My First POWWEB Site: Please Review

[JFAlward]

I designed a site for my brother, the chiropractor.

http://dralwardchiropractic.com


Please let me know how it can be improved. Also, what programs do you recommend to create the kind of graphics shown on POWWEB's pages? Where are the best free fonts. I'm particularly interested in finding black fonts with gold borders, or vice-versa.

Forgive me for asking what may well be questions that any fool should be able to answer, but I'm relatively new at this.

Thanks.

[amo]

I can't pull up the URL you provided. I get "Cannot find server or DNS Error."

-amo

[RKD]

Whois Server Version 1.3
No match for domain "DRALWARDCHIROPRACTOR.COM".
>>> Last update of whois database: Tue, 29 Mar 2005 08:26:53 EST <<<

[JFAlward]

That should be, http://dralwardchiropractic.com

Sorry.

[jatticks]

I like the site. It's easy to use and very clear on what you are offering.
Here are a few of my nit picks...
The marble background looks fuzzy on my screen. It's a .gif file and these tend to do that. A clean white or liht gray might look a bit more sharp. Maybe changing the .gif file to a .jpg might do the trick too.
When I click on Shoulder the page loads with a bit of HTML that creaps out (<t>), also the image didn't load.
The pictures on the home page are good and communicate well. Some have borders on one side, some have no boaders at all. The back ache one could be pulled down a bit more to fill the area. (I'm using Firefox 1.0.2) I would try to make them look more uniform.
As for the fonts... there are a ton of free fonts available. Just type in "free fonts" into google. The problem that I found is that many fonts are not supported and while they my look good when designing the site, once uploaded the rest of the world sees a default font that the browser chooses. (if I'm wrong on this I'm sure someone will correct me) Personally, I love to wacky fonts and wanted to incorporated them into my site. To do so I crafted titles with photoshop using the fonts then saved them as .gifs and pluged them into my site. I wouldn't recommend doing this but my site is very graphically oriented. Google can't pickup the .gif files like test and won't use them to catagorize your site. also the .gif files take more memory. I found that photoshop can do just about anything I wish when dealing with fonts (and photos too). But as I said, they will have to be saved as .gif's.
Hope this helps, J.Atticks
www.lifesessions.com

[Nino]

I would add that you should center the title (business name and address) of the page.

[linnetwoods]

The site looks great from where I'm sitting! The title is perfectly centred (maybe you've fixed it since the last posting), the page loads fast, looks professional, states it's purpose clearly and has a suitably sober look for a medical site. I didn't detect any fuzziness to the look of it (with these old eyes that may not mean a lot though...) and I congratulate you on an excellent presentation.

As always I'll leave the technical stuff to those who have a talent and an interest in it and the raking over of the codes for those whose obsession is an inspiration to us all ;-)

[JFAlward]

Thanks for the comments. I'll start work to make corrections. But, I'm concerned that I won't be able to see the off-centering that was mentioned. I don't see it on my browser. Perhaps it's a resolution issue; I use 800x600. What are you using tinnetwoods, and jattick?

I'll look into the shoulder problem and the problem with the picture borders, and get back to you all soon. Thanks again for the very helpful comments.

[JFAlward]

The problem with the images not being properly framed is a thorny one. They're ok at 800x600, but show the problem JAttick described at higher resolution.

I don't know what to do about this. Any suggestions?

I fixed the uncentered title by reformatting as Center, instead of Left.

I tested the marble background in Firefox 1.0.2, and it look just fine to me.

The problem with the HTML code creeping onto the screen in Shoulder.htm has been fixed, but I'm unable to make the image load in Firefox. What to do?

Joe Alward

[bugs]

Your site looks good and full of information!
The title is not centered on my computer either (XP with IE).
I like:
- The photos describing the "pains".
- There seems to be a lot of info
- The drawings

I don't really like:
- The 3D buttons
- The background... it looks kind of granular, as if there was not enough color on my screen... looks old... would prefer either a better background or just plain color.

Cheers,
bugs.

[JFAlward]

Your site looks good and full of information!
The title is not centered on my computer either (XP with IE).

I don't really like:
- The 3D buttons
- The background... it looks kind of granular, as if there was not enough color on my screen... looks old... would prefer either a better background or just plain color.

Cheers,
bugs.

Thanks very much for the comments, bugs. I think I had fixed the centering problem. Do others see the same thing? My site is at http://dralwardchiropractic.com


You're the second person to complain about the marble background. It is indeed "granular." It's granular, as you said. I chose it because I thought it would reduce eye fatigue. What do others think about this background?

Any suggestions about the 3D buttons? In general, I presume, you don't object to 3D buttons on web sites, but that you find mine less that eye-appealing? What would you suggest? Are they too tall; the borders too dark, too light, too wide, too narrow? The wrong color?

[Nino]

Thanks very much for the comments, bugs. I think I had fixed the centering problem. Do others see the same thing? My site is at http://dralwardchiropractic.com


Yes, now it is centered.

[JFAlward]

I got a second opinion on the 3D buttons, and your views are supported, bugs. They evidently were too oppressive. I've just changed them. If you still don't like them, please say so.

Also, I got a third opinion on the marble background from someone here who long ago told me she didn't much care for it. Hard to read the text, it seems. I've changed it to plain white.

Note: only the home page has these changes, so if you click on any of the links, you'll see pages which have not yet been corrected. I'm waiting to see if there are any other suggestions for improving my home page, which I will naturally put to use on all of the other pages.

Thanks again, very much, everyone, for all of the help.

What else could I do to improve the look?

[linnetwoods]

Might I suggest a slight toning down of the white background - I think it's a little bit too harsh on the eyes - you might like to choose a hint of grey, for example, to tone the overall impact of the page down a bit.

Other than that, I agree that the removal of the marbling is an improvement if the previous version wasn't coming out equally well everywhere. The monitors here are set at 800 x 600 too.

[bugs]

I prefer the look of your site now.
The title is now centered too.

For the 3D buttons, I have nothing against it, it is just that your buttons were kind of "old fashion". I don't mind 3D buttons if they do look like what XP uses (i.e.: when you put your cursor other an icon in IE).

Your site looks good!
Cheers,
Bugs.

[JFAlward]

OK, I've removed some of the stark contrast by replacing the pure white with an off-white.

What do you think?

http://dralwardchiropractic.com

[jatticks]

The background is better, I like it. The grainy/fuzzy background came back when I clicked on shoulder. The HTML seeping throu is gone but as you know the pics still doesn't load. The pic's address is this /C:/dralwardchiropractic.com/shoulder.jpg just get rid on the "/C:/" and it will be set.
Whatever color you settle on for your background remember to make the entire site with that background.
Ciao, J.Atticks

[linnetwoods]

The background colour is a vast improvement!

Hope 'Bugs' never strays onto any of my sites - my old-fashioned buttons (entirely created by me in ultra-low-tech style) would probably drive him screming into the wilderness!

[bugs]

linnetwoods,

I just went to linnetwoods.com and was screaming! ;)
Actually I don't mind at all :)

Cheers,
Sylvain.

[linnetwoods]

You're too kind!

[JFAlward]

The background is better, I like it. The grainy/fuzzy background came back when I clicked on shoulder. The HTML seeping throu is gone but as you know the pics still doesn't load. The pic's address is this /C:/dralwardchiropractic.com/shoulder.jpg just get rid on the "/C:/" and it will be set.
Whatever color you settle on for your background remember to make the entire site with that background.
Ciao, J.Atticks

I fixed the shoulder.jpg bug. Thanks for finding it. Firefox isn't as forgiving of such errors as other browsers. There are probably other errors like this that would show up in Firefox. I definitely will replace the background on all of the other linked pages, now that it seems clear that folks are reasonably happy with the new background on the home page.

Thanks again for all of your help, everyone.

Joe Alward
http://dralwardchiropractic.com

[jschein]

One last suggestion.. for links to external info... make them pop-up in a new window so the person doesn't lose navigation from the main site...

For example: View 3 Dimensional Spine pulls up a flash file locally which was downloaded from another source, but there is now back button or it's not integrated into it's own page continuing your site's layout. Do that to keep his interested customers and people looking for info to stay on the site. - Either open in new window, or embed the flash maintaining the site layout. I would go with option # 2.