NEWBIE NEEDS FINAL CRITIQUE

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
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G

Guest

Hello,
I am in the process of finalizing my first web site for publishing and was
wondering if some of you would take a look at it with your experienced eyes
and offer me a critique. Don't worry about being harsh -- The only way to get
better is to improve on your weaknesses.

Thanks!
Mike

http://home.comcast.net/~rattyjo22/
 
It's a nice looking page for a first effort. Congratulations.

So much so that I have but two comments -

The page is a bit heavy, at 76K (50K is image weight). Most people shoot
for a target of 40-45K for the first page (which ensures no more than a 10
second download time on a 56k dialup).

When assigning fonts, it's best to use a family of fonts so that there will
be alternate choices if the visitor's computer does not have the one
assigned already installed. In this case -


<font face="Verdana" size="5">If I didn't have Verdana installed, I would
probably see Times or Times New Roman. The very best way to assign fonts
(and sizes, and everything else about the styling of your page) would be to
use CSS. Better get busy on the studies right now!

(P.S. You might want to assign a background color to the page - not all
browsers default to white!)
 
Well these eyes aren't all that experienced, but I'd be happy to share my
thoughts...

I love it! I think you did a really good job on graphics, and excellent
color selection. I'm normally not a big fan of red/black/white together, but
I think it works really well on your site. The navigation is simple and
makes sense.

In reference to Murray's post, I actually have some strange settings on my
computer for windows (I'm a geek), and my default browser background is a
dark color (almost black). So I would go ahead and select a white background
color for all of your pages (you'd be suprised how many sites miss that).

And this is not a big deal at all, but I found the navigation buttons to be
just a bit large for my taste. But again, overall, very good job!
 
And you can optimize your pictures on:
David Story Field
they are:
97,882 bytes
49,054 bytes
101,900 bytes
 
UPDATE: I have gone in and shrunk down the file sizes of the field pictures.
Also, I think I have reset my page background to white. Please check to see
if these things not meet with approval.

On the Schedule page, Frontpage Reports says it is loading slower than 30
seconds at 48 seconds. As you can see, it's merely a table -- Is it the
formatting that is creating this large file? If so, how can I correct this?

Thanks again to all of you and your suggestions!

Mike
 
Mike,

FrontPage is accounting for the graphics that are on the page (Logo, links,
etc..)

If a person goes to your home page first it is not an issue as the graphics
will already be loaded in the browser, but if a person enters your schedule
page first, the graphics will need to load.

BTW: I think you did a nice job with the site, Keep Up The Nice Work and
remember to have some fun with it to!!
 
Personally...I don't like all the white space now, wasn't the bg black before? For me the white leads my eye off the page instead of focusing on the table content area.

....looks great.
 
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