[caraewilton]

Hi guys

A few months ago I posted my second attempt at designing a webpage for my school. It did not receive great review so I have taken to heart what was said and have had a go at a new design.

Please have a look and let me know what you think.

LINK

Thanks a million
Cara

[Mr Old Skool]

The loading times are pretty long, espicially moving from page to page but apart from that I like it, nice and tidy, good colour choices!!

Looks excactly what I would expect a School site should look, well done!!

[caraewilton]

Mr Old Skool, on Jan 6 2009, 20:19, said:

The loading times are pretty long, espicially moving from page to page but apart from that I like it, nice and tidy, good colour choices!!

Looks excactly what I would expect a School site should look, well done!!

Thanks Mr Old Skool. Load times ... mmm to speed up. It must be the pictures (although nothing bigger than 40kb). Once everything is sorted, I'll choose my pictures then work on reducing their size. I am using lightbox, but seeing that that is the only js on the page it should not be slowing things down to much. The last thing I can think that may be slowing things are my style sheets. Again, once I finalise the layout, I'll optimise the coding. I am not sure what else could be slowing things down.

Any suggestions anyone?

[STWebDesign]

Hello,
I think the design is nice and it’s very easy to navigate around the website. As Mr Old Skool said the loading time of the pages are quite long which could be a problem but when that’s fixed the website should run smoothly. Over all Nice website.

[1098jo]

Hi

Oh how I can sympathise with negative feedback!

Well done! I think that it looks very clear and accessible. I like the images along the bottom of the page. Just a couple of small things that I would change.

You have some lovely images in your footer but I'm not so keen on the one on your about us page.

On your curriculum page, the images may look better with a border or frame.

Great overall though!

[caraewilton]

1098jo, on Jan 6 2009, 22:36, said:

Hi

Oh how I can sympathise with negative feedback!

Well done! I think that it looks very clear and accessible. I like the images along the bottom of the page. Just a couple of small things that I would change.

You have some lovely images in your footer but I'm not so keen on the one on your about us page.

On your curriculum page, the images may look better with a border or frame.

Great overall though!

Negative feedback can hurt but if you listen their is normally a lot worth listening to.

Anyways a think you are right about the photographs in the content parts of the page. A border might make them look a little more finished. I will try also centering the images.

As for the photos in general. I have over 300 to choose from so once I have finalised the basic layout I spend a little time choosing the right photos for each page, top and bottom.

[caraewilton]

STWebDesign, on Jan 6 2009, 20:44, said:

Hello,
I think the design is nice and it’s very easy to navigate around the website. As Mr Old Skool said the loading time of the pages are quite long which could be a problem but when that’s fixed the website should run smoothly. Over all Nice website.

Thanks. If only I can figure out what is slowing down the page! If anyone can shed some light on this, I would greatly appreciate it.

[STWebDesign]

Hello again,
I am not sure why it is slow if there is nothing wrong with the website it must be the server its hosted on.
Where is the site hosted? And who bye?

Thanks

[Dave_Webb]

Yer I also think it must be the server because the code and everything look thine.
Btw Nice site, I think its the right design for a school website

[Ren]

Yeh, the loading time is quite a pain, I don't really like the look of the Phases page where they are all in separate boxes, perhaps this should be revised, to me, it just breaks up the continuity of the page. On a lighter note however, I like how the footer contain lightbox images, so good job there, and just like a lot of us here the same goes for you where I say that there is always room for improvement my friend.

Let us know how you get on.

Ren

[caraewilton]

STWebDesign, on Jan 6 2009, 23:25, said:

Hello again,
I am not sure why it is slow if there is nothing wrong with the website it must be the server its hosted on.
Where is the site hosted? And who bye?

Thanks

The site is hosted by a local company called Afrihost. I have used them for a long time now and they have exceptional customer service so I'll give them a call and ask them to look into the matter.

[caraewilton]

Dave_Webb, on Jan 7 2009, 00:15, said:

Yer I also think it must be the server because the code and everything look thine.
Btw Nice site, I think its the right design for a school website

Thanks. I went back and looked at the picture sizes and all and I really don't think that is the problem. So I
have a chat to the hosting company and see what they come up with.

[caraewilton]

Ren, on Jan 7 2009, 01:43, said:

Yeh, the loading time is quite a pain, I don't really like the look of the Phases page where they are all in separate boxes, perhaps this should be revised, to me, it just breaks up the continuity of the page. On a lighter note however, I like how the footer contain lightbox images, so good job there, and just like a lot of us here the same goes for you where I say that there is always room for improvement my friend.

Let us know how you get on.

Ren

Indeed there is always room for improvement, otherwise there would be no point in putting up a site for review. Thanks for having a look at the site. I think you are right about the phases page. It would look better if I have a short description about each phase and then use the vertical navigation for each phase as on the other pages.

[caraewilton]

Hi there guys. Thanks for all your time.
I have made a few minor changes. Had another look at the phases page, and changed things a little.
Any further comments would be greatly appreciated. As a side note not all the links work yet. All the about us sections work, phases and the junior phase pages work.

[Mr Old Skool]

That's much better, pages took half the time to load, well done, looking good!!

[caraewilton]

Mr Old Skool, on Jan 8 2009, 03:52, said:

That's much better, pages took half the time to load, well done, looking good!!

Thanks. I am glad things are loading faster although I still don't know what the problem was. I sent an email to my hosting company. One of the support guys responded, saying he had checked the server and from the logs could find no indication of the server being slow. He also attached a copy of these logs, which I looked at, but to be honest did not understand.
I removed all the metadata from the photographs, but that only reduced their size by a few kilobytes. For good measure I re-uploaded everything to the host. Anyway I am glad it is a bit faster

Any other thoughts or comments about this layout?