Site Ratings & Reviews - Please Critique

Author

Please Critique

Myles Harper

2005-08-03, 11:26 pm

I would like a site critique on my latest website:
http://www.ecrf.org.uk .The flash logo at the top of the page seems to
take a while to load.This wont be a problem on high speed broadband but
it would slow a 56k connection down. I have been having problems with
this in most of my recent work. Any idea what this might be? The
Server? Also any comments on the rest of the site would be appreciated.

saz

2005-08-03, 11:26 pm

In article <1123099455.779789.321300@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
mylesharper007@hotmail.com says...
> I would like a site critique on my latest website:
> http://www.ecrf.org.uk .The flash logo at the top of the page seems to
> take a while to load.This wont be a problem on high speed broadband but
> it would slow a 56k connection down. I have been having problems with
> this in most of my recent work. Any idea what this might be? The
> Server? Also any comments on the rest of the site would be appreciated.
>
>

Why frames?

The Flash at the top takes almost 8 seconds to load on my cable
connection. The Flash is 838kb, which would take about 3 - 4 minutes on
a dial-up. You may want to re-think this.

Beauregard T. Shagnasty

2005-08-03, 11:26 pm

Myles Harper wrote:
> I would like a site critique on my latest website:
> http://www.ecrf.org.uk .

<http://dialspace.dial.pipex.com/pro...attv45/TheECRF/>
?

Hopefully, the framed redirection will go away when you go live?

> The flash logo at the top of the page seems to take a while to
> load.This wont be a problem on high speed broadband but it would
> slow a 56k connection down. I have been having problems with this
> in most of my recent work. Any idea what this might be? The Server?

It loaded quite slow on my 5mbps cable connection. Logo.swf really
sucks, to be blunt about it. 837.05 KB (857144 bytes) is inexcusable.

Try this, and enter your URL:
http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/
Total size: 881944 bytes

> Also any comments on the rest of the site would be appreciated.

Several errors that may affect how it is rendered:
<http://validator.w3.org/check?verbo...attv45/TheECRF/>

Looks silly taking up only the left half or so of my browser window.
http://www.allmyfaqs.com/faq.pl?AnySizeDesign

Why don't you want the Googlebot to index your entire site?
<meta name="ROBOTS" content="INDEX,NOFOLLOW">

I find small, bold text hard to read.

Use percentages for font sizing, rather than pixels, so IE users can
resize if their vision requires it. Set body to 100%, and only deviate
slight higher for headings, and maybe as low as 85% for copyright
notices or other legalese.

Another DreamWeaver job?

--
-bts
-This space intentionally left blank.

Jim Moe

2005-08-03, 11:26 pm

Myles Harper wrote:
> I would like a site critique on my latest website:
>
No DOCTYPE.
Why frames?
Why the Flash logo? Not everyone has a flash plugin, or has it enabled.
Also it's really large.
Inconsistent link behavior. The links at the top of the page have a
mouseover effect. The text links do not.
The body text is too small (13px).
The text size is spec'd in pixels, not resizable in IE. Use % or EMs
instead.
Use heading elements (h1, h2, h3, etc) for the headings. You are
emulating headings with <p> plus a style.
What are the rope shapes about?

--
jmm dash list (at) sohnen-moe (dot) com
(Remove .AXSPAMGN for email)

2005-08-03, 11:26 pm

Myles Harper wrote:

> http://www.ecrf.org.uk .The flash logo at the top of the page seems to
> take a while to load.This wont be a problem on high speed broadband but
> it would slow a 56k connection down.

Why is it fixed width. No need at all.

Never assume that variable size stuff (the text) will stay inside a fixed
size box.

http://users.bigpond.net.au/rf/screenshot/ecrf.jpg

Also, as you can see I don't care at all how long the flash takes to load. I
will never see it anyway. If the content is so unimportant that it can be
hidden inside some random plugin that I do not have then I don't need to see
it anyway :-)

> I have been having problems with
> this in most of my recent work. Any idea what this might be? The
> Server? Also any comments on the rest of the site would be appreciated.

Don't use flash for mission critical content. Hint: Does your telephone do
flash?

<swaps to a browser that supports flash>

As I thought, something I don't need to see. A simple background with a
static image would be far better for you IHMO.

Cheers
Richard.

mbstevens

2005-08-04, 7:23 am

Myles Harper wrote:
> I would like a site critique on my latest website:
> http://www.ecrf.org.uk .The flash logo at the top of the page seems to
> take a while to load.This wont be a problem on high speed broadband but
> it would slow a 56k connection down. I have been having problems with
> this in most of my recent work. Any idea what this might be? The
> Server? Also any comments on the rest of the site would be appreciated.
>

Your markup is invalid according to
http://www.validator.w3.org
You should go there and test it yourself, and correct
the problems that it will show you with the markup.
You can also check your CSS while there.

The page does not have a valid doc type. This can lead to browsers
not knowing how to correctly display your markup, and to the
validator at http://validator.w3.org being unable to
validate it correctly.

Image based navigation is slow to load and not very accessible.
If you feel you _must_ use something like it, use the image as a
background and layer real text over it at a higher z-index.
Be sure any background image is a fast loader, too.

Link mouseovers are written with a big chunk of JavaScript.
That is the old way to do it. Use the quicker loading, faster
working CSS hovers. How old is the reference you are using?
It might be time for an update, and more study of CSS.

There is no need for frames on this site. You are just
preventing bookmarking by your visitors, and making it harder
for bots from search engines to index your site.
--
mbstevens -- aided by critique.py
http://www.mbstevens.com/critique.tar.gz Linux/Unix
http://www.mbstevens.com/critiqueWIN.zip Windows

NewEra

2005-08-23, 10:55 am

quote:
Originally posted by Myles Harper
I would like a site critique on my latest website:
http://www.ecrf.org.uk .The flash logo at the top of the page seems to
take a while to load.This wont be a problem on high speed broadband but
it would slow a 56k connection down. I have been having problems with
this in most of my recent work. Any idea what this might be? The
Server? Also any comments on the rest of the site would be appreciated.

center the page
lose this top part of the page immediatly