Attention Rabble! Your assistance is requuested!

[KD Burke]

I havent' been posting much for the past month or so. First holiday duties, then my current project. I've been constructing a new website for the St. Andrew's Society of Jacksonville.

As of this morning, the website is making its debut on the world wide web. I'd appreciate any of you who are able to give it a look and provide feedback.

www.jaxstandrews.org

Please bear in mind that I am NOT aprofessional web developer, and that (with the exception of the slideshow javascript) the entire site was constructed using Notepad. No fancy web authoring software for this lad!

Anyway, please give it a look and feel free to use the "Contact Us" link for feedback.

Constructive criticism always welcome!

Thank you for your kind attention.

KD :ootd:

[The Guy in the Kilt at UC]

Constructive Criticism:

1. The Logo in the top frame is too small and difficult to see. Perhaps you could lose the top frame and simply place the logo at the top of the left frame.

2. Your member photos page has improperly scaled images. You should either drop the ' width="500" height= "300"> ' or set the scale to a correct proportion depending on each image.

3. Your 'Contact Us' link is a direct link to an email address, which is fine if you only want to accept email. Most sites have a page with phone number or mailing address information. If your organization doesn't have that, and you want to keep the link an email address, the I think you should change the wording to 'Email Us'.

4. Purely Aesthetic: The bottom frame dominates more of the frame than it needs to, especially since it is mainly red and the top is mainly black (creates an unbalance). I suggest either scaling or cropping the image to make the frame thinner. But that is just an artistic opinion. There is nothing functionally wrong with the frame.

The website is nice and very informative. You've done a good job thus far.

[BEEDEE]

More constructive criticism:

You need to change the colors for your menu items, they are too dark against the black background.

The logo size has already been commented on.

The use of a tartan across the bottom of the screen takes up valuable real estate and people might not realize there is more information below.

You do not open on your home page, the first page I saw was Breaking News. You might want to consider combining these two.

Brian

[Inchessi]

Constructive Criticism:

1. The Logo in the top frame is too small and difficult to see. Perhaps you could lose the top frame and simply place the logo at the top of the left frame.

2. Your member photos page has improperly scaled images. You should either drop the ' width="500" height= "300"> ' or set the scale to a correct proportion depending on each image.

3. Your 'Contact Us' link is a direct link to an email address, which is fine if you only want to accept email. Most sites have a page with phone number or mailing address information. If your organization doesn't have that, and you want to keep the link an email address, the I think you should change the wording to 'Email Us'.

4. Purely Aesthetic: The bottom frame dominates more of the frame than it needs to, especially since it is mainly red and the top is mainly black (creates an unbalance). I suggest either scaling or cropping the image to make the frame thinner. But that is just an artistic opinion. There is nothing functionally wrong with the frame.

The website is nice and very informative. You've done a good job thus far.

I completely agree with the above statements. More so with the Logo.

[ForresterModern]

I like it. I spent a little over a year in Jax nearly 20 years ago, when I was straight out of training, and was overlooking the downtown from the doctor's dining room at Baptist Hospital almost every day---a beautiful skyline and wonderful city. Almost went back for another job a couple years ago, and still might some day.

More constructive criticism:
1. It may just be me or my monitor set up but I found the fonts generally too small across the board and difficult to read.
2. Aesthetic and purely personal feeling, but it seemed a bit bland, despite the interesting photos. Lacking general ornamentation, a coat of arms, variations in font sizes or colors, etc..., the only real decoration was the unchanging band of tartan across the bottom, which seemed to serve no other purpose. But again, that is just me and my aesthetics.

I am sure a lot of hard work went into the development of the page and you are to be commended for all your efforts in achieving a functional and informative website. But just like buying a new house, now it is time to "move in" and really decorate and flesh out the site. Well done, and good luck.

jeff

[McMurdo]

I'd have to agree with what everyone has said so far. One thing that I try to do with websites is to have some consistency, your Breaking News Page has a green background whereas the rest have a black background I'd consider making the site consistent thoughout. Another thing to think about with the black background and white type is that it is harder to read the text if it is white on a black background.

I'd get rid of the Royal Stewart on the bottom of the page, it really serves no purpose at all.

[Chas]

Hi KD,

Not a criticism, more of an observation. I am quite sure that the people in the Member Photos section know who they are and what they are doing. The rest of us have no idea. If individuals want to keep their identities secret, fair enough, but could we have a place; date; what they are doing and what tartan they are wearing?

Regards

Chas

[KD Burke]

Thanks to everyone who've PMed, e-mailed, or replied! I am grateful for all the assistance.

As a result of your kind attention I've been amade aware of, and corrected, an issue with link colors in Firefox and Safari. I've also made a change to the main page to make the logoa bit more prominent and readable. Phe photos are now allowed to use their native size/shape to prevent distortion.

I'm also not satisfied with the fonts. I'm working that issue still, but it will be a day or two before I can make a final fix.

Captions on the photos will be coming in the days ahead, as well as a photo page for each event.

Thanks again and keep the suggestions coming!

KD :ootd:

[beloitpiper]

A fixed frame with links on the left side is awkward and takes up a lot of space (as does the tartan at the bottom, which has been discussed). What may be easier and a bit more ergonomic is to put the links at the top of each page.

Here's a link to one of the bands I play with. It's a professionally developed site full of good ideas to make yours look as good as possible. As you may notice, our name and logo are always displayed prominently at all times, the links are always in the same spot at the top, and home page and contact info are at the bottom (there if you need them, but never in the way).

[walkerk]

For someone who is not a web developer and using notepad, you've done exceedingly well. The first and last picture on the "Member Photos" page still have forced dimensions which make them appear squashed. The membership page claims the form is in Acrobat format but is actually a Word document (you'll hear from the Mac users. )

Now that you have become the de facto official web developer (and maintainer) for the society, you only need insure that the site can be rendered by every version of every browser ever made. (Looks terrible in Lynx ) You can consider yourself a success if the site never ends up here: http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/