building stage, Amazon had just introduced this concept to its site and the rules seemed to change every other day. But that was back in 2007.
A shopping cart should be as simple to find, use and update, with pictures of the product chosen to buy.
http://www.swansonvitamins.com/offers/INTE818.html?SourceCode=INTE818
http://www.tapdancinglizard.com/
These have good page layouts and shopping carts.
By the way I used to create web pages for clients and myself as a small business.
If you would like to see a sample page, I’d be glad to send a link to one of mine.
I’m a computer tech and instructor and I get lost on some website that are poorly laid out or too complex and confusing. I love the K.I.S.S PRINCIPLE: KEEP IT SUPER SIMPLE
I personally like to take my time and shop, look around,learn more about the products, check out new stuff and read reviews good and bad before making a purchase. But when I’m ready to buy I like to have it where I can click and add it to my cart. Next when I’ve finished gathering items in the cart, I like a chance to go over, double check and make sure I have the right amount, right product, right size and be able to add, delete, or add a code or coupon, and go directly to check out page. We should be able to sign in or login and bring up a wish list and/or review past items purchased.
I hope this helps some, email me anytime with any questions you may have.
Peace
Cheryl
I honestly believe that the Henna Sooq website is extremely well organized and the layout is easy to navigate. I find it to be a treasure-trove of invaluable information on henna, particularly for body art. The photos are beautifully done and give users a great jumping off point.
If anything at all, perhaps you could have a page with photos of hair that shows the differing shades that people achieve with different henna “recipes” (sort of like the Henna for Hair page has on it: http://www.hennaforhair.com/mixes/index.html)
Other than that, I cannot think of anything that needs doing.
Two things:
First, I wish that the site was arranged by “Hair Problem”, then “Dry Hair, Frizzy Hair”, etc., then the products that help with each of those things underneath.
In addition, I wish that there was a section where people that used Henna Sooq products could post their recipes and before and after pictures. I know that there are a lot of henna recipes on the web, but all of them aren’t made using products that are as good of quality as yours.
I have just recently become an avid follower of all things ayurvedic and natural. I am a natural hair henna head and found this site through YT. Although there are alot of things you are doing right the following are some suggestions from a buyer point of view.
1. Forums: HennaSooq is fabolous at customer services but who are her customers. I know you are able to leave comments on personal items but how about setting up one place for all comments. There you can swap recipes with others, get much needed advice and befriend those who are doing the same things you are. You can also post everything from other social medias (your YT and FB page) in one convienent location. Everyone’s not into social media.
2. Prices: You literally have to push on a specific item to see the price. Pics of each item with a price could be on your shopping page under the specific categories (henna powders, oil, etc).
3. Although I love the pic on the main page maybe changing it up every now and then or having a “Henna Design of the Week” with customers providing art work from henna bought from HennaSooq will get your customer more involved. Who wouldn’t want to see thier HennaSooq inspired work on the web.
Just some suggestions.
Lakesha Macon
KeshaSharee@hotmail.com
Hi,
I think the site could have a section for beginning henna for hair users. The section would include a calculator where the user can input their starting hair color, its length, and the desired color. The calculator would then give an approximate amount of henna/cassia/indigo the person would need. This could then link to a purchase page that has the ratio they need.
A helpful feature would be to have pictures of different hair colors so that they can specify which shade is closest to what they want.
Also, a shipping calculator that approximates how much the shipping will cost based on location/weight before the person makes the purchase. (I noticed it only tells me after I go through checkout.)
🙂
What would be really helpful is, for each of the hennas or even any
products that will affect color change on hair or skin, a photo swatch
of dye release on a sheet of paper might give some idea of color.
A description of color of each henna would be really useful too. It
took much experimenting before I realized that henna just didn’t give
off orange tones. I found that Rajastani gave me a nice cooler tone
reds on my black Asian hair and Yemeni was more on the orange side if
these were mixed only on their own. Adding some herbs changed it
slightly but I was more concerned about covering grays. I realize it
will vary on original hair color but at least a guideline. I dont like
going back and forth on forum and then looking at my product. Too
confusing to remember what I saw.
You guys are all absolutely amazing! You don’t know just how great this feedback is. I am so thrilled you all are taking part. We have 1 day left before we draw for our winner. I’ll be commenting on everyone’s posts specifically when we get a chance.
For videos, we do have a youtube channel for those who didn’t know we have video tutorials, but yes we do need to do more. See here: http://www.youtube.com/user/HennaSooq
This reply should include:
Your name, and email should be included when you register your reply so we can contact you. Michele Hood, michelehood1@aol.com
MUST ONLY BE a reply pertaining to the website.
Feedback and/or recommendations that would make Henna Sooq’s website more organized, a better shopping experience, and a wealth of information at your fingertips.
Web development advice
Web design recommendations
Formats, layouts, forms etc…that would make Henna Sooq easier to navigate – I think the website could be more cellphone friendly. Its decent, but a lot of the extra touches/formatting is lost via cellphone. And I have a Blackberry & and Android 🙂
Shopping experience on Henna Sooq that would make it flow better
Ideas from other websites you’ve seen. So do recommend with links and references to websites you’ve seen that you’ve liked and would love Henna Sooq to have those same features: I would love to be able to purchase your products via other venues (Amazon, natural hair websites, etc.). If its on any, I haven’t seen it. In that case, it needs to be more visible!
Any ideas, tips and realistic changes we can make to Henna Sooq to improve the website
Be yourself, and give us honest feedback, and recommendations. Be creative, and make Henna Sooq flourish and grow. – Overall its very to the point. I personally like that, but for those that enjoy the extra creativity, more pics would be great. Before & after type pics. Also, more recipes for henna would be great too. If you want this type color, strength, thickness, etc. Recipes pertaining to individual needs I guess you can say.
I would suggest having a step by step video on your website for the different things that you use henna for, maybe do one video on hennaing hair red, brown,black, and how to do body art. This would help people new to henna. Maybe even do a video on the benefits of henna for those who are on the fence about trying it.
Also you can make the page easier to use for smartphones and ipads…right now you can see the page but the formatting is a bit off when you use it on a smart phone, lots of scrolling.
You could also improve the shopping cart so that it is a little bit smoother. I feel like right now you have to click through a few pages, it would be nice to just click the buy button and have the product instantly in your cart and ready to check out
Hi!
I found navigating the Henna Sooq store a bit confusing you have links to your blog and other articles at the top of the screen and you have to scroll down to actually find what your looking for. If you were to switch the order of even get rid of the link, the space can be used to view all of item listed at once instead of portions at a time.
I have found a lot of good information on your site regarding hennas. However, I find myself going between shopping the website and landing in the blog…Confusing! As a newbie Henna for hair user, I am certainly interested in all the info I can find. The current site is helpful but I believe there is a lot of info that could be helpful if there was a list of recommendations based on search results. Thanks! Tammie 🙂
The first thing I would do is ensure that your website and blog are one in the same – it will create a better SEO value for you and make it so much easier for your customers to get around.
A lot of the information I needed pertaining to the henna I purchased was on the shopping page – it just didn’t flow properly. It would make more sense to have (for example) a page dedicated to henna with links to purchase products from there.
I would also utilize a sidebar for your most important information and to make people aware of how to find you on social media.
Assalamu alaikoum!
The only thing I can think of right now, is that I’ve seen a couple of spelling/grammar mistakes here and there. This is easily fixed by proofreading, especially if you can have someone else read over it before posting 🙂
Salaam!
I definitely agree with wanting a step-by-step guide for selecting the right henna/indigo/cassia/herbs etc. For example, I really want to try henna for the permanent hair strengthening/conditioning properties but don’t want to change my hair color to reddish. These types of little nuances would be really good to know about before I take the plunge. I think your prices seem very reasonable and I appreciate all the youtube and other resources. Also cool that you are connected via LHC. So, I agree maybe some way to help people easily find a formula that will work for them and also, making the shopping and blog more connected… thanks for having a great resource and keep up the good work though.
1.Pictures of hair showing possible hair colors that can be achieved, using the different henna powders and featuring a range of hair textures from straight to kinky curly.
2.The true product stock should be reflected @ all times, e.g. if there’s only 500gm of Morocco henna powder, a person shouldn’t be able to add/order more than the stock (500gm of Morocco henna powder) to their cart.
3.Current discounts/coupon codes on offer should be displayed on the first page so it’s visible to customers, and they don’t have to go to the blog to find it.
4.A reward dollar or reward points scheme for frequent buyers (kinda like frequent flyer miles. You can even create separate schemes for bulk- henna artist buyers and the average customer.
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