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[SOLVED] Review Please


gerkintrigg

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Viewed with FF/1280 and IE6/1280

 

Let's get the first things out of the way quickly - validation.  Fails HTML, passes CSS.  Layout depends on tables, but I suppose since it's entirely a sighted customer site, screen-reader problems matter less.

 

I'd lose the text above the banner. It looks like SEO bait and does nothing useful for a visitor (and the space could be used to better purpose).

 

The banner slightly confused me. I missed the connection between the main image (looks like a really good choice for 'next day') and a leaping animal that somehow cast a shadow on the sky.  Lose the leopard unless s/he's a critical design element.

 

The opening page could easily confuse a visitor.  There are so many choices to make and so many different menus to use. If you replaced the SEO bait with the links Home, TOC, and Contact you could reduce the effect that places three different horizontal menus below the banner.

 

Lose the Firefox plug.

 

The 'information pages' table needs a bit of padding to match the vertical menu above.

 

In the body text, some bold words are links and some bold words are just bold words.  The links aren't going to be obvious.

 

There's something wrong with the right 'sidebar' - after the first image there's a deep line break; after the second there's a deep line break and the text following switches to center-adjusted.

 

And lastly, increasing the line height on the body text would improve readability.

 

It's far from r*bb*sh and p*th*t*c in terms of visual appeal.  Most of what I suggest can be accomplished fairly painlessly.

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Eh, the colours don't do much for me, and the fonts even less so. The page doesn't feel very focused, and there's no clear identification of what I should focus on or what the site is about at first glance. The background and the text don't contrast very well, and you use a lot of images, images that lack connection with the topic at hand. You use a lot of bevels in the site; try something a bit more modern for the look. Also, you should remove the button on the random sample image-it doesn't look very nice on the picture. Finally, lose all the "helpful" popups-this is information that should be available to the user without hovering, just by reading or even just seeing. Try to find a better way to communicate the point of the site and it might work.

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Id say to go for a redesign but probably thats too much. Anyway:

 

- Those bevels, text insets and drop shadows give to the website a touch of the 90's.

- All that roundness in the left panels is distracting.

- Three levels of menus below the header: right, centered and left aligned. They bring me a tiny feeling of irritation.

- So much text without ident, different font size/style/color and any graphical element to seperate them visually.

- The colors are pretty boring.

 

If that is a site about graphics, it has to be an example of good design.

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Hello.

Thank you all for your feedback. There are some good points there. I would like to clarify a few things though:

 

I'm not sure how "roundness... is distracting".

The colours are supposed to be fairly bland so that the colour in the images pours out. it was calculated, but i guess personal taste is something that - by it's nature cannot please everyone. More opinions on this are welcome. if I'm in the minority, i'll re-do it.

 

A site re-design is a little OTT I think.

 

I'd like suggestions on how the fonts do little for you. It's just Arial which is used proliffically though the web. i'm not sure why bevels are so bad - or drop-shadow for that matter. Expansion on your point may help allay my questions.

 

to be honest JAWS reader's website depends on nested tables and JAWS is the most commonly used screen-reader in the world (apparently) so I'm not at all bothered about using tables in the layout. I wrote a paper on it last year.

 

I don't understand AndyB when he states: "There's something wrong with the right 'sidebar'" I just can't work out what that paragraph means. All of the other comments are very useful, but this one is causing me some difficulty in comprehending.

 

I'd like to hear opinions on how the SEO text could be removed without impacting on SEO positioning though..

 

Thanks again SO much for taking the time to look at the site. i hope I've not come across as an arrogant prima-donna I do appreciate all of your comments. honestly. I'm trying to take them all on board, but I hope you also understand that i need to evaluate them before adhering 100% to all feedback - I'd wonder where I was if I obeyed all of it (especially if two feedbacks conflicted).

 

All the best,

N

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Ok im explaining what i meant:

 

- Im a web designer myself and i use drop shadows a lot, but usually with 0 distance and very transparent. Having offset drop shadows, bevel and insets gives a kinda 3d look to the website which makes focusing, reading and navigating a bit difficult. Those were very modern in the times when photoshop introduced some very easy techniques to make bevels and drop shadows (via blending options).

 

- What i meant was those panels are very rounded. U could try lowering the roundness and im sure they'll look a lot better.

 

- Three levels of menus. Thats pretty obvious so guess theres no need for explaining.

 

- Its ok to use Arial, but u could try some different sizes and styles. Actually u have 1 font with 3 different styles, a big one for the header (which is used once), one normal and one bold. Also the right panels text seems like blending with the main one. U could try more spacing between the two or just insert a vertical element.

 

- The colors are quite boring. It may be your intention but u could try other techniques to make the images focus better, like having a light colored border around them.

 

As u said, graphics are a matter of personal taste. I tried to give some general points instead of focusing of what i actually think. 

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