Web Design Goodies Critique #10
Published November 13, 2000 By Joe Burns, Ph. D.
Greetings, Fellow Designers
Hey! Let’s get a Web site! We’ve grown tired of all of those free services and those overly cheap servers that cost only a couple of bucks but fill our pages with banner ads that line their pockets. Enough! Revolt!
Maybe we’ll go with NewN.com. They look like they’ve got some great deals. Let’s look into the site.
Now the obligatory release clause statement
>>>>The critique below represents the opinions of Joe Burns, Ph.D. Feel free to disagree, argue, forget, or accept anything he writes. The purpose of the critique is to offer examples that you may use, repair, or forget when it comes to your own Web site. As always, remember that there are simply no hard or fast rules to Web design. Any choice is the correct choice as long as that choice aids the user and adds to the site’s purpose for being.<<<<
Title: NewN.com / Author: Amanda Proctor
Load Time: 12 Seconds, 57kps modem, cleared cache, 9/04/00 9:59AM.
My Screen Size: 1024X768
Browsers Used: Internet Explorer 5.5 and Netscape Navigator
4.5
Concept: Amanda has taken the two-footed leap and jumped into the Web hosting game. She is offering packages that include 15 through 100 megabyte amounts plus all sorts of extras including PERL access, Python, MySQL, stats, shopping cart, and lots of other good stuff. She has the guts to say what I have been saying for years. If you want a decent place to put your pages, you are simply going to have to pay for it. Her prices are good and she offers a great deal for it.
Praise: I praise you the most for simply have the intestinal fortitude to go into business for yourself. I’ve done it numerous times and it both frightens and invigorates at the same time. You have put together very nice packages and I think the price is fair especially for what you’re offering. However, you need to bolster this page a bit. As it stands, you aren’t giving me the impression of being the stunning site you claim to be. Please don’t take that as a cut. It certainly isn’t meant to be one. I can see you have the ability to create the site you need to create in order to attract people.
1. Concern: The home page is far too basic. You are proclaiming to be a hosting service that has it all, yet your home page has nothing. It’s a basic, table set, text and image home page. There’s nothing to it. A first year HTML student could build it.
Suggestion: You are a hosting service. Your homepage must give the immediate impression that you are a stunning service that really knows what they are doing. The graphics have to sing, the events on the page have to dazzle. There must be representations of what you can do. The client must feel as if he or she could come to the homepage and get all he or she needs. There should be news, sports, help, phone numbers, contacts. Yes, I see you have them, but not all up front. You r home page is your business card and right now your card is dull. Nothing tells me you are the wizard you probably are. Here’s an example. Look at this server home page:
