Re: critique please

On 4/7/01 at 10:18 PM, bkrWeb Services <bkrweb(at)bkrweb.com> wrote:

> I would like comments on the site I'm currently working on.  It is
> temporarily housed at http://www.bkrweb.com/progress/cits/index.html .
>  I'm still waiting on some info from the client and the former
> webmaster, but I thought I'd get the general layout done.  The old
> site is at http://www.cits-inc.com  .  I did not do that site. 
> Supposedly all of the graphics are to be replaced, so I'm not too
> concerned about their quality, but I am concerned about layout and
> load time.   I'd like to know your reaction to the overall appearance,
> as well as ease of use and navigability.  The target audience is
> companies who sell these products and are looking for someone (like
> CITS) to install them.

Kathie,

An improvement over the original site. Cleaner and less cluttered. And I
am glad to see that dish with the pulsing signals left behind!

I think a bit more color might be appropriate. The site is pretty gray
with only the photo of the offices and the American flag to break it up.
And speaking of color, the thick black border around the photo of the
offices makes it look like an obituary. :-) In my opinion, no border or
a warmer color might look better than the black.

Navigation worked just fine, although after viewing a larger
installation image I was a little confused about returning to the
thumbnails page. A back arrow beneath the full-size image might be
helpful.

A few notes about usage and grammar:

In the nav buttons on the left, all pronouns are lowercase except for
"Awards We've Received." It probably should be "we've" for consistency.
Some strict grammarians would object to the use of the contraction
rather than "we have," but I guess that may be up to personal taste.

Also on the front page, the paragraph under the photo is sort of a
subheader and might be more appropriate under the main header and above
the image. Otherwise, if you leave it where it now sits, the page might
read better if you turned that paragraph from a phrase into a complete
sentence, merely be saying: "Installations include VSAT . . . " Also, I
believe that LANs and PCs and similar plurals are spelled without the
apostrophe which would be reserved for possessives.

In the next paragraph, you may want to choose between using "IL" or
"Illinois" in the same sentence, not both. And there is no reason for
"south of Chicago" to be capitalized (unless it was a city named South
Chicago).

And in the next paragraph, you offer the choice of "contact us" or
"phone us." Since phoning is a way to contact you, it might be more
appropriate to say "e-mail us" or "phone us."

Sorry if I went on too long about what some may consider tiny details.
These language areas are the kinds of things I notice about a site. I
believe that impeccable language is a sign of professionalism. :-)

All in all, a very nice site. By the way, where are the awards? I assume
they will be added before making the site public.

Ken


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