I think the look is much improved over the old site but there is a lot more you can do to enhance the usability of the site.
First of all, navigation. Top navigation is OK but as mentioned before by someone else drop downs irritating and hard to navigate. Your design incorporates both top and side navigation but the side navigation is underutilized and often blank. You offer so much good product and information its MY OPINION that you should use side navigation and include links to all your information in one, simple, nav bar like the old site did but use text instead of images/image map. This will boost your search engine rankings as search engines will actually find more pages therefore index more pages thus helping your search engine ranking. Also you need a search box!!
Example:
Foum
Products
Axle Parts and Kits
Brakes
Differentials
Cruiser
Pickup/4Runner
Tacoma
Steering
Suspension
1979-85 Lift Kit
1986-95 Lift Kit
Etc..
Trail Armor
Sliders
Etc.
Etc.
I think you see where I am heading here.. It just makes navigation a whole lot easier and no matter what you are looking at you are one click away from the next thing you want to check out. Look at some of the most successful retail sites on the net this is how they do it.
Second, you may already have plans for the index page but I think the news section should be condensed and moved to the right side of the page leaving room for new and featured products in the center. Again, the index page should have a full navigation menu at the left - you already allocate space on the left, might as well use it.
Last, not a huge fan of the grey bgcolor within the site. I think you should continue with the color scheme in banner and leave the background white, change text color to dark grey like the section above the banner where the "home" link is. Also, if you change the front page to include specials/new products etc. I would definitely move the "home" button into your main navigation bar, as it is now its kinda lost in space.
I am simply making suggestions that I think would greatly enhance your site and hopefully sales. I have always thought of MC as the #1 source for product, but the website has always underwhelmed me. I think it is time for your website to reflect the same standard of quality as the parts and services you sell. I do this stuff for a living so I know it takes time, but if your going through all the trouble of reworking the site, may as well do it right.
Thanks for all the hard work so far, change is good..
My background is in web development and software (if that makes a difference).
I agree 100% with this. We always seem to see sales drop when using dark colors. I would stick to white backgrounds and bright positive colors. People tend to think of black as evil or bad etc... Also I think the "Products" should be easier to find, one thing to remember while creating web applications is most internet users are not too computer savvy. I would keep the menus simple and easy to navigate and create a products main page with easy to click images etc. If my dad was to visit this site he would never find the products and would give up and order out of a magazine. Another thing to keep in mind is people like to see images of what they are looking for. Personally I really liked the other site better, easier to navigate etc. I did notice 404 errors on many of the clickable images. Another suggestion is do not release to the public till you have fully tested, your first time customers are not going to be impressed getting 404 errors. Next time I would keep the old site up, then put up the new version in a separate location, put a link on the main page with something like "Take a peak at our new and improved site", let them help debug and give suggestions.
edit: here are some links that talk about colors,
http://www.precisionintermedia.com/color.htmlhttp://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0769383.htmlhttp://www.marketingsource.com/articles/view/1669One other point is try and keep the javascript and css to a minimum. Not all your users use the same browser and some js and css functions will not work correctly. I myself use FreeBSD/Unix and everything appears to work.
Brian
