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SITE REVIEW: Horticulture

  • Dr R
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Post January 19th, 2005, 3:13 am

Hi Guys

This is my first attempt at a website so all criticism/ praise would be useful. Although it is a business site, it is not designed to be selling anything, it is just for information purposes

thanks in advance for your comments

http://www.portersfuchsias.co.uk
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Post January 19th, 2005, 3:13 am

  • dojo
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Post January 19th, 2005, 3:47 am

It's not bad for a first time :)
Anyway ... the home page is the most important. Make sure you've got some content there. Present the site and make the visitor wish to spend more time. You've got to lure them to stay :)
The butterflies are nice, but some people could consider them annoying.
For websites Times New Roman is not the best idea. It looks OK on printed stuff, but not too good on the web. We use Arial, Verdana, Tahoma instead.

Since you're new to web design, I would dare recomend you Webmaster Tips and Tricks a site I made in order to help new and advanced webmasters make better sites. I guess there are some useful resources for you too.

I must congratulate you for the site. My first attempt was so ugly, I'm envious :D Good luck with it and don't be shy, ask for help anytime you need it :)
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  • Taylor Hewitt
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Post January 19th, 2005, 5:51 am

The butterflies are fun to click to death.

Yeah it ain't bad really for a first. I mean you should of seen mine. I had no knowledge of html at the time and built it with homestead site builder when it was free :P.

It's a bit tacky tho. Make it more... welcoming or something :P.
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Post January 19th, 2005, 8:42 am

I'll say it again.... great attempt for your first shot at web design! Not bad at all. The previous comments pretty much reflect my thoughts. Try and add more content on the first page, your index. Its very plain. Try and put some content about what your site offers, some images (if available) showing what you do, etc etc...

With regard to the other pages, I notice your background changes. Its not a bad thing if used carefully. Sometimes the constant background shifts can get irritating, and you have to keep adjusting your fonts to make sure that it displays clearly with the background. So maybe, keep a static background. Speaking of static backgrounds, you should make yours fixed to avoid your background shifting when you scroll down. Here's what I mean, in your body tag, add this attribute, bgproperties="fixed". So you end up with <body background="...." bgproperties="fixed">. You'll notice the difference.

The rest looks absolutely fine for a start up project. Maybe in some cases you could reduce the font size, but generally, things look ok. There's definitely some room for improvement but a great job thus far.
  • Dr R
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Post January 19th, 2005, 9:01 am

Thanks for your prompt and kind reviews. I have taken on board your points and they all appear valid. Would I be right in assuming that adding extra content to the index page will lead to making it easior for google to find me, or am I barking up the wrong tree there?
  • jleane
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Post January 19th, 2005, 9:02 am

Not much I can say that hasnt already been said - it is VITAL you get some (i.e lots) content on your front page. Maybe tone down the MASSIVE font a bit, and make sure there are text links to all your pages so all the search engines find them.
  • Mas Sehguh
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Post January 19th, 2005, 10:46 am

Turn images off and look at your site. Use alt attributes and a background color that is similar to your background image.

http://www.portersfuchsias.co.uk/Quality%20policy.htm

Avoid spaces in URLs; they make them ugly like the one above.

Now, maybe you're not responsible for the writing is ranted below, but it is still a problem that somebody should fix -- consider this advice to be directed at whoever did the writing.

Speaking about the above page, it seems laden with buzzwords. Rewrite it without using " Continual Improvement" as the subject of a sentence, and try to go the whole way using the words am, is, are, be, being, been, and become as sparingly as possible. This helps avoid phraseology like "Quality objectives." How are customers to know what the "ISO9001: 2000 standard" is? Explain the standard a bit better, if you can. "Fully integrated and updated quality management system (QMS)" is an example of meaningless BS. Replace it with something less obtuse. Instead of "which ensures that we have a fully integrated and updated quality management system," use something along the lines of "meaning that we do this, this, and that." Why do you give the initialism "(QMS)" if you don't use it anywhere else on the page? And use commas when commas should be used. There isn't a single comma on the page.

(end of discussion possibly directed at somebody else.)

Your staff page (http://www.portersfuchsias.co.uk/Staff.htm) has thumbnail images that are all twisted to the same dimensions, making them distorted and ugly-looking. You should not resize images using the height and width attributes (or CSS). The image file itself should be shrunken down, and possibly cropped a bit.

Then, clicking on a staff-member's image, I get a page with the most absurd and useless Java applet. I had to stop; put my coffee down; and experience a "WTF?" moment before continuing. Get rid of the superfluous java applet and use a regular jpeg image file.

The butterflies should go too. Good alt attributes are essential.

Visually, things look nice. However, I would keep the font size unset, at the user's default, for all paragraphical text.
  • Dr R
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Post January 19th, 2005, 1:16 pm

Sam

Thanks for your pointers-not just praise or criticism, but constructive as well. I shall be working my way through many of the points you raised when work allows.

As for the Quality Policy page, I considered rewriting it but then I realised I hadn't got a clue what any of it meant. Rest assured though I shall pass your comments onto my colleagues and we will hopefully get something that is written in English to replace it
  • koppaspider
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Post January 19th, 2005, 1:29 pm

Thats a good start man, I would suggest changing the top navigation bar to something that is larger and easier to read.. The resoultion is that great. I like the colors and your backgrounds. I really like the down state color of you navigation buttons.. its cool
Rock ON

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