Crappy Website

[Francis Nugent Dixon]

Richmond,

I have a liitle test for you !

Take a look at your desktop. If it is full of little alias
icons, and you spend a few seconds trying to find the right
one when you want to launch an application, then you can stop
reading now. I now know why your sister finds that your site
is like a dogs dinner.

Now - a second test. Get yourself a pack of different coloured
Post-Its, from your local store. You also need a wall ...... !

Build yourself a heirarchy of your site on the wall. Each Site
Level is a Post-It MENU, and all the items under each menu
represent either another level of menu, or a HTML page. If you
appear to have too many items in your menu, open another
menu level, but try not to have too many. Always ask the questions :
Is this the right place for this item, or more correctly, all all
the items in this menu siblings ?

I agree with Sarah that you should take a look at those CSS
templates, but I think it unfortunate that we can't see any
drop-down menus there. Using drop-down menus gives you more scope.
And all the menus I see, imply a two level heirarchy only. In
fact, all the templates are the same design, only the colours change.
They all look very nice, but in fact they are forcing you into a
strait-jacket.

Play with your diagram on your wall for a few days.  Sit down
in front of it and contemplate it (use the colours for different
types of function). Think carefully before you assign a Menu
Title, or a Menu Item (Short and Sweet names do the trick).
Extension of your site at a later date should be a piece of cake.

Finally, spend some time on designing a nice background for your
site pages, and use it on every page. It will save you much time.

Your site users should be able to intuitively wander your site...... !
(Oh !! - Don't forget a "Back to Main Menu" menu   : >)

-Francis