2007 Beach 'Bots Website

[SamC]

Our website is now fully functional. Most every page is up and running, and if it is not it will be within the next 48 hours. So please go check out our site!

If you have any questions, just send them via our Contact Us page.

Some of the cool things you may notice are:

• The use of the FIRST Web Network

• The "random" links on the right side (retrieved via a database)

Also, this site is completely 100% student created and 100% hand coded.

Now that you know some trivial facts about are website. Go visit it, bookmark it, make it your homepage, whatever makes you feel good!

http://www.team330.org

[whytheheckme]

Very cool.

Couple of things that don't work...

The Student Bio pages just go to a #... no anchor exists maybe? IDK... I'm a progger, not an X/HTMLer..

And the other thing is just grammar... On the student page... Not sure you will be seeing kids on the radio...

Just trying to give some constructive criticism...

Otherwise, looks great!
Jacob

[Liz Smith]

The website is nice looking. I like it.

"mentors" is spelled wrong on the site map page though.. I'd do a quick look through for spelling errors

[pheadxdll]

Good looking site. The sunset is very calming. You've got a few miss links. Normal for having just put your site up. Under The-Team > Wish List links to the Site map. The student bios don't work either.

Yay for css hacks!
<!--[if lt IE 8]>
<style type="text/css" media="screen">
#menuh{float:none;}
body{behavior:url(csshover.htc); font-size:100%;}
#menuh ul li{float:left; width: 100%;}
#menuh a{height:1%;font:bold 0.7em/1.4em arial, sans-serif;}
</style>
<![endif]-->

Gotta love em

Personally I don't like to use images to round corners but I guess you can. There's javascript alternatives.

Plenty of content. You've got a contender for the website award. Good luck.

[Knippschild]

Originally Posted by whytheheckme

The Student Bio pages just go to a #... no anchor exists maybe? IDK... I'm a progger, not an X/HTMLer..

It could be that that system isn't done yet...

[SamC]

Yes for the pages that the content is being fixed or added to the page, it will either lead to the site map, or a # page. CSS "hacks" are great, I do agree. Thanks for all the criticisms, and for pointing out the spelling/grammar mistakes. As for seeing kids on the radio... I just plain couldn't think of a simple paragraph to put so that is pretty much a place holder.

[MadeAtMidnight]

Nice web site. I like the colors and the "News" area that keeps changing.

I did find one error that you might want to change -- on the first page it says "Every student ....are homeschooled ". The 'are' should be 'is'. I don't think homeschooled is one word either, but I'm not sure if it is hyphenated or not.
I hope you don't mind the corrections. I am such a lousy speller that I always appreciated it when someone helps me to correct my mistakes.

[SamC]

No I do not mind at all. That is how you learn and perfect what you have made. I do like it when people point out the spelling and grammar mistakes, because after a while everything starts looking right...

[EDIT]
In case anyone is wondering, I just finished uploading all of the bios (well, at least the ones I have received from the team...lol)

[Gigaman2003]

Before i begin i must say that if this is your first website, its pretty darn impressive. My first website was horrible compared to this.

tips for improvement...
change your typography, the fonts hardly fit your design
Don't use the curved corners + gradients look unless you're very experienced in web design. They don't look professional when not implemented right.
Make your site degrade gracefully in older browsers. with css turned off the site becomes a mess.

things i really like...
The javascript-free drop-down menu is very impressive. First time ive ever seen one.
Cool header image

Keep up the good work!

[SamC]

Thank you. Yes, this is the first real website I have done completely myself. I hand coded everything (mostly, unless stated in the source. Some JS etc copied from dynamic drive and javascript kit). The rounded edges + gradients I am unsure about where/what you are talking about... I didn't use any gradients.

Now, if someone would like to share some ways to improve my site could you please answer the following questions and add your own suggestions for other areas of the site.

• Which font should I continually use throughout the site?(Font color as well)
• How can I make the site degrade a little more gracefully?(Less CSS etc...)
• Anything I should add???

Also, the header image, I must thank Forest Immel from 885 for helping me with that...

[Gigaman2003]

Originally Posted by SamSofa330

• Which font should I continually use throughout the site?(Font color as well)
• How can I make the site degrade a little more gracefully?(Less CSS etc...)
• Anything I should add???

Also, the header image, I must thank Forest Immel from 885 for helping me with that...

For web applications, the most popular are Arial, Trebuchet ms and Verdana. My personal favorite is Trebuchet ms for mid-size and large title fonts and Arial for small words. I make it a point to only use either black or white for the font color of my content, with the negative as the background. This is by no means a strict design rule, as you will find many very effectively used colors on different backgrounds. I just do it for the contrast and make it more readable for those with poor eyesight. I did use a colored font on our forum, but only because a monochrome forum is incredibly dull.

To make your site degrade gracefully, the answer is not less css. you should first layout your site without css positioning, then add it back in.

I personally would like some kind of a blog or dynamic content, it would also raise the rating of your website, and give your visitors a reason to keep checking back.

You were asking about the gradients, thats the fading around the FIRST logo (which if you check the rules btw, theres something about leaving a whitespace of at least a certain size between the logo and anything else) and the excessive drop shadow behind your logo on the header. The logo is way too big, and should be shrinked about 30%. its overflowing out of the header! Remove the mirroring of your text and give it the same gradient as the logo; it'll look awesome. the mirroring and fading of the first logo don't look very well done.

The FIRST logo looks really out of place anywhere on your website because of the lack of white, so i would recommend having a 1px black border put around it (which isolates it), made a link to usfirst.org, then placed centered in the links content box.

The curved corners are the yellow rounded edges of every content block. They are really bright compared to the content area and i get the feeling that my eyes are being stretched because their attention is being drawn to the outlines not the content. What i mean when i say don't use curved corners is because now your navigation looks out of place, and it'll take a lot of work to make all of that curved too. Thin down the borders to one pixel or so, it will make the page look much better.

Anyway I shouldn't talk so much about other people's websites, heres ours to give you an idea of a 'modern' looking website http://srvhsrobotics.org/

heres a more fluid, but still modern website that uses rounded corners very effectively http://mapable.com/

i personally prefer the crisp, professional look so i went for sharp lines and bold colors. turn off css and you are left with the exact same page, without the background image and fonts.