Comment on my site.

[caffrinho]

Have set up a website for a friend. Before I let him see it, i would like some feedback/constructive criticism.

Personally, i don't like the forum idea (on a professional level).

Other than that i'm particularly interested in how you perceive the overall site. Layouts/colour scheme etc.
I only ever use firefox(Win) as a browser, but have checked on IE6. So i'm also interested in browser compatibilty issues.

Thanks for sparing me your time,

regards,

Caff

http://www.gscarter.co.uk/SWSS

 

[Foamcow]

I think the forum is a good idea.
The problem is though, an empty forum looks bad.
You need to try and get your friend to post some interesting articles etc in there to attract people to begin contributing.
Once the ball is rolling you will then need to keep a careful eye on what's posted.
I have friend with a Classic Saab, he will be interested in those forums if they get busy.

As for the design. It works. It's clean, it loads fast.
It is a bit sparse, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

After a quick look, I would say...

Make the images in the links pages links themselves.

The images of the cars in the sales section look bad. They need to be better quality. Why not add value/interest by taking some interior or engine shots too? Show pics of the actual cars, not library shots (if that's what these are).
I'm at that page now. I want to buy the 2.0 Aero HOT. What do I do? There is no contact info on the page, no links, nothing.

Add some pics to the Accessories section. People in the market for car mods like eye candy! Show some of the accessories and explain their benefits etc. There's a lot of potential in that section. Which reminds me.. anywhere you say "contact us" make it a link to the contact us page.

Generally, get some nice pictures on the site.

From an SEO perspective...
Get the words "South Wales' Saab Specialists" into an <h1> tag somwhere!
There will be more to do here.. no time now!


From a coding perspective...
Using CSS.. good!
Semantic markup (from what I've seen).. good
You are close to making this site valid XHTML. Look into adding DOCTYPES and making all tags lowercase and quotes around all attributes etc. Not essential, but it will put the cherry on the cake.. and you are so close!

Got to go and do some work now.
Well done though. Nice job.

Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web design and ranting
Toccoa Games - Day of Defeat gaming community
Target Marketing Communications - Advertising, Direct Marketing and Public Relations
"I'm making time

 

[ChrisHunt]

I agree with foamcow, a nice-looking site. One thing I'd change - call the home page "Home", not "About Us".

It's probably a good idea to have an "About Us" page as well, which goes into more detail about the company's history, staff, specialisms, etc.

Since it's a bricks-and-mortar business, some pictures of the garage/showroom would be good, as well as a map of how to get there.



-- Chris Hunt
Webmaster & Tragedian
Extra Connections Ltd

 

[Foamcow]

Finished the job faster than I thought..


Looked at the site in other browsers..
Mac Firefox - looks OK except the grey box at the bottom goes funny on the links page.

Safari - looks fine everywhere


I would also add.
On the Contact Us page use a mail form. The benefits are that it looks more professional and you don't have to put a link with your email address for those nasty spammers to pick up on.

Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web design and ranting
Toccoa Games - Day of Defeat gaming community
Target Marketing Communications - Advertising, Direct Marketing and Public Relations
"I'm making time

 

[caffrinho]

Thanks for your detailed thoughts. I am very grateful.

car sales section is still a work in progress. I intend on having the images as links to a detailed page about the car in question with more photo's and a detailed spec. with information on who to contact, etc.

eye candy is on my to do list, still trying to figure on where to get the images from. (probably look at speaking to the businesses i've linked to. I'm sure they'll have plenty of images i can use.)

Will look into getting some pics of garage etc. An angle i hadn't considered, thanks.

thanks for the encouragement, too.

cheers,

caff

 

[caffrinho]

Funny you should mention the footer in the links page. It happens to me about 25% of the time (and sorts itself out with a refresh!!). Thought it might be me. Certainly worth looking into. I'm wondering if it is because the background image is bigger than the height i've stipulated for the box!?!?!

Good idea with the form too. Again, something i hadn't considered.

 

[lexus]

Red text is not acessible to a lot of people who have a visual deficiency. You may lose some viewers because of it.

Also, have you checked your site with a PDA or cellphone? Lots of folks are using those to access the web.

**Quiquid latine dictum sit altum viditur.**

 

[ChrisHunt]

Red text is not acessible to a lot of people who have a visual deficiency

Not so. "Colourblindness" does not mean an inability to see particular colours, but an inability to distinguish between particular colours - most often red and green.

So as long as you're not putting red text on a green background (yuck!) or saying "Click the green text to do this, and the red text to do that", you'll not be causing them much trouble.

Take a look at

http://www.visibone.com/colorblind/

for more information, and

http://www.vischeck.com/vischeck/vischeckURL.php

for a tool that lets you see your site as a colourblind person sees it.

-- Chris Hunt
Webmaster & Tragedian
Extra Connections Ltd

 

[lexus]

It depends on the type of colorblindness and the degree.

http://colorfilter.wickline.org/

will allow you to check for 10 types plus a general one.

I also have several people that I call upon who have varying degrees of colorblindness to check our pages. We don't want them seeing varying shades of gray that may disappear into a background.

More technical information on color deficiency:

http://more.btexact.com/people/rigdence/colours/Background.htm

We have had to follow state law here since 1999 on designing our sites for accessibility and I also teach a workshop in it. We follow the W3C standards in our state and not the Section 508 ones. Text colors must be very distinct and stand out from the background. There are many items to be met to make sure our sites comply with the state law. Text color is just one. We stay clear of reds and greens unless they are very very dark.

Alt text is a must.Forms have special tags as well. But it all makes your sites accessibile to those who may have deficiencies and handicaps.

**Quiquid latine dictum sit altum viditur.**

 

[caffrinho]

Thanks for the input guys. After a few days working on that site i decided i didn't like it. So i've had another go. In case you're interested it's at:

http://www.gscarter.co.uk/swssnew

Content wise, it's still not complete, but it's the theme/layout that i'm more concerned with at the moment.

From an accessibility point of view, I may need to reconsider the dark grey text on light grey background. But for now i'm happy with it.

I know that all members of society should be able to access your websites, but surely there's limited scope for a partially blind person to be visiting a motor trade website??? (colour blindness accepted, of course!)

Thoughts?

 

[Foamcow]

Hmm
A few thoughts

I prefer the lighter background.
There is virtually no gap between the navigation and the content in Firefox (I see a gap in IE6). It looks uncomfortable.
Likewise, the footer text needs a margin, it's too close to the edge of the footer.

I would also centre the page in the window and change the background colour of the page. Maybe make the content area white or a very light grey, then make the page background a darker colour.

Put "South Wales Saab Specialist" into the page title, (not just SWSS)
What happens when the content area extends down past what is now the page bottom? Does it expand?

Otherwise... it's certainly a step in the right direction.

Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web design and ranting
Toccoa Games - Day of Defeat gaming community
Target Marketing Communications - Advertising, Direct Marketing and Public Relations
"I'm making time

 

[ChrisHunt]

I like the new layout better. I think you mught want to juggle the menu options around a bit, but a vertical menu gives you more flexibility to do that.

I preferred the white background though - I think it draws the eye into the content area. At the moment the menu is more prominent than the content (to me, anyway. See this article:

http://www.stuffandnonsense.co.uk/archives/web_design_depth_of_field.html

for some interesting comments on contrast in design). Lexus' point about colourblindness also becomes much more significant when you're talking about red-on-grey instead of red-on-white.

The text size is too small, especially given the lower contrast with the background. I'm guessing here, but given how much they cost I reckon the average Saab driver is 35+. Us old uns don't see as well as we used to! Your old text size was much better.

The only other thing I'm not sure of is that apostrophe in the name. Do your clients really call their company "south waleses saab specialists"? Even if they do, the punctuation looks a little over-fussy to me.

-- Chris Hunt
Webmaster & Tragedian
Extra Connections Ltd

 

[caffrinho]

Step in the right direction, marvelous!

margins around the text, check.
page title, check.

I wanted to centre the content, but have had a great deal of difficulty getting it to work. Any tips?

I will take onboard all the comments with regard the dark(er) grey background, i will revert it to a much lighter colour when i've managed to centre the layout and put a darker colour as a general background. However, making the navigation links prominent was one of my goals.

Thanks for all the input.....again!

Cheers

 

[glenmac]

Great site! Just one thought,I'd loose the w3c images. They are not consistant with the content of the site and mean nothing to the average car owner. To web designers they mean something but not to car owners and I beleive they are detrimental to the design. Just my 2 cents though.

Glen

http://lantzvillecomputers.ca