First post, first site. What do you guys think about it? (aardvarkdirect.com)

Welcome to TWF zbose,

Firstly we do ask that you help us out by reviewing some of the others sites posted for critique, so if you can help us out then others will help you.

That first page needs something, if I have to wait for stuff to download then don't see anything happen I'm thinking what's this site about, do I want to go in? Maybe a brief explanation of what the site offers me?? What are you preloading anyway, sometimes it's just best to get straight into the site.

Ok, now I'm into the site and it's very nice, but just a few comments - I would change the font for the text to Veranda as it clean and easy to read. Don't use italic as it's very hard to read on screen. & the font on the buttons is hard to make out. The title on the contact page needs a capital C.

Hey, I like your buttons! Very nicely done! However, in spite of the funky graphics, the pages seem naked somehow. More content may help - perhaps some product shots, etc as well??

Did you lose the preload or did my lightning-fast cable connection miss it?

I agree with Webmistress on the font.

Do the forums have to be such a drastic departure in style? Also, there is no way back to the main site from there.

Did I mention that I liked your buttons?

I like the look a lot but it is very slow. The page you get after clicking 1024 is just over 130K and that's without any content ! I don't know what the latest consensus but I always thought around 50-60K was about the maximum.

The buttons look really nice but some of the text is really hard to read, I have good eyesight and I had to move forward and squint to read the text. I know you mentioned it and other people did but I think it's worth re-iterating. I also agree about the font you are using for content.

The page counter at the bottom of the page is also a bad thing, it spoils the design and make it look un-professional.

On the products page, the text is all in italic.

First thing - I should not have to choose my screen resolution manually. You should do that for me. And what if I was running at, say, 1152?

THat splash page looks nice, but you should include some sort of text about what the company does - the "Custom Paintball Products" from the page title would be fine (I don't think people really look at page titles that often...)

On the main page - yes, that font in the nabar is a major problem. I can't read it at all on the blue but it's slightly better on the orange. Your mouseovers aren't working properly for some reason (using Opera 6) - they're mousing over but not mousing out.

The problem I find with this design is that it doesn't look like a busines site. That can be okay sometimes, but the problem is complicated by the fact that your content is very casual sounding. I'm really confused here as to what you're trying to do - is this a casual, information based site or are you trying to sell a product?

The design does look nice overall the graphics are great but I'm not sure about that logo. While well done and nice to look at it doesn't seem to really match the rest of the design. Try to avoid centering things on a page - it usually looks unprofessional, and think of something to put at the bottom of long pages. I think that pages usually look better with something at the bottom to close them off - even if it's just a copyright statement and a set of text links. Oh, and I agree with webmistress about changing the font.

Hey, thanks everyone for all the great suggestions. I will review some sites at work in return.

The font on the buttons, I am expirmenting with other fonts right now. I think I am going to use a clearer font, that I can make bigger, and alt tags to fix this issue. Maybe even some mouseover type thing that displays what the link is about in the center window.

The splash page is also only temporary, more of a place holder. I would like to be able to choose the users resolution automatically, but I have yet to figure out how to do this (or if its even possible). My plan was to cookie it so that after it was done once, it wouldn't need to be done again. I also want to put on some sort of flash loader that lets the people know that the page is indeed preloading things. I will also put a small description of our company (or at least the full name) as per your suggestions.

Forums are a carry over from the previous version of the website, and I will change them (at least the graphic at the top and the colors) to match the new style more closely.

I have to keep the counter.... my boss is... wierd He asked for it initially, and would probably fire me if i deleted it. He also like the cheesy aardvark that doesn't match the site (i want to ditch this too) We are a pretty casual company (extremely causual) so I feel that the personal, somewhat unprofessionalness of the site suites us. Most of our customers talk with me personally on AIM or MSN messenger, etc.

We do sell a product (and quite a bit).

I agree on the italics. I will ditch all of it. And I will try Veranda as my content font.

I will be back on with the changes as soon as I make them. Thanks everyone!

-zbose