Site Check: Comments? Newbie Graphics.

Hello,

Although I have been designing web sites for 5 years, I have only just
started taking the geaphics side of it seriously.

I have started a new business with my friend and looking for any comments on
our web site. All designed using Dreamweaver & Fireworks MX - a little
flash. The address is www.24IT.co.uk .

I have also just used Freehand for the first time.

On the site, please see the Clock logo top left and also see the graphics on
these pages:
http://www.24it.co.uk/services/inter...phicdesign.asp
and
http://www.24it.co.uk/services/inter...facedesign.asp

I am happy with the look and feel, not sure how others will react.

Have a peek and let me know what you guys think!

Thanks,

Gary.
www.24it.co.uk

Gary,
I just graduat with a degree in E-Commerce Management and I think you have put
together an excellent site. It is well organized and leaves no question as to
what your purpose is. I also like the graphics and navigational scheme. You
should be very sucessful.
Mike

Gary wrote:

Hello,

Although I have been designing web sites for 5 years, I have only just
started taking the geaphics side of it seriously.

I have started a new business with my friend and looking for any comments on
our web site. All designed using Dreamweaver & Fireworks MX - a little
flash. The address is www.24IT.co.uk .

I have also just used Freehand for the first time.

On the site, please see the Clock logo top left and also see the graphics on
these pages:
http://www.24it.co.uk/services/inter...phicdesign.asp
and
http://www.24it.co.uk/services/inter...facedesign.asp

I am happy with the look and feel, not sure how others will react.

Have a peek and let me know what you guys think!

Thanks,

Gary.
www.24it.co.uk

Thanks Mike.
I will let yo uknow how we get on.

Gary.


"Mike Elliott" <melliott6 (AT) cox (DOT) net> wrote

Gary,
I just graduat with a degree in E-Commerce Management and I think you have
put
together an excellent site. It is well organized and leaves no question as
to
what your purpose is. I also like the graphics and navigational scheme.
You
should be very sucessful.
Mike

Gary wrote:

Hello,

Although I have been designing web sites for 5 years, I have only just
started taking the geaphics side of it seriously.

I have started a new business with my friend and looking for any
comments on
our web site. All designed using Dreamweaver & Fireworks MX - a little
flash. The address is www.24IT.co.uk .

I have also just used Freehand for the first time.

On the site, please see the Clock logo top left and also see the
graphics on
these pages:
http://www.24it.co.uk/services/inter...phicdesign.asp
and

http://www.24it.co.uk/services/inter...facedesign.asp

I am happy with the look and feel, not sure how others will react.

Have a peek and let me know what you guys think!

Thanks,

Gary.
www.24it.co.uk

On Mon, 30 Jun 2003 09:37:27 GMT, "Gary"
<gary (AT) SPAMBLOCKgarywhittle (DOT) co.uk> wrote:

I have started a new business with my friend and looking for any comments on
our web site. All designed using Dreamweaver & Fireworks MX - a little
flash. The address is www.24IT.co.uk .

I have also just used Freehand for the first time.

On the site, please see the Clock logo top left and also see the graphics on
these pages:
http://www.24it.co.uk/services/inter...phicdesign.asp
and
http://www.24it.co.uk/services/inter...facedesign.asp

I am happy with the look and feel, not sure how others will react.

General appearance is fine to me, except that the text in the navbar is
a bit too small on my screen - especially the white-on-blue I had to
peer at to read. You have also fixed the font size in the right-hand
column, which seems unnecessary, particularly as it's not fixed in the
left column.

Do you need to fix the width of the columns? Why not let them adjust to
the reader's window.

Seemed to work OK with Javascript off - good.

With images off however you lose the navbar entirely - you need some
meaningful ALT texts in there.

HTH

--
Stephen Poley

http://www.xs4all.nl/~sbpoley/webmatters/

"Gary" <gary (AT) SPAMBLOCKgarywhittle (DOT) co.uk> wrote in
news:rxTLa.11088$Ea5.80472129 (AT) news-text (DOT) cableinet.net:

Hello,

Although I have been designing web sites for 5 years, I have only just
started taking the geaphics side of it seriously.

I have started a new business with my friend and looking for any
comments on our web site. All designed using Dreamweaver & Fireworks
MX - a little flash. The address is www.24IT.co.uk .

I have also just used Freehand for the first time.

On the site, please see the Clock logo top left and also see the
graphics on these pages:
http://www.24it.co.uk/services/inter...phicdesign.asp
and
http://www.24it.co.uk/services/inter...erfacedesign.a
sp

I am happy with the look and feel, not sure how others will react.

When I hover my mouse over the top navigation menu, I notice that it is
_extremely_ thin. Make the top menu much, MUCH thicker, for readability
and to make the menu options easier to click. Double the font size,
doubling the button-height as well, and it will probably be necessary to
put the menu on two rows. If that seems cluttered, then put some empty
space between the rows.

Note that the top menu as it is will be unreadable on high-res, high-
pixel-per-centimeter monitors.

I notice that when I hover near the diagonal borders of the menu options,
the menu is not clickable. It seems that it _should_ be clickable,
because my mouse was not on the border itself. Then again, it's a nice
idea to have some space in between the options where neither can be
clicked, to prevent accidents.

However, if that were the purpose of that space (which I know it isn't),
it'd be better to have _two_ diagonal lines between each menu option,
with an unlinked no-man's-land between them. So an image map is a way to
improve that menu.

I like the pinkish background of the "Username:" and "Password:" form
fields; users can tell that those are form fields while the form still
blends in with the site. The shade of pink used seems to be _perfect!_
It is good that you didn't change the input fields' borders at all. I
also like that the 'Login' button appears gray. The same applies to the
light-blue background on the other form fields.

I like the link color. Blue is good.

Red text is a bad idea in many instances, but your site is an example of
red text that works and works well.

HOWEVER:
Your site seems pretty but it has many usability concerns. First of all,
the right menu with all your services, etc, gets pretty annoying when it
shows up on every page; it takes up about half the space that you use.

PROBLEMS:
One problem: When I go to a page such as
<http://www.24it.co.uk/clients.asp>, I find that I can still click the
"Clients" button on the menu. This is a no-no; the link points to itself
and gives the appearance of doing something while it really does nothing.
Your site does a horrible job of telling people where they are in
the site. The heading which says "Clients" on the clients.asp page and
the heading that says "Services" on the services.asp page should be about
twice the size, so that users are _sure_ of where they are. The web is
not a physical medium, so people need those extra reminders.

On your home page, www.24it.co.uk, you use BUTTONS as hyperlinks (for
"More Details"). This is a horribly bad idea, let links be links and let
buttons be buttons.

Also, the crucial description of what your company does, on your main
page, has a grammatical error: "Welcome to 24IT - the Computer People.
24IT are a Central Scotland based Information Technology company
specialising in Internet Application Development, Web Site Design,
Networking & Support / Troubleshooting services."

Put an "and" before "Networking."

Also, in your right-hand column, shouldn't "Scotland wide coverage"
actually be "Scotland-wide coverage"?

I find your right-side column to be a bit obtrusive.

Your site has a TERRIBLE problem of being completely inflexible. When I
resize my browser, your site does not resize!

Also, I cannot find any navigational links that go back to your home
page. Your company logo should do that.