Critique: http://www.shire.net/learnwebdesign/index.html

I only took a quick glance at your site but my initial reaction was
(honestly): 

"I hate that font."

Whatever Frontpage uses (it turns out to be trebuchet ms, arial,
helvetica), I don't like it. It's a personal preference though, and doesn't
impact your site too much though.

The mouseOvers were a bit severe; they were EVERYWHERE! A few here and
there are ok, but this gets into the realm of overzealous exploitation of
technological techniques... The mO idea is cute, but makes the pages too
active and jumpy. The menu also takes up a bit too much space at the top
and bottom of the pages. Menus should generally be kept to one to two
lines; at my resolution (800x600) it was three. Along the same lines, you
may wish to constrict your choices... 11 is a little much. Maybe you could
consolidate it to TIPS, What's New, How-to, Info, and Resources. Up to you
though... Site Contents (aka. Site map) was well done... helped navigation
significantly.

You should also move all your content into a table so that it doesn't
overlap the gradient. I generally dislike dithering gradient backgrounds,
but in this case, it wasn't that bad. 

The thematic design was very well unified but kind of icky to look at,
especially when overlapping the background. You might also want to consider
changing the vlink attribute (that mustard-yellow color doesn't go)...

Otherwise, a good effort with what appears to be plenty of well-laid out
content. Sorry to be so critical, but that's what this is for!



Chris Messina
Webmaster -|- Sandstorm Publishing
http://www.sandstormpublishing.com
http://www.sandstormpublishing.com/thecloset

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