[thelist] site crit: www.dittodesign.co.uk

[Tara Cleveland]

Hi Darren

Overall, I really liked the layout and look of the site. Nice and clean.
There were a couple of points I had:

I agree with Kristina about the menu staying red when you are on that page.
I didn't realize I was on the "who" page until I clicked onto another page
and then clicked back again. When you're naming your menu items in a
non-standard way, give your users as many other clues as you can so that
they can figure it out.

It took me several minutes (I just woke up though...) to find the little
close music window. I was expecting it to be on the page, not in a little
pop-up. And that music (although I like it to listen to) is very difficult
to read and listen to at the same time, so I had to turn it off to read your
site. Oh, and when I clicked back to the front page it turned on again and I
had to turn it off again. Is there any way you could code it so it would
stay off?

Okay copy... I'm not a copy editor, so I won't have caught everything but...

The first couple of sentences on the news page are awkward. There are
several sentence fragments - you might be doing that knowingly, but it makes
it harder to read. I'd suggest you change the paragraph to something like
this:

"Our biggest news at the moment is this new site. As it stands, we've laid
the foundations on which to develop it further. We will be adding features,
redesigning sections and utilising anything that piques our interest. Among
future additions are a special web design deal for small businesses, flash
screensavers, desktop wallpaper and downloadable Flash Fla's."

I'd say that "delectation" is a bit wordy (on the links page). Also, the
graphics on the left side butt up against the text - I'd put in a gutter
(I'm on IE5 Mac).

What we offer page:

"ditto offer internet solutions grounded in today's and tomorrows
technologies." - add an s to offer and an apostrophe to tomorrows

"We taylor our designs to your business needs and aspirations, after all you
know your business and market far better than we do."
-should be-
"We tailor our designs to your business needs and aspirations.  After all,
you know your business and market far better than we do."


"This is why we take the time to develop your sites structure..."
-should be-
"This is why we take the time to develop your site's structure..."

"Once the site is complete and approved, we open it up on the web and
register it with the major search engine."
-should be-
"Once the site is complete and approved, we open it up on the web and
register it with the major search engines." - unless you believe that there
is only one search engine worth submitting to ;) Oh yah, decide whether you
want Search Engine to be capitalized or not and stick to that throughout the
site.


on the Where page:
"All communication welcome good bad or indifferent."
-should be-
"All communication is welcome - good, bad or indifferent."

on the when page:
You might consider using business person instead of businessman (it should
be business man anyway) as in:
"Any serious businessman cannot afford to ignore the possibilities."
(but a business woman could afford to ignore it... ;) )

"Does your site fulfil it's potential?"
-should be-
"Does your site fulfil its potential?"

Okay, I have to stop now and go grocery shopping - but nice site - could use
a good proof-read though - preferably by an English major ;).

Regards,

Tara

--
Tara Cleveland
Web Design and Consulting
http://www.taracleveland.com