Site Review needed

skelliser

Hey,

Can ye have a look at my latest site
www.mikecubbard.com
Havent integrated the blog and donate pages just yet.
i have some issues still to iron out with css and ie!!
opinions greatly appreciated! all critisisms welcome!

Thanks

Liam Byrne

Not bad.

A few pointers:

1) Home page is a bit bare - maybe add a carousel or fading slideshow of the "issues"
2) Nav bar is good but needs more space between the options
3) Font is inconsistent (the ugly Times New Roman on the "About Me" photos and on the contact page, and on the footer
4) Wrap a div around each of the "issues" so that each item is aligned with its image
5) The "open image" option on the about me does nothing

Top photo looks a little too sharp compared to the photo on the right

P.S. Might be stating the obvious but I presume there's no copyright issues with the photos ? Some of them have a GalwayNews.ie watermark

skelliser

cheers thanks for the pointers

as regards the copyright issues if mike is in the photos is that not fine, maybe im wrong tho.

regards the content, i think more content will be added but your carousal idea would be great il suggest it.
will fix the font issues

the issues seem to align grand on my laptop but when i check it on another pc there not! i was thinking of goin the div route
to fix it, thanks
Also im afraid there is little i can do about the photos, theres none others availible
thanks

Liam Byrne

skelliser wrote: »

as regards the copyright issues if mike is in the photos is that not fine

Nope, not if they're taken by a professional, newspaper or staff photographer.

Usually it's just a case of asking for the "OK" to use them; some might charge, others might have been paid for the "gig" and so will say OK as long as they have a photo credit.

But ALWAYS ask, so that you're covered.

Irish Gardener

Wish someone would tell GalwayNews.ie/Connaught Tribune that after they pulled a pic from one of my websites and published it.

In their defence they said..... "We were not aware of any copyright stipulation with the image we used, purely for general illustrative purposes to accompany story . The image was sourced from the web." :rolleyes:

For the record there was a copyright mark on the page.

daymobrew

There is a tiny typo on the Issues page:
Traffic congestion at Westside Shopping Centre needs to be addresses - addresses should be addressed

p

The photo of the guy is absolutely terrible. He will lose votes because of that photo. Change it, or get rid of it.

Lobelia Overhill

dear gawd, get your eyebrows waxed! :eek:

otherwise the site was fine

Liam Byrne

Irish Gardener wrote: »

Wish someone would tell GalwayNews.ie/Connaught Tribune that after they pulled a pic from one of my websites and published it.

In their defence they said..... "We were not aware of any copyright stipulation with the image we used, purely for general illustrative purposes to accompany story . The image was sourced from the web." :rolleyes:

For the record there was a copyright mark on the page.

Send them an invoice.

ScumLord

p wrote: »

The photo of the guy is absolutely terrible. He will lose votes because of that photo. Change it, or get rid of it.

He has exactly the same head position in every photo, it's odd.

All politicians should have a forum too so they can talk to people.

skelliser

thanks for the feedback.

unfortunatly they are the only photos availible, i know there not great but there all i have,i did my best to clean/sharpen the picture in the header

randombar

I'd get rid of all but one of the photos if that's all you have, he's wearing the same shirt in all of them and it's all a bit weird, I understand you need a photo for the image, but no need to fill the page with it, I reckon get a truck load more content, add a poll, and a few other things to bulk it up!

p

skelliser wrote: »

thanks for the feedback.

unfortunatly they are the only photos availible, i know there not great but there all i have,i did my best to clean/sharpen the picture in the header

Then delete the photo - it's doing more harm than good.

Seriously, borrow a decent digital camera, go meet the guy and take a better photo. You'd be hard pushed to take a worse photo. You could spend 2 days tinkering with CSS or tweaking colours, but that one action of getting a better photo will have a greater impact than all of that.

Rakeline

I think the picture in the header is fine i would remove the other two though there is no need for them as the header is site wide. You can get some good scrolls and stuff here http://www.dynamicdrive.com/ maybe use a fading message scroll to give some of the issues that you would work for. I think its fine but like others have said I think them images will lose you votes.

Good luck

pauldiv

The file sizes of the images down the left side of home page are too large.
You are displaying them at about 150 x 90 pixels which is nice but the actual image file sizes are much bigger than this. One is 600 pixels wide.

To speed up the page loading time you should crop them all to 150 x 90.

Your portrait photo on the left of the header is a good pic but a little bit dark. You should lighten it slightly.

gary82

Resize those images for the Issuse page! The little thumbnail of the playground for example is a 1280px×960px . Defining the size in the code doesn't resize the file being loaded, it just squashes it.

Also get a photographer for a couple of hours in Galway City. I know plenty of amateur photographers who would do it (hmn dont' think I'm allowed to offer services here unfortunately......)

PCPhoto

p wrote: »

The photo of the guy is absolutely terrible. He will lose votes because of that photo. Change it, or get rid of it.

get in touch with the photo section of boards and try find someone to do a proper photo (no offence)

Duckjob

I'd agree with the other posters about the images, they need a lot of work.
Also,

- Each page seems to have a different font style/size.
- The navigation disappears when you click onto the blog page
- The issues page is misaligned and glitchy under Firefox 3 (attached)
- The header looks well but the layout on the about page in particular looks a bit uninspiring.

It needs a bit of polishing but it has potential IMHO