critique of http://www.info-way.com/lanesplayhouse/

In response to W. Scott Smith-

I visited  http://www.info-way.com/lanesplayhouse/ with-
Browser:  MSIE 4.0 version 4.72.2106.8 ( I haven't heard of a 4.01, but it
has been at least a month since I downloaded this so, heck, they could be on
4.5 by now) on Windows 95.

Resolution    600 X 800 with millions of colors

Speed acceptability:  At 31,200 all was nice and zippy (except see below
under games)

Since you asked for a critique- here's mine.  You've already gotten
responses about HTML errors so I am not going to run my validator and just
duplicate that.  However, I do have some opinions to offer which are perhaps
not appropriate (since they aren't specific to HTML) so if that's the case,
please would someone kindly let me know and I'll refrain from making this
mistake again.

Design-
Splash screens- it's a clever idea, but you don't want to rely on meta
refresh- it's not recognized by all browsers and some folks won't 'get' it.
So, I'd recommend just using a simple gif animation sequence.  For what you
are doing, the image would be very small and worth the effort versus the
multiple splash pages.

You have quite a bit of dithering in the graphics so I am assuming you were
not working with a browser friendly palette.

The left hand rainbow strip is set in about 25 or 30 pixels which looks
strange to me.

Games-
I tried to get the maze, but it just wouldn't load.  I have been able to get
java games no problem on the Sesame Street web site (which you should check
out as a good example of a kids site), but after watching the bar that said
"please be patient while the images are preloaded"  nothing came up.  I was
watching the large white space between the status bar and the text, but
nothing appeared there.  I scrolled to the bottom of the page, but still, no
instructions.

You need sounds.  Kids respond to sound.  Personally, I hate music and
sounds that pop up unexpectedly on web sites, but when it comes to something
meant to catch a child's attention you need sound.  (by the way, on your
first page, you use the word "childrens" to indicate a possessive case.  It
should be children's.)

General Impressions-

It took me all of 2 minutes to find your family pictures, place of business,
(including address and phone number which I got from your info-way page) and
a number of other critical facts that would make it extremely easy for me to
impersonate a close friend or relative, complete with (downloaded and
printed) family photographs.  With the huge number of child pornographers
and pedophiles reportedly lurking the World Wide Web, I cannot imagine a
good enough reason to take such uneccessary risks with your own family.  Why
not use stock images of children that you can get on any photo CD for 20
bucks?

Anyway, sorry if it is not appropriate to state this here, but this is an
issue that is important to me.  Incidentally, I am a mother of two, not a
sexual predator myself, so if I am thinking like that don't you think it is
entirely possible that someone who is predisposed to preying on children
might also consider such things?

All in all, a nice effort.  I think there need to be more fun sites on the
web for kids.  My kids get bored quickly with the slow loads.  The sesame
street site is good because you can 'tickle elmo" (a cute little java
applet) while you wait for other content to load.  Since their target
audience is toddlers, they also balance the content between interesting
items for the parents to read and that which attracts the child's eye.  I
hope your site is successful and sincerely hope I did not offend you in any
way.

RS Droppa
President; Sites That Sell
http://sitesthatsell.com
Chairperson; International Webmasters Association (Sacramento/Central
Valley)
http://iwa-sacto.org

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