www.foothillsbaptist.org Review

Lots of information, nicely laid out and I'm impressed with the overall design. Some of the images took a little while to load, but I think that's probably my connection. The images are nice and sharp though. You've got loads of links, but not many (or any that I could find) rollover states. These make it really easy for navigation and help people know what to click on.

Also there are alot of instances when you launch a new browser window rather than in the present one. I couldn't work out a reason for this?

Really nice drop down menus, like the transitions.

Background panels good - they help to show the text which is nice and clear.

All in all apart from minor gripes nicely put together site. Except - I notice it failed validation ; ) !

Yikes, those bevels have got to go. All of them. This technique is very outdated. I remember it was all the rage around 1999. Now? Well, it looks like your page was designed in 1999. Also get rid of all those drop shadows and textured backgrounds. That would be much better.

Once you've done that you'll be able to do most of that page with HTML text and not graphics. Graphics aren't good for text for a couple of reasons. First, it could be hard for people to read if they can't change the text size. Second, the search engines can't read them at all, and third, it people on slower connections have to download them all which could take a long time. If you need to use a graphic in the background of the text you should do it as a background on the table cell and then put HTML text on top.

Another major problem I see here is that the bright yellow doesn't go with that purple colour very well. You're mixing a bright neon colour with a more desaturated colour. Turn down the saturation on that yellow a lot and it will look much better.

Good luck with it, and sorry to be harsh!

Whoaaa! On your homepage two thirds of the code is javascript! You can take all of that out, stick it in a single file and just include it like this:

<script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript" src="javascript.js"></script>'

This will instantly reduce the page weight considerably and make it easier for search engines to get to the actual content (plus it will be easier to update because you can update one file and all the pages will update automatically). Same goes for your CSS.

If you must use images for text, at least put alt attributes on them... not everyone can see the pictures. Without alt attributes your page is mostly meaningless.

Aside from that, the design isn't all that bad. Very retro but I've seen much worse.

msaz87, this image:
http://www.foothillsbaptist.org/banners/frontpageBANNER7.jpg
has been selected by these two FireFox extensions: AdBlock Plus + Filterset Updater to be a ad, and ignored it.

My observations:
)> You have a tab that has the name of the web site and a tab that says "home". Why would I need the "home" tab if I have a tab with the name of the web site?
)> I like the news tab section; very nice indeed;
)> The latest "new members"? It doesn't sound good;
)> I like the fact the the forum is not an old PHPBB, but a new VBulletin;
)> The link Information: [email protected] should be clickable
)> All in all, very nice work!

Where Lifes Are Transformed
Nice LoGo & front page

I'm going to go against the grain slightly here and say I think this design kind of works. The design is an out one but so is the church, it's kind of like bringing the church up to the 21st century with a website.

The images as text is bad, on dialup the page takes a long time to load and thats with flash disabled, which I am sure I am not the only one who disables flash so what ever is in the flash box shouldn't be important.
Why the images bad: Do you have anyone in the church that wears glasses, is long or short sighted has epelipsy or other eye related disorder, including old age? With images the text can not be resized, try this or any other site, in your browser tool bar click on view > text size > largest (am sure you'd be using IE), the font on text sites will change to big, does the font change on yours? nope, because its all images. So really you are penalising the people with age or a disability against them.
Whats strange is what you have on your front page, and I quote "... aimed at meeting the needs and interests of all ages, from preschool to senior adult." end quote.

I tried to look at some other pages but the images just took to long to load

Oh and don't forget to put your text size back to normal if you changed it

Your images are way too big (size, not demensions), use Save for Web in Photoshop to make the filesize smaller

I really like the layout. I myself thinks you did a great job on the navigation. The photo albums are way to slow for me, I just dont like slow loading pages. I think it's a great site just a little slow on the photos. I give you a thumbs up. Just remember im not a pro.

Rick

yea why you don't change the picture it will be more attractive

Again, agree with the images as text, pretty much always a no no.

As far as layout, I think you did a fantastic job organizing that much content comprehensivley. Really commendable work there.

If you switched the yellow to an off white, use purple as the content color, and switch from bevels to a box layout, the site could be brought into the now with very, very little effort.

Really, it's a nice layout with a lot of good things going for it, just needs to lose the bevels and switch up the colors a little bit.

msaz87;205095 wrote: Hey,

I have a few sites i might want reviewed.. but to start off, i figured i'd ask for this one.

www.foothillsbaptist.org

This site is a Baptist church in Phoenix, Arizona. I designed and manage it. I used Microsoft FrontPage 2003, PhotoShop and a slew of other programs.

Don't bother telling me it fails validation.. i know that. Really, my approach to design was to find a way to make it work—and it seems to do that.

But, i digress, any comments you guys have are appreciated. Thanks.

Nice banner.

Your boxes are not easy to read. Change the background colors or font or the text in those boxes.
The footer toolbar icons are too big for my taste. The location of toolbar is not standard.

Light colored background boxes (ie tan) with white space separating them where the beveled rounded things are now.

I personally am a bit confused by three whole menus on the front page...

Looks good, but I think there are too much graphics, it's not good at search engine,

Bill