[thelist] site crit requested

[kevin d. white]

>just wanting a few basic comments on usability and functionality
to help
>perhaps in my next endeavor.  a few links are inactive, but
for the most
>part it is complete...i'd say about 90%.
>
>http://www.fountainsquareindy.com/

1) You should consider removing the doorway / home page and making
fountain.html into the home page.  Watch your server logs closely.
 I suspect you will see a fairly high (10%+) abondonment rate
on the doorway / home page.

2) Do a scrub for missing ALT tags.  Win IE 5.5 is not reading
ALT text on the top nav.

3) Explore centering the site rather than flush left.  This tends
to be more pleasing for people on higher resolutions.

4) The inline bold of proper names is distracting.  I recognize
your need to differentiate the place-names but the bold acts
as a magnet for the eye.  It inhibits the ability to read all
the text.

5) The "New Users" box is well intentioned but ineffective. 
  Your site is not a chart or map.  People are not expecting
a Legend and so they don't look for it.  If want to prepare people
for pop-ups (a laudable goal) then find another way.  Possibly
a symbol or icon that is consistant.

6) Please do not color your links red.  Red is associated with
"Visited" and may actually discourage interaction.  Green is
an odd choice as well.  Red & Green color combos are generally
not positive.

7) The headers in the left nav are odd.  Especially "Interactivity"
 This is a technical term.  I would not expect most people to
understand it.  Plus, isn't the whole site interactive?  The
current titles are descriptive enough.  Remove the headers but
feel free to maintain the grouping and seperation.

8) Consider using the diamond rollover state as the section indicator.
 Less things for the user to learn.

9) On the footer you have a "mailto:" link.  Consider providing
a form instead or in addition.  Too many people use Web-based
email for you to ignore them.

10) Really neat site.  Looks like a cool place to hang out.
{
 kevin d. white
 nonzero at well.com
 801.943.0931
 salt lake city, ut
}