Ocean Colour

It looks good! It would be nice if there was more colour in the design. I like the shades of blue and green in the little boxes that come up on mouseover - maybe you could incorporate more of those colours into the rest of the design. Is there a reason why some of the titles on the front page are different sizes and colours? It would probably look nicer if they were all the same. I would also try a chunkier font for the title (make "Ocean Colour Research" big, and then "at MMIM" smaller)

The menu's on the sub-pages have the same font problems as the front page - I'm kind of confused about the hierarchy there. It would probably be better if the text was left-aligned instead of right.

I think the font size on the sub-pages could be a bit smaller. That way there wouldn't be so much scrolling to do. In addition to that, there's a lot of space at the bottom of the pages that shouldn't be there. There should, however, be something at the bottom - you could just put a horizontal line with copyright and contact information below it. That's what a lot of sites do. As it is the bottom of the pages are just sort of hanging there.

At the top, the "Ocean Colour Home" link should all be on one line.

The pages are kind of long, but I think that's okay in this case. It would be nice, though, to provide a table of contents on each of those long pages (like "Instructions for Use" could have target links to "Function", "Requirements", "usage" etc.)

The "how to view this site" pop-up is cut off for me - the window should either scroll or provide more space for the info. This whole thing, though, is unnecessary IMHO because nobody is actually going to change their settings or download a new font to view your page. Just accept the fact that not everyone will have the font you want and specify a second choice (like Helvetica) in your code. That's all you can do really.

Nice job though!

Thanks Megan for your comments.

> It would be nice if there was more colour in the design.
> I like the shades of blue and green in the little boxes
> that come up on mouseover - maybe you could incorporate
> more of those colours into the rest of the design.

Good idea -- it would be nice to have that feature repeated somewhere. I actually only put those little squares in the mouseover area as a "quick and dirty fix" to fill in the space in the corners.

> Is there a reason why some of the titles on the front
> page are different sizes and colours?
> [...] I'm kind of confused about the hierarchy there.

Ok, this is interesting for me to know. I'll explain, as it doesn't seem to be clear at all. The main areas of the web site (Atmospheric correction, Images etc) are in black. They are linked via the connecting horizontal and vertical grey lines to the subdivisions (if there are any) which are displayed in blue. Do you actually see those grey lines? Maybe there is a problem there.

Oh and, one of the links on the front page (Landsat/AVHRR) is greyed out because I haven't put any such images on the site yet.

> I think the font size on the sub-pages could be a bit
> smaller. That way there wouldn't be so much
> scrolling to do. [...] The pages are kind of long, but
> I think that's okay in this case.

I think so too. Most of those long pages will actually be printed by people who use our software because it's just easier for them to use a printed page as a reference for installation and use.

> In addition to that, there's a lot of space at the bottom
> of the pages that shouldn't be there.

I know, it's very ugly. The reason it's there is because I experienced page display problems in case the free counter web site is not responding (which is quite often, I'm sad to say). That was yet another quick fix, and it actually doesn't always work. I shall have to investigate a bit more and change the table layout when I have time.

> At the top, the "Ocean Colour Home" link should
> all be on one line.

Isn't it? I tried it down to 600*800 resolution on various platforms, with or without Verdana, and it was. Maybe your standard font size is above 12pts? That is the only way I can recreate that problem. Or do you mean, the 4 items in that grey box should be on one line?

> The "how to view this site" pop-up is cut off for me

That seems to be the same sort of font size problem as above. I'll add scrollbars.

> This whole thing, though, is unnecessary IMHO because
> nobody is actually going to change their settings or
> download a new font to view your page.

You're perfectly right, I'm sure nobody even clicks on that link. It's just that my initial interest in "design" started with typography, years ago, and I am still not very happy with what can be done (or rather, what I can do) on the web as far as text type goes. I should just get used to it, I know

Ok, I'd better get back to science now! Thanks again for your comments.

Best regards,
-Fab-