Erika
Are you sure, really sure that you want criticism?
please don't take this personally, the site is a good first attempt.
All comments in my humble opinion of course.
this is based on a short 15 minute tour of the site.
Home page
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The background doesn't work, it is too distracting. If you want a
watermark effect then you need to ensure that the image tiles without
emphasising the rectangular nature of the tiling, The grid of castles
simply repeats the main picture so why have the main picture - or the
background.
also the background shows up a blank section around address which although
intentional looks accidental.
recommendation. don't bother with the background image, it adds to the
initial load time and makes the text more difficult to read, interfering
in places with the letters and whitespace.
You need to think about the screen sizes that people are using. The first
page on my screen looked like a dead end as there were no clickable items
on it. Not everyone will notice the scroll bar indicating that there is
more below.
My general advice is to treat the first page like the cover and contents
section of a book. it needs to load quickly, communicate to the reader
that they have reached the right site and act as a clear navigational
point for the rest of the site. you should be able to get all content onto
single screen.
recommendation.
re-arrange the page so that all the key text is visible, remember that
people may arrive at the site knowing nothing about St Andrews - even
which country it is in, the web is your window to the world.
move the map to a separate 'find us' page along with contact details
opening times, entrance fees etc.
Arrival Gallery page
--------------------
consider combining this with the home page. as its main purpose seems to
be to link to the other galleries.
Nice picture but it doesn't need the red border, it would look better
runing free.
you say
"Such a rich and complex story cannot be told in detail here, so we have
had to be very selective. "Arrival" focuses on mediaeval St Andrews and
the period from 1840 to the present day."
Actually web sites are quite a good way of telling a long and complex
story.
it isn't clear whether you are referring to the web page or to the museum
itself.
your main subject areas, mediaeval, victorian, education seem selective -
does the museum not cover - pre-historic St Andrews, Modern St Andrews.
There is no mention of golf, which is may be the only thing distant
visitors may know about St Andrews. Even if the museum doesn't mention it
you might consider a brief item and links to the appropriate site.
Perhaps some sort of timeline montage.
Mediaeval St Andrews
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This page is much better, the two columns format works better than the
centred text on the first page and there is a good proportion of meat to
pictures. However take care to line up column tops and not get the
headings mixed in.
Again the first screen gives no indication apart from the scroll bar that
there is more to come.
The gaps between the sections are inconsistant and the headings
insufficiently important. One gap is large enough to make me wonder
whether there is a missing picture
At the bottom of all the pages the Fife logo and other lines take up
unnecessary space and detract from the main part of the page, perhaps you
could consider a separator line and reformatting the footer so that it
takes up no more than two lines.
Victorian St Andrews
--------------------
Again good meaty content but inconsistant formatting, some parts are two
columns some parts go right across the screen. some pictures are inline in
the text another is centred between text. Bear in mind that for people
browsing with larger screens this tends to stretch out the text into very
long scan lines.
I initially liked the blue Capital letters but by the third page had had
enough of them, perhaps they are too light - try a darker blue.
There is no cross link back to the time line or home page, I had to use my
back button to navigate the site. Perhaps you should decide on a single
line path through the site and provide a next button.
Education
---------
By this page I was very tired of the blue capitals, and so many in a
column looked like you were trying to make an acrostic.
Another mysterious blank section before the schools heading and then the
use of two columns lines up the second column with the header this looks
untidy and diminishes the header importance.
back to the first page
I now notice the bottom menu does have links to the sub pages but in no
particular order.
Events:
-------
This page is better, centred text on the exhibitions makes them difficult
to scan. probably better to use a table and separate the dates and titles
into separate columns, content is variable, some events have a
description and/or a presenter some have none. You need to achieve a
consistent level of information.
the kids gallery, cafe and information centre section below the events
list seems unconnected, perhaps it should be on a separate 'facilities'
page. - along with the find us map.
Images of Fife
--------------
see previous notes on background images. also boat image doesn't repeat
well I mean that the edges stand out due to differences in grey colours.
one of the image links is broken: comser.jpg
this page has a different set of menu links at the bottom,
PILGRIM BADGES OF ST ANDREWS
----------------------------
Nice poster you could make more of it. perhaps moving to the left and
wrapping the first text paragraphs around it.
This page has a lot of text, the capitals are better but now the text is
spread out across a wide page. There is enough text to justify another
image further down. This page has no footer.
Fish out of water
-----------------
no text header, you rely on the picture for the page title.
There is an important general point here, some visitors will be using text
only readers, may be browsing with images off or may be poorly sighted and
using a text to speech tool. You should always fill in the <TITLE>this is
a title</TITLE> tags in the page header and where possible use a text
header for the body of the page. Where images are used use ALT= tags with
reasonable descriptions, however leave them off for images which are
purely decoration.
fig1.jpg link is broken.
The title line:
'The life and times of the fossil fish of Dura Den and their hunters'
is coloured and underlined so it looks like a link. but it isn't
back on the events page, although all events are styled the same only some
link to details pages, probably better to take the links off the titles
and add a [more] button as an icon onto those that do have linked pages.
maybe this is a sign that the site is still incomplete.
It was frustrating to find that the one I really wanted to follow
'dinosaurs' wasn't linked.
Friends of St Andrews Museum
----------------------------
This one is fine,
World Wide exhibition
---------------------
Another page, another font style, size and header. you need to decide on
a style you like and then be rigorous in using it.
----------------------------
At this point I stopped. I think I saw most of the site, but I couldn't
be sure, a site map would be useful.
General Points
1) Decide on an overall style for the site and then stick to it.
2) consider creating a consistant header/footer for the pages, a narrow
header image can give you a branding which will quickly identify each page
as being part of your site - then if a link leaves your site it is clear
that this has happened. include in the header the Fife logo, the St
Andrews Name, and the museum name or logo if you have one. possibly also
the Scottish flag - This gives visitors a rapid zoom into who you are.
a regular footer also lets us know when we get to the bottom of a page -
useful if the pages run over several screens.
3) decide what the purpose of the site is. Is it a tourist information
office, a bus timetable, an academic site supporting the galleries,
educational ? If more than one of these consider splitting the attention
grabbing front halls from the quieter reading rooms.
4) consider also a gimmick, something to grab the attention, for example
take a map of the UK and turn it upsidedown. and relable the major cities.
It then becomes clear how big and important Scotland is compared to the
distant south.
5) The idea for the fishes links is good. You could do with a lot more
links, to other St Andrews items, Fife museums etc but also to academic
papers, interesting stuff etc.
6) mention content items in the meta tags - make life easy for search
engines,
7) consider creating a linear tour, linking the pages together into a
single line of next buttons, - this in addition to the normal navigation
of course.
7) most of my comments have been about layout and styling. However I don't
want to over emphasise this - 'content is all' if the prose isn't readable
and interesting then it won't get read. The styling and layout just needs
to reach an standard where it doesn't detract from the prose and makes
navigation straightforward. On this pass through the site I didn't
actually read much text although a few items caught my eye.
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Thats enough for now.
I hope that this is useful to you. I've posted it on the public list, not
to embarrass you but because these are all issues affecting all web site
designers and so others can learn from your efforts.
Regards
Andrew Watkins Technical Director, Ansae Ltd.
Tel: 01926 640073, web: http://www.ansae.co.uk/
PS. I usually charge for this service.
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