Site for evaluation 1

[MarcLodge]

Hi All,
Over the past few weeks I have (with help from these forums) written my first site for a friend. It's been published on the web and yesterday we received an e-mail saying that it was 'just terrible'. Ouch! I've looked at what the guy has said, and I'm of the opinion that his criticism is that of choice (eg. doesn't like the colour). That said, it has really knocked me and I'd like some professional opinion.

Could you have a look, and get back to me with you comments as I value the views of the people here. If it really is 'just terrible' then I'll do what I can to change it, although I hope that that is not the case.

Site can be found at

http://www.rowingscamps.com

All constructive comments, however bad, gratefully accepted!

Many thanks in ant.
Marc

 

[fxcolin]

Hi Marc,
Congratulations on your first site!
One thing for sure, as you keep working at it, you'll just keep getting better. Keep coming to these forums and spend lots of time browsing other Web Sites, not to steal but rather to learn and get the creative juices going.
I've been doing it for a little less than a year and keep changing my sites.

Anyway is this site down?? I'm getting 'Cannot find server'
or did you misspell the domain '

http://www.rowingcamps.com'

??
No s ?? "In life there are 3 types of people. Some that MAKE it happen, Those that WATCH it happen and some that say... hey! WHAT happened ???"

http://www.chefmedia.ca

http://www.fxstudios.ca

 

[GUJUm0deL]

I also get "cannot find server"... I have not failed; I merely found 100,000 different ways of not succeding...

 

[SPYDERIX]

I think it is supposed to be

http://www.rowingcamps.com

there was an extra "S" in the URL. NATE

http://www.spyderix-designz.com

 

[SPYDERIX]

Hi,

I'm hoping this is your site. I am commenting on

http://www.rowingcamps.com

- get rid of the durius water applet on the front page
- I don't like SOME of the colors (yellow on pink) and the highlighted navbars colors
- when I goto the Registration Page the NAVBAR screws up (look at Locations the drop down goes all weird
- on the registration page, justify the forms to the left
- the registration page has horizontal scrolling when viewed at 800*600 screen resolution (you need to fix that)
- the is the smallest extra space in the NAVBAR b/t Registration and Photo Gallery (not a problem, but I noticed it)


Other than that, (for a first site) it is not too bad. Actually I have seen a few rowing sites and this one looks like the others (this is not a bad thing, but they all tend to look the same).

Good Job on your first site.

Hope this helps and I hope this was in fact your site and I'm not commenting on the wrong site!
NATE

http://www.spyderix-designz.com

 

[MarcLodge]

Sorry everbody, I did indeed miss an 's' and the site is

http://www.rowingcamps.com.

Thanks for your help so far.
Marc

 

[LordSlayer]

the best way to find out if colors on a site are bad just go to the site at 1AM if its hard to read change the color(i know this sounds weird but it works)

 

[onpnt]

I thought I was the only one that stay awake until I could hardly see to test if my sites colors were hard to look at. Thumbs up LordSlayer.

Water effect as SPIDERIX pointed out should be taken out. It's cool but irritating.

Home Page should not be on the Home Pages nav bar. I never understood why some do this. Seems lazy in a sense to me.

The colors could be better but could be worse also

Deffinetely agreeing that this is a great job for a first site. I may not get it the 1st or 2nd time,
but how sweet that 15th time can be.

 

[onpnt]

The links page is all over the place also. If anything put the links below the images so the words do not get cut I may not get it the 1st or 2nd time,
but how sweet that 15th time can be.

 

[SPYDERIX]

1 AM???

LOL That's too early LOL

I like that method though!!! ;-) NATE

http://www.spyderix-designz.com

 

[MarcLodge]

Hi All,
Many thanks for your comments so far, and I'm in the process of reviewing the colours and the links page, which with the icons is a bit all over the place.

The registration page in 800*600 looks ok to me. No horizontal scrolling and the navbar works ok. Is it just me or is everybody experiencing the problem that Spyderix has?

Marc

 

[onpnt]

SPIDERIX is correct on the form page. The best way around the fact you see things well but we may not see them all that great. In this case all the form fields are badly postioned to the right of the page is you need to test fro all possible viewing options users have a available. Coming here was the best way to do this. Your page is not that elaberate so I would just justify the fields and it should be fine at that point. I may not get it the 1st or 2nd time,
but how sweet that 15th time can be.

 

[GUJUm0deL]

Hi, just revied the site and it looks nice, like the pic on the main page with thr ripple effect...
Ummm, under REGISTRATION, Spyderix is right, the form gets "pushed" to the right which forms the horizontal scrolbars, try to mkae the font a little smaller, or make the table centered...
The menu choice colors, not good...its kinda hartd to read with the roll-over effect, for a verry good color chart go here:

http://htmlgoodies.earthweb.com/tutors/colors.html

has the hex and the color name, play around with these...
For the links, try using CSS for the hover, active, etc effect (kind alike what tek-tips uses here)...
Well, thas it for me...hope I helped ya... I have not failed; I merely found 100,000 different ways of not succeding...

 

[MarcLodge]

I'm in the process of changing the colours as they could be better and I'm changing the font size as I've had a comment that it's large.

I'm still having trouble with the registration form as it still looks fine to me. I've coded the form as a table with two columns per row, one for text:right justified, and one for data:left justified, so that they line up nice. On the main body of the table I've specified border equal to 0, cellpadding equal to 5, and width equal to 100%. I thought that this last bit would automatically size it to fit all screens. Obviously I've got this bit wrong. If I change this figure to say 90% will that fix it? I'm asking rather than trying as I can't test it as I don't get the error!!!

Marc

 

[SPYDERIX]

Marc,

What browser are you using to view this. I see horizontal scrolling on the registration page with MSIE-6.0. NATE

http://www.spyderix-designz.com

 

[fxcolin]

Hey Marc,

How about dumping the background tiled image?
That sort of thing is out.
Also the Headings are a bit too large (kind of an eye sore)
On the registration page, the form doesn't have to stretch the entire width.
What about making it 75%.
OR
keep the 100% width, with 2 columns left=25%, right=75%.
In the left column insert a new table a put some pictures down the side.
And the right column put another table and stick the form in there.
I find people tend to scan up and down rather than left to right. Reading from all the way left to all the way right is a bit of a strain. Sound weird but people are lazy AND they want to find their info fast.

Just a thought! Keep working at it!!


"In life there are 3 types of people. Some that MAKE it happen, Those that WATCH it happen and some that say... hey! WHAT happened ???"

http://www.chefmedia.ca

http://www.fxstudios.ca

 

[GUJUm0deL]

Hey, I think the reason the form goes off the page is because the width specified for the "Address" and "comments" fileds. IE makes the textareas wider then needed, try reducing the width...you have it as: COLS="60", make it like 40 or 45 or so...
Another thing you can do is not make the text bold...
And for "Please indicate which camp(s) you are requesting information for" field, embed another table inside your original table and place this section in there...this will snug it nicely...
Otherwise the site looks nice...
Oh, another thing, I agree with fxcolin, the heading is wayyy to big, make that smaller or use an image... I have not failed; I merely found 100,000 different ways of not succeding...

 

[GUJUm0deL]

By the way, also under REGISTRATION, for the validation code you only check to see if the "email" field is not blank, not to see if the value inside is in an email form...
In other words, I typed in 's' and the form was submitted, you want to make sure the email field has both '@' and '.' in there...
Use this:

if (document.formNAME.email.value.indexOf("@&quot == -1 || document.formNAME.email.value.lastIndexOf('.') == -1) {
alert("Please include a proper email address. ex: youremailhere@address.com"
document.formNAME.email.focus();
return false;
}

This will check if both the @ and the . are in there (it will not check if the email is a valid or not...) I have not failed; I merely found 100,000 different ways of not succeding...

 

[onpnt]

deffinetely worth a star GUJUm0deL.
I wish some of the people I work with had that initiative to find other things outside the topic. I may not get it the 1st or 2nd time,
but how sweet that 15th time can be.

 

[GUJUm0deL]

Thanks for the star......
I just review a site the way I design my own sites...lol I have not failed; I merely found 100,000 different ways of not succeding...