North Irwin VFC Website

[sta12]

I jsut recently took over as webmaster for our fire company website. I have received no schooling in web design, so in other words I am self taught. I just wanted to see what others think about our site.

Visit us at: www.northirwinfd.org

Thanks, George

[Kitchensink108]

This might be kind of a rough review, so don't get discouraged.

-Ditch the splash page. They're annoying and serve no real point.
-The main page is too long, with information sparse and scattered
-I don't read marquees, so don't put any really important information in there
-On a lesser scale, marquees generally aren't good to use
-On the main page, once you start scrolling down, it becomes way too busy (so many borders and blank table cells)
-I don't like blinking things nor do I like animated gifs
-Don't put site awards, and a guestbook seems rather irrelevant for your site
-What am I voting for this site for?
-The gallery is a bit more spaced out than I'd like, but it's still fairly nice
-Some of your links are unstyled, which is just a pet peeve of mine
-The Ladies Auxiliary page's background is too different from the rest of the site's white background; I think it's better to keep a site consistent throughout
-Ithink the logo for "Chief's Corner" is a Word Art, which generally don't make good logos

-The layout as a whole is novice, but this isn't something you can correct overnight.

All in all, the site's just too unorganized and has too many table borders everywhere.

[YvetteKuhns]

I totally agree with Kitchensink108's comments. The intro page is just another click to get to the website. It is not necessary or inviting. The website is busy and overwhelming. Don't put too much on any pages. In 800x600 screen resolution, there is horizontal scrolling and I had to scroll another screen view just to find the navigation links menu.

The Free Counter should be removed. Use the webstats to view your actual number of visits. The guestbook link should appear somewhere other than the bottom of the page or else people won't see it or use it. Well, the spammers and weirdos always search for them and you will have to edit posts. Create a separate web page for website awards. You can include the link to that page in your navigation menu or at the bottom of each page or the home page.

Viewing History page: The link to home went to the intro page instead of the expected home page. There are text links horizontally at the bottom of the web page and a Back to Top of Page link. The links menu should be consistent - the same on EVERY web page. The text is too large and paragraphs should be aligned to the left.

There was a fairly clear outline of information to be presented on the website. The pages themselves could be better designed. The stuff is there, but people have to scroll or skip over other things to see specific contents. The site links to http://www.whitevalleyvfd.com which is good for comparison. Notice the left navigation which remains the same. They could use a fancier logo for their name, but it doesn't fill the screen. Just stare at the home page. They have the stupid graphics that say "Under construction" on their memorial. They are working on the contents, but the design is better. Just another approach.

[IanS]

I would add, black on red and red on black are not good combinations for viewing easily.
I looked through most of the site, so it kept my attention. Some of the photos of people showed as red X's so it would be worth checking that they're all available when referenced.

I agree with the others, break the pages into smaller screen size chunks as scrolling is best avoided (that's why I have a large monitor, to avoid scrolling). Also, the front page tried to play some media that my computer rejected. I have the latest patches installed, but I'm not sure what it was so answered no to the install question.

As a side note, when I first saw the 'Dirty Dozen' come up, I thought you'd been hacked by a group called the dirty dozen!