I've taken it upon myself to redesign the website of the school where
I teach science in the UK. The site is at
http://www.sciencepages.co.uk/netherstowe. Criticism of the graphics /
design / any small details I've missed are welcome! At the moment,
only the home page and the "about us" section contains any content.

regards,

Richard

Sometime around 30 Oct 2003 16:34:47 -0800, Richard Anderson is reported to
have stated:
quote:

> I've taken it upon myself to redesign the website of the school where
> I teach science in the UK. The site is at
> http://www.sciencepages.co.uk/netherstowe. Criticism of the graphics /
> design / any small details I've missed are welcome! At the moment,
> only the home page and the "about us" section contains any content.
>


Let me guess - you've only looked at the site in IE.  It looks quite
different in my browser.

First, fix the errors in your code:

http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=h...ges.co.uk%2Fnet
herstowe%2F

http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/...2Fwww.sciencepa
ges.co.uk%2Fnetherstowe%2F

You should be using the Strict doctype for new documents, not Transitional.
If you are going to use Transitional, you need to enter the full doctype
(including URI) to trigger standards-compliant mode in most browsers.

Yet another fixed-width, table-based design.

http://www.allmyfaqs.com/faq.pl?Tableless_layouts
http://www.allmyfaqs.com/faq.pl?AnySizeDesign

Don't specify font sizes in px - use em (1 of them) or % (100 of them).

Use logical elements - e.g. <address> for the address.  I can't see any
headings on the page?  Surely your page has at least a main heading, even
if it doesn't have any sub-headings?

From an aesthetic point of view, the menus don't look right - the colours
don't quite match the rest of the site, and they are all isolated in my
browser.

http://devedge.netscape.com has a much better drop-down menu.  Use that.

--
Mark Parnell
http://www.clarkecomputers.com.au

richardje@anderson13.fsnet.co.uk (Richard Anderson) wrote:
quote:

> http://www.sciencepages.co.uk/netherstowe


* there is an almost invisible splotch next to the welcome text
* Same thing at the top - near the word nether
* the menu is crowded and the dropdown text is too small
* This is a website for a school, not merchants - ditch the red tag

The school name and location are curious - "NETHER ... LICHFIELD". It's
kinda sorta like "Tarterus Finishing school, 666 Abyssal lane, ...".

--
Farlo, the Urban Fey Dragon

"Richard Anderson" <richardje@anderson13.fsnet.co.uk> wrote in message
news:d855f22a.0310301634.1dd95894@posting.google.com...
quote:

> I've taken it upon myself to redesign the website of the school where
> I teach science in the UK. The site is at
> http://www.sciencepages.co.uk/netherstowe. Criticism of the graphics /
> design / any small details I've missed are welcome! At the moment,
> only the home page and the "about us" section contains any content.
>
> regards,
>
> Richard


the page looks about the same in MSIE6 and Opera 7.21,
But not good in Netscape 7.1, as the menu bar separates, and in the pull
down, the background does not fill the area, just under the text.

Glenn
--

Some man may think for me, but it is better for me to think for myself.
Henry David Thoreau

Richard Anderson wrote:
quote:

> I've taken it upon myself to redesign the website of the school where
> I teach science in the UK. The site is at
> http://www.sciencepages.co.uk/netherstowe. Criticism of the graphics /
> design / any small details I've missed are welcome!


Look at it in Mozilla. Increase the font size. (I'd give you a screenshot,
but my webserver is readonly until it gets a new hard disk this afternoon)

Its never a good idea to absolutely position one thing under another when
you don't know how long the top most content is. When something contains
text and doesn't make use of the overflow property, you can't know how long
it will be.

--
David Dorward                                       http://dorward.me.uk/

Richard Anderson wrote:
quote:

> http://www.sciencepages.co.uk/netherstowe


Really bad Javascript menus. Try the ones at http://devedge.netscape.com/.

This bit:

<td id="content"><p> <img src="graphics/welcome.gif" width="346" height="35"
></p>
<p><img src="graphics/head.jpg" width="90" height="115" align="right" class=
"imgpadding">“As
the Headteacher of Nether Stowe School I welcome you to our site and
I hope you enjoy finding out about the school as much as I did when
I first joined the staff. </p>
<p>It may help if I share with you two of the things that attracted me
to Nether Stowe:</p>
<ul>
<li>The people - there is a strong sense of partnership between the
governors, the teachers, the pupils and their parents. This can be
seen in approaches to homework, to pupil support and to pupil achievement.
It can be sensed in the classrooms and corridors of the school. The
school prides itself on being a caring environment in which children
can develop academically and socially into fine adults. There is also
a warmth - pupils are friendly, polite and helpful, as I quickly discovered
on my first visit to the school.</li>
<li> The teaching - the school was commended in the Ofsted Inspection
on the quality of its teaching and the high expectations it has of
its pupils. There have been national award for the school's work in
the community and its links with local people. There is also an ambition
to improve still further. It is in this aspects of school life that
I saw most clearly the school's living to its motto:</li>
</ul>
<p><cite>Altiora Peto - Striving Ever Higher !”</cite></p>
<h2 align="right">Ms. J. Ward - Headteacher, Nether Stowe School</h2>
</td>

should be:

<div id="content">
<h2><img src="graphics/welcome.gif" width="346" height="35"
alt="Welcome to Nether Stowe"></h2>
<blockquote>
<img src="graphics/head.jpg" width="90" height="115"
align="right" class="imgpadding" alt="">
<p>“As the Headteacher of Nether Stowe School I welcome you to
our site and I hope you enjoy finding out about the school as
much as I did when I first joined the staff. </p>
<p>It may help if I share with you two of the things that
attracted me to Nether Stowe:</p>
<ul>
<li>The people - there is a strong sense of partnership
between the governors, the teachers, the pupils and their parents. This
can be seen in approaches to homework, to pupil support and to
pupil achievement. It can be sensed in the classrooms and
corridors of the school. The school prides itself on being a
caring environment in which children can develop academically
and socially into fine adults. There is also a warmth - pupils
are friendly, polite and helpful, as I quickly discovered on
my first visit to the school.</li>
<li>The teaching - the school was commended in the Ofsted Inspection
on the quality of its teaching and the high expectations it
has of its pupils. There have been national award for the
school's work in the community and its links with local
people. There is also an ambition to improve still further. It
is in this aspects of school life that I saw most clearly the
school's living to its motto:</li>
</ul>
<p><em>Altiora Peto - Striving Ever Higher !”</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p><cite>Ms. J. Ward - Headteacher, Nether Stowe
School</cite></p>
</div>

After the date, you have   -- this should have a semi-colon,  

Tables for layout haven't been a good idea since... well, they've never
been a *good* idea... but they haven't even been a reasonable compromise
since the late 90s.

This bit:

<div id="banner"><a href="index.php"><img src="graphics/netherstowe.jpg"
alt="Back to home page" width="700" height="65" border="0"></a></div>

should be:

<h1 id="banner"><a href="index.php"><img src="graphics/netherstowe.jpg"
alt="Nether Stowe School" width="700" height="65" border="0"></a></h1>


and this bit:

<p>Nether Stowe School<br>
St. Chad's Rd.<br>
Lichfield<br>
Staffordshire, UK<br>
WS13 7NB</p>

should be:

<address>Nether Stowe School<br>
St. Chad's Rd.<br>
Lichfield<br>
Staffordshire, UK<br>
WS13 7NB</address>

And you should really be using a Strict DOCTYPE, rather than Transitional.
XHTML 1.0 Strict would be a good culture-shock for you.

--
Toby A Inkster BSc (Hons) ARCS
Contact Me - http://www.goddamn.co.uk/tobyink/?id=132

In message <d855f22a.0310301634.1dd95894@posting.google.com>, Richard
Anderson <richardje@anderson13.fsnet.co.uk> writes
quote:

>I've taken it upon myself to redesign the website of the school where
>I teach science in the UK. The site is at
>http://www.sciencepages.co.uk/netherstowe. Criticism of the graphics /
>design / any small details I've missed are welcome! At the moment,
>only the home page and the "about us" section contains any content.
>
>regards,
>
>Richard


Looks nice, except that only the body text can be varied in size.

There are a few problems when the 2 pages are 'looked at' in a screen
reader:

Opening Page
============

The phone/fax/email images have no ALT text, so it's impossible to tell
what the numbers are.

The address has missing punctuation which makes it difficult for the
reader to tell where to pause.

The 'welcome to nether stowe' is invisible as it's a graphic with no ALT
text; it should also be a heading.

'Ms. J. Ward - Headteacher, Nether Stowe School' is marked up as a
heading when it clearly isn't.


About Us
========

All headings are <h1>; it would be better to have the 'nether stowe
school' as a <h1>, 'about the school' (which is currently not marked as
a heading ... it's a .gif with missing ALT text) as a <h2> and the
others as <h3> .... except for 'Altiora Peto - Striving ever Higher.'
which is quite clearly not a heading.


Others
======

'ths' should be 'this'
'has being' should be 'has been'

You might want to consider marking up the abbreviations and acronyms in
use.


--
Jake

Thanks to everyone for their help and for pointing out issues with the
pages - I've made some of the simpler improvements that people have
suggested. I have resolved to look in more detail at coding issues
(i.e. Strict vs. Transitional) and the use of layers / tables over the
coming weeks. I celarly still have lots to learn!

Thanks to everyone who took the time to offer help.

Regards,

Richard

Sometime around 5 Nov 2003 15:56:00 -0800, Richard Anderson is reported to
have stated:
quote:

> Thanks to everyone for their help and for pointing out issues with the
> pages - I've made some of the simpler improvements that people have
> suggested. I have resolved to look in more detail at coding issues
> (i.e. Strict vs. Transitional) and the use of layers / tables over the
> coming weeks. I celarly still have lots to learn!


Good stuff. The menu looks much better in Mozilla now. Look forward to
seeing the site in its next iteration. :-)

You might want to check the site out with Javascript disabled though - not
a pretty sight!

--
Mark Parnell
http://www.clarkecomputers.com.au

"Richard Anderson" <richardje@anderson13.fsnet.co.uk> wrote in message
news:d855f22a.0310301634.1dd95894@posting.google.com...
quote:

> I've taken it upon myself to redesign the website of the school where
> I teach science in the UK. The site is at
> http://www.sciencepages.co.uk/netherstowe. Criticism of the graphics /
> design / any small details I've missed are welcome! At the moment,
> only the home page and the "about us" section contains any content.
>
> regards,
>
> Richard


Richard,
Looks really nice, but I would recommend a white background. The yellow does
not complement the great design.
--
Bonnie Granat
http://www.granatedit.com