Website design feedback/critique

[jshjohnson]

Hello,

I am redesigning a charity website and would appreciate some feedback or any suggestions for improvement.

This is the original website – [http://rasa-advocacy.org.uk/](http://rasa-advocacy.org.uk “”)

This is the redesign – [http://rasa-wakefield.org.uk/wp/](http://rasa-wakefield.org.uk/wp/ “”)

Thanks

[GMB]

A couple of quick thoughts…

First of all, it looks a lot nicer than the original, more immediate eye-appeal, IMO, more inviting for the visitor.

What I like (mostly macro-level stuff):

+ — more generous overall layout
+ — Bigger, catchier header
+ — Slideshow
+ — animated drop downs

What I’m not crazy about:

+ — the very wide text area
+ — the lines are too long IMO for the type size
+ — the excessive space at the bottom of the footer and the fact that it floats up on pages with little content (i.e. need a sticky footer)
+ — the black highlight (an oxymoron) for page name on hover
+ — the page name isn’t centered in the colored rectangle
+ — neither is the upward arrow in the back to text icon

And a general pet peeve: the contact page. For basic messages, wouldn’t linking the “contact” menu item to a basic mailto link be better?

Sorry for the funky formatting! I’m not having much success using markdown here…

[kgscott284]

I agree with everything with one issue: using a mailto: link is probably not a good idea for a site that may receive a fair bit of exposure…That is a spam attack waiting to happen (unless encoded in some way of course…)…

Id recommend setting the global font size to 16px instead of 14px…and the menu font-size to 14px (you will have to make the search region a hair smaller) but, as far as accessibility you’d gain a few points in my book.

I would also increase the line height…it is often something that is overlooked but increasing it can really improve readability.

edit: one more thing – the scroll up arrow; i think it should be the dark blue, not a black…it doesn’t fit the UI…

Excellent work though…the initial site was rough.

[JohnMotylJr]

@jshjohnson,

I think the website it dramatically better, gives it a more contemporary look rather than a early 2000’s or 90’s approach.

To embelish on what @kgscott284 said in regards or using the mailto:. If it’s really necessary to use it than you can incorporate something like this to protect against spam.

html

<span class="email">name[at]domain[dot]com</span>

jQuery

$(function() {

    $('.email').each(function() {

        var $email = $(this);

        var address = $email.text()

        .replace(/s*[at]s*/, '@')

        .replace(/s*[dot]s*/g, '.');

        $email.html(''+ address +'');

    });

});

or use php if so choose, just my two cents..

[John]

I’ve been using http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/si-contact-form/ for awhile mow with no problems.

[cfGoose]

You spelled Seekers as Seeksers on the top right.

[Author]

Posts