At 04:52 AM 17/09/04 +1000, you wrote: >So LA have a new website. Finally! :) >http://www.linux.org.au. Any breakages reported would be much >appreciated! >Rock on Australia, >Pia
Dear SLUGs The idea of having a new website for LA is great, but this new website does not ROCK at all. It has serious design and usability errors, a few of which are outlined below. But these are easily fixed. SLUGGers should not be deluded - good web sites only come from hard work, good content and attention to detail (just like programming) and not from having graphics designers using the latest fashion in typefaces and colour schemes. A good website is not made by deluding oneself that your own site is the best, and that critism is inappropriate or the critic must be a nasty person. Designing website is now a technology taught at TAFE (there are heaps of books on usability) and has not been a guru craft or a black art since 1998. Wages for people who build build sites have fallen from $130 per hour to $30 per hour. Brian ======================================================= Linux Australia problems, the first 11....... 1. The logo on the main page can be clicked, and when it is, it displays the SAME page again. Whilst it is normal for the logo when clicked to return to the home page or all subsidiary pages, this is a big no-no on the main page. All textbooks on usability recommend against having anything which simply displays the same page, as users find it very confusing. 2. None of the images are sized with width= and height= tags. This causes the page to jump around while it's loading, and this is even more annoying on dial up lines and on the first visit. The worst example is the main logo, because it's "above the fold" on the first page. 3. The Linux Australia title includes a trailing space. 4. The menu choice at the top left includes links to things on the site and off the site. This is bad practice (a) it confuses the users and (b) Do your really want to provide links for your users to leave your site at the top of your main page. (you are a dill if you do). 5. The font at the very bottom of the page is far too small. It's only minor info to be sure, but the font is still too small. If it's not to be read, then simply take it off. Also, this bit has weird added spaces which are just confusing and do not add to the enjoyment. 6. Under the heading Sept 10th, RSS, there is a <> symbol, which is perhaps trying to look like a diamond replacing a dot point. It's made out of the gt and lt characters. In fact it looks weird, like a coding error to anyone who has seen faulty web pages (all of us). Why not just use a bolded asterisk??? 7. At the top, the link to linux.conf.au does not work. Was there any testing at all??? The destination underneath is not the same as the displayed text neither. The www (and the trailing slash for directories) should be on all href= links. 8. The main page link "Membership" goes to the "Membership Database" which is not the same thing, and confusing to users. Closer reading of the Membership Database page does tell how to join. Surely if the aim is to get new members, this means there should be a "How to Join" link right on the front page. 9. The new member sign-up page is a bit wacky - it displays the log-in boxes for existing members to log-on (and stuff about forgot your password) at the SAME time as displaying the form where new members can join. This is nutty from a user's point of view. 10. In some browsers, the mouse rollover text includes a display of leading spaces, which looks weird to the user. The values in the alt= tags need to be reviewed on all pages. 11. On the Membership Database page, clicking "Home" shows the same page again, and does not go to the home page of Linux Australia. Very confusing to users, and goes against the accepted meaning of Home. =================================================================== -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
