Re: Commercial Site Critique http://www.mullinsammo.com
by Greg Kirsch <hwg_lists(at)kirschgraphix.com>
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| Date: |
Thu, 19 Mar 1998 20:16:03 -0500 |
| To: |
Paul Hayes <badc(at)bellatlantic.net> |
| Cc: |
hwg-critique(at)hwg.org |
| In-Reply-To: |
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| |
todo: View
Thread,
Original
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At 12:11 AM 3/18/98 -0500, you wrote:
>Hello,
>
>I'd like a critique of an ammunition site I have done. I'd like to know
>load times experienced, navigation ease, overall look on different web
>browsers.
The t
Netscape 3.04 Gold for Windows 95. 33.6k connection. 1024x768 @ 16bit color.
FIRST PAGE:
Load time was approximately 24 seconds, with the title gif being the last
to load.
You start the page with <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">,
yet it does not validate as such (using http://validator.w3.org/)
The most important image on the page, the one that identifies the company,
should have the ALT set, especially with how long it takes to come up
compared to the rest of the page.
The top left and right link images might be better with a title below them,
to let visitors know what they can find there a little easier.
I was curious as to why you chose an image map for the top two images, when
since they are in a table, you could place them individually.
The rest of the page looked good, I like the simple feel of the page.
COWBOY.HTM-
About 11 seconds load time, mostly for the image in the upper right corner,
so there was material to read while it was loading.
In the pricing table at the bottom, you have it set for a a background
image for the table, I take it Explorer allows this, if so, Hopefully
Netscape will follow or already has it. In Netscape 3.x, though, I think
the most you get away with is setting a background color. I saw a table
with the same background as the page, on which the grey text is extremely
hard to read.
Also on the subject of colors, if you are going to set one of the color
attributes in <BODY, be sure to set them all, for example, if my browser
has links set to be yellow unless the page says otherwise, I would see
yellow links on your yellowish background.
At the bottom, I would suggest a "TO TOP" link, since even at 1024x768 you
have to scroll a little bit to get to the bottom. Also, one thing I always
look for on sites that list any prices, is a date that the page or prices
were last updated, as some companies still have web sites the same as when
they put them up a year before, and before price increases... (This goes
for the other pages listing prices and that scroll down a little bit)
The rest of the page looked good. I liked the images you used as (and what
a coincidence here) bullets to start new sections.
AI.HTM:
About 5 seconds to load entire page.
This page looked good as it already is. :)
SI.HTM:
About 22 seconds to load, however, the title image came in pretty quick,
and there was plenty of reading material for while the other images load.
The decibel list doesn't come out that well, I think it would look better
if it was done like the Specifications list father down the page. Also, for
the specifications, the title "Specifications" on my screen (1024x768)
isn't even over any part of the list.
In the first line of the page, I belive you meant to have titanium instead
of titamium.
The rest of the page looks good, loaded with good information on it's
topic. The only suggestion would be the TO TOP link at the bottom.
IPSP.HTM:
Approx 16 seconds to load, with the title image and first picture loaded in
around 9 seconds.
Again on this page, if you set one of the colors, you should set them all.
Also for the table, without the ability to use a gif, I get black text on
black background, resulting in invisible text, plus a date for the last
time the prices were updated.
Other than that page seemed fine.
ECA.HTM:
20 seconds to completely load, 7 seconds for the title, 12 seconds until
the background displayed.
There was only one "bullet hole" bullet on the page, which looks strange
being by itself and not in front of a title.
The two image for BACK and PURCHASING INFO look like they are one big
button due to the borders hard to see on that color.
The only other problem I could find with the page is down by the HUNTING
title, because of my screen size, the two photos end up vertically
overlapping on the page (where when I resize the window to 640x480, they
are in two separate paragraphs.)
At the 1024 width, the two paragraphs fit the height of one image. This
then throws off the alignment of the word HUNTING, which then appears
beside the left image.
GRADEII.HTM:
26 second load time.
The grey background, being the usual default color for netscape, makes the
page seem as if it has no background set or that it is missing.
Again, the <BODY colors and the Date of the prices...
The images on this page are pretty good sized, taking a while to load,
maybe see if they could be reduced?
OTHER.HTM
about 20 seconds to load, due two the two large images.
I just noticed this, not sure if it was done on other pages, but the
MULLINS image at the top left, is a image larger than what you have it set
to load in the page. It is best to resize the image to what size you want,
which will make it smaller in size, and quicker to load, plus some older
browsers and the last copy of Mosaic I downloaded, shows images at their
full size, and not what size you set in HEIGHT and WIDTH.
The titles of the "series" would stand out more if they are different size
or color instead of being the same color and underlined.
Down at the bottom, I'm not sure if you just are not done yet, but having
the BACK and PURCHASING INFO as just text makes it look incomplete with all
the other pages (so far) having images there...
The rest of this page is fine.
ZINK.HTM:
Quick load time, 6 seconds, 3 seconds to have the title fully loaded...
The only two suggestion I have for this page are the Date for the prices,
and set the ALT for the title Image.
Oh yeah, and the links at the bottom being plain text not images...
CONTACT.HTM:
12 second load time, majority of it to load the large logo that gets
displayed smaller than it is.
The links at the bottom are the only comment on this page. Wait, a typo-
representatives is spelled representives on the page.
SUMMERY:
Well I think I hit all the pages, overall I think the site is well done and
would be very informative to someone looking for information on the
products sold by the company.
Main things I saw on more than one page is:
the setting of the LINK and VLINK colors as well as the TEXT colors
The nonworking Image background for tables in Netscape 3.x, so some text
colors are hard to read due to text colors with the regular background.
Include "last updated" date for pages that list prices, so people know how
current they are.
The use of larger images when you have them display at smaller sizes.
Well, time to go, I hope the above information will be helpful on your
site. And always remember these are just my opinions :-)
-Greg
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