It’s here, and it’s better than ever. Team 56 2008 best website since 1997 – Check it

[Team56]

Hey Guys – Team 56 has successfully launched the 2008 website. Please check it out @ www.team56.com

Do you guys think it got what I takes to take on the championship award title =) ? Would you vote for it? Yes or No?

Any suggestions or opinions will be helpful.

Robbe Xtreme

[neutrino15]

Wow! That is one intense layout! I really like what you did, it's very different (in a good, creative way!) I like the way you handled the gallery, I also do enjoy the pirate theme.

If I had one criticism (in the name of constructive criticisms) I would suggest making the sub-pages list a bit less daunting. I personally think that the white arrows add a bit of unnecessary clutter to the pane... Do take that with a grain of salt as I really do like/admire your site! (I can't stand battling css for more than a day or two!)

Best of luck in the competition!

[BenB]

You put inspiration twice in you intro

[basicxman]

maybe it was just my internet but i dont think so, it takes about 10 seconds or so before the page after intro loads, W3C says most people wont wait longer than 7

but a really really good website nonetheless

[Team56]

Originally Posted by neutrino15

I personally think that the white arrows add a bit of unnecessary clutter to the pane... Do take that with a grain of salt as I really do like/admire your site!
Best of luck in the competition!

Thank you =) Well, for the arrows, I had to add it so visitors can know that this is expandable tab, if u know what i mean

[Team56]

Originally Posted by 2166BlueBotics

You put inspiration twice in you intro

Yea, but we are fixing that .. thank you

[Team56]

Originally Posted by basicxman

maybe it was just my internet but i dont think so, it takes about 10 seconds or so before the page after intro loads, W3C says most people wont wait longer than 7

but a really really good website nonetheless

If you have at least 512kbs internet, it shouldn't take you more than 5 sec I believe.. and thats the problem we faced =( great graphics with slower rate or less graphics for faster rate.. but we tried to adjust to both

But.. 10 seconds are worth it to wait so you can look at this awesome graphic layout

[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.

[fordchrist675]

Honestly i have to say that is a brilliant website kudos to you guys.

kudos its awesome good work

[commodoredl]

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.

I have to agree here. We considered a fancy graphic design at first, but decided it was a bit too much effort, and none of us enjoyed sites with flash as a main part of them.
If you think about it, a lot of great sites out there are incredibly minimalistic, Google, Digg and Slashdot; they convey a lot of information, and load quickly and don't make your eyes bleed (I'm looking at you, animated GIFS).
I love the theme of your website, and there's a lot in there. It looks very cool. Perhaps you could tone it down a slight bit next year, and have an even more appealing one!

[Team56]

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.

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)

[Ryo Chiba]

By the way, what I posted is called constructive criticism. People usually use it when they want to improve. It's a sad thing that most of the posts on this forum lack it.

I don't want to be a "hater", so I guess I'll be like everyone else:
Great website. Good job. Yay. Congrats, etc.

P.S: It's rude to use ALL CAPS.

[D_Price]

great site love the pictures and layout

[JBotAlan]

A few points to consider:
-Is it considered fair use to post Darude's "Sandstorm"?
-I find it kinda hard to focus on the text because the eye candy is quite distracting.
-My 1 year old laptop is incapable of screen resolutions higher than 1024x768, so...scrollbars deluxe. Most corporate machines are set to 1024x768 also, so you are making yourself look bad to any potential sponsor viewing your site.
-Disable Javascript, Flash, and any other active content. Now try your website. It is good that you put a "Skip Intro" link on the intro page, but it is bad that on my machine I had to scroll to find it...

It just really feels like one of those overdone MySpace pages with everything on the page flashing and fading and moving...

I can see that a lot of time went into this, and I do like how professionally-done it looks. It's not my style, but I could roll with it if it fit in my browser.

Ultimately, the CSS/design style of your site is only 0.0001% of what makes your site good. A good design won't be obtrusive, but rather make the content-which is of course the most important part-flow nicely.

JBot

[Team56]

Originally Posted by JBotAlan

A few points to consider:
-Is it considered fair use to post Darude's "Sandstorm"?
-I find it kinda hard to focus on the text because the eye candy is quite distracting.
-My 1 year old laptop is incapable of screen resolutions higher than 1024x768, so...scrollbars deluxe. Most corporate machines are set to 1024x768 also, so you are making yourself look bad to any potential sponsor viewing your site.
-Disable Javascript, Flash, and any other active content. Now try your website. It is good that you put a "Skip Intro" link on the intro page, but it is bad that on my machine I had to scroll to find it...

It just really feels like one of those overdone MySpace pages with everything on the page flashing and fading and moving...

I can see that a lot of time went into this, and I do like how professionally-done it looks. It's not my style, but I could roll with it if it fit in my browser.

JBot

Yeah I understand what you saying. The resolution was one of the hardest thing to decide, but the only reason we made it 1200 px wide was because 1000 px was just way too small. After looking through polls and votes, we believed that 1200px was the best resolution to use.