Critique Please

I am reworking a website and would appreciate your input. The work I am
doing is at:
http://solarflarearts.glenmeadows.com

The original page is:
http://www.solarflarearts.com

TIA

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

wayne wrote:

I am reworking a website and would appreciate your input. The work I am
doing is at:
http://solarflarearts.glenmeadows.com

The original page is:
http://www.solarflarearts.com

TIA

Sorry, wrong url, should be:

http://solarflares.glenmeadows.com

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

"wayne" wrote:

wayne wrote:
I am reworking a website and would appreciate your input. The work I am
doing is at:
http://solarflarearts.glenmeadows.com

The original page is:
http://www.solarflarearts.com

TIA

Sorry, wrong url, should be:
http://solarflares.glenmeadows.com

A massive improvement, but it still looks cheap and amateurish. Here are a
few suggestions:

1. The photo on the home page looks a bit crap. Tell them they need to visit
a professional photographer and get some proper publicity shots.

2. Ihe page design is boring and inconsistent (e.g., some pages have
headings, some don't). Every page has a link pointing to itself (bad!), and
there is no indication of how each page relates to the rest of the website
(also bad!).

3. The "Furniture, carvings & pipes" page contains a bunch of thumbnails
with no explanatory text or alt attributes. And they're hyperlinked to
something, but I couldn't be bothered to find out. You need to explain to
the visitor what is going on.

4. The "music" page contains no music. Why not upload a few MP3s so people
can listen to his music online?

5. Learn how to compress images properly. The thumbnail images take up way
too much bandwidth.

6. The "contact us" link is underneath "Linda Schroeder". Is there more than
one Linda Schroeder, or is your menu design a bit of a mess?

etc...

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

wayne wrote:

I am reworking a website and would appreciate your input. The work I am
doing is at:
http://solarflarearts.glenmeadows.com

General:

- What is the significance of "Solar Flare"?

Visual:
- Red, white and blue is very patriotic (USA). Is that the idea? If not,
ask for some of their business stationery and use that as a starting point
for a color scheme.
- The navigation is as boring as it gets. At least group the links that
are unique to each artist with a border or background.
Visit <http://css.maxdesign.com.au/listamatic/> for some basic ideas.
- In general light-on-dark is harder to read than the usual dark-on-light.
The main reason is the bleed-through effect on CRT monitors: the
background encroaches on the foreground reducing the contrast. The normal
countermeasure is a larger font size or a bold font weight.

CSS:
- There are a couple of validation errors. One which was missed by the
validator:
#content { padding : 15px.15px 15px 15px; }
Unless you really wanted a 0.15px right padding?
- There is a "@media print" section in main.css, and a print.css. Why
split it up like that?

HTML:
- A validation error: <center> is not allowed.

--
jmm (hyphen) list (at) sohnen-moe (dot) com
(Remove .AXSPAMGN for email)

Philip Ronan wrote:

"wayne" wrote:


wayne wrote:

I am reworking a website and would appreciate your input. The work I am
doing is at:
http://solarflarearts.glenmeadows.com

The original page is:
http://www.solarflarearts.com

TIA


Sorry, wrong url, should be:
http://solarflares.glenmeadows.com


A massive improvement, but it still looks cheap and amateurish. Here are a
few suggestions:

1. The photo on the home page looks a bit crap. Tell them they need to visit
a professional photographer and get some proper publicity shots.

2. Ihe page design is boring and inconsistent (e.g., some pages have
headings, some don't). Every page has a link pointing to itself (bad!), and
there is no indication of how each page relates to the rest of the website
(also bad!).

3. The "Furniture, carvings & pipes" page contains a bunch of thumbnails
with no explanatory text or alt attributes. And they're hyperlinked to
something, but I couldn't be bothered to find out. You need to explain to
the visitor what is going on.

4. The "music" page contains no music. Why not upload a few MP3s so people
can listen to his music online?

5. Learn how to compress images properly. The thumbnail images take up way
too much bandwidth.

6. The "contact us" link is underneath "Linda Schroeder". Is there more than
one Linda Schroeder, or is your menu design a bit of a mess?

etc...

I have requested photos, but have not yet received any. I will suggest a
professional photographer.

Thanks for catching the headings. I didn't notice that at all! As for
the links for each page pointing to itself, I have one menu include file
and use PHP. Is there a script available to exclude the page displayed?
Also, indication of how each page relates to the rest of the site, are
you referring to a site map? Not sure how to proceed here.

I haven't changed the design from the original too much, just removed
the frames and tables.

Music is a good idea! One of the original pages refers to a cd being
released in 2004. I just requested information as to whether or not it
was, and if it was, for information about it. If not, corrected
information when it will be.

I haven't tried compressing images at all. I believe that a zipped file
will be automatically opened in a browser. Is this correct?

The menu is definitely a mess! Will have to work on it, along with
better content.

Thanks so much for your help Philip.

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

Jim Moe wrote:

wayne wrote:

I am reworking a website and would appreciate your input. The work I
am doing is at:
http://solarflarearts.glenmeadows.com

General:
- What is the significance of "Solar Flare"?

Visual:
- Red, white and blue is very patriotic (USA). Is that the idea? If not,
ask for some of their business stationery and use that as a starting
point for a color scheme.
- The navigation is as boring as it gets. At least group the links that
are unique to each artist with a border or background.
Visit <http://css.maxdesign.com.au/listamatic/> for some basic ideas.
- In general light-on-dark is harder to read than the usual
dark-on-light. The main reason is the bleed-through effect on CRT
monitors: the background encroaches on the foreground reducing the
contrast. The normal countermeasure is a larger font size or a bold font
weight.

CSS:
- There are a couple of validation errors. One which was missed by the
validator:
#content { padding : 15px.15px 15px 15px; }
Unless you really wanted a 0.15px right padding?
- There is a "@media print" section in main.css, and a print.css. Why
split it up like that?

HTML:
- A validation error: <center> is not allowed.

Solar Flares is the name the owners have chosen to perform under. I did

a search on "Solar Flares" and found a group that performs in England,
and has been for many years, by that name. I don't think the name is a
good choice, but Linda Schroeder assured me that they had the "rights"
to "Solar Flares" and "Solar Flare Arts."

Not really thinking of patriotic colors, the original site was blue with
a red graphic and white text. Just tried to keep the "feel" of the
site. I will work on changing to a dark on light scheme and will visit
the link you supplied!

I don't know how that extra decimal ended up in the CSS. My editor
places a character that looks like a period or decimal sometimes when
there are two spaces next to each other. I guess I better look more
carefully!

On the @media print, good point. I will change that immediately.

Sorry I missed the <center> tag too. The users here are really good.

Thanks for your help Jim.

I will be looking for more feedback soon!

Regards,

Wayne

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

wayne wrote:

Solar Flares is the name the owners have chosen to perform under. I did
a search on "Solar Flares" and found a group that performs in England,
and has been for many years, by that name. I don't think the name is a
good choice, but Linda Schroeder assured me that they had the "rights"
to "Solar Flares" and "Solar Flare Arts."

That did not answer my question.

"Solar Flares" is an exotic name. It almost demands an explanation. The
site seems incomplete without some background on how such a provocative
name came to be.
Few names have such a draw. No one much cares about the name "White Hot
Bunny Thumpers." Solar Flares, though, has a political or environmental
cachet to it. It is unsatisfying to think they just picked the name randomly.

--
jmm (hyphen) list (at) sohnen-moe (dot) com
(Remove .AXSPAMGN for email)

wayne wrote:

I haven't tried compressing images at all. I believe that a zipped file
will be automatically opened in a browser. Is this correct?

Use a medium to low quality JPEG format. The compression is awesome,

the poor quality not really noticeable on monitors. Size the images to the
target size; do not use the browser to do that.
No, browsers do not know what to do with zip files besides download
them. Browsers only know GIF, PNG, and JPEG image formats.

--
jmm (hyphen) list (at) sohnen-moe (dot) com
(Remove .AXSPAMGN for email)

Jim Moe wrote:

wayne wrote:


Solar Flares is the name the owners have chosen to perform under. I
did a search on "Solar Flares" and found a group that performs in
England, and has been for many years, by that name. I don't think the
name is a good choice, but Linda Schroeder assured me that they had
the "rights" to "Solar Flares" and "Solar Flare Arts."

That did not answer my question.
"Solar Flares" is an exotic name. It almost demands an explanation.
The site seems incomplete without some background on how such a
provocative name came to be.
Few names have such a draw. No one much cares about the name "White
Hot Bunny Thumpers." Solar Flares, though, has a political or
environmental cachet to it. It is unsatisfying to think they just picked
the name randomly.

I see, I will see if the site owners will give me some more background.

Thank you for your input Jim.

Also, I made some changes to the site, including removing the current
page from the links. Is it any better, aside from the pictures?

Regards,

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

"wayne" wrote:

As for
the links for each page pointing to itself, I have one menu include file
and use PHP. Is there a script available to exclude the page displayed?

Just check the value of $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];

Also, indication of how each page relates to the rest of the site, are
you referring to a site map? Not sure how to proceed here.

No I didn't explain that very clearly! What I mean is that it's easy to get
lost in your site because the menu doesn't provide any feedback about the
current position. Although I notice you seem to have fixed this now.

You still need to sort out the "furniture" section though. What do these
pictures link to? Web pages? Images? Search Google for "mystery meat
navigation" and you'll see why this is a bad idea.

I haven't tried compressing images at all. I believe that a zipped file
will be automatically opened in a browser. Is this correct?

No. Use JPEG compression for photographs, but you will hardly ever need to
set the compression level higher than 50%. Apply a "sharpen" filter before
you compress. And try to avoid compressing with Photoshop, which produces
rather bloated files. On Macintoshes, GraphicConverter is teh best tool I've
found at producing efficient JPEGs. I've heard there's a Windows application
called "the gimp" (?) that does a similar job.

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