Website opinions

[grbeneke]

I have to update a website for a client and i'm interested in everyone's opinions on what i could do to make it better:

www.masiphembe.co.za

regards

[Arne]

1. Remove the huge background image!
2. Remove the Applet!

I notice the code for the applet in the source code, I don't have Java enabled so nothing was displayed on the site. Other than that, there is no content to make comments on :?

[Proteus]

frames, frames and more frames... (why do I hate a whole frames based website?... am I racist or what?...)

and I agree with Arne too.

[webado]

For some reason the applet is not working for me, so the menu buttons don't load. I have java enabled, so I don't know why this is so. The class file may be corrupted, perhaps it's been uploaded it as ascii instead of binary. Or else, what is supposed to be happening?

The background image, while it may be OK in principle, is not being displayed very well as it s repeated a few times on my hi-res screen.

The frames are really not required, you can design the page to look almost the same or actually better using tables.

And then of course comes the content - which, because of the lack of a working mneu, is missing completely.

[Momo]

Hi,

I found that the buttons you use are Frontpage buttons. And you use frontpage 2000*, which makes them applets in Java. :D I suggest that you remove the frames, since you don't have so many pages and not all browsers support them, and use tables instad. Also, consider upgrading to frontpage 2003 which makes buttons images and uses javascript, like my site. Or, you can design your buttons in Xara X, which also use javascript for the hover effect. :D Check my site to see what such buttons might look like www.themotec.com. My site is not made in frontpage, by the way, and I drew the buttons in Xara. I know that my current site design does not look the best, but I have a new one at http://www.themotec.com/photo (No buttons)

*Saw in source code

[grbeneke]

Well I can't take responsibility for the existing content of the site. I'm not even sure who did it origonally.
It's a special community project that i'm doing for a NPO that my dad is involved in.
It appears - as i was afraid of - that the site will need to be rebuilt right from the bottom :?

I'm also wanting to make the site as accessible as possible:
There are some rural South Africans who are discovering the wonders of computers and internet on as little as a P-I running win95 and a 640x480 screen.
Anything specific i should look out for?

[Arne]

It appears - as i was afraid of - that the site will need to be rebuilt right from the bottom

Not nessecary a total rebuilt :)
When I look in to the other pages (by copy and paste from source to address bar :) ) I noticed that all pages as basically very "simple" with allmost only text content, exept from the horrible background image.

I'm also wanting to make the site as accessible as possible:
There are some rural South Africans who are discovering the wonders of computers and internet on as little as a P-I running win95 and a 640x480 screen. Anything specific i should look out for?

Even more reason to keep it "simple" and easy to access (e.g. dropping the Java). Since y can't use wider content than 600pixels (to fit in 640 pixels screen) I would not use even a two column layout for the pages (with menu on one column)

I would make a horizontal menu in the top of eatch page (drop the frames) and a "back to top" link in the bottom (or repeat the menu in the footer also). Leave the text content as it is with full lines from left to right (600 pixels don't make them very long).

You can also make one column table (or do it with CSS :)), 600 pixels wide and center it so larger screens don't make the lines to long. With this option you can also use a soft background color and a even softer background under the content, so it would look nice after you dropped the current background :)

You also need to edit the code for the content a little bit. E.g. removing all Frontpage messy style codes like "mso-bidi-font-weight:normal" (what the hell is that? :roll: Change the useless meta tags to something helpful for the site, and use headers (h1, h2 a.s.o) for headlines.

Well, you have a lot to do, allmost a total rebuilt after all :D