Please Critique

[bahamas86]

Hi

 

I've redone my entire website since I last posted here and now I'm wanting your feedback please. It's still a work in process but I'd appreciate all comments!

 

Here's the link : - http://www.shabackbahamas.com

 

 

[Axeia]

Although understandable given the type of site, I still find sound starting automatically in my browser extremely annoying. I'd pause it by default and add a really big PLAY button so people can enable it when they want to, instead of disabling it if they don't like it.

At least use a cookie to store the preference.

 

You're using <center> tags, they're depecrated, don't use them. Use margin: 0 auto; on the elements in it instead.

I'd make the flash at the top play ONCE (and maybe a tiny 'repeat' button at the bottom right), it's distracting at it is atm.

 

If you use javascript/normal images at the bottom instead of flash there's a far better chance search machines will do something usefull with them.

You should probably should start a channel on youtube instead of linking to search results, gives a more professional impression.

You should use a doctype .

 

Check the page in firefox, the main menu links are positioned too high and the topright menu is further off to the right then the one below it.

<p align="justify"><span class="maintext">We are so glad that you took 
	the time to stop by our website. We pray that you would be blessed as 
	you go through our pages, and keep up with our ministry here through 
	music, news, videos and photos. You are so important to our ministry and 
	we pray God's blessings on you!
	</span></p>[code]
Do yourself a favor an move the align to the stylesheet (text-align: justify;) and set the class on the p instead of adding an unnecessary span.
[code]font-family:"Calisto MT";

You should always have at least a default font as a fallback, not everyone has Calisto MT installed.

Instead of

<span class="subject">Shaback's Latest News!</span>

used <h1> if the text carries greater importance than the rest it should have the appropriate markup, will do your search engine rating tons of good as well. (only one <h1> per page, other important text should be h2/h3-h6).

Add a background color, something like html { background: #b4a77d; }, it's got nasty white edges at a resolution of 1920x1200.

 

6!!! stylesheets? Might be nice to keep an overview for yourself, but that's page requests where it could be one.. merge those together. If you want to keep them seperate let PHP include the files and then use the php file as the stylesheet for your page. (same thing for the 3 javascript files)

 

edit

Forgot, this one..

http://www.smushit.com/ysmush.it/

smushed 58.32% or 30.39 KB from the size of your image(s)

 

[suncore]

1) Only 1/2 of your navigation bar is visible ( vertically )

2) Video/slideshow is somewhere .. under the footer  :-\

 

Looks like you've a lot of issues with your CSS code ( if any ). In case if you want to see it from my point of view, take a look at this picture : http://i39.tinypic.com/16bj98j.png ( screenshot from my pc ).

[Axeia]

A yes I guess a screenshot might proof useful,

That's what it looks like to me now.

 

I see you've implemented some of the suggestions I made, such as reducing the number of stylesheets and setting a background color (maybe set the background image to bottom right as well, not sure what the look is you're after. (might also want to check how well a full color png would compress that image.. it's really amazing sometimes for gradient-like images)

[bahamas86]

yes I did use your suggestions Axeia. They were very helpful. Thanks both you and suncore....the screen shots helped a whole lot.

 

As you may notice I fixed most of the css coding, the you tube link, removed the flash images/slide etc. I'm confused about the doctype now....don't I have it already?! Or are you suggesting to use another?

How do I set a fall back font? I also noticed that in both screen shots displayed they are not the fonts I intended and to me it takes away from the page.

 

Any more suggestions? I appreciate them all!

 

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[nrg_alpha]

How do I set a fall back font?

 

When you have stuff like what Axeia pointed out:

 

font-family:"Calisto MT";

 

This doesn't leave much.. You could include safe common fonts like Arial, Verdana.. stuff like that.. for example:

 

font-family:"Calisto MT", Arial, Verdana;

 

I don't have time to do a full crit at the moment.. but I strongly suggest not having the music on by default, as I'm sure it irritates more visitors than not.

[bahamas86]

ok I understand it now! Thanks. What I did though just now was I created that heading text as an image so that it would always be there on any computer. Is that a good idea?

 

Yes I'll work on the music. It sometimes get to me also.....lol

[Axeia]

Yes using an image for a real fancy font is fine, I think CSS3 allows you to include fonts.. but that's not really usable yet, and most font license aren't that easy going that you're just allowed to do it about anywhere.

 

I'd put all of the text on the image in the alt text though instead of just "welcome".

Oh and you might want to make the image so that it fades into the background, I'm still seeing a bit of strong contrast edge (yeah I know, my resolution is ridiculous)

And try setting the padding on #dolphinnav ul li a to 8px 0 0 20px makes it look a lot better in firefox/konqueror/opera (does mess up the mouseover though), not sure how it looks in IE atm.

The top-right menu is still mis-aligned in both konqueror and firefox, however it isn't in opera.

 

And a I wasn't suggesting another doctype, although not that you mention it..

Might want to use html 4.01 instead, using one instead of none was already a stap forward though.

[nrg_alpha]

Aside from the other comments, here are my thoughts:

 

- I find the menu fonts could use something that is sanserif.. Generally speaking, serif-based fonts on the net don't work too well (same could apply to all the text site wide).

- Additional to the fonts, I find the top menu items are off position.. could be vertically (and horizontally) centered IMO. Something isn't right with the Contact item, as I find I have to hunt to find the link.

- I can't say I'm a fan of the header flash animation stuff.. Perhaps simply having 'Shaback, Bahamas' Leading Gospel Ensemble' embedded in the title image? (if you include the music notes image, I would select something that is anti-aliased, as the current one is not and gives an amateurish look to it IMO).

- I know smushit has been already brought up.. but when I check the contact page, I can see a savings of 45.21 KB. smushit now comes bundled with Yslow. Your http requests and overall combined page size is pretty good.. but images can definitely be optimized. I would go through each page and see which images can be smushit-ed.

 

Overall, I do find it nice... Mainly the choice of fonts is what I feel really needs to change (along with some minor image optimizations).

 

 

[bahamas86]

I appreciate the comments and suggestions Aleixa and Nrg_alpha.

 

Yes I noticed that there is a problem with the contact menu item and I've been looking into getting it fixed but what I've been trying so far has worked. It's annoying to have to search for the contact link on mouseover....it's fine with I.E but doesn't quite work in firefox.

 

It's the same with the menu items which are off position.....

 

Also, Thanks for suggesting to use smushit. I've done it on all the images so far, it's great, thanks!

 

I'm still looking into improving the choice of fonts so that it'll work better.

 

Thanks!