Re: Please critique www.bournemouth.gov.uk

by "Mike Green" <mgreen(at)iname.com>

Date:	Thu, 19 Mar 1998 16:29:18 -0500
To:	"IT John Penfold" <John.Penfold(at)bournemouth.gov.uk>, <hwg-critique(at)hwg.org>
	todo: View Thread, Original

Hello John,

>Please could you all look at http://www.bournemouth.gov.uk/beta/index2.asp

Sure! I'm lookin at it right now as I am writing this too (multitasking -
who invented it?). I just entered your site with my Netscape 4.01 browser at
800x600/Millions of colors on an Intel PC with 33k6 connection. It loaded
fast! Surprisingly for me lately, since European sited tend to be slower for
me.

My first comment: The frame next to the navigation bar, it has a horizontal
scroll bar while it's not needed. Atleats, not in my resolution. Depending
on the other reactions you get, a suggestion would be to place <.....
SCROLL=NO ....> in the frame tag. But the first impression is
TOP-OF-THE-CROP! Colors look good, pictures are easy on the eyes. Now, let's
navigate around...

Navigating is "EZ"! Very smart the way it's set up... Just placing the mouse
over a menu shows the sub menu in the frame next to it! Wonderful! That
means there's no waiting for the submenu to load after clicking the menu,
etc. And it's just as easy to get back!

The help button pops up a nice little window, so even there you don't need
to hit other buttons to get back where you were. But now I'm speaking about
buttons to get back... I had to check out what will happen when one presses
the Back button on his/her browser. Well, your site doesn't like that one
though. So maybe it's a good idea to make it very clear to the surfers not
to use the browser button, but the one provided in your navigation bar.

I haven't had the chance to visit all the 400 pages, but I can give you my
thoughts/impressions: It's very attractive to visit, it's easy to navigate,
it's easy to retrieve and read the info one needs. The images load fast
enough at the other side of "the big lake", although the images in the left
top corner (which are so clear!) tend to have a little wait before finished.
In general: Nobody is perfect, Something can be perfect - this site is.
Great work!

Sincerely,
    Mike Green - EmixodE Communications

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