Task 4C-1

www.havenworks.com

•The size of the home page is huge. It takes far too long to open. There are hundreds of images to load.
•The structure of the website is totally incoherent and disorganised. It was at first difficult to figure out what the site was all about.
•The bombardment of text, colours, buttons and graphics is, frankly, blinding.
•It is difficult to figure out which are the links to other pages, and which is just text sections meant to be read. If you follow a link to a new page, the format of the page changes. The links aren’t in the same places, and this forces you to search for them all over again.
•There are far too many links on the pages. Navigation is a nightmare.
•The use of frames has been grossly abused. The first frame is far wider than the rest of the webpage, resulting in a terrible design.

To improve this site the following guidelines should be followed:
Far less images must be used. The structure of the site must be redone. The content has to be better organised. Using standard techniques of using frames and simple navigation buttons doesn’t mean you have to compromise on creativity. Standard practices at least creates order. This site should consist of more pages, and each page should be in the same format ie. Navigation buttons in same place, links in same place.

Where did you find this site its going to eat all my bandwidth. One things for sure, its definately full of information. Looks like it was made from cut-outs from different magazines and newspapers and all stuck together. The site needs to be remade, evrything you listed and maybe put a huge link that says archive dump and store most of it in there. Id start with a simple starter page just to calm everyone down. softer colors. get rid of the mile long scroll bar on the right and try make some kind of navigation. maybe give it a newspaper look with just less news.

What a website???? WAY too much information. Where do you start? (Or end for that matter?) This is a perfect example of disorder!

• The use of frames - I’d limit them to 3 (at most, if required so badly) a header, navigation and content frame.

• Scroll bar needs to be limited, not run on endlessly.

• Too much information, always a bad thing. Being an information site, I’ll agree with ally 'maybe give it a newspaper look with just less news' and add links to make a page per story, so that it does not 'squeeze' all the info into one page.

• Links - where do I start? What link do I click on? Leaves me no choice but to LEAVE the web page. Maybe make the headers of articles links and make them as descriptive as possible.

• Creating an archive dump - maybe a good idea, but again, is all this information necessary?

• An image is meant to be visual, thus making navigation easier. The images on this site provide no information pertaining to what they are about.

Ditto to your comments on the Havenworks site. I have never seen so many tiny pictures crammed onto one page – vastly overpopulated. I concur with all your comments concerning opening time, navigation and use of frames.
Ironically, the website that lists Havenworks as a bad website, Web Pages That Suck, is also bad. The background is so busy with colours, lines and squares, that the column on the left hand side is virtually illegible. The position of the links to the bad sites are also too far down, so that the very business of the page: listing pages that suck, becomes obscured.

I found that the AFDA site opens, and when you click on the menu tabs, drop-down menus appear, but thereafter nothing happens and you are faced with a largely white screen (except for the header).

A number of sites that I visited were last updated two or more years ago. As a teacher, I took an interest in the websites of schools and colleges. One still listed the subjects that have been renamed and no longer, technically, exist, while a key subject like Mathematical Literacy is not listed. Editing is thus not seen as an ongoing task.

Outdated and incorrect information can also be found on the Golden Arrow and Metrorail sites. In fact, the Golden Arrow website is barely functional. There are no links to other pages on the Golden Arrow site on any of the pages. One has to return to the menu on the left each time. Each page is bare with only an oversized image and the a little information. The timetable page is most uninviting and, having made use of the “Contact Us” page with no success, their response to their website is obviously poorly monitored, significantly reducing it as a communications tool.

Well someone please send me to a doctor because i think i need to cure my headache!!!! No seriously i could hardly wait for the site to fully load as it was hurting my eyes and thats just the problem with this site. Too many bright neon flashing colours!!
There is also no order to what is happening. Very confusing if you are a first comer and thats exactly what happened when i entered!! I didn't even stay and watch. Like a bad start to a movie!
A good idea would be to have a basic common theme of colour and design. Keep things more simple. Organise directories and links in specific well positioned places and not all over the place.

Well done to Dryden for finding one of the worst sites i have ever come across!!

Yes, I agree. Far too many columns and dull colours for the different frames
used. Working with colour all day, I must say I DO NOT like the way it
just blends in with the screen.
It is confusing, specially if you are in a hurry to find something suitable.
The fonts used also don't do it for the site. Could have used more interesting and applicable fonts.

oh my word!!!! by the number of posts on this thread, I thought I better check out whats so interesting. Again, oh my word - hectic.
Its almost as bad as one I found, www.lanyardsupply.com - also a very busy, looks like the same designer.