Please review

[harrymossman]

Please give me ideas about

http://www.fws.gov/sacramento/

My project leader, who is responsible for that page, wants to improve it, although he isn't sure how. Change for the sake of change, I guess. (FYI, I am responsible for

http://www.fws.gov/sacramento/es/

and the pages below it.)

Keep in mind:
1)The header is mandated.
2)The first priority will be usability.

Thanks!

Harry

 

[Foamcow]

Drop the font tags and use CSS to apply styles

Try to reduce the number of classes used and target HTML elements using the CSS

Create a print stylesheet that reformats the page for printed output. For instance, lose the navigation as it's no use on paper anyway!

Make sure the pages validate against your chosen DOCTYPE. It doesn't currently validate.

http://validator.w3.org/check?verbose=1&uri=http://www.fws.gov/sacramento/

Other than that, it's rather good. Clear and simple and it gets the information across efficiently. Which is the whole point after all.



<honk>*:O)</honk>
Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web site design in Cheltenham and Gloucester
Ham and Jam - British & Commonwealth forces mod for Half Life 2

 

[Foamcow]

Also....

TAke a look at how you are using HTML elements.
For your navigation, use a list - it's a list of links after all.
Use h1, h2, h3 (etc) tags to denote headings
Use p tags for paragraphs of text

and so on

Then style those elements with an external CSS file.
You will find that your markup becomes a lot leaner and meaner, easier to maintain and faster to load (there'll be alot less of it)




<honk>*:O)</honk>
Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web site design in Cheltenham and Gloucester
Ham and Jam - British & Commonwealth forces mod for Half Life 2

 

[harrymossman]

Thanks for your good suggestions. Unfortunately, the project leader refuses to learn css and he can barely use html. He works almost entirely in Design View and has no concept of validation. :-(

Harry

 

[johnwm]

In your css (sacweb.css) you don't need (and shouldn't use) the:
<style type="text/css">

Otherwise, just what foamy said!

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[Foamcow]

Well he wanted to know how to improve it.
The way to improve something is to do it better... the better way to create the page would be to use semantic, structured markup and seperate style, content and behaviour. This generally leads to better load times and improved accessibility.


If he's talking about the visual communication aspect... it kind of does a decent job anyway. Any "whizzy" bits are just going to get in the way.

There is certainly loads of room for considering who your target audience are and figuring out if the look, feel and usability of the site meet their requirements. But that's a rather large thing to be asking once the site's already been built!

<honk>*:O)</honk>
Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web site design in Cheltenham and Gloucester
Ham and Jam - British & Commonwealth forces mod for Half Life 2

 

[ChrisHunt]

I find the front page rather busy - all those links and headings vying for attention. I think I'd see if the content pages couldn't be categorised more, so you wouldn't need to (seemingly) link to all of them from the home page.

Foamy's point about considering your target audience(s) is a good one. How can you guide each of them to what they're looking for? What are they looking for anyway?

Since every office has their own site, look around at the others for inspiration. The Ventura office home page,

http://www.fws.gov/ventura/index.html

, for example, is a bit more welcoming, though the site has flaws too (like having a seperate, out-of-date "text version").

-- Chris Hunt
Webmaster & Tragedian
Extra Connections Ltd

 

[harrymossman]

Thanks, Chris. Yes, we need to pare down. I agree. Of course, every branch chief thinks his/her program is the most important and deserves top billing on the home page. Their first reaction is "WHERE'S MY BUTTON?!" The political side of web design.

One thing I like about the Venura page is that the sea otters really say "Venura Fish & Wildlife Office" whereas ours just says "Fish & Wildlife Office." And the otters immediately create a warm, fuzzy feeling. On the other hand, they take up a lot of real estate that could be used for information.