http:\\www.the-english-service.co.uk.

It is my first attempt at creating a site. I would be grateful if you folks on the forum could please have a look at it and tell if it is ok and what else I can do to improve it.

Thanks

------------------
Gordon Scobie
The-English-Service.co.uk

Anyways, I'm on cable. 556 kb/s linespeed, but even then your site took three or four seconds to load, it's not that much, but it may take some time to load for 56k'ers and those with lower speeds....

At first I thought you had made those hover buttons in FP, but they appeared to work both with Netscape (6.0) and with the newest version of Opera.

The site overall looks very nice and is not at all disturbing to look at. You could have made a better navigation system for it though (Thinking about the subcategories like "Academics", "Authors" and so on.).

And maybe, just maybe, a bit more "fancy" logo would improve your site even more.

Overall, it was very good though!

[This message has been edited by AnaMorph0s|s (edited 04-18-2001).]

My hosting company is in the UK - could this be the problem?

Can you try and load a few times more and let me know if you are still getting the same results.

I have tried to reduce the size of the pages as much as possible to make them load quickly. However, if my hosting company is letting me down then I'll be a bit annoyed.

I take your point about the logo. I have no knowledge or experience of graphics or logo making applications and will need to read up and try and get a better logo produced - any suggestions would be helpful.

I also take your point about the navigational structure. Have you any suggestions for improving it?

Regards,

Gordon Scobie
The English Service

The text in the blue box came out in Times New Roman - is that correct?

If you're going to have a visible hit counter - cheat a bit and start it off at 1000...

------------------
Regards

Olds442

- The trouble with the rat race is - even if you win you're still a rat!

American Autos UK Directory

Anyway, once you have visited your site the pictures and buttons gets saved on your harddrive. That way, the page will load much quicker the next time you visit it. I deleted my logg today though and the page didn't take long time to load at all. Not even a second.

About the logo: I use Adobes PhotoShop 6 for my website. ( http://hjem.sol.no/brdl2/?noframe ) My site is just a "beta" BTW... PhotoShop is really expensive though. I cheaper but still a good option would be Xara 3D or Xara Webstyle. You could download a trial of them/it here: www.xara.com . It is very easy to use and makes awesome logos.

About the navigation system. Maybe a menu on the right with the different cathegories could lead to a subcathegory menu on the top (Under the logo). Thought about using DHTML or JavaScript`? Go here for great DHTML menus: www.bratta.com

Good luck with your site!

I'm glad that is seemed snappy enough. I think that 7 seconds is a bit slow. I had hoped for a shorter time.

...The text in the blue box came out in Times New Roman - is that correct?....

I had not really thought about the font and have just used the default font and so I suppose it will be TNR. Have you any other sugestions for nicer fonts?

...If you're going to have a visible hit counter - cheat a bit and start it off at 1000...

The hit counter is only there while I am testing and having the site looked at. I have not given it to any seach engines or directories yet. I'll only do this once I am happy with it. Once I start to promote the site I'll remove the counter.

Thanks for your comments. They are helpful.

Gordon

Gordon

First of all, as good as Photoshop is, there are other, cheaper alternatives, especially for a beginner. Photoshop is a high-end product.

You definitely need to lose the hover buttons. Plain text or JavaScript are the best alternatives.

I agree that you need to dress your site up a little, and a graphic header would be a good start. If you purchased FP as a stand alone product, Image Composer was included. Office Premium 2000 included PhotoDraw.

I would recommend getting rid of the borders around your tables. They give an "unwieldy" appearance.

Hit counters are frowned upon for professional sites. Besides, they are inaccurate. It would be better to see if your host provides the ability to view stats, or at least the log files.

Finally, I would recommend proofreading your text, especially with the service you are offering!

Good luck with the site.

Sandy

------------------
www.alleghenyweb.com

Thanks. I will get rid of the hover buttons. A number of people have said that they should go. I now have a list of things to fix and it'll take me a while to get all of them done. I'll certainly need help with the logo at some stage.

You mentioned javascript. I have heard of it but do not really know what it is. I'll need to look into this as well.

Thanks for your advice. It is appreciated.

Oh yes, I did notice some of the poor sentence construction and have fixed some of it. I'll need to check the whole site before I start to promote it. But it is really at an early stage.

Thanks...

Gordon

Regarding the fonts, verdana, arial and helvetica (for macs) are the usual font set - they are more rounded and wider than TNR so on screen they are easier on the eyes.

Regarding the download time - seven seconds is very good, especially as you have something to read during that time. Mine is slower than that, but to be honest the only sites that make me leave the site before it's finished loading are the ones where you wait for ages to see nothing but a photograph or massive logo with an 'enter' button.

I've been revising my first page continuously (see Opera? Gil? post) for the last couple of weeks to improve things and I think it's going to change to the new one this weekend...

Good luck

------------------
Regards

Olds442

- The trouble with the rat race is - even if you win you're still a rat!

American Autos UK Directory

------------------
Brandon's Poetry Corner

"Somewhere between my brain and my fingertips." - A MysticNight original (I hope)

Download speed is ok - but remember if you are for example aiming at academics that there are a lot of people out there on old slow machines.

Please read the rest of this bearing in mind that it's posted as :-)

First off go here:

http://www.sun.com/980713/webwriting/index.html

*Please* change the link style on your start page. The underlined links are a web standard yes but they distract mightily. You do want people to read your start page 1st don't you? :-)

Lose the link counter - imagine this scenario:

I arrive @ your site. I need a proofreader.
I take one look and say:

"They've only had 81 visitors? - I'm out of here."

What you might find helpful to do is this:

Write out on separate good old fashioned paper pages the main points for each "main page" on your site. Put them on the floor. -

Now - Walk through your site.

Anything missing?

How does someone interested in only one service get from your start page to the page they want to read?

For your start page - try to compress it all a bit What I'm getting at here is try not to make your vistor hit the page down key the momemnt they hit your site.

It looks good ( very good if it's your 1st attempt btw. )

Hope all that helps.

Gorilla

(aka marksaunders@techie.com )

The counter is going - after I have finished the site.

Regards

Gordon

I will be losing the hover buttons - but do you have any alternatives to suggest?

I agree that you need to dress your site up a little, and a graphic header would be a good start. If you purchased FP as a stand alone product, Image Composer was included. Office Premium 2000 included PhotoDraw.

I'll need to get some time to create a proper logo - but it takes time and I have no design flair.

I would recommend getting rid of the borders around your tables. They give an "unwieldy" appearance.

Is this because you are viewing the web pages with Netscape Navigator? I know that it looks horrible in 4.7 - but have been told that it looks good in Netscape 6 and the latest version of Opera.

I have the borders in the tables to bring the text away from the edge of the tables. Does it look unweildy in Explorer?

I'll have a look at the package. Thanks for the info.

About the navigation system. Maybe a menu on the right with the different cathegories could lead to a subcathegory menu on the top (Under the logo). Thought about using DHTML or JavaScript`? Go here for great DHTML menus: www.bratta.com

I have cracked my head thinking about a navigation system. I'll crack it a bit more.

Thanks.

Gordon

Keep the underlined text.
Instead of loosing the underline, add more text after the linked part.
Businesses - reports, proposals, letters, press releases
Students - college, university, and high school students

note: you have two links going to Students. Also, be sure not to have any spaces in your file names. Use_underscores.

Linda

------------------
Ruby Marketing
New Frontpage Web Templates: Rose1 (Invitation) and White Rose