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amykatherine
Posts: 32
Joined: 9/19/2006
Status: offline
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Please Critique My Website - 9/27/2006 16:55:39
This is my first website to create...not sure I'm doing everything correctly. I would love some suggestions for improvement. Bring whatever advice you may, I can take it!
Thanks thanks!
http://www.hopefamilyministries.com
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Seventh
Posts: 1235
Joined: 8/4/2002
From: The Motor City
Status: offline
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RE: Please Critique My Website - 9/27/2006 23:09:12
DISCLAIMER: This is only my opinion. 
Now that that's out of the way, you ready?
1. Home Page
- The header graphic does not fit the scripture or the name as it reads more like "Come see Montana from a cliff at sunset!" than 'Hope'.
- The page is chaotic, which is anti-hope. It should be more calm, flow easily, and make a person feel the hope. Right now my eyes go all over the page.
- How am I suppose to know that the pictures are links?
- No need to repeat the scripture again. I read it in the header. At least I think I did while I was imaging seeing Montana from a cliff at sunset.
- Counsling should be spelled Couns-e-ling in your navigation.
2. About Us Page
- Why the fuzzy About Us graphic?
- The first line seems to have a line-break.
- Why not have the staff info on this page? It is About Us isn't it?
- The Newsletter link should be on the front page, if not all of them.
3. Finding Help Page
- I would move the first 2 sentences to the About Us page. This page is for finding help.
- I would move the "What we offer" section to the About Us page. This page is for finding help.
- Not quite sure why those particular links on the bottom are on this page. And you can't seem to get to those pages from anywhere else in the site.
4. Counseling Page
- I almost want to say that the Finding Help and Counseling Pages should go together.
- Schedule an appointment should probably be a link to the Contact Us page. That's a personal thing.
- The fading on the graphics makes them look like oversized bevel buttons.
5. Contact Us Page
- It should contain the following in text in preferably this order: Organization Name, Address, City, State, Zip
- A link to MapQuest would be nice as it gives you other options like Zooming In.
- Following the first item above, you wouldn't need the "Where we are located" text. You could put the (across the street from Walls Bargain Center) underneath the organization name as well.
6. Gallery Page
- I have nothing to say about it. It is what it is.
Final Thoughts:
Given the name of "Hope Family Ministries" I would expect that feeling to come across on the site. Currently it seems more chaotic than hopeful. It needs a little more warmth and structure. Here's something to think about. What colors do you see when you think of hope? The pale green color you're using in some of the text is a start.
When I first go to a site it should tell me as quickly as possible what it is you do. Most of the space available to do this has been taking up by quotes, scripture, graphics and pictures.
The individual sections of your site should compliment each other. Right now they're more confusing than helpful.
Pictures can help or hurt your message. Choose pictures that work with you. On the ANGER page you've got two people sitting on a bench in a park. Neither one of them look angry to me. The woman looks bothered, but not angry.
Well, that's my $0.46. By the way, congrats on losing your Web-ginity. That in itself is no easy task and you have done a decent job. You just need to tighten up a couple of things. As Jesse Jackson said, "Keep Hope Alive!"
[bad pun] I know.[/bad pun]
< Message edited by Seventh -- 9/28/2006 18:03:00 >
_____________________________
"go forth and create."
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palehorse
Posts: 5
Joined: 9/22/2006
Status: offline
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RE: Please Critique My Website - 10/3/2006 17:55:05
I also noticed on the gallery page, the title is spelled as gallary.
The page links jump around in position on the page depending on what page I am in, also there is a line running through the links on the home page.
Also, for the graphics you might try Photoshop Elements or Paintshop Pro both I bellieve can be found for around $80.00 which is a little more resonable than the $700 for the full photoshop.
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amykatherine
Posts: 32
Joined: 9/19/2006
Status: offline
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RE: Please Critique My Website - 10/5/2006 15:45:42
I took another stab at it... here is my new site:
http://www.hopefamilyministries.com
Is this better?
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Printable Version 
Thank you all for your suggestions!! I'll get on some of these right away. I appreciate you looking at my site. Question...because we are a non-profit and I have very limited resources (no photoshop, fireworks or anything like that...) I'm not sure if I should go ahead and buy a template. If not, how should I go about designing some better graphics for the site. I don't want anything fancy...just simple, clean, and professional. Are there any tips you can give me design-wise to make a better banner and just make the general appearance clean and better? New and lost pretty much describes me!
