Design advice on my novice site would be appreciated...

[rudejohn]

I am a developer, but I'm a back-end (database) and middleware-level developer. This is my first crack at front-end, public developing. I'm not really getting paid for it so it doesn't have to be excellent, but I'm sure that I violated a million design recommendations. I'm trying to get it to work on any size screen from 800x600 up, and to load a bit faster. I appreciate your help a TON in advance.

http://www.rosstownship.org

RJ

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RudeJohn
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[rudejohn]

anyone?

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RudeJohn
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[cian]

Hi RJ,

sorry no-one replied...

in IE6, 1024*

1. Don't like the blue background, too blue for me. Try maybe #eeeeee

2. The top links, sometimes disappear when clicked. Might want to check that. The rollover images load very slow.

3. You could let the main maroon table expand to full window width and height and perhaps remove the outer border. No harm in trying it to see what it's like.

4. Consistency: some pages have 3 columns, other pages only 2. I'd keep it at 2 on all pages for consistency (or 3 on all if you prefer)

5. I'd also like to see a text navigation on the left. Don't rely on having just image navigation on top.

6. Using the mailto: tag like that leaves your email open to harvesting by spammers, might want to use some javascript to display it or even an image.

7. The box that displays the images, I'm not crazy about all that white, on longer pages such as Services there's a lot of white under the images. I'd put those images in a nested div or table so that you can keep the white space to a minimum. make sense?


Hope that didn't seem harsh, great job considering it's your first try.
You should see my first site...jeeez!




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http://www.ssi-developer.net

 

[rudejohn]

Thank you, Cian, it didn't seem harsh and I wouldn't have minded if it was (perhaps it would motivate me to actually work on it some more). I'll take all your suggestions into consideration (but I can't work on it until evenings, just so you don't think I'm ignoring you)

Thanks, have a great day,

RJ

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RudeJohn
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[Kjonnnn]

Ok.. I went to Froebel in Gary so I really hate red and blue. Personal choice.

But, you should put at least one link back to your home page just in case one of the other pages gets surfed into

 

[ChrisHunt]

A few comments (in no particular order):
[ol]
[li] Call me unpatriotic, but that red white and blue colour scheme looks really garish and hard on the eyes.[/li]

[li]You're using gifs and jpegs in the wrong places. Photographs - like the pic of Mr Rooda on the front page should be jpegs, otherwise they look all grainy like Mr Rooda does. Diagrams involing solid blocks of colour - like the map or the picnic symbol should be gifs, otherwise you get blurry images with ugly artifacts around the edges.[/li]

[li]The mouseover images at the top of the page take a long time to first appear. I'm not sure why as I couldn't follow the Javascript, but you could get a similar effect using just text and CSS[/li]

[li]Using graphics for text titles is to be avoided where possible, but if you must do it include an alt attribute to say what it sys for the benefit of blind visitors using a screen reader.[/li]

[li]Also remember to specify height and width attributes for all images[/li]

[li]I'd like to see a page explaining who/what the Ross Township Trustee/Trust is. He/it seems to have a rather eclectic range of duties. Perhaps some kind of history page?[/li]

[li]Like cian says, layout could be a lot more consistent. If you're going to keep that stack of photo's down the left hand side, why not make them links to the pages which describe the park, the pool, etc.[/li]

[li]Underlining the "Welcome to the Hompage..." text on the front page makes it look like a link,[/li]

[li]Leave some room for expansion - what might you add to this site, a local bulletin board? a photo gallery of the parks? a news section? Have you got room in your navigation scheme to point to all these potential new pages?[/li]
[/ol]
Not bad for a first effort, but plenty of room for improvement.

-- Chris Hunt

http://www.extracon.com

http://www.mcgonagall-online.org.uk

http://www.napitalia.org.uk

http://www.leicesteryha.org.uk

 

[cian]

RJ,
i'm also an evening worker

An important thing is to realize that many of these things will appear in future to be obvious. All of the comments posted here are constructive criticisms, people handle criticism in different ways but you obviously have the right attitude there.
For your first job it's a great start.

As Chris said, there's room for improvement, but identifying these improvements comes with experience and practice.
In all my bullsh*t what i'm trying to say is listen to the advice of the other guys here such as Chris as most of them do this for a living. And don't be disheartened if you get some harsh feedback

Last point Standards ;-)

http://www.w3.org/2002/03/new-to-w3c

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http://www.ssi-developer.net

 

[rudejohn]

Thanks, everyone for great comments. I'll take them all into account. A few questions/notes:

(a) Kjonnn you said to put a link back to the homepage in case someone navigates directly there... there is a link to the homepage in the navbar at the top, which appears on every page... did you mean for me to add another?

(b) The rollover images were created using Dreamweaver MX. You say there's a better way using CSS?

(c) What did you mean by "room in my navigation" for future pages? Did you mean on the navigation bar at the top? There will be more pages in the near future, but I was planning on keeping them off the main page (for example, events at the park would probably be linked to from the parks page)

Thanks again for all your help, and don't worry about offending...

Nice to hear that someone else from Gary is out there on the forum.

~RJ

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RudeJohn
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[Kjonnnn]

Oh Im sorry .. didnt see the bar.