SITE REVIEW : www.djandyg.com

Hi,
This is my 1st attempt at a website for a friend. Please can you give me some constructive criticism on what needs improving?
I'm thinking of adding a short flash intro and maybe some background music on the home page.

Also I'm using frames and seem to be having problems with search engines finding my site?

Any suggestions will be very much appreciated.


http://www.djandyg.com
Cheers

I read your post and i really like your ideas.

I think a page should pop up when you visit this site, and give a description of what to expect.

When i first came to this site I did not know how to use it or how to join.

I think if you explained it more thoroughly, you would get more members.

For more suggestions E-mail me at condeni08@yahoo.com

Peace

This belongs in the review forum? * But I must point out,

DON'T ADD A FLASH INTRO

DON'T ADD BACKGROUND MUSIC

The reasons for these attention-grabbing, well-hollered opinions are as follows:

Flash introductions do nothing to add to the site. They merely say, "look what I can do!" Unless the site is expressly made for the purpose of showing off your Flash Power, a Flash intro will only waste your user's time and bandwidth.

Background music is also an idea that should not be implemented, as it will do one of these four things:

1. Get downloaded but go unheard.
2. Get heard, but interfere with the music the visitor already has playing.
3. Get heard, but be disliked by the user.
4. Get heard and enjoyed by the user.

Given the wide-ranging tastes in music these days, even with the relatively focused audience your site may get, the probability of number four is not going to be more than ten percent. Also, even if the user does like the music, it is much more polite to offer the music as an optional download, to be played at the user's discretion.

* If the discussion ends up in the direction I've replied in, then no.

Before I give you my thoughts, get a mod to move this to the review section, then Follow the rules posted for review. THEN i will comment.

Under Gallery you have Photos from Cork Ireland, might want to list those photos in another category. Not under UK.

Gumbos...ummm I hate to be the one to tell you this, but your avatar is really offensive. The moderators are trying to run a proffesional Web Forum, and your avatar isn't really going along with that theme. If at all possible, could you change it please?

Ok sorry. Didnt mean to offend anybody.

No sweat. I didn't mean to be picky

Not bad. Pretty easy on the eyes. Ideally, i think it would be better if you did not have a background picture on the diary page because it clashes too much with the color of the text, or perhaps shade the image a bit in photoshop so it doesn't have such an intense glare.

The best websites i have seen have always been nicely forged with the surrounding color of the page. if you could somehow mold the sides of the pictures to match the black...like dissolve into the black, that would be spectacular.

and one last thing....maybe a smaller intro picture...not one this big, although the attention needs to be on it, this just sticks out a lot...that is just a suggestion i think would fly...no one need agree.

Thanks for the suggestions. I will have a look and make some changes.
The reason I wanted back ground music is to show the tunes DJ Andy G has produced. I would have a button to turn the music off though.
Also if I had a flash intro I would have an option to skip it.

OK I've got some problems which I'm sure would be easy to fix if only I knew how. Hopefully you guys can point me in the right direction!

1. How do I have a background image with text over the top (see my bio page as an example) that stays static while the text scrolls down as you read it?
At the moment the background picture scrolls with the text!

2. Meta data. OK I'm really puzzled here. I've filled in all the meta data on my index.htm but when I view source on homepage I'm not seeing my code. I can't find the file that it relates to?

3. Also I don't want the background image to tile no matter what resoluton you viewing it in. How can I do this?

4. Is it possible to have a text over an image which uses negitive colour font to whatever the background is?

I use Dreamweaver MX!

Do you think my site would be better if I re did it without using frames?
If I don't use frames how can I insure that the top navigation part stays inline on every page?


Do you have any examples? Which pages of mine do you think this would work best on?



I can't see how I could make it more basic to use? And there is nothing to join? Although I might add a mailing list once I'm happy with the rest of the site.


With regards to background music I think I'll just add a page where music can be streamed. Although I have no idea how to go about this yet.

Read this thread on using frames for your site

http://www.ozzu.com/ftopic32627.html

Use a CSS rule, background-attachment: fixed;



What meta data are you "filling in"?



The CSS property, background-repeat: no-repeat;



No.



Uh... good?



I'd answer yes.



What do you mean by "inline"? The word has a special meaning in the field of markup languages, so I want to make sure I know what you mean.



This advice comes from the school of thought which dictates that the quality of a website is directly proportional to the number of Photoshop's features it shows off. I say ignore this.



Usability-wise, the site is very good -- his comment confuses me as well.



That would be a neat idea.



I'd recommend having a button to turn the music on, instead of the other way around, but ok *. Make sure they can see the button easily, though.

* Having a button to turn of the music is admitting that some people will not like it, that you know the visitor will be annoyed but you're turning it on anyway. Psychologically, starting with the music off and suggesting that they might like to turn the music on could be better for business. Not to mention more user-friendly. Just a theory

This website is way to plain

Yeah, you should load this five-page site up with huge graphics and convoluted navigation or else visitors will get the information they want easily and quickly.