Website critique

[Mo0o]

Just working on the design of my lab's website. So far I only have the index and a second page up, just to get the general feel of the layout. any suggestions welcome.

http://www.reyalab.org/Beta

 

[JDrake]

I loathe websites with a black background

 

[Mo0o]

Originally posted by: joedrake
I loathe websites with a black background

You'd be surprised at how many lab sites have their background as #0000FF, straight blue. stings the retinas

 

[poopaskoopa]

Too dark.

 

[jjones]

Design and layout are good but I'm with the others and will say black is not a good choice for a lab site.

 

[Mo0o]

Originally posted by: jjones
Design and layout are good but I'm with the others and will say black is not a good choice for a lab site.

Ill talk to the PI, our original website was black so i assumed that was the scheme she prefered

 

[Garet Jax]

Originally posted by: Mo0o

Originally posted by: jjones
Design and layout are good but I'm with the others and will say black is not a good choice for a lab site.

Ill talk to the PI, our original website was black so i assumed that was the scheme she prefered

Seems like maybe you should be asking her for feedback then.....

 

[Jeff7181]

The picture is kinda odd for the content... I expected it to be a site about some kinda outdoors club. I understand it's from an outing, but it seems strange to have that as the first thing you see.

 

[Axoliien]

Originally posted by: joedrake
I loathe websites with a black background

/agreed

Just something about black backgrounds annoys me, not as easy to read I personally think.

Mouseover of your links sucks, you can't see the text as you mouseover, should just do something like underline or something, but not a dark on dark color. Your little arrows next to the links would be cool to change to a BRIGHTER color when moused over, but not darker, and then you could leave the text alone.

Large top image has rough edges in the angle, that is kinda nasty.

Several pages not found (guess in dev?)

One of the Reya Lab images has orange on green, the two colors you never mix because of color blindness. Read up about this, it is surprising how many people have colorblind tendancies even if not fully color blind.

Mouseover of images changes border and text from orange to dark grey, once again dark on dark not good.

Text is OK, but justification tends to put large amounts of spacing between words. If you are going to justify, make more of the page text and less image, etc. On mine, on the research page there are several areas that only one or two words show up per line, making it really really annoying to read.

In general, your target audience seems to be people learning about what your lab does. Obviously they would have to have some prior knowledge in the field, so smaller images and more information would probably be a bonus. Also, most of the people you are aiming for will have a larger than 800 resolution, so you could fill up more of the page, or possibly use CSS to allow expansive textual areas that shrink to a minimum size of 800.

Just a few notes from tons of complaints I got, personally, through development and design over the years, and the many suggestions I received that have really helped my deployment cycles and customer satisfaction.

 

[RandomCoil]

Bad choice for the link 'hover' -- the text disappears into the background. How 'bout using the orange from the "Reya Lab" title text.

On the topic of that title text, you might try a darker color -- brown or even black. The white outline will let it stand out from the image (perhaps even make it a little thicker). Alternatively, move it to the black space at the top of the page. The diagonal lines coming down from "DUKE UNIVERSITY ..." in the top right look jagged -- perhaps this was on purpose?

You might find it useful to have a "latest news" section on the front page. It could list the most recent publication(s), for example.

If you're feeling really brave, you might try redoing the page without tables. The menu should probably be done as a list (ul, li) and the layout with a few div's. The "800px" design on http://andreasviklund.com/templates would give you the basic two-column look + header and footer.

 

[mb]

Too dark... and leave a little room to the right of the cell titled "home." Perhaps center it instead of pushing it to the right.

 

[ShadowBlade]

maybe this is just me, but nothing, except the fact that it says "lab" makes this site look like a lab site

 

[Mo0o]

Originally posted by: Axoliien

Originally posted by: joedrake
I loathe websites with a black background

/agreed

Just something about black backgrounds annoys me, not as easy to read I personally think.

Mouseover of your links sucks, you can't see the text as you mouseover, should just do something like underline or something, but not a dark on dark color. Your little arrows next to the links would be cool to change to a BRIGHTER color when moused over, but not darker, and then you could leave the text alone.

Large top image has rough edges in the angle, that is kinda nasty.

Several pages not found (guess in dev?)

One of the Reya Lab images has orange on green, the two colors you never mix because of color blindness. Read up about this, it is surprising how many people have colorblind tendancies even if not fully color blind.

Mouseover of images changes border and text from orange to dark grey, once again dark on dark not good.

Text is OK, but justification tends to put large amounts of spacing between words. If you are going to justify, make more of the page text and less image, etc. On mine, on the research page there are several areas that only one or two words show up per line, making it really really annoying to read.

In general, your target audience seems to be people learning about what your lab does. Obviously they would have to have some prior knowledge in the field, so smaller images and more information would probably be a bonus. Also, most of the people you are aiming for will have a larger than 800 resolution, so you could fill up more of the page, or possibly use CSS to allow expansive textual areas that shrink to a minimum size of 800.

Just a few notes from tons of complaints I got, personally, through development and design over the years, and the many suggestions I received that have really helped my deployment cycles and customer satisfaction.

Alright ill work on the hover. The orange/green banner can't be helped because.. that's what the immunoflourescence staining colors are.

 

[Mo0o]

Originally posted by: supafly
Too dark... and leave a little room to the right of the cell titled "home." Perhaps center it instead of pushing it to the right.

Which cell, the title cell of that content area? Ive checked on a few browsers and it's always come up at in the middle. which browser are you using?

 

[granolagirl]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
The picture is kinda odd for the content... I expected it to be a site about some kinda outdoors club. I understand it's from an outing, but it seems strange to have that as the first thing you see.

agreed

overall, this looks like a pretty good site

the black background doesn't bother me so much. however the pictures don't seem to be fitting for a science lab. actually, on first glance, i thought it was a web site for a summer camp.

also, when the mouse hovers over the links on the left as well as the "click here" link, the dark grey text on the black background makes it difficult to see the word(s) in the text link (you might want to select a different color for the hover state if the text links, like maybe a blue color?)

again, i think you've done a really nice job with your site

 

[Mo0o]

The banner itself rotates between 4 different pictures. I think that's why some have been seeing the rafting trip while other are seeing actual science pictures and what not.

 

[rh71]

As I grew in age, my eyes couldn't deal with light text on black backgrounds for any length of time. Was fine before. Weird.

 

[mb]

Originally posted by: Mo0o

Originally posted by: supafly
Too dark... and leave a little room to the right of the cell titled "home." Perhaps center it instead of pushing it to the right.

Which cell, the title cell of that content area? Ive checked on a few browsers and it's always come up at in the middle. which browser are you using?

yourwebsite.jpg

Looks the same to me in IE and FF.

Also, move up the home | research | publications | lab members | photo gallery | links | contact us part of the page so there isn't so much empty space.


anotheridea.jpg