Re: Someone please critique http://members.tripod.com/~tableauvivant/

At 03:56 PM 4/17/98 -0600, burtthemime(at)geocities.com wrote:
>Hello,
> I am in the initial stages of a new page. With more pages in this style to
>come. Any comments would be helpful.
>
Hi Burt,
I liked what I saw and it didn't make me leave 3 seconds into the visit ...
you've captured two of the most important features of web presentation in
my opinion.  Below are a few things that I would do, were this page mine of
course.


1. I don't see the need to have two BASE HREF in each of your first pages

<BASE HREF="http://members.tripod.com/~tableauvivant/">
<BASE HREF="http://members.tripod.com/~tableauvivant/">

2. You say this ... "Walking along and glimpsing something so finely
presented, you may be shocked-he's real! Or isn't he? What is real?"

I understand it better were it like this ... "Walking along and glimpsing
something so finely presented, you may be shocked-he's real! Or is he? What
is real?"

3.  The order in which your display the slide-show is off-beat just a hair
in my opinion ...

a. Welcome to the Home Page of Winnthrop Burton Maass tableau vivant
extraordinaire 
... this is OK

b. A Renowned Street performer, known the world over for his unbelievable
skill and stamina
... ditto

c. You can book Burt the Mime for any number of occasions at any event in
any location anywhere in the United States, if the price is right. 
... ditto

d. In a moment you will be redirected to the main page please bookmark it
to avoid this splash page in the future. 
... I would probably put this one last and change the phrase "splash page"
to something else that reflects the true nature of the beginning ... a
montage would be more appropriate I should think.

e. The next page will contain a clickable image, simply click on it to
change it to the next image. 
... Switch this one with [d] and change the phrase to reflect your "main
page" instead of "next page"

4. Another thing I noticed was that I read the content fairly normal, but I
still had to wait for you to push me through ... perhaps a very small,
subtle link to allow those so inclined to push themselves through at their
leisure.  Additionally, you will be covering another, more important, base
... and that is for those visitors that do not have the capability of
processing your javascript ... thus ... them not knowing what to do or even
being able to do anything.

5. You chosen to include the DOCType for the main page ... it would be just
as easy to add it to *all* of the pages.

6. Your costumes, according to your rotating pics, have a good amount of
color and a genuine flare to them ... perhaps you could also add that to
your presentation ... for some reason, black and white doesn't seem to work
in this case.  Now if you were perhaps a traditional mime, white face/hands
and black garb ... then maybe so ... but as I stated, you seem to carry a
flare about your appearance .... adding some to the site would be added value.

7. Value for attribute HREF
(mailto:burtthemime(at)geocities.com?subject=Bookings_and_Inquiries) of
element A should be quoted (i.e.
HREF="mailto:burtthemime(at)geocities.com?subject=Bookings_and_Inquiries") 

8. Even though the images you provide for the visitors are "visual only",
it would be proper to include the ALT attribute to your image tag ... even
if it's only ALT="" ... (yes, I know ... you stated it in the status bar
... see above about some individuals without that ability)

9. Setting WIDTH and HEIGHT attributes on IMG tag can improve rendering
performance on some browsers. 

10. The following denotes the location of the "Magnificent Mile" ... the
one thing that I would do here is to reduce the size of the font so that it
doesn't detract so much from the closing content.  Proper footnote method.

"*in front of Chicago Place, 700 N. Michigan Avenue Chicago, Illinois. On
the west side of the street between Huron and Superior."

That's about all that I'd do were this my page.

Hope that is what you were looking for.

Best,
cmj

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