Design And Content... Please!!!

[Gon]

Well, I've recieved GREAT info on another post I placed here a few days ago, so now I'm going to ask for some advice on my web site.

First off, I DEFINITELY know there are some "technical" problems with the site. I'm TRYING to fix that. What I'm looking for is advice on content, layout and design as opposed to the technical advice on the problems I know I already have.

Churubusco Fire Department (http://www.buscofire.com)

[MandyJay]

Hiyah,
I like the design, I think its great. Two items struck me when first seeing your home page. The right hand border only has the "Add Me" in it, the rest of it is empty, with the left hand border being full. Unless you are going to add to the right hand border, you could try and balance it a bit by moving some things from the left over to the right.

Your "Incidents" and "News and Information" look unbalanced. I would have preferred to see the headings on a level with eachother, and a little more between heading and graphic.

Your apparatus page, the graphics on the left, I could not really make out the picture, very dark, maybe my monitor, don't know. I had a look at Pump 209, and again the picture was rather dark. Your image editor programme should be able to lighten those up considerably.

Content was very interesting, will have another look when I have more time. to me, if the layout is just tidied up a bit and images made clearer, you've done a good job.
My 2 penny worth anyway!! :furball:

[Gon]

Ahh yes, forgot about the two titles being off centered. Thanks for that. And yes, you're right, on the apparatus page, EVERY single person who has critiqued the site has had the same opinion. MUST change that right away!!!!

[IrishHotdawg]

don't know iif this was covered the other day but when the site is opened at 1024*768 to full screen it right aligns the table. maybe this would look better centred?
te text buttons on the left are hard to read against the backround colour...
otherwise a great looking site...
Mike

[IrishHotdawg]

actually, jst came across the stats page.. the columns seem a little off from each other..
it starts at 2 columns, then the monthly incident total is off center but not quiet left aligned, then the next colummn is centred, then the last one is left aligned? maybe the monthly and yearly could be put side by side?
:flame: man on fire, just for u

[IrishHotdawg]

I could have waited and put all this on one post eh?!!!

http://home.att.net/~ctst/album_2.htm

the pics, are they supposed to link to bigger copies, because they're far too small. hard to see

http://home.att.net/~ctst/news.htm

this page, the huge gap between the stories is a little weird.
oh, and u said browser around instead of browse...

:cool: :furball: :cool:
Mike

[johnanthony]

I’d like to start some discussion about web design and layouts. I’m definitely not the best web designer, but I have some very strong opinions about web design and I think these ideas are good for new designers.

I look at web design in simplistic terms. About two years ago, I read an article in the Boston Globe about a local company that studies the eye movement of people looking at web sites and they sited IBM’s website (www.ibm.com). For some reason, the designer made a decision to place a flower in the upper right corner of the site and it was determined that peoples eyes jumped to the flower when they viewed the site. What does a flower have to do with IBM? Nothing. They removed the flower.

Second and in my opinion, most importantly they pointed out that IBM’s home page took up only one page (actually, slightly more). Think about all the products they offer and they were able to create a simple home page.

Here are my recommendations:

1.) Keep it simple.
2.) Determine the most important message you want to convey it make sure people can’t miss it.
3.) Keep the home page to a single page.
4.) All other pages (which I call secondary pages should have the exact same layout and links for ease of navigation.

Having stated that, you would be amazed how difficult it is to keep things simple. I’d appreciate thoughts and feedback.

[MandyJay]

Hi,
Actually I agree with what you say - but, easier said than done always. I think also it depends what your site is all about as to whether you keep home page to single page or longer. The home page, is after all, the doorway to the rest of your site. If your site contains a lot of different information, then I think somehow that needs to be got across on home page, even if it means making page bigger. But I do agree keep home page neat and simple ..... in other words .... do as I say, not as I do!! :D:

[Kandicav]

Hi! I am not really going to critique your site, dont feel like I am good enough to do that as I am just starting out. I do want to say that I like your site, it is very touching. I did however find one typo. Where it says We've done it again. Please feel free to browser around. Is it supposed to say browse around. It sounds a little strange the way you have it.