RE: Critique My Site Please

Good Morning Donald,

First, the basics:
IE 4.72.3110
233Mhz P-II
800 X 600 17" @ 24bit color
connected at 54Kbps

So it's your first time out professionally, huh? Congratulations! It's
exciting and you look like you're off to a great start! My overall
impression of the site is "Nice Job." It's got great content and the site
loads reeeaaaallly quickly. Excellent use of "whitespace" (or blackspace in
your case!) You really have a good handle on the art of separating content
visually. Below are the notes I made as I browsed a couple of pages of the
site. There's a lot of stuff there, but hey. . . that's what critiques are
for!


First impressions:

 - Color scheme works okay, which is difficult for the scheme your client
wants.
 - Why is the name at the top of the page twice? It looks kind of odd. The
graphic version is a little cleaner, so you might want to consider just
using that one. It won't affect your load time too much, even if you use it
site-wide, because most browsers will cache the image.
 - I like the quote blocks in red, they highlight the nature of the company
and the site very well. But the animation is a little frustrating. I know
there is text there, but if I missed it on the first cycle I have to wait
for it to come back around to read it again. Besides, the content is
separated enough by color so that you don't really need an animation to call
attention to it. It stands out on its own.
- You should probably consider putting alt="something" attributes in your
image elements. (I make it a point to put them in just about every image,
unless the image is truly unnecessary, in which case I ask myself why I'm
putting an unnecessary image on a page. The alternate text can serve as a
"tool-tip" for most visual browsers, and allows non-visual browsers to get
an idea of the contents of your site as well. On the quotes for example, you
might even put the complete text of the quote in the alt attribute, so
speech based browsers, or text-based browsers can still render the
information!
- I had to look for "where to go next." You might want to add a couple of
links to major content areas of the site to the front page, instead of one
link to the site map.

--map.htm--

-The layout of this page doesn't "do it" for me, but I'm afraid I don't have
many suggestions for improvement. I think one thing you might do is decrease
your table border and cellspacing. The fat look doesn't fit with the rest of
the site. Also, I don't know if I would use a site map as the main
navigational tool for a website. Remember to "design the user experience."
You should move the viewer through the information, encouraging (with links
and menus) them to go where YOU want them to go next. Then use the site map
to allow them to "override" your suggestions.

-Don't spawn too many extra windows. Only open an extra window if you need
to keep the first window open for some reason, otherwise the users task-bar
gets filled up and they have to spend time cleaning up their computer after
they leave your site!

-The yellow block-letter graphics don't work with the rest of the site. The
site has , for the most part, a very elegant look, and the block letters
have an . . . "exciting" quality about them that doesn't fit. I do have one
suggestion on this issue. On the title graphic on the front page, I like how
you have the "split level" text look, separated by the red ampersand. You
could consider carrying this over to your other title graphics throughout
the website. Maybe something like white "Site" slightly above and to the
left of red "map".

Okay, my fingers are getting tired, so I'm going to stop now. I do like the
general design of the site. It's very difficult to make anything look good
on a black background, and you've done a nice job with that. The pages load
quickly and the content is great. Great job so far!

Jason Brett
ZigZag Internet Solutions
-------
Powerful Solutions.
Explosive Results.




> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-hwg-critique(at)hwg.org [mailto:owner-hwg-critique(at)hwg.org]On
> Behalf Of Donald
> Sent: Wednesday, October 13, 1999 6:58 PM
> To: hwg-critique(at)hwg.org
> Subject: Critique My Site Please
>
>
> I would appreciate feedback on this site:  www.leeannemorgan.com.
>  It is my
> first 'paying' client.   Please note that the color/font selection is the
> client's.  Any and all comments are welcome.
>
> I've really enjoyed reading prior 'critiques' and have learned alot from
> other comments.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Renie
>

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