http://www.swfwmd.state.fl.us

Crispy

After just a cursory look, something that bothered me was the lack of navigation on each page. It is very annoying having to go back to the home page to move around the site.

A more minor thing to consider...it took me a few pages to figure out that some of the blue/green headlines were links.

There is a picture of a sinkhole that is absoluetly monstrous in file size. It needs to be compressed/optimized. I'm not sure if it had alternate text?

I love the layout. It is clean, clear, and smart.

Sandy

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Stu Reilly Design
Allegheny Web
Dreamweaver Sites

I don't know if it's just me, but that dark blue you used for the links on the left(main page) is too close to black and strains my eyes....anyone have that problem?

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Brandon's Poetry Corner
Brandon's Brandon's

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

"Ever wonder if illiterate people get the full effect of alphabet soup?" - John Mendoza

First off, thank you very much for the input, and responses:

Regarding navigation on each page, are you suggesting that I have a full site map on each page? This site is over 700 pages and as you can see by the home page it has many, many areas. I just don't see how the entire site can be fully navigated from each page. A link to the site map and a search form are provided on each page.

The blue/green links? Not sure I see your point on this one. What else could they be? The user has to be trusted to figure out some things, I think.

The sinkhole picture, duly noted and fixed. This one slipped by. Oops!

Dark blue links on the home page. My art department color coodinated the links and I don't necessary love them that dark either, but I've never heard anyone complain of eye strain. Hmmm...

Again, thank you for your comments and kind words.

Crispy

The blue/green link-headlines are obvious to you because you built the site. It is not unusual to see similarly different colored areas to be...well...just headlines to differentiate subject matter. That's just my opinion and what I experienced while surfing your site. Keep in mind that not everyone who uses your site will be familiar with web design and may be even more likely to miss those links. Of course, it's your call what you do on your site (except it's not really your site...it's the company/state site and you have to keep their best interests in mind).

I don't think there's anything wrong with the color of the links in the nav bar on the Home page. The only drawback I see regarding link colors is that there are at least five different link styles or colors...could be a tad confusing. The goal of navigation is for it to be a no-brainer. No one should have to hunt for a link.

Sandy

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Stu Reilly Design
Allegheny Web
Dreamweaver Sites

I really like your site a lot, its clean and coherant but agree with Sandy that the naviagtion needs to be a bit more available throughout the site. I accept that there is a link to a site map and a search form on each page and that is good but I think people need to at least see links to the main section heads on each page.

If people enter through the main page they will likely do ok but if they enter on a subsidiary page they may fail completely to realise that they are in the right place to find what they are looking for.

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Katherine

InKK Design
LinKKs - Kilkenny's Online Magazine

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"Dogs have owners, cats have staff!"

[This message has been edited by abbeyvet (edited 06-07-2001).]

For what it's worth:

Clean and crisp looking. really yuo should take a bow.

Navigation - well I found it a bit clunky - see comments above -

95 out of 100 would be my rating if it weren't for the navigation.

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Hope this helps :-)
Gorilla
aka Mark Saunders
http://www.computerdriving.com

marksaunders@techie.com

Oh well, again thanks for the comments.

Crispy

quote:

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I sometimes leave it to the user to be intuitive enough to figure out how a page works

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And therein lies the problem I think. Most users will not bother figuring anything out. They expect it to be instant, obvious, easy and requiring of no effort on their part. If it is not they just go.

quote:

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there was obviously nothing else to click on

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But there was - there are links at the top of each page specific to that section. I just assumed they were the only available links and never moused over anything else.

Users scan for what they want, I read research recently - I really wish I could remember where, it was a link from a Nus Internet Surveys newsletter - that said that if they do not see how to find what they are looking for within 3 seconds of a page loading they are in many case gone. 3 seconds is not a long enough time to figure anything out.

I think one thing to keep in mind is that no page on a site should be more than ideally 2 clicks, or three clicks at most, from any other. Forcing people to go back to a page for the main navigation or to use a site map or a search adds clicks.

One point though is that on you site it probably matters less if the navigation is not perfect. Your users are likely to need what you have and to be unable to get it anywhere else. On a commercial site it would be a much bigger issue.

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Katherine

InKK Design
LinKKs - Kilkenny's Online Magazine

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
"Dogs have owners, cats have staff!"

[This message has been edited by abbeyvet (edited 06-07-2001).]

Ok, so it's a little harsh, but it reminds me to keep my site so a newborn, in theory of course, could navigate my site. Besides, I'm a people too

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Brandon's Poetry Corner
Brandon's Brandon's

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

"Ever wonder if illiterate people get the full effect of alphabet soup?" - John Mendoza