The 'flash' intro did nothing for me at all .... except make me wait longer. I can't see the point to it. Just launch your main page.
The flash logo(?) at the top of the pages doesn't work for me. Everything in the portfolio is better looking and better represents your work. I would stick with a simple graphic logo that has a little colour to it - it'll load a load faster as well.
Those two things spoiled what was otherwise a very simple, uncluttered, site with a very clean look.
There's a problem with the contact form. It isn't possible to avoid subscribing to the newsletter - perhaps that was intentional:) And, I'm running a 100% MS package and the contact form just opens my e-mail client. You might do better with something like formmail is you have CGI support - that will work for all your visitors.
Meta, several things seemed wrong with your site. AndyB is correct about the flash intro. If you are going to use a flash intro, splash some color and images into to make it more exciting. Here are other things that I noticed on your site:
Navbar at the bottom. Putting the navbar here to me is not the optimal place. I would put it at the top.
Search engines - Search engines such as google which put some stock in the page title might not like the .: in your page title. Other search engines will not like the frames very well. I didn't really see any Meta tags also. So you are making it very hard for search engines to find you.
Plainness - the site is too plain and boring. The look is clean but too clean. You need to splash some color and some graphics around here too. The layout on some of the interior pages like Products is way too plain there also.
Pictures - the pictures that are used need some work. The pictures on the Installation page need to be run through Photoshop and have the green tint masked. The collage effect on the Portfolio page to me didn't achieve the effect that you sought. It just appears as a bunch of pictures jumbled up.
Moving things - A lot of people including me don't like things that move on a web page. Like the SSS revolving flash image.
The site in it's present state is acceptable and better than a lot of sites but I think that it could be a lot better.
Mark Irving I have a mind like a steel trap; it is rusty and illegal in 47 states
I don't remember your old one that well but I think I liked it better! As mairving said, this is just so boring! There's nothing at all to catch my interest. This company has done signs for pretty high profile places. You need to get those up right away - on the front page, so people can see that. Also, as I said in my last review, the photos you've got on the portfolio page (which were originally on the front page) are no good - they're overlapping each other too much. Just use plain photos that can really show off the sign work.
You also need a better logo (doesn't the company have one? You'd think they would...) - it's ugly and the movement is annoying. I also agree that the navbar at the bottom might not bet the best idea. If you're going to do that, I think the font sizes should be larger (which would be hard with the number of options you've got there and you should try to emphasize more visually.
I am not an expert at web design but here are my opinions.
The intro page is very boring and time consuming. Lots of people don't like intro pages but I think they can be a nice introduction if done properly. Most people will not wait for your "SSS" spinning logo and flash to load. They will click right through it. Actually my attention, visually, was drawn to the logos at the bottom of the intro page that you are a 'proud member' of. You might consider moving those toward the end of your site so that people don't leave yours. Jazz the intro up a bit, add some color and REDUCE loading time to almost nill. Get rid of the spinning logo....spinning graphics are way outdated in my opinion.
The Home page looks real clean but....Loose the Welcome that is in blue under the name of the site. It looks like it needs to be clicked on and it looks as though it is part of the name of the site. (did that make sense??) I see that you are placing the title of each page there but you might consider moving the title of each page so that it will be more "away" from the name of the site. Try placing it just above and to the left of the body text. Or (i am brainstorming again) you could get really creative and make graphics....maybe a faded blue title, large font, vertical and to the left side of the body. Just a thought!
The navigation at the bottom is ok but I think something(buttons or text links) at the top would be better. At first glance, the nav at the bottom looks like a sentence or statement. If you leave the nav at the bottom put something in between each link. Link this maybe....
Home | Products | Management | Instillation | , etc.
OR
[Home] [Products[ [Management] [Instillation] , etc.
This will make it look more 'seperated'.
Maybe you could arrange the pictures on the home page so that they do not look like one big box. I am still thinking on this one. Not sure what you could do.
Over all I think you have done a good job. Just remember....everyone has their own style and ideas. It is hard to please everybody.
Oh yes, definately get rid of the green tinted pics like mairving said.
toodles
~disastermaster
The Webmistress posted this at 17:05 — 16th July 2001.
I think most of what's to be said has been already.
I wouldn't personally use a frameset just to have the navigation as you have at the bottom, it can be placed at the bottom of each page quite easily and as it's just text it won't add to the overall download time. As it is you haven't put anything in the noframes part of the code, if someone didn't have a frames capable browser they would see nothing, as would a search engine spider. If you do want to use frames then make it se friendly at least.
Can you get any other pictures? The ones on the site really don't do justice to the signs.
Julia - if life was meant to be easy Michael Angelo would have painted the floor....
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AndyB posted this at 08:34 — 15th July 2001.
They have: 344 posts
Joined: Aug 1999
The 'flash' intro did nothing for me at all .... except make me wait longer. I can't see the point to it. Just launch your main page.
The flash logo(?) at the top of the pages doesn't work for me. Everything in the portfolio is better looking and better represents your work. I would stick with a simple graphic logo that has a little colour to it - it'll load a load faster as well.
Those two things spoiled what was otherwise a very simple, uncluttered, site with a very clean look.
There's a problem with the contact form. It isn't possible to avoid subscribing to the newsletter - perhaps that was intentional:) And, I'm running a 100% MS package and the contact form just opens my e-mail client. You might do better with something like formmail is you have CGI support - that will work for all your visitors.
mairving posted this at 12:55 — 15th July 2001.
They have: 2,256 posts
Joined: Feb 2001
Meta, several things seemed wrong with your site. AndyB is correct about the flash intro. If you are going to use a flash intro, splash some color and images into to make it more exciting. Here are other things that I noticed on your site:
The site in it's present state is acceptable and better than a lot of sites but I think that it could be a lot better.
Mark Irving
I have a mind like a steel trap; it is rusty and illegal in 47 states
Megan posted this at 15:25 — 15th July 2001.
She has: 11,421 posts
Joined: Jun 1999
I don't remember your old one that well but I think I liked it better! As mairving said, this is just so boring! There's nothing at all to catch my interest. This company has done signs for pretty high profile places. You need to get those up right away - on the front page, so people can see that. Also, as I said in my last review, the photos you've got on the portfolio page (which were originally on the front page) are no good - they're overlapping each other too much. Just use plain photos that can really show off the sign work.
You also need a better logo (doesn't the company have one? You'd think they would...) - it's ugly and the movement is annoying. I also agree that the navbar at the bottom might not bet the best idea. If you're going to do that, I think the font sizes should be larger (which would be hard with the number of options you've got there and you should try to emphasize more visually.
Megan
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disaster-master posted this at 15:59 — 16th July 2001.
She has: 2,154 posts
Joined: May 2001
I am not an expert at web design but here are my opinions.
The intro page is very boring and time consuming. Lots of people don't like intro pages but I think they can be a nice introduction if done properly. Most people will not wait for your "SSS" spinning logo and flash to load. They will click right through it. Actually my attention, visually, was drawn to the logos at the bottom of the intro page that you are a 'proud member' of. You might consider moving those toward the end of your site so that people don't leave yours. Jazz the intro up a bit, add some color and REDUCE loading time to almost nill. Get rid of the spinning logo....spinning graphics are way outdated in my opinion.
The Home page looks real clean but....Loose the Welcome that is in blue under the name of the site. It looks like it needs to be clicked on and it looks as though it is part of the name of the site. (did that make sense??) I see that you are placing the title of each page there but you might consider moving the title of each page so that it will be more "away" from the name of the site. Try placing it just above and to the left of the body text. Or (i am brainstorming again) you could get really creative and make graphics....maybe a faded blue title, large font, vertical and to the left side of the body. Just a thought!
The navigation at the bottom is ok but I think something(buttons or text links) at the top would be better. At first glance, the nav at the bottom looks like a sentence or statement. If you leave the nav at the bottom put something in between each link. Link this maybe....
Home | Products | Management | Instillation | , etc.
OR
[Home] [Products[ [Management] [Instillation] , etc.
This will make it look more 'seperated'.
Maybe you could arrange the pictures on the home page so that they do not look like one big box. I am still thinking on this one. Not sure what you could do.
Over all I think you have done a good job. Just remember....everyone has their own style and ideas. It is hard to please everybody.
Oh yes, definately get rid of the green tinted pics like mairving said.
toodles
~disastermaster
The Webmistress posted this at 17:05 — 16th July 2001.
She has: 5,586 posts
Joined: Feb 2001
I think most of what's to be said has been already.
I wouldn't personally use a frameset just to have the navigation as you have at the bottom, it can be placed at the bottom of each page quite easily and as it's just text it won't add to the overall download time. As it is you haven't put anything in the noframes part of the code, if someone didn't have a frames capable browser they would see nothing, as would a search engine spider. If you do want to use frames then make it se friendly at least.
Can you get any other pictures? The ones on the site really don't do justice to the signs.
Julia - if life was meant to be easy Michael Angelo would have painted the floor....
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