Buenpaso - have another look please

I like it a lot... but I would get rid of the 'designed by' Flash movie... although I see u can handle Flash, it just annoys me there...

Overall:
Nice layout and colors!

I'm getting a 'cannot find server' error. Are you sure the address is correct??

Yes, address is correct - here it is again:
users.bigpond.com/finneganms/buenpaso/Index.html

Nice looking site but it's still loading the first page for me after 5 mins and I'm on adsl!! Why have you done everything, including the text as graphics? This is what's slowing it down. I'd have given up normally.

I agree about the site designed by flash.

I'm looking at your site with a pentium 1 and and 33 k modum. It takes forever to load and some of the content failed to load. These problems actually made navigating the site and seeing all the content impossible for me.

The design was nice although only got to see a few of the pages without missing images.

I really don't see the logic of presenting textual content in image form.

There's something about this that just doesn't seem quite right to me but I can't put my finger on it.

I agree about presenting the content as graphics. With everything made up as a graphic the loading time is pretty bad. I also think that you're trying to cram too much into that 800 x 600 box. Some of the text is too small to read comfortably and many of the pictures are too small to see very well.

I have this game that I kind of play. I try to determine what program the site was built with prior to looking at the source. I can almost always spot a Frontpage site. Dreamweaver sites are getting easier to spot also since there is just something about the layout. That has nothing to do with any kind of critique just simple musings.

Anyway I thought the site looked pretty good overall. The color scheme is not one that I would have picked but I think it looks pretty good. I am curious about the intent of your graphics. Why the footprints? Do they have anything to do with the site or did you put them up there as a figurative gesture for us to trample on your site (LOL). The arrow could indicate something on the move.

• The top logo bar - to make the page look better in resolutions larger than 800x600, I would extend this out 100% so that it doesn't look cut off. I would possibly also consider a bottom bar or something else to divert this cutoff effect.
• Graphics or text - Definitely make the text, text. It would help the load times and also in IE 6.0, it puts a bar up over some of the text, blocking the view. The one text box that you have is 13K, compared to 0K for text.
• The rest of the site looks quite consistent with the homepage which is what you want.

Just fix some of the little things and you will be there.

I agree with what everyone has said so far, very slow loading on 56k.

The content is there but not enough of it, its proablaby enough if the party was interested they would contact you for more, BUT if they can read english, surely they could speak it too? I think you need to either offer your site in different languages or use a translation link.

the big arrow going away from Australia, shouldnt it be pointing to Australia? I see the grey one behind but feel it should be the other way around.

All the content images could and should be replaced with text, not only will it make the site load faster but will make it easier to read as some of its blury. you also need to use alt tags on all your images.

Another thing that made me think, you link names, you have "homepage" and then "our home", shouldnt homepage be index, and our home be down the list by location, but after the actually course details?

Maybe alos add a star or something on the map where sydney is, if I didnt know Australia I'd have no idea where it was, how big the country itself is ...

Thanks once again for the great feedback. I'm making a few changes and perhaps I'll get you guys to take another peek when I'm done. (The footsteps by the way are ths clients sort of logo thing, and I just had to figure out a way to include them. I was thinking that they implied moving or a journey/holiday).

Cheers
Martin.

Well as long as your client is paying and wants them, it is okay.

Hi all. I'd just like a second bite at the cherry if possible. I've made quite a few changes thanks to your feedback and would appreciate any further comments. I had to use layers to get the layout I wanted. I made all the other graphics in Fireworks. I still have to clean up the HTML as its a bit messy.

I've used a single template this time so the pages are all 11k or under so I'd be interested in any download problems. I have a 56k connection and they download in under 10 secs, though its currently on the same server as I am.

Also what do people think of text links at the bottom of pages?

http://www.users.bigpond.com/finneganms/buenpaso/Index.html

Thanks again.

Much better

There is small horizontal scroll bar at 800*600 though and at larger resolutions it looks kinda stuck in the corner. How about centralising the main box.

By the text link at the bottom I assume you mean the web design one??? Much better.

Good job.

It loaded fast here on a 56k, both in IE5 and Netscape 4.7

I also get a small scroll bar at 800x600, would moving the "Good Move" to the left a little stop this?

Another idea, take away the lines at the bottom and continue the footprints section (left) to the bottom of the page, so the web design and credit look like they are apart of the page. Could always add the lines under it ...

just a thought.

looks good keep it up

Well, I'm no web expert so I'll just play the accidental web-surfer that bumped into your site.

To my naive-surfer mind, the site really looks good! It loaded fast as well (although I'm on cable...)
I did not see your previous version but this one does the job nicely -it gives a simple though pretty and professional image of your "client".

In fact, I'm designing a home site for myself and I was playing with the available tech (layers, iframes, innerHTML,...). Seeing the result you got on your site, I'll give it another go with layers

Not much content I guess, but then again, it seemed to me to be a "cosy" familiar teaching thing that really says it all with what is exposed.
Liked the colors combination a lot! The yellowish/brownish gives a flavour of Australia to non-Australians and blue is my favorite color and gives the professional and honest feel. I think the footprints transmit the general idea of "being guided" through, or something like "sequence of steps", which is more or less what is expressed in goodmove/buenpaso. To me, it gave the feeling of: "i'll guide you" or "come to us"
...
Now Portuguese and Spanish are my mother tongues and I would write "bueno paso" in castellano to say "good move"... It is just a comment and maybe there are many dialects and differences outside Spain, as there are outside Portugal (Brazilian Portuguese being very different from European Portuguese)...

I think that's it. Hope this helps.

Thanks all.

The client is from Chile actually which may explain the difference. I don't get a scroll bar at all so not sure how to fix that maybe I'll resize the main table.

I did find I had a problem when I made the main table centered and the layers would not follow the tables in the larger resolution, but I have been put on to a DW extension by Al Sparber that may fix it called Snap layers. Here's the URL if anyone wants to check it out.

http://www.projectseven.com/extensions/index.htm

Cheers
Martin

If your having layer problems, then just ditch them and use tables, tables are more universal and excepted between browsers.

This is a sort of site that doesnt need fancy toys, has a wide target range from people never surfed to experts of the web, If I was you, I'd do a search for B&B's, maybe just Aussie ones and see if you can find out their stats for browsers etc and base your site on them.

Someone mentioned a few days ago that the old Netscape browsers are still used throughout libraries, email cafe's (I found a lot of these in UK last year) even thou your target isnt so much the tourist, they should be taken into consideration.

If your main table is at 100% and widest graphic at 795 you shouldnt get scroll bars on 800x600

I agree with Busy, this site's look can easily be acheived using tables which aren't going to give you browser incompatibility problems. Layers are more trouble than they are worth in most instances I have found!