Site for Registered Charity

M

Marion

Thihs is NOT meant to be an ego trip, but I would appreciate some feedback
and suggestions - including how to carry them out, please!- We just want
something simple but effective. The site is just for publicity and
information. There is no intention to sell tickets online. Thanks to anyone
who can be bothered to post an assessment. If you think it is reasonable as
it is, fine.
 
P

P@tty Ayers

Hi Marion,

It's quite decent, and I'm sure will serve the purpose just fine. A couple
of constructive criticisms:

(1) To me, the background graphic adds nothing aesthetically, and makes
everything harder to read. It also gives the site an amateurish look. I
would just remove it completely.

(2) Every time I clicked through the navigation bar links and got to
"Manager", I had to watch my email program open up, even though of course I
had no intention of sending an email. This is kind of irritating. "Manager"
gives you no clue that this is an email link. I would make a "Contact Us"
page with the email link on it (and maybe other contact info, while you're
at it) and label the navigation button "Contact Us".

(3) The text links at the bottom of the page look funny (to me)
left-aligned, when most everything else on the page is centered. I'd center
'em.

Other than that, it's fine. The pages load quickly, it's easy to navigate
around, and there's plenty of actual useful content.

Hope that helps,
 
M

Marion

It is very kind of you to bother, Patty. Your comments are very helpful. I
have altered "Manager" to "Contact Us," as you suggest, and when I have more
time I might well make the button open up a contacts page - good idea. I
shall tussle with myself about removing the background image; it took me
absolutely ages to create it and our punters sort of like it. I have been
trying to centre the text links at the bottom, but they just don't want to
move. I did have glow buttons there, but those people who access the site
from work complained about the java script. Actually, I did think they
looked rather amateurish too. You are probably right about the background -
keep it simple. Don't have any ideas about how I can properly centre the
links in the bottom navigation bar, do you??

Have just answered my own question before posting - I took out "specify
width" in cell properties and fiddled with the grid lines (I make no
pretensions about being an expert when I am clearly not!)
 
M

Marion

1. The background graphic has gone (except for the Home Page - I wanted to
keep a bit of it in!) You are right - if it is difficult to read the
graphic is a nuisance. Tell you what as well - site summary now says I have
NO pages slow to load; that HAS to be a bonus.
2. There is a new Contact Us page, where you can open your email client if
you want to.
3. The text links in the bottom navigation bar are now all centred.

Thank you very much for your input.
 
T

Trevor L.

I have little expertise but as they say "I know what I like", and this looks
very nice.

I do like the background - it doesn't take too long to load on ADSL, which
can often be a critcism.

One question I do have. Why are the links to other pages *both* on the left
and at the bottom. They look quite good in both places, but I think I would
put them in only one place.

Is Ilkley the same place as in the song "On Ilkley Moor Baat Haat" (or
however it is spelt)? I visited England lastyear, but I am not sure where
Airedale is. We went through the Lakes District - I suppose that is North
England, but whether close or not, I don't know.
 
M

Marion

Thank you Trevor. Yes, it certainly is the same - and only I think - Ilkley
as in the song. Wharfedale is to the north of Ilkley Moor and Airedale to
the south. It is an area of great beauty. The Lake District is beautiful
as well. It is about 50 miles further west than Ilkley.

Well, anyway, thanks for the tips. I have tried having a plain background
and I think it looks better. It certainly loads faster on my dial up modem
(here in rural north England we don't yet have broadband!) I have put the
links on the bottom as well as on the left because on the longer pages you
would have to do a lot of scrolling up to get to the links to other pages.
 
P

P@tty Ayers

The changes look good - although the bottom text links are still
left-aligned for me (Firefox 1.0.4).

Glad if I was able to help!
 
M

Marion

Thanks Patty - it was impartial help I wanted; you can't tell how a person
feels about a site they haven't seen before unless you ask someone to
evaluate it. Don't understand the alignment - the bottom links look centre
aligned on my Browser (IE6)
 
G

Geoffw

Hi Marion


I had a quick look

I would suggest that you rethink your navigation and have
the nav bar in one location only, probably IMO, in the left
column.

f you really wanted something in the bottom border perhaps a
link to the contact page (centered) and a little bit of
standard consistent information eg address details and the
charity info or a logo.

I use 1024 by 768 and I found the text information to be
difficult to read, perhaps the table it is in could be
centered and made narrower - is it in a table ? perhaps the
left and right margins could be made wider

Geoff
 
M

Marion

Geoff -- thanks so, so much. Impartial opinions are so valuable. You are
the second person to suggest I should take out the navigation links from the
bottom and so I have. Do you think that is better? Not sure what you mean
by address details. I have added 20 pixels to the left margin - is that
better, or should I increase it. I do realise it is a site no one would
bother with if they weren't interested, but I owe anyone who is the courtesy
of making it as easy to read as possible.
 
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