SITE REVIEW: http://www.pmship.com

Hello fellow board members!!

I have a rather different request.... I was asked by an associate of mine to review the work of a web designer that is being considered for a very extensive web development project (will include a massive MySQL database and corresponding PHP Interfaces). I have completed my review, but thought it would hold more value if the work was reviewed by other web designers. (who are not associated with, or have a vested interest in the project).

It would be greatly appreciated if you could take a minute to review any of the following sites: (you can review more than one if desired).

http://www.crosbyhenry.com
http://www.pmship.com
http://www.lenzinsurance.com
http://www.gbrusso.com
http://www.chickeringassociates.com
http://www.wmpn.net

When reviewing a site, please consider some of the following criteria:

1. Download Time
2. Overall Appearance
3. User Friendliness
4. Site Navigation
5. Use of Graphics (including ALT Tags)
6. Proper Use of Meta Tags (including title, keywords & description)
7. Appearance with Screen Resolutions of 800x600, and 1024x768
8. Browser Compatibility (IE 5+ & NS 4+)
9. General Content (is there enough quality information supplied)
10. W3C Compliance
Feel free to give any additional thoughts or comments you would like to offer.

Again, any reviews would be greatly appreciated!!!

J Marsh

A review of http://www.chickeringassociates.com/ca/home.htm

Download Time - Very Fast/ Excellent

Overall Appearance- A pretty good looking site, I think some of the content could be cleaned up a bit.

User Friendliness- Excellent, the layout was very well done.

Site Navigation- Very easy to Navigate, the nav bar was my favorite part about this site.

Use of Graphics- The one thing I didn't like about this site is the orange and blue highland graphics.

Use of Meta Tags (title, keywords & description)- Title displayed properly as: Chickering Associats, Inc.

Appearance with Screen Resolutions of 800x600, and 1024x768- Looked good on both resolutions.

Browser Compatibility- Worked fine both in netscape and internet explorer.

Usefulness of Content- I realy don't see this as the webmasters job, as when I do sites the content is provided for me, but on this site I found the content layout was done well, and I love how the webmaster integrated the pictures into the content on some of the pages, he was able to do this while keeping it very profesional.

I rated this Webmaster as above average.

Thank you for you detailed reply SohoGuy...

I would have to agree that the Navigation menu is pretty good, it has a unique quality to it. Although, if you click on "Web" then click on "Home" you get "Page Cannot Be Displayed".

I did notice when I reviewed the site that after running "Preview in Target Browsers" (through DreamWeaver) it came up with a total of 15 unique errors between IE5+ and NS4+, with the total being 111 instances on the front page. The only other concern I had was the lack of Meta Tags (Keywords & description)

I did have another question you (or another member) may be able to help me with... If you access one of his other sites by going to http://pmship.com (not using the "www."), rather than http://www.pmship.com it goes to a web design site, rather than the clients site. Any ideas on why that would be? Also, anyone know where I could find the statistics on what percentage of internet users leave the "www." off when typing a URL into the address bar? I did find some great stats at http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp but that wasn't one of them... lol


Thanks again for the review SohoGuy!!!

J Marsh

***Added Info***

I probably should have mentioned... I am required to turn in my review, along with the reviews given by Ozzu Forum members by Monday, March 29th. So... if you have any comments about the sites, please get them in!!! I'd like to have at least 1 review for each site if at all possible. The more reviews the better!!! Even if you don't have time to write out a full review, giving your opinion on the poll would be greatly appreciated too.

The PMShip website isn't bad, though I found it quite funny that the logo was a big, bold PMS! Nothing better than PMS!

Lenz & Associates is about average for a typical business homepage. Nothing really catches my eye, but nothing really turns me off either.

The designer should really consider doing away with spacers though. They're a waste of bandwidth and slow page downloads.

Crosby is a bit the same as Lenz & Assoc: Nothing catches my eye, but nothing turns me off either. I would recommend avoiding frames though and use CSS instead to immitate frames.

His other websites are quite good. I rate this guy at about 6/10. You could find better, but he'd work out fine. However, as I said "nothing catches my eye", there's a chance that though he might build a good website, his websites are not good enough to really draw people in. You might want to find someone with a bit more creativity.

I'd hire him for busy-work with html, but I'd go out and get someone a little more professional for the innitial design of new websites.

Thanks for the reviews GSV2COM

LOL regarding the PMS thing... that's the first thing I noticed too!

I also noticed that a couple of his websites were quite simular, and somewhat "template-ish" (new word for the mental dictionary... lol.) I agree with you regarding the Frame issue... plus, Frames usually don't fair so well with search engines. CSS would definitely be the way to go.

The website that is planned is for a County EDC (Economical Development)... The plan is to use the Website as the main interface to draw new businesses and industry into the area. There will also be brochures, flyers, magazine ads, etc... but the Website will be the staple. With that being said, the website will be quite complex with a great deal of information being stored in MySQL databases, and being accessed through PHP interfaces. With the economy in the "slump" that it's in, it is crucial to "catch someone's eye" when trying to persuade them to move their industry into your county.

I really appreciate you taking the time to review all the sites!

Cheers!

J Marsh

Here's an idea: Hire me!

Not a problem as far as the reviews are concerned. I wish I were in your position. I'd love to consider various web developers for various jobs. I'm thinking about getting away from web development and getting into web consulting. Sound fun!

Anyway, good luck.

Naaaahh... stick with Web Development... you'll make much more money! lol Might be looking to take bids on a well designed Flash header for the planned site though.... we'll see was looking at UNFLUX's Flash work (http://www.unflux.com) and all I can say is "NICE!!!... Now there's someone who knows Flash!"

Cheers!

J Marsh

Yeah, he's definitely a flash specialist from what I've seen. I stick more to database development and straight html with css. I get a kick out of making websites for japanese cell-phones too.

I'm off to bed in a coupla mins (4am here, heh), so I just quickly loaded up each URL, and here are my first impressions...

1) This may just be a personal thing, but I'd ditch the splash screens. I HATE sites with splash screens, and from an SEO aspect, they're pretty useless. Anybody who links to you is going to be linking directly to your .com, not the "index-1.html" that the image on the splash screen links to. It's best to actually have content right there on the default page for the domain so that the PR is not wasted by going to a page with no content. Good content + high PR == High rankings in the search engines.

2) Lighten up on the inner bevel bro It's just been done WAY WAY too much in the past, and BIG bevels just scream "Hey, guess what filter/layer effect I just figured out!". Bevels I think are best done when they're only 2-3 pixels wide, depending on the size of the original image.

3) Beyond your control - never name your company "PMS"

So, those are first impressions, I'll have a proper look tomorrow... out of all of them, I have to say my favourite has got to be GB Russo & Son - and that's the only site I went beyond the first page (Ok, so I went to the second page on the sites with splash screens, hehe).

The only thing I would probably change, on gbrusso.com, is in the "Our History" page. Instead of just having a drop shadow, outline each photo in a 1pixel-wide black border, then apply your drop shadow. That will really make those images jump out of the page - specially on such a light background.

Oops, I just read that you didn't design these, and this is a designer you're contemplating.. Sorry, it's late, just skimmed the post and saw a bunch of links asking for reviews

Well, then then pass on what I said to him, lol.

Thanks Axe & Gsv2Com for your reviews

I agree regarding Splash screens, especially when it comes to getting good search engine placement, and having good content to pull visitors in on first impressions. I did notice on a couple of the sites, the only place he used Meta Tags was on the splash screen, but didn't have any body text to support the Meta.

Another thing I noticed is on http://wwwgbrusso.com when you navigate away from the front page, in some places you can't use your BACK button. When clicked, it just refreshed the page you're on. Also noticed 2 of the pages are hosted on a different website (shows IP in the address bar.... ran a tracert on the IP to find out it's a site called "carswithfins.com"... another site he's created.)

Anyway... thanks for the posts guys!!!

Cheers!

J Marsh


P.S. Regarding the "PMS" thing.... there's also another business (restaurant) in the same county named "P. M. Steamers"... they too have "PMS" on their sign!... lol must be an advertising ploy that's way over my head.... lol You'd think for Pere Marquette Shipping Company Inc., they could've at least used PMSC, or even PMSCI, rather than PMS... but who knows....