charity site

Hi,

I'm nearing the end of a project and before it goes online fully, I'd
like some comments please.
Its a site for a children's home based in Tanzania.
There have been a lot of changes from the original site, mainly in
trying to reduce the page count.
I've put a lot into less pages.

Do the page anchors work well. (NN7 mac seems to hide the anchors.
Why?)
Is the amount of content just so much thats its 'scary'?
Page Header's too big?
Am I right in thinking that there should only be 1 <h1> per page?

I know that the news page is better suited to be a blog (blogger or any
cms).
I haven't a clue how to get this working so I've kept it simple for
now.
Any comments appreciated.

thanks
--
i

I wrote:
<Its a site for a children's home based in Tanzania.>

http://www.osmanjaro.ndo.co.uk/LIA/index.html

--
i

"osman" wrote:

I wrote:
Its a site for a children's home based in Tanzania.

http://www.osmanjaro.ndo.co.uk/LIA/index.html

The design looks good. in fact I can't fault it except to say that perhaps
the page header background images could have been compressed a bit more (aim
for 50 KB max.), and the default grey that appears while they are loading is
far too light (it makes the links illegible).

My main problem is with the design of the text. It took me a while to work
out from the home page what the site is actually about, and after a few
minutes I'm still not entirely sure what it's there for.

One thing that particularly confused me is the way the subject on the home
page changes from plural ("We care for...") to singular ("In November Œ99 I
visited..."). Try to structure your home page so it starts by answering a
few simple questions, e.g.:

* Who are you?
* What do you do?
* What is this website for?

There's a useful article at <http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9703b.html> about
writing for the web. Try to avoid large slabs of body text. Break them up
with headings, and try to stick to a single topic per page.

Good luck,

Phil

--
phil [dot] ronan @ virgin [dot] net
http://vzone.virgin.net/phil.ronan/

"osman" wrote:

I wrote:
Its a site for a children's home based in Tanzania.

http://www.osmanjaro.ndo.co.uk/LIA/index.html

Just one more point --- Nobody really cares about valid XHTML/CSS, so you
can leave those links out. In fact, you should *definitely* leave them out
unless you're confident of the results.

This page is invalid: <http://www.osmanjaro.ndo.co.uk/LIA/volunteer2.html>

--
phil [dot] ronan @ virgin [dot] net
http://vzone.virgin.net/phil.ronan/

"Philip Ronan" wrote:

Try to structure your home page so it starts by answering a few simple questions...
Nobody really cares about valid XHTML/CSS

Phil,
Its been written by the lady who runs the home mainly.
She writes a lot of stuff because there's lots to say.
I'm trying not to edit it apart from spelling and such.
The scannability is nonexistent... I agree.

Thanks for the input and that link.
Will read up on this as I've never been too good at arranging large
blocks of text.

Regarding the validity links :
I see this as very important in the making of the site and for the
person who'll take it over.
Such small links at the footer should not be too distracting.

--
i

osman wrote:

Hi,

I'm nearing the end of a project and before it goes online fully, I'd
like some comments please.
Its a site for a children's home based in Tanzania.
There have been a lot of changes from the original site, mainly in
trying to reduce the page count.
I've put a lot into less pages.

Do the page anchors work well. (NN7 mac seems to hide the anchors.
Why?)
Is the amount of content just so much thats its 'scary'?
Page Header's too big?
Am I right in thinking that there should only be 1 <h1> per page?

I know that the news page is better suited to be a blog (blogger or any
cms).
I haven't a clue how to get this working so I've kept it simple for
now.
Any comments appreciated.

thanks
--
i

The site looks like an adding machine tape on my browser. Too much
blank space to the sides of the content. I have 1280x1024 resolution on
my monitor.

--
Wayne
http://www.glenmeadows.com

In message <1123938164.218950.172160 (AT) g47g2000cwa (DOT) googlegroups.com>,
osman <osmanjaro (AT) gmail (DOT) com> writes

I wrote:
Its a site for a children's home based in Tanzania.

http://www.osmanjaro.ndo.co.uk/LIA/index.html

--
i

Just a few thoughts

General.
=======

The basic structure of the site seems OK, except that some of the pages
are rather long, and with a lot of text ;-)

The first thing that I noticed (other than the length of the pages) was
that there needs to be a lot more work done on basic punctuation and
grammar in order to make the text flow properly.

On most of the images, which seem to serve a 'decorative' purpose (if
'decorative' is the right word) you might consider setting the
alternative text to null i.e. ALT=""

Note the bottom of your pages as seen in IE6:
http://www.gododdin.demon.co.uk/newg/HOME01X.JPG (14k)

Menus
=====

I would be inclined to provide a 'skip to main content' link (hidden -
if required) at the very start of each page; this link would take you to
the start of the page index. This link will help people who are
listening to your page (rather than reading it) to bypass the menu on
each page and go directly to the content.

I would also make the 'back to top' link a transfer back to the page
index.

I would also be inclined to put a (possibly hidden) 'On this page:'
introduction to the page menu.

News page
==========
you might want to consider not using all-numeric dates -- else consider
using the standard ISO format for all-numeric dates, as not everyone
(especially transpondians) uses the dd/mm/yy format.

(BTW: "28/March/2005" .......... 'spaces' would be better than '/'.)

Headings
========

Good structure -- except that I'd be inclined not to mark up 'Light in
Africa' as a heading, so that the 'other' H1 reflects the content of the
page.

regards.

--
Jake
(jake (AT) gododdin (DOT) demon.co.uk .... just a spam trap.)

Jake wrote:

Just a few thoughts ...

All good advice I shall take in.
People mentioned the grammar and punctuation, so this must be the first
thing on my to-do list.

The news page is something that may be changed over to a blog.
The dates thing will be sorted out then.

snip
consider setting the alternative text to null i.e. ALT=""

I thought all images in the html should have alt tags.

Skip to content links I shall add, back to top links to reload the page
index as well.
What's a Transpondian? A Pond skater?


--
i

osman wrote:

Hi,

I'm nearing the end of a project and before it goes online fully, I'd
like some comments please.
Its a site for a children's home based in Tanzania.
http://www.osmanjaro.ndo.co.uk/LIA/index.html

osman,

Very attractive.

Using Netscape 7.1, I encountered a problem when I reduced the window
below 600 X 800; the text gradually was forced off-screen on the left
side. I did NOT have this problem with a current version of Firefox, so
you probably need not do anything about it, just be aware that users of
this older browser and small screens may have a problem.

I agree with the other's comments regarding the text. I would focus on
the very first paragraph. Here's my minimalist rewrite: (I would
boldface or otherwise emphasize "Light in Africa" wherever it appears)

Light in Africa’s two children’s homes, Pilgrim's House and Malika
House, bring over 92 children and babies a safe haven of love, hope,
medical care, and education which they could never before have imagined.
To have sufficient food to eat every day at set times is a wonder in
itself. For the home to have a “no beating” policy is something
unbeknown to the children, the local residents, or even the Social
Welfare Departments. For them to receive a kiss or a cuddle from the
staff, something that was previously denied to them, is so amazing that
they are drawn to the centre. Often brought by an uncaring relative or
through the local Social Welfare Department, head down, shoulders
rounded, afraid to make a sound in case the wrong word would bring a
beating upon them, they arrive frightened and fearful at the “wazungus”
(white person's) home.

Chris Beall

http://www.osmanjaro.ndo.co.uk/LIA/index.html


In message <1123964787.660444.165920 (AT) g43g2000cwa (DOT) googlegroups.com>,
osman <osmanjaro (AT) gmail (DOT) com> writes

Jake wrote:
Just a few thoughts ...

All good advice I shall take in.
People mentioned the grammar and punctuation, so this must be the first
thing on my to-do list.

The news page is something that may be changed over to a blog.
The dates thing will be sorted out then.

Fine.

snip
consider setting the alternative text to null i.e. ALT=""

I thought all images in the html should have alt tags.


Quite so. And one of the options is 'nothing' as an alternative ;-)

The alternative text is designed to be displayed when the image is not
available.

In a number of cases you have a pictures with alternative text of
'peekaboo' 'cool kids' etc. which seem to be used for decoration.

If they're not decoration, that's fine -- but then again the alternative
text should be a bit more descriptive.

Skip to content links I shall add,

Fine.

back to top links to reload the page
index as well.

What's a Transpondian? A Pond skater?

Someone who lives on the other side of the Pond.

Waaaay over there ----------------> (Atlantic Ocean) -------> X

--
i

regards.

--
Jake
(jake (AT) gododdin (DOT) demon.co.uk .... just a spam trap.)