Please review my site and forums -- www.dumblaws.com

Looks pretty good...
Hmm... It just seems... cluttered?
I dunno... but some of those from Ohio [my home state] are pretty damn funny...
I guess I'll go over to Marion, and grab a donut.

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...TGE...
...A new reality...
...coming soon....
[Boom]

I think the basic design for this looks really good - the problem is that there is too much clutter on there.

YOu have three menus on the top half of the screen and another one with explanation text further down on the right - you really only need one (you should have one at the top and one at the bottom of the page so people don't have to scroll to the top to move to a different part of the site). The Contact us part does not need a full menu. Just put "contact Us' on the top menu under Discussion Boards and put the comments, corrections and your names on a separate page.

So, once you get rid of both of those pull down menus and the right part with the other text, you can move the "Dumb Network" to the right side and move the "Sponsors" up below it. Those "Sponsors" really don't need explanations. Actually, all of that could probably fit on the left side and then you could get rid of the right column altogher. The menu's on the left side should all have the same alignment (left or right).

The long menus also cause a lot of empty space to show up at the bottom of some of the pages

You definitely need a more unique logo. Writing the text you have in a unique font would probably do it.

As a Canadian, I think it would be nice if on the "Other Countries" page you could change statue of LIberty to something a little more international. I don't know what that could be though. I think it would be really nice if you could make this a truly global site and not something that's US first, then the rest of the world. Of course, I always think that about a lot of sites...

EEk! "Interested in laws from other countries?" Did you ever consider that someone from say, norway, might be visiting this site to find dumb laws from their own countries? Maybe I'm just oversensitive about this kind of thing...

Interesting site anyway. Some of these aren't so dumb when you look at them from the government's perspective (ie. Canadian content rules, One child families in China). I guess that's all debatable...

ANyway, I really like the left edge area - interesting yet simple effects. The subheaders (National Laws, City Laws etc) are also really well done. It kind of seems to me that one person designed the site and another person added on the text.

[This message has been edited by Megan Jack (edited 23 June 2000).]

Haha! I like the slogan...

1) I think it should say "Choose A State" instead of "Choose A Page" on the drop-down menu. I got a little confused 'cause I couldn't find the dumb laws.

2) I don't like the menu text is aligned. I think it should be aligned to the left, and maybe add bullets next to each link. Also, move the Contact Us info up to the main menu part.

3) The logo is boring. Maybe add a picture of a politician holding a folder that says "Dumb Laws" or something. You need to be creative! There are tons of ideas of what you could do going through my heard right now.

4) Statue of Liberty picture is cool, but I don't like how it keeps repeating itself all the way down the page. Make it fade out or something...

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Justin Stayton
· WEB: http://www.j.cx
· EMAIL: [email protected]
· ICQ: 45549000

quote:1) I think it should say "Choose A State" instead of "Choose A Page" on the drop-down menu. I got a little confused 'cause I couldn't find the dumb laws.

Ah, but the "Other Countries" are on that menu too. I for one, would be really offended if my country was categorized as a US state The "other countries" should be in a separate pull down menu if you're going to use those. I also find it rather offenseive that my country is lower down on the menu (meaning less important) than all of the US states.

Edit: More! I'm on a roll today! Check your javascript - I think some of these links to more information about the laws are supposed to open in a new window, but the script isn't working so you just get a new page with two lines on it. Also check your grammar and writing style.

[This message has been edited by Megan Jack (edited 23 June 2000).]

Thanks for the comments on the site -- I'll try and implement them. The site *was* designed by one person and then another added the text. Nice of you to catch that.

The menus could use consolidating...I'm just not exactly sure how I'd like to do it.

Maybe I should change "Other Countries" just to be "Countries" -- obviously, I'm from the US....

The javascript is legacy code from a long time ago -- new windows are not supposed to open anymore. However, we just haven't cleaned up our code.

We've got someone in charge of correcting all my grammar mistakes. It's a shame I let so many in...

Thanks for all the ideas...and if you think something on the site is "debatable", then debate it in the message boards on my site!

Andy

I've been to your site even before you asked me to review it. I've never had that happen before. I guessed I just surfed over to it one day.

I really can't say anything that hasn't already been said. I think it looks good overall, just a little cluttered.

John

Thanks for the help -- I'll try and fix the clutter.