Website Critique - All Views Welcomed

They have: 166 posts

Joined: Jan 2000

Hurst,

I agree with Justin on all of his comments and would like to add one. I really liked the contact us/map flash animation you used. Very Nice. Speed was fine. The only thing I would change would be to add some more colors.

John

interwovendesign.com
Quality web site design without the monthly maintenance fees!

Megan's picture

She has: 11,421 posts

Joined: Jun 1999

Is there a really good reason why you're using frames? You've also got a couple of problems with them in there - I clicked on "What our clients say about us", then "continued" and that took me out of the frameset. Without the frameset there is no way of navigating the site. All of your "back to the home page" links on the other pages seem to be breaking the frameset too. Personally, I think frames are more trouble than they're worth, especially since the same thing could be accomplished with a tabled layout.

I also think that you've gone a little too far with the flash. Looping animation is annoying whether it's done with Flash or old fashioned gif's. The opening animation is nice, and so is the one on the main page, but I don't think that should loop - there's already enough going on with the fancy mouseovers

The menu looks pretty good, although I'm not too sure about your use of the purple. It kind of surprised me because it's not used on the rest of the page at all. I wouldn't have put it with pale green, but it doesn't look too bad. Maybe a more bluey-purple would look better.

ON the "News and Forthcoming Events" page you're using a bluey-green that isn't the same as the pale green on the navigation menu - I'd change that to match, change the blue text to green, and the default blue links to something else as well.

One more thing - for a business like this I think you should make sure that your geographical context is known to your visitors before they get too far into the site.

They have: 2 posts

Joined: Feb 2000

I would appreciate all views on our website. I would especially appreciate your comments on speed , looks , content and improvements. Thank you for your interest. www.hurst.co.uk

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The views expressed in this message are personal, except where specifically stated
to be of HURST. This message has been transmitted over a public network
and HURST accepts no responsibility for its completeness or accuracy.
Check our website at www.hurst.co.uk

The views expressed in this message are personal, except where specifically stated
to be of HURST. This message has been transmitted over a public network
and HURST accepts no responsibility for its completeness or accuracy.
Check our website at www.hurst.co.uk

Justin S's picture

They have: 2,076 posts

Joined: Jun 1999

Excellent! I really like how you used Flash! Here are a few comments:

  • Your main page is a little too wide and doesn't fit in the frame at 800x600 res.
  • You have an unused frame cell underneath your two main frame cells. Why?
  • Speed was good for Flash animation.
  • Wow!

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  • They have: 115 posts

    Joined: Feb 2000

    hurst.....

    YIKES....at 800 x 600 res there are some problems. I took a screenshot so you can see what I see.
    http://www.tripleorbit.com/hurst.jpg

    I think you have some great things going on here but honestly if I was a customer surfing the web for services such as yours I would have hit the back button the second I saw all those frames!!

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    Rayna
    Triple Orbit

    They have: 297 posts

    Joined: Apr 1999

    You need a scolling=no in the left frame, so the ugly scroll bar disappears.

    Malte

    Denmark 3's picture

    They have: 881 posts

    Joined: Feb 2000

    Very good! It is 2 wide on 800 x 600 res.
    I don't understand why you have the frame at the bottom either. It is empty and isn't doing anything so why don't you get rid of it? Other than that it is very nice. I just think the colors are kind of ugly.

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    ~Parker Trasborg~
    Formerly- ParkerT and sixflags111

    Suzanne's picture

    She has: 5,507 posts

    Joined: Feb 2000

    If you make the frames no scroll, you may have problems at lower resolutions (I didn't look at your code) -- setting the html file to having no margins may resolve part of your problems or adjusting the absolute width of the frame by a few pixels, depending on how you want to resolve it.

    Since you have scrolls on both main frame sections, removing the scroll option will present a serious concern for those using a different resolution (smaller) than you are.

    It seems to be a lot of advertising and hype on the first two screens with many whirling bits. The colours don't bother me.

    Sorry, clicked on a link -- that purple with that green bothers me.

    Actually, while it seems to be reasonably laid out navigationally, I still found it to be difficult to navigate because all the images look the same.

    You have no text links. While some here seem to think that this isn't an issue, when you are dealing with a professional commercial site, not having text links can mean death for useability and a loss of customers.

    Additionally, almost all your inner pages scroll horizontally at my resolution. At last measure, 800X600 was still the most common resolution.

    Lastly, even Macromedia uses text links.

    It looks like a brochure and fails for useability.

    Suzanne

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    Zero Cattle
    Suzanne
    Tables DeMystified

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