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

[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.