new guy looking for opinions on web site

[bucwyld]

Hello my name is Rob and i am new to this site..not even sure if i am posting this question in the right forum. But anyways, I need some computer pros help. i am in a band and i was in charge of creating our web site
www.bucwyld.com

Since there are 6 guys in the band eveyone has their own opinion about what they like and dont like about the site.

I really need some pros opinions about the site that I can share with the band and say..." look heres what the pros say about our site, lets listen to the pros"

we are growing very quickly as a band and the number of hits are increasing weekly..so we want it to be a great site but it was cheaper for me to make it ratheer than hire a pro..
Please help in any way you can.
thanks
Rob Furman
[e-mail]

[Dogtree]

Okay, rule #1 about dynamic content: Audio that you can't turn off is EVIL! Always give the client an option when it comes to potentially annoying features. The first thing I did when the page loaded was kill the browser. The second thing I did when the page loaded again was stop the flash movie from playing. Those aren't reactions that you want to cultivate. A better option would be a flash video with no audio, and a link that gives the client a chance to listen to the music if they so choose.

This site is best viewed with Netscape.

The days where this message would be acceptable are long gone. First, you're assuming a browser, which probably means that the site will be netcrap for other browsers. Second, you're not even assuming the most likely browser, which would be IE 5 or 6. You even have a button that links to a place where Netscape can be downloaded! Are you trying to sell your band, or Netscape? I can't really tell.

The link to get into the site isn't blindingly obvious. To be perfectly honest, you would be better off losing the splash page entirely because it's more of an annoyance than anything.

Moving into the 'real' site, the first thing I noticed was that it looks like someone actually bothered to do design work. That's good, and another reason to lose the splash page, because it doesn't give off a level of professionalism that you probably want.

Both IE and Firefox show a consistent and disturbing pattern. Your site just seems to suddenly cut off into whitespace around the margins of the page. With this particular design, you want 0% margin on all sides or it'll look awful no matter how sweet the rest of the page is.

I like the design of the home page, but to make your links easier to find, some kind of rollover is warranted. The curve of the navigation bar is also a bit uncomfortable to use, but there's not really anything you can do about that except go for a straight horizontal or straight vertical navigation bar, and that would kill the effect that you're going for. The navigation system takes up the majority of your page, and makes the content feel cramped. It also feels like you're squeezing as much as possible into that little bit of content area rather than making the page vertically fluid so that it can grow to meet your content needs.

The calendar looks like you just threw the page together in a few minutes and the source confirms it. Consistency and flow are key elements to a good web site. If you have a nice navigation system and then abandon it on the next page, it's confusing and unprofessional.

The photo gallery doesn't exist. It's not even a link, even though it looks like it should be one. At the very least, create a page that it goes to, but with some kind of default information, or remove the text for the link entirely so that it's obvious that there's not a link.

The bulletin board is nice, but the color scheme is completely different from the rest of the site. Once again, consistency and flow. It doesn't feel like the board is yours because it's such a sudden and shocking change of color and design.

Band bios, contact, downloads, and song list are all good. They keep the flow going with your navigation system, but when you click on any of the bio it once again abandons the design in favor of a naive and unprofessional page.

All in all, it's a good first step, but if I were doing the design work, I wouldn't have it go live until the loose ends were tied up. The loose ends are all small things, but collectively, they can kill the professionalism of a web site, and result in the site being another victim of www.webpagesthatsuck.com.

And yes, I do design and implement web sites professionally. ;)

[bucwyld]

wow, thanks a lot for that info.,,,thats exactly what I needed......I really appreciate the ibnformation and i will try to make those changes..
rob