Re: Critique Customer Page - Pro-Soft Systems

>        http://www.pro-softsystems.com

        Hey Sal,

As always, the following is entirely my personal opinion. Use at your own risk.

Powermac 275mhz   64 meg Ram  24-bit 15" 832x624 screen
33.6 dialup   NN 4.01, NN 3.0, IE 3.0

1: First off, load-times are poor to dismal. I tend the doubt the expertise
of a software company that doesn't know how to create a quick-loading
website. The server average around 700 bytes/sec, and the first page of the
site weighs in at 151K. This is *way* too much for the main "splash" page.
I would suggest moving all of the company data, products, and services
information to individual pages. You've spent the bandwidth to give the
viewer large nav. buttons; why not use those buttons as an actual
navigational system? Overall, the main page needs to be thoroughly cut down
in size.
2: All of the graphics need ALT tags. In addition, these images are rather
heavy in size. Consider running them through a compression system. For
small GIF images, you're currently averaging about 8K an image. I would
guess that with the proper compression, you can get the average down to
about 5-6K. Also, the navigational buttons are really larger than
necessary. Have you looked at them at 600x480 resolution? Each button takes
up about 25% of the screen(!).
3: Minor point, but the "What's New" image has *way* too emphasis. I would
shrink it by 50% or more, and leave it the same color (blue) as the other
buttons. The only information on the "What's New" page is "Phyllis Is
Here". What the heck does that mean? This page seems to be a very minor,
irrelevant part of the site, and shouldn't recieve as much attention on the
main page (from the large red button) as it does, IMHO.
4: Why exactly is the page best viewed with IE, as stated at the bottom of
the main page? I didn't find any browser-specific coding. If at all
possible, I would suggest dropping that statement. I prefer to use
Netscape, and I see no reason or incentive why I should have to load up IE
to "properly" view the site.
5: The background image doesn't quite tile correctly; a small white line
shows up in the grove between the tiles. Try snipping off the bottom of the
image to get rid of the change in contrast that seems to be causing the
problem.
6: Is the "System Consulting ... Accounting Software ... Custom Software
... Networking/Multi-User ... Lotus Notes Development ... Foxpro
Development" text at the top of the main page intended to describe the
activities of Prosoft Systems, or is the text there to act as search engine
keywords? If it's the later, consider moving the text to the META KEYWORD
tag. If the text is intended to describe the company, I'd suggest fleshing
it out some more to better describe what the company actually *does*.


        Overall, I (personally) didn't like the appearance of this site.
The images seemed to be much too large and "in your face", the load times
were slow, and I didn't get any confidence in the expertise and/or
credibility of the ProSoft Systems company. The current text seems to be a
collection of keywords  and follows a dull centered, straight down the page
format. I realize that the text might change once you get more information
from the company, but IME, the number of buzz words a site uses is directly
proportional to the inexperience of the company.
        I apologize if it sounds like I'm simply putting down your site,
Sal. My personal impression of the site isn't very good, and I'm trying to
explain why I don't like it, so that you can make improvements. If you
disagree with what I'm saying, feel free to ignore me. Either way, good
luck with finishing off the site.

                                                                Will Bower


<SNIP>
>Sal
>
>================================
>Saleh (Sal) Kaskas
>E-Mail: kaskas(at)ix.netcom.com

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