Hello everyone,

I would appreciate your input on the site below.

What do you like about it? Don't like? What changes would you do? Not do? Any security issues?

I've been asked to revamp the site. I see plenty wrong with it, but would really like your point of view.

There is several pages on this site, so please take your time.


http://www.area51xsports.com/


Thank you, Njustice!

Hey man. I like the lay out for starters, I think the colors could be better and the graphics more professional looking. Plus the giant red font on that black background doesn't look so great personally. I think if you did like a light gray, in a border wrapped around the image on the left it'd look great, especially in a smaller font. Those are real simple changes too. That's my 2 cents, good luck.

Hi mrsleep, thanks for your input.

Still I would like to have an in depth analysis.

First things first, moving to the "Critique my site" forum.

Now, on to the site.

Its black. Black is bad MmMmMmK. When you have black background, you end up with horrible font colors like, red, yellow, purple, neon green, and so on.

Its got frames. Frames are bad MmMmMmK. Frames are the root of all evil (or rather they are the work of 12 yr olds who call themselves web designers).

The menu breaks. I refreshed 5 times and each time one of the buttons didnt work. It was a different button each time.

The front page has no consistency. From the first window that opens up, I have absolutely no idea what the site is about. Remember that you have 7 seconds to catch a visitor before they leave. In that 7 seconds, your visitor needs to get an idea of what the site is about.

Also the whole consipracy thing on the front page is crap. The person who wrote that didnt read the law. I have a degree in criminal justice and I can tell you that this law wouldnt touch paintball guns (read the definition of a firearm, rifle, shotgun - a paintball gun is air propelled, not combustion). Having a link on the front page to something like that is fine, but dont muddy up the front page with it.

Also if you want to post news on the front page (or any page), I recommend a php driven news script that you can just insert into the page. As a web designer, it makes your life a whole lot easier.

The forum is a nice touch, however it does not match the site at all. You may also end up with errors trying to make it work inside a frame. Most scripts dont like that.

There is a scrolling text line on the contact page that is out of place. Its funny if you are doing a whole space theme, but the rest of the site isnt done that way, so its out of place.

Oh, there it is again on the membership page. Thats twice and it still looks out of place.

On to the sports link, oh boy, are the monster banners necessary?

I looked into the links on there, they all look the same which is good, but at this point my eyes are starting to hurt from all the neon green. I may not continue much further.

The pictures link is ok. I recommend a different photo gallery, preferrably something with a back end so that pictures can be added as necessary. I have used minigal on a few projects and I use coppermine on my site.

The waivers saves as a .doc file, which is fine, if you have office. If not, you cant open it. I recommend getting a pdf writer (google for free pdf writer) and save that as a pdf so that everyone can print it.

Overall you have a lot of work to do. I would throw almost everything away and start over. Save the content (not color, just content) and completely re-do the entire site.

ScHwErV

Hi ScHwErV, now that's what I'm talking about!


Sure am glad I didn't design that site...


One major thing we noticed was the ProShop page for merchandise isn't secure.


I want to copy and paste everyone's thoughts and ideas (no names included) about the site and include it in my proposal so he can see why the site essentially needs redone completely. Obviously he is being taken by his current webmaster....*cough...cough* and knows nothing about what a good website should look and feel like. I hope he doesn't FREAK when he gets the cost of a redo.


Please if anyone else likes to chime in I'd appreciate it.


Thank you, Njustice!

p.s. the rounds are on me!