Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryo Chiba
Graphics, pow pow pow. Here's a good place to put in a discussion about the demerits of copious eyecandy.
A cohesive website is all about presenting information. They call web people "information architects" these days, and there's a reason for that.
I doubt not your webteam's time spent photoshopping the background images for this website. However, it's very bulky and flashy.
The flash intro is a good example of this bulk. It conveys little information (the music and moving pictures of the robot, as well as vague, amorphous words like "inspiration"), at a very high bandwidth cost.
It's probably too late now, but for next year, I would suggest pinning down all of your key information, and building a website around that. A user isn't interested in seeing pictures of your members do a flash/zoom effect. They want to read more about it. So, instead of showcasing the flash/zoom effect, perhaps find a way to showcase the actual information. This applies to the flash slideshow frontpage item and "past robot" image too. The font-size-changer feels like a gimmick. How often does the average web user need to change the font-size of a website?
The frills on the sidebar (and everywhere else) are very distracting, especially with the red-on-black color scheme. It takes your eyes away from the main navbar.
I would suggest studying these examples:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/splat/sets/981332/
http://www.webdesignfromscratch.com/current-style.cfm
Hey, after reading this, you'll probably get really bitter towards me. I completely understand. I went through this realization last year. When you get really bitter, you have to remember that it's the journey of finishing the website that really counts in the end. After all, it all gets scrapped after one year.
Hopefully, this might nudge you further on that (very time consuming) journey. 
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Thank you for putting the effort in writing your suggestions and opinions, but there is no need to hate. You probably didn’t’ even explore the whole website. I am sure we spent x3 times as your team did working on your webpage.
http://www.harrisonboilerrobotics.org/
Also, about the bulky intro you are talking about. It is something special that we decided to have that will represent us as well as the FIRST community. If you don’t really get the meaning of the intro I will explain it. Because we are pirates, we decided to have a treasure map that our robot will go around it looking for the treasure. Every time we landed on an island, a word description appears which descripes what we have gained. Than when we reached to the treasure, the real treasure is FIRST. Hmm... Sounds very creative to me, doesn’t it? I don’t see any other website have that idea.
Also about what you said on our lack of information.. WHAT??? We have a team bio for all our members that is page long. You should reconsider that and look here
http://team56.com/2008/team56/teammembers/students.php
And about our past robot, there is a HISTORY PAGE THAT YOU ALSO DIDN’T SEE.
http://team56.com/2008/history/history.php
And what is wrong with the font size option – if you don’t like it DON’T use it. I am sure lots of other people will have fun with it, but I don’t’ know about you.
WHAT MAKES OUR WEBSITE SPECIAL FROM ANY OTHER IS OUR ORIGINAL DESIGN, NOT GOING TO OTHER WEBSITES AS YOU MENTIOND AND COPY THEIR DESIGN.
And don’t worry, for the spirit of gracious professionalisms I don’t feel bitter towards you. The website is always done as well. We have all the essential information that we need.
P.S – I don’t understand why you would talk about our lack of information where you guys don’t have as much information as us ^o)