New School Website- WANT *YOUR* FEEDBACK!!!

[Joe Matt]

Ok, after a few months of design and one week of fixing, the site is up and running. I just want to know your comments, so I can fix it and mabey implement some design changes...

http://henrico.k12.va.us/hs/tucker

[looneylin]

it's pretty good... but i might want to make the orange and the blue a shade darker
*good work
*like the grafitti

[Rafi A]

Originally Posted by looneylin

it's pretty good... but i might want to make the orange and the blue a shade darker

I agree, otherwise, I find the color scheme decent and the site is easily navigable. 1 or 2 overlap problems in your menu with firefox, but nothing major
good job

[Mike Ciance]

the grafitti is nice, but don't you think you should also have a picture of the school itself?

[Joe Matt]

Refresh the page. The pictures are random on the main page.

[jonathan lall]

I would make some of the typography more clear. There could be a bit more contrast on the navigation buttons; right now they seem kind of blurry. I suppose it's a bit too late to say streamline your code because the site's already done, but I'll mention the idea anyway, because a little CSS would seriously improve load time, save you work, and make it so that you wouldn't have to say "optimized for the latest versions of Internet Explorer." Not that it's bad how it is now... maybe next redesign ? The only other suggestion I have is to make some kind of focal point for the front page; if you could somehow combine the image with a school crest or something, I don't know. My site has a few images that draw the eyes. I like the way you have the site set up in general though; it stays pretty consistent, probably through includes, right? Well done.

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by looneylin

it's pretty good... but i might want to make the orange and the blue a shade darker

I'm loving the colors, but I do agree. Make the shades a bit darker to stand out a little more.

Also, in the Disclaimer and Privacy page, you have a link to close the window, but the window opens in the same one as the original page.

Did you mean to have that open in a seperate window from the main page, and that's why you have the close window option??
That's the only reason I can see to have it like that.. If I am mistaken, it wouldn't be the first time.

Nice work, and nice image as a place holder on the robotics site till the server is moved.. Pretty freaky man!

edit: Oops. one more thing. In the page that lists the clubs and activities, shouldn't the column heading be "Advisor(s)" and not "Sponsor"??
I Just never heard it put that way before.
Usually a club has a faculty advisor and not a sponsor.

OK, I'll stop my petty ranting now...

[Joe Matt]

Thanks for all the comments guys. My teacher and I are looking at all the comments now and in the future. We are looking into CSS along with a slightly darker color scheme.

[Aaron Knight]

Nice job. I agree with others that slightly darker colors would help, but other'n that seems like a very nice and well-thought out design.

[Joshua May]

Pretty good. I wish I could makeover my school's website, but there's a class that updates it (i think) even though the site doesn't seem to have been updated in over a year.

[Joe Matt]

Website Update:

-Fixed bugs, misspellings, etc.
-Fiexed the Disclamer & Privacy thing, opens in new window.
-Tried CSS, didnt' work, kinda broke the site... oooooppppssssssss!!!

[mtrawls]

I assume the school is responsible for the text and all, but an introduction on the main page would be nice, -- to orient the viewer and what not. The student handbook link goes to a page saying, "HTTP/1.1 404 Object Not Found". On a lot of pages with pictures, text either is over the picture, making it hard to read, or under the picture making it impossible to read (e.g., the teachers' webpages page, which might be helpful if sorted by grade/subject too). Then several pages link to different template types of pages, many of which don't inclue ways to get back (short of actually clicking the back button on the browser ... but as any usability guru would tell you, a lot of parents aren't "tech savy"). I very much dislike the iBook training documents page, ... it isn't immediately obvious that you are downloading pdf documents (sure you have a warning, but under a much more flashy design), and it isn't easy to orient yourself to figure out all the options quickly and which one you might need (e.g., Getting started isn't even first, and troubleshooting is darn near last).

But, discouting other usabilty concerns, the site isn't all bad. I just like to complain a lot. Of course, "look" should be your last concern, since you presumably want the site to be useful ... the best way to do this is to find a group of students and a group of parents to navigate the site looking for specific items that are of interest to them, and see how long it takes them to find it and how satisfactory the item explanation is. I would suggest, though, that the "Student resources", "Parent resources", etc., menu options link to pages describing their respective menu items, instead of just to the main page which is counterintuitive and not all that useful.

[Joe Matt]

Will add your recomendations. Also, the iBook and other pages with different templates I cannot controll, those are county wide sites that the county sets up. Also, the teachers teach based on course, not grade. So some teachers might teach 9th, some 10th & 11th, some 9th & 12th, some 9-12, etc...

[Barry Bonzack]

It looks very professional. Nice work. I am going to try and recruit some one next year to join the team and make us a link on the school's page. I guess I'll just have to wait until my new school has a webpage first.

One question, I see the list of phone and fax numbers on the front page, but is one of those numbers the correct number to call to attendance in case a student needs to call in sick? That might be helpful to a parent that doesn't know the attendance number.

[Mike AA]

Where's the link to FIRST? not listed in your organizations??!?!?!!

Otherwise this looks good, especially after some of the little fixes you made

Good job