Re: Request for Critiques - Commercial Site

At 12:14 AM 1/19/98 -0600, David Morgan wrote:
>I am requesting critiques of my commercial site, located at:
>www.couleesports.com
>
Good Morning David (and the rest of the list members of course <g>)

I looked at your site three different ways this morning ... 

NS4, 28.8, 800x600, 16 color, no images AND
NS4, T1, 200+x700, HiColor, w/images AND
IE4, T1, 200+x700, HiColor, w/images

My impressions and comments are as follows:

With no images ... navigation was a bit of a challenge due to the
inconsistencies of the alternative methods of coding, namely ALT="" ... I
liked the opening page ... brief and to the point about what your site is
all about ... frames implementation was minimal and used for a specific
purpose instead of the "just cause I can" reasons (although, could have
used some warning about frame).. I would code the default frame set page
with standard markup, i.e. TITLE, HEAD, NOFRAMES, BODY (below frame set and
to color the frameborder to match the site) or add frameborder to
differentiate between the main content and the advert frame.  This is not a
problem in IE, but in NS .. the border is gray.

I'm never sold on the idea of the "Best viewed with ..." statements,
albeit, I agree that something should be said for the inadequacies of other
browsers that do not support some of the features implemented ... but ...
on the other hand, that could also lead to some thinking that you might not
be capable of designing for the global audience, or don't care that some
may not be able to view your site in its entirety.  It's a catch 22.  I
will tell you this ... if you decide to keep it, I would only list it on
the main page and none other ... there is no need to keep telling the user
this ... that is of course, unless you're a member of the MS Site Builder
Network ... :-(

with all views ... having the bottom frame refresh every 45 seconds with a
new advert bugs me for one reason ... as I navigate through your site,
briefly pausing at each one to take in the content and form my opinions,
the refresh takes the back and forward options effectively out of my hands
... meaning that, if I stayed in a page and let it refresh say ... twice,
and then want to say ... go back to the previously viewed page to refer to
something, I don't necessarily go back to previous page viewed, I actually
go back one in the advert frame ... therefore my navigation is being
modified and could lead me to lose my place ... so to speak.  Since there
is no lateral navigation, this is a huge issue IMO

Using the same "Enter Here" button on the initial splash page and in the
message board page was confusing ... suggest you make a unique enter button
for each section that requires a the visitor to enter.

message board page didn't have any lateral navigation and the small logo
and link in the left side of the advert frame doesn't necessarily specify
anything.  Also ... try to get out of the "click here" mode ... Example:
You say ... "Click here to go to other areas of CouleeSports.com" ; I would
say something like, "Return to CouleeSports.com" or "CouleeSports.com Site
Map" ... leading into the message board, you refer to it as Bulletin Board,
and then it changes to message board ... I would pick one and stick with it.

There is no way back to your opening page, not the splash, but INDEX2.htm
from most of the lower levels.

BOBCATS News Page ... horizontal scroll in IE, fine in NS.  I would try to
get away from dark text on darker background colors ... it really takes a
toll on the eyes.  Frame border appear in NS, inconsistent with the rest of
the site.  Also irritating to the eyeballs is the STRONG red used on this
page. Try to combine some of your tags like encasing groups of text in
strong and FONT instead of individually encasing them ... much easier to
maintenance as well.

The SPLASH page ... main content is center in IE, but left justified in NS
... REASON:
{td width=80% Align="Center"}{h1}{font
color=red}CouleeSports.com{/h1}{/center}{/font}

IE ignored your closing {/CENTER} because it was never opened and stuck
with the ALIGN=CENTER in the TD ... NS didn't.  I would suggest this
statement to be left justified in any event ... it's much more readable.

BTW ... where is the Coulee Region?  (I know where it is, but you could
tell the visitors that don't)

I'll be honest ... I do not like the links page.  First, dark text and
darker background colors again bothered me and second, the bordercolor is
very busy ... I began to think that I was seeing double or cross-eyed.
Obviously, no problem in NS other than the background/text coloring theme.
While I'm on it ... some colors are coded with hex and some are by name ...
I would suggest you only use hex.

Here I go being honest again ... the RATES page is sooooo busy!  Everything
is centered, bold and the HR's are way to big ... very difficult to
maintain a steady visual.  You now are using a Background image ...
inconsistent and difficult to read the content, most especially since your
transparent images are for a white background ... now using blue, they
display pixel(ated) ... NS doesn't pick up your logo because of the coding
{IMG SRC="..\csports.jpg" ALT="CouleeSports.com" } ... IE is a bit more
lenient.  Although ... not so on the bbs_button.gif, it's broken on both.

here is just one example of your linkage on the RATES :
<CENTER><A HREF="http://www.couleesports.com/bbs.htm" target="_top"><IMG
SRC="http://www.couleesports.com/bbs_button.gif" BORDER=0
ALIGN=CENTER></A><FONT FACE="Arial"><FONT COLOR="#000080"><FONT
SIZE=-2>&nbsp;</FONT></FONT></FONT></CENTER>

Changing the FACE, COLOR and SIZE of the NBSP is fruitless.  But, if there
was actual text ... I would combine the common tags, like CENTER or DIV
ALIGN=CENTER, FACE (w/alternates) and SIZE and remove the align=center out
of the image altogether, enclose the integers and make the link relative
rather than absolute, like so:

<DIV ALIGN=CENTER><FONT FACE="Arial, Helvetica" COLOR="#000080" SIZE="-2">

<A HREF="/bbs1.htm" target="_top"><
IMG SRC="/bbs1_button.gif" BORDER="0"></A>Some Text1
<A HREF="/bbs2.htm" target="_top"
><IMG SRC="/bbs2_button.gif" BORDER="0"></A>Some Text2
<A HREF="/bbs3.htm" target="_top"
><IMG SRC="/bbs3_button.gif" BORDER="0"></A>Some Text3
<A HREF="/bbs4.htm" target="_top"
><IMG SRC="/bbs4_button.gif" BORDER="0"></A>Some Text4

</FONT></DIV>

That's the way I would do it ... there are a number of different ways ...
mostly preferential.

Small logo at bottom of content area at the RATES pages is broken ... link
is ...
http://www.couleesports.com/right.htm ... Also, clicking on the logo at the
bottom left of the content area loads a double frame ... not cool.  In
other words, TARGETing is not correct.

RECREATION page ...
http://www.couleesports.com//images/logos/local/csports.gif is broken

SUBMISSIONS page ... broken images and links and tons of white space

LaCrosse Eagles page doesn't look like any of the others ... link to the
official athletic site has a TARGET value that keeps visitors in your frame
set ... that's not very considerate of the other site or to the visitor
that must try and navigate the other site AND figure out where they are in
yours.

New Viterbo News page ... has multiple broken images in both browsers and
you could use some margin space to pull the content from flush left ...
most noticeably in IE

Western Wisconsin Technical College ... same as previous

Aquinas - broken image in NS, forgiven by IE

Central High School ... arrrrghhhh ... bright red background with black
text and blue VLINK ... broken images ... but the page links work this time
... that's encouraging

Logan High School same as previous ... AARRGGGHHHH

Onalaska's girls basketball team  ... Much better ... !!! ... until I
linked into Onalaska Gymnastics with the table coloring and non-matching
(or I should say) matching color scheme.  Also ... the full story link was
fine until I linked to it ... the page had no BODY tag whatsoever and still
had you editors TEMPLATE info stamped in it ... upon returning, I could not
find the full story link again ... REASON: the VLINK color is the same as
the background ... WHITE.  I won't list them all ... but it's safe to say
that the whole lower level is formatted the same way.  Also, logo is broken
in NS on this main page.

There is too many more for me to go through from this page ... I would
suggest taking one section at a time and thoroughly going over them with a
fine tooth comb ... just because you tell the visitors that the site is
designed with IE in mind doesn't excuse broken images and links at the
minimum ... some of the other design choices you've made are forgivable ...
but not the navigation or the incorrect coding of the common standards of
HTML.

More broken links from the sponsors page ... that's not kosher, most
especially if they're in fact sponsoring you monetarily or the equivalent.

I also would suggest that you choose your favorite editor and stick with it
... will help you in the long run believe me ... You have so much
interference and fighting back and forth between your editors that the
pages are all screwy with different type of code.  If there are multiple
people working on this site with you and you are the administrator ... I
would suggest you draft up some style sheets (not CSS) and make all parties
conform.  If you don't, this site of yours will be a nightmare to maintain.

What else can I say ...?  I hope that I've been helpful in pointing out
some of the obvious and maybe some not-so obvious issues without sounding
harsh or trite.  I gave you what I thought and saw.

Good Luck,
cmj

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