TITLE:introduction/newsletter_archive/design/design18A.html

Concern #3: I love that you have a JavaScript attached to the
image that will take people to the All-Saints Survey. I
refreshed a few times and a new image popped up every time.
Very nice. The problem is that when I clicked to take the
survey, I got a page explaining the problems you’ve had with
service providers, but no survey.

Suggestion: If you don’t have a survey, remove the link. My
suggestion is to pay for your own domain and get a virtual
account with a local service provider. When you are your own
domain, you have a little more pull regarding what you can and
cannot use on a site. See if the domain SaintsHistory.com is
available. Whatever you choose – lose the link. I’d keep up
the stats, but the link to the survey itself is dead, so remove
it until it gets repaired.

Concern #4: This really isn’t a concern – in fact, it is more
of a praise. I clicked on the link marked, “Favorite Saints
Offensive Team” and got this:

This is really, really great. As my mouse passes over the
player position, I get the player’s name, statistics, jersey
number, and years played. I am very taken by this, because it
shows that the author, Phil, understands the concept of
offering the most amount of information in the least amount
of space. I don’t have to scroll, or click. The JavaScript
does it all.

Suggestion: Apply this same thinking to the home page. Use
the least amount of space to give the greatest amount of
information. That thinking will always create the most impact
on the users.

There’s also a version of this page for the defensive players.
I was really impressed with this page. Create more like these
two pages.

Concern #5: Here’s the year’s section a little farther down
the page:

Nice format. Nice shape, but it should not be like this on
the home page. There should be a link to a secondary page that
looks like this.

Suggestion: Either create a completely separate page with links
for each year, or try a drop-down menu. That will save on space,
yet offer the most amount of information in a small space. My
first choice would be to go with the separate page, though.

Overall: Phil’s got a winner here. He’s obviously a fan, and
he’s staying true to the page’s killer app. This is a history
page and it remains just that.

What he needs to focus on is design. Get some left-to-right
flow. Shrink the graphics (in an image editor – don’t just use
smaller height and width attributes). Try to move some of that
information from the bottom of the home page to a separate page.

I fully believe you can make this home page fit cleanly on a
single 800X600 browser screen. It’ll take some work, but the
results will be a tight, easily-navigated site that Saints
fans will enjoy.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

That’s that.

Joe Burns, Ph.D.

Always Remember: When it comes to designing your Web site, the
most important person is not you, but your user.