per your request .... RE: ANST - Homepage

[j'lynn yeates]

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> FINALLY-  
> Got the new and improved homepage finally up.  Only took 
> me three months to figure out HTML and still don't have all the
> bugs out.   BUT- it's up and running at
> http://_baronman.homestead.com/homepage.html If you veiw it,
> especially those experienced with making 
> homepages, drop me a e-mail with what I can do to improve it.

not at all a bad site ... did a quick look-over and added a bookmark
for a more detailed exploration when i have some time (on break from
building a raid-array at work) but here's some "first impression"
comments per your request

* i *applaud* the addition of a audio "switch" at the top of the page
as a first load item (good common sense design).  personally, i would
leave off the music, or set it default to off and let the visitor
activeate it if they wish for the following reasons:
- - a lot of people are surfing/visiting on cube-time (work) in a quiet
environment (and or school or library) and the audio can be a
annoyance
- - audio tends to break/crash older browser versions and your primary
audience (scadian)is notorious for clinging to out-of-rev browser
software (i call it "the wall of Lud" ... grin)
- - music on pages as background is considered by many a unnecessary
annoyance at best and will turn away visitors

* design comment ... the torch gif's are so common that they have
become almost manditory on scadian sites.  if it were me, i would
retire them and look for something unique to replace them with ...
tons of available stuff out there.  i rather like the flags ...
haven't seen that one used much

* the "entry" that leads to the actual page (the second one with your
photo's) is a excellent design, though some of the graphics did not
load in the "visitor scan alloted" time.  good rule of deign, make
the first level a "title" page designed to load fast, explain the
site, and grab the visitors attention so that they are interested in
exploring deeper, more graphically/information rich levels (depending
on what you are presenting).  ergo, keep complex grahics in that
entry level to a bare minimum and consider removing the audio loops
as they really slow loading on slower systems (again, a common trait
of your target audience who you are designing for).  

* on the title page, make sure you have a well written, textual
"abstract" (the who/what/where/why) of the site if you are interested
in the listinsg that the index "spiders" create.  most will only scan
and index from the text data they locate on that first level.

* second tier, upper part looks pretty snazzy, but the bottom
sections are not as "balanced" (more dead space than the top).  this
becomes noticible and disturbing as you scroll down.  i would break
these into seperate pages.  humans are programmed to digest about a
8.5x11 "page" of related data at a time.  this usually equates to
about one browser page down.  anything more, consider breaking it
into sepearate pages or index the subsections with top level links (i
usually suggest that the web-spinner use frames if possible and put
those page / section links in a static frame for easier navigation.

* another frame trick, create one "index frame" that is consistant
for all pages.  a consistant navigation reference makes all the
difference in web-site ease of use.

* might also suggest devleoping "style's" ... create a master style
for all the display pages and then add the information to it. 
creates a consistant display" of all your pages

* the color choices are far better than most.  the contrast between
the forground and background makes it quite readable, though on a
true-color display the background is rather saturated.  i would
recommend that you tone it back just a bit to a lighter, less
saturated ... 

i'll go away now (grin)... back to disk setup

'wolf

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