Web site review

[LFI]

Hey, Tek-Tippers!

A friend of mine who owns a restaurant has asked for opinions on his web site. I could offer a few suggestions, but I thought it would be more valuable to tap the collective brains of the folks here.

If you don't mind, would you take a look at

http://www.simonescafe.com

and let me know what you think?

Thanks for your time!

--Dave

 

[rye8261]

At first look the yellow was a little hard on the eyes, its pretty vibrant but i did get used to it and wasnt that bad.

I like the look of the site. The only thing i noticed was the link from the main picture does not work.

---------------------------------------

http://www.ryesworld.com

http://www.northernohiohouses.com

 

[ecobb]

Ok,

#1 - The logo is a link to an error page.
#2 - The "Caveman Art" is a link to an error page.
#3 - Nice Menu, I'm getting hungry.
#4 - The yellow background may be a little overkill. It doesn't look bad, I'm just not that fond of yellow.

Not too bad. For the most part the validator seems to like it!

http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http://www.simonescafe.com

Hope This Helps!

Ecobb
Beer Consumption Analyst

"My work is a game, a very serious game." - M.C. Escher

 

[audiopro]

The appearance of web sites is very much like artwork, everybody has a different opinion.
I suggest that currency symbols be added to the menu items. Numbers on their own look isolated.
The live music schedule page information, is a little confusing where the lines wrap.
I have always been mystified by the American date format, looking down a column of dates ie. a sales ledger, finding the different day numbers within a string is hard work.

Keith

http://www.studiosoft.co.uk

 

[LFI]

Thanks for the responses! Very helpful. I'll pass on the comments.

Also, what is the current thinking about links on a page that take the user away from the site? For example, he has links to mapquest and to some posted reviews.

I suggested to him that he seek permission to reprint the reviews on his own site, but I don't know what he should do about mapquest. After a person finishes using it (to create directions to the restaurant), it would take several clicks of the back-button to get back to the original site.

With the now-common use of popup blockers, I am guessing that popping mapquest into a new window is not the best alternative anymore.

But, is there a best alternative anymore?

Thanks again!

--Dave

 

[Foamcow]

try this...

<a href="mapquestPage.html" target="blank">Mapquest</a>

http://www.foamcow.com

- Web design and ranting

http://www.toccoagames.com

- Day of Defeat gaming community
"I'm making time

 

[audiopro]

You could always draw a map of your own so you have full control over your pages.

Keith

http://www.studiosoft.co.uk

 

[ecobb]

Foamcow is right, you can target the link in a new window and it won't be affected by popup blockers.



Hope This Helps!

Ecobb
Beer Consumption Analyst

"My work is a game, a very serious game." - M.C. Escher

 

[rye8261]

According to Mapquest's free link program you are not allowed to open it up in a new window. You can see all their rules here to use the links for free:

http://www.mapquestservices.com/products/index.aspx?pageID=8

---------------------------------------

http://www.ryesworld.com

http://www.northernohiohouses.com

 

[MikeBarone]

Hello, first I want to say welcome to the world of development. You have potential.

As mentioned above...
Yellow is too harsh on the eyes (maybe go with green color of their awning and make logo yellow, like store front).
Logo link still broken (as well as the Simone's image).

My opinions...
The layout is decent. I would not change much, it flows well.

The credit card logos, they should not be so prominently placed on all pages. It is well understood most people accept major credit cards. If it MUST be there, add to lower part of the pages.

"LUNCH - BRUNCH - DINNER - PATIO - PARKING - JAZZ"

What do you mean when you say "parking?" Do you mean convenient parking, close, secure, valet, 10 miles away - describe it better?

Also, the above text descriptors use a different font than the rest of the text on the page. I like to keep my fonts similar and use other metods to separate text (bold, color, italics, etc.).

I recommend changing the contact page by removing the email address and adding a fast CGI form. Adding email addresses to websites means that as soon as the search engines pick it up, SO WILL THE SPAMMER BOTS!

That is all, no need being any more harsh than this. Nice job!

Mike Barone

http://www.cgiscript.net

FREE CGI/Perl Scripts & JavaScript Generators

 

[LFI]

rye, thanks for that Mapquest tip! Interesting.

Foamcow, thanks for the tip on opening the new window. I thought Service Pack 2, with its integrated popup blocker, was interfering with window.open() calls (or so I thought I heard). If my friend can't use this method for the Mapquest calls, he can at least use it for the reviews.

Mike, thanks very much for your thorough analysis! I will pass on the comments. I did not design/develop this page. I lurk here and when my friend (the restaurant owner) asked for some tips on his site, I knew this would be a good place to come. I would like to get into development... one of these days...

Thanks again, all! I will pass on all these great comments!

--Dave

 

[LFI]

Oh! And Ecobb: thanks for running the validator for me!

--Dave

 

[ChrisHunt]

Hmmm...

Well, I don't mind the yellow, though I don't think it's a very "jazz" colour. It also presents the problem of contrasting rather sharply with pictures and photographs (it doesn't help that they're mostly rather dark).
Still, if it matches the spirit of the place then fine.

I hate that picture though. It looks to me like a disgruntled diner throwing his plate away! It also takes up a lot of space "above the fold", so that as you come to each new page you only see a little bit of the page's unique content peeping up from the bottom of the screen.

Some of the images have noticable fringing and/or jpeg artifacts - for example, the Simones logo and the "Jazz Lives" on the front page. Non-photographic images like that should be stored as a GIF, rather than a JPEG. The "Best of Cincinnati" logo is in the right format, but rather jagged. Make a smoother version by resizing the original (against the same yellow background) with anti-aliasing switched on.

SEO-wise, I'd like to see the name of the place in the site's <title>. How about "Simones - Casually elegant dining, unparalleled taste". At the moment the word "Simones" only appears once on the home page, which might make it difficult to search for. On a related point, where images-as-text are used - the logo, for example - there needs to be an [tt]alt[/tt] attribute for those (including Google) who can't see images. Put a [tt]title=""[/tt] in there too to avoid getting a tooltip on IE.

Under the hood, it validates (apparently - I didn't double-check), though there's no DOCTYPE to validate against. It's pretty ugly - <FONT> tags galore! Just a basic CSS stylesheet to manage fonts & colours would make it easier to keep them consistent.

Overall, I find the look of the pages a bit busy. Too many little bits of text in different colours and at different sizes, I think. It need a more talented designer than me to suggest how to fix it, though.

-- Chris Hunt
Webmaster & Tragedian
Extra Connections Ltd

 

[janet24]

LUNCH BRUNCH DINNER PATIO PARKING JAZZ

These look the the menus and I tried to click on them but they're not. Maybe do something else so they don't fool you into thinking they're menus.