www.columbia.edu/cu/slavic/ - Let's hear your yeas and nays

Hmmm... I don't like that shade of blue.... but that's a matter of personal preference I guess.

I also don't like how you've arranged your header on the sub pages - it would probably be better to stack those two things (the logo and the navigation menu) on top of each other rather than side-by-side. It should also have the same position on every page (left algined or centered)

I've dug a little deeper into your site - the background on some of the sub pages repeats at larger resolutions - make sure it doesn't tile like that. But then, I think that you shouldn't be using one here at all - use a coherent style for the entire site.

I think that the large graphic on the main page looks really good, but is a water drop effect the best choice for this situation? Ask yourself why before using special effects like this. ("because it looks cool" is usually not a good reason).

Overall, I think your site has a kind of "1996" look to it. I think there are some things on here that have kind of become cliche - like HR tags. It's funny how design trends evolve!

Well it is very graphic intensive - though is does look good - I would still consider toning down on your graphics and introducing more content, perhaps an intoduction to the purpose of the site.
JP

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Most of my suggestions have already been given, but there is still one: if you're using a blue background, set the BGCOLOR to a shade of blue, so that the background doesn't jump from white to blue as the page loads.

I like the design, it isn't the fanciest design but it is nice looking and loaded very very fast for me. It gets the job done basically, I do agree with some of the suggestions above though. With a little more work it could be great.

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Background image - I understand that you want to vary the page styles, but I don't think that the background image you chose is the answer. It doesn't work well as a background - it detracts from the text, and there are big spaces between the tiles (which looks terrible at larger resolutions). IMO, photographs generally don't look good as backgrounds precisely for these reasons. (seamless patterns are okay sometimes though). I think it might be a good idea to use a small, full colour version of the photograph (s) on the actual pages - maybe integrated with the page title. Another idea would be to come up with another Slavic style design element, like a line (to replace the HR) or a left side border (maybe a larger vesion of the one used in the logo). Slavic culture seems to be characterized (to the average person, anyway) by very intricate patterns - maybe you could use this idea more on your site.

Navigation bar - I don't think that my problem is that it is beside the logo per se, but that the two images don't really go together. Maybe you could find a way to integrate the two a little better (besides, this causes the page to scroll horizontally at 640 x 480)

Front page image - no, I didn't get the impression that he was dreaming until you pointed it out (and I don't look at ALT tags on images that aren't links). Maybe the traditional cartoon style balloon with the dots would display this more obviously (although that may not be a suitable look)

HR tags - I don't know, this is just something that's generally not done anymore. A lot of designers use a work-around (like a one-pixel coloured .gif with a large WIDTH and narrow HEIGHT). You generally don't see them on newer designs. A lot of people tend to avoid table borders too. I wish the HTML and/or CSS spec included more options for these elements.

Jeez, the ideas I have for this site keep getting more and more specific - and it's not even mine!

Thanks for all your suggestions. I welcome even more. Some questions for Megs, though. If I stack my logo and navigation bar, they will take up a large percentage of vertical screen space, won't they? I'm so sick of the very contemporary logo across the top-, navigation down the left-style and wanted something a bit different.
The water-drop effect was chosen purposefully to try to communicate thinking or dreaming, like when the television shot goes all wavey (note the alternate text to the image). Does this work--do you get it that the character from whose head the waves eminate is dreaming the other scenes?
Can a style be coherent without being monotonous? I tried to integrate by using the blue from the background that appears deeper in the site in the logo and navagation bar. Basically the site has three levels: a graphic opener, the five category pages which lead to, finally, all the content-heavy pages. I tried to make the first two levels cohere, and was planning on eventually using five different blue backgrounds (same blue, different picture) for the content pages, one for all the pages in each category. Is this workable, and if not, why?
I'm not being defensive. Not only is this my first site in 3 years (yes, that was 1996, Megs, but my design then looked very 1993, so I've come a long way), it is my second site ever. I want to make it good enough that the next work-study student to get the job won't feel like he can come along and wipe it out, like I've just done to my predecessor . . .
Finally, why rule out the horizontal rule? It's cheap, simple, fast, accessible to all, and still a usable design element, no?

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The Coopster