Re: www.wellsboroalumni.com (Critique)

At 03:02 PM 5/2/99 , Robert Couture wrote:

I am adding to Robert's comments. Obviously they are not directed at him
but the webmaster of the site in question.

>From the top, Tom ... scrap the for best viewing junk, it look
>unprofessional and tacky, especially when you are undecisive about it.  You
>shouldn't tell people what to use to view your pages, it's like telling them
>what to wear ...

I would add to lose that javascript asking my name and the "bookmark this
site before you forget" thing. That might be ok on a personal site, but on
a more professional site both of these things are annoying.

That "welcome home" at the top is also more of a personal site thing. The
top graphic should describe the site. A simple "The Wellsboro Alumni
Association" would suffice.


>Is that Green the school colours?  If so I can understand it's use,
>otherwise ... trash it.  That floating bee is annoying and distracting ...
>as I am trying to read your page, it keep taking my focus away ...  I also
>noted that the bees are rather blocky, try atialiasing them to smooth them
>out.

Lost the animation. Those bees(I assume the mascot is say the Yellowjackets
or something similar?) should be smaller as well. Nothing should be on the
page that overwhelms the content of the page.

>Then a couple more blank lines and you copyright.  If I were an alumus and I
>went this page, I would be very disappointed.  It looks far to haphazard.
>You need to tighten up the page and provide some easier navigation ...

Definitely tighten up the page. There is no need for large type in comic
sans. Regular type in a regular font such as Arial will suffice.

Use animation sparingly. Tons of animated graphics do nothing for a site
but make it look unprofessional. Use animation for maximum effect and not
just because they are "cool."

>Over all ... make some nice navigation buttons, lose the drop down menus,
>animated bullets and bars, clean up the pages for consistency and style, and
>match you colour scheme and you will have a great site.

I would say that it is ok to use the drop down menus(although get rid of
the huge type) but also add another navigational means. Some people either
don't have javascript enabled or they don't have it at all. It is best to
design for the maximum number of people.


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