kind of website that grabs your attention

[Patrisia]

Before I go public with my website, I thought I would run this by you.
Of course, I have looked at all your websites ;) but what gets your attention on a website? What keeps you looking?
I am building a One Place Study site, so perhaps the criteria are rather different from a Family History site, but my preferences are for a simple, uncluttered site with plenty of information but not all on the home page.
I hope that I have avoided all the obvious pitfalls but wonder if you have any particular likes or dislikes.
So, do you have a favourite site, or one that you think is well made?
I would be glad to have any suggestions.

[Geoffers]

what gets your attention on a website? What keeps you looking?
A simple design without loads of adverts. I dislike great wads of text which are not broken into paragraphs. The home page just needs a short introduction as to what the site is about with some clear and obvious links as to how to get to the information. I don't like lots of photos on the home page - if a website takes more than 10 seconds to open, I am not interested.


I am building a One Place Study site
Excellent - good for you (I have a one-place study too). Let us know the URL when you get something together.

So, do you have a favourite site, or one that you think is well made?Norfolk Mills has as simple a homepage as you could wish for
http://www.norfolkmills.co.uk/

and Norfolk Pubs is good too
http://www.norfolkpubs.co.uk/index.htm

I help to run a website for Norfolk
http://www.genealogy.doun.org/transcriptions/index.php
which is reasonable, but I'm biased.

Geoffers

[Patrisia]

Thanks Geoffers,
Having seen the Norfolk Mills, I am now trying to prune down my home page!
Although I have tried to keep it spare, there is going to be so much information on following pages, I felt I needed some kind of introduction first.
So it might be a case of - back to the drawing board!

As soon as I hear from Rootsweb, I will post the url, promise.

[Lesley Robertson]

Thanks Geoffers,
Having seen the Norfolk Mills, I am now trying to prune down my home page!
Although I have tried to keep it spare, there is going to be so much information on following pages, I felt I needed some kind of introduction first.
I've found that the easiest way to control lots of information is to keep it in separate, simple chapters, with the front page acting as a sort of Table of Contents. I actually keep the material for each section in a separate folder on the server so that if I want to modify something, I don't hve to down/upload the whole thing every time - just the folder in question. It's also easier that way to upload it in sections. It was taking me far too long to get everything I wanted done, so I uploaded what I had and am gradually adding more as I compete another bit.

One thing which Geoffers didn't mention - keep the colour scheme simple and high contrast. My eyesight isn't bad (with reading glasses), but I've just given up trying to read a site where the authors thought for some reason that light blue writing on a medium blue background was a good idea... I chose a light, textured background fromthe MS front Page collection to link text and pictues, and then kept all the text black or dark colours. That way, it's easier for the "hard of seeing".



I also added a web counter (mine is one of the free Nedstat ones) - it's nice to know that people really ARE looking.!

[Sheleen]

I found one website whilst trying to discover how or when exactly my great-great-grandfather became involved with the Salvation Army, and also where was the farm he worked at. I found both answers here:
http://www.findonvillage.com/
it's really a quaint site - but I won't do the injustice of calling it 'small'. It is definately NOT the normal kind of site I have come across whilst trying to find information regarding a specific place... but I spend ages browsing this site nearly every day.
Thats the kind of site that (very obviously) grabs my attention! :)

[Blain]

I am currently in the process of putting my site together as well.

Let me know if you want any help with yours.

[Patrisia]

Thanks for the offer but I think I am OK for the moment :)

[MarkJ]

No flashy animations, pop ups,dire musical noises etc. Design with good contrasting font colours - with a sensible size font to help those with eye problems.
Minimum pictures - I link to another of my sites if people wish to see photos of the parish.
I pretty much agree with Geoffers - more than a few seconds to load... and I don't wait - certainly not for the initial main page anyway. I would wait for some specific information if I knew it was worth the effort, but not for a main page.

[kazrbutler]

Bearing in mind that not everyone can travel to the places their ancestors lived, good photos with descriptions can bring a place alive. Especially helpful can be photos of buildings which are no longer in existence. I found a picture on one site that had a photo of the row of houses my ancestors lived in - and revisited regularly til it disappeared. Having said that, photos can be on pages / sections of their own to speed up information downloading.

Music and flashing text or graphics are the most annoying things I have found on sites, though they won't stop me going back if the information is helpful - with sound turned off when I am not experiencing / recovering from a migraine.

I would agree that easy access to everything from one page is a must, as this makes it easier to refind information when you return to the site

Best wishes with the site,
Karen

[Jack Richards]

Having noted the comments posted in this thread, I wonder where my site rates in the rankings and critiques - basically it is a one tiny village site and my ancestory with still more to be uploaded.

Kindest regards

Jack

[Mythology]

Well, as it's been up for over four years, either your friends are too polite or I'm in the minority, but I'd sum it up in one word ...

Ghastly.

(Sequence of events, thoughts and mutterings)
Click link.
Arrive at site.
Read the brief intro.
Notice e-mail link at the bottom - and also notice home page link.
"Oh - that's odd, I thought I was already on the home page. Never mind, let's click it anyway."
Which rings me back to the same page!

"So where the **** is the actual stuff?"
Scratches head.

"Ah - he's using green for the links, fair enough, and there's a CLICK HERE TO ENTER link under the heading which I hadn't noticed 'cos I started reading the intro and there isn't a similar link below it. Should be used to that you silly boy, it's just like all those sites that have a NEXT PAGE button at the top of ten feet of data instead of at the bottom, which, of course, is where you want it when you've read through the first page and discovered that what you're looking for isn't there . CLICK HERE TO ENTER doesn't really make sense anyway, of course - I'm already on the flaming site! Still, never mind, got the idea now."

Looks more closely at the top bit.

"Ummm ... hang on. If he's using green for the links, I'm not really interested in his personal family stuff, I'll just click that green Platerton Local History link instead."

Moves mouse towards said link.

"Oh ******** - that whole ******* heading is an image which is all one link - there isn't a separate Palterton Local History link after all. Grrrr ..."

Click.

(continues)

[Mythology]

"Oh ****, it's a ****** useless ******* Flash page, so with Flash blocked, all I'm getting is a stupid little button in the middle of the screen, ****** all else at all - this is almost as bad as that ****** estate agents page which even uses Flash for the ****** menu buttons! Is it really worth clicking the button to unblock my Flash-blocker and get at this stuff? Well, now that I'm here, I suppose I might as well ..."

Click.

"***** ****** ****** (and I reckon even he would be losing patience by now) - what the **** is going on here? I've landed on Volumes XI-XII of a photo album. So where's the start of this lot, volume I? Oh - I get it, it's one of those dumb mouseover links, my mouse happens to already be on one of the books, so I don't see the message, but when I move it everything changes. This is driving me nuts - are we ever going to get to anything sensible like a menu? Oh well, now that I've twigged, let's do the logical thing and start with volume one."

Click.

"I do not believe it.. You click volume one and you get a perfectly straightforward listing for the whole ****** lot!!! So there is a sensible bit at last. If I was using this site regularly, I'd bookmark this page and skip the rest of the **** completely. Why on earth didn't he just do two links on the front page, one to this one, and the other to the family stuff, and save us spending all ****** day going round the houses? This guy must really enjoy winding people up!"

And if I wasn't determined to get there in the end, to see if there was a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, I would have given up before getting that far. It would have to be something absolutely vital to my research and not available anywhere else before I'd bother with a site like this. Actually, I *did* give up when you put a link to it in a message some time ago, but, as you specifically asked in this one .....

[Guy Etchells]

I would not go quite as far as that Myth. but I do agree the navigation is annoying.
However apart from that the site content is good, but would visitors actually get to it.

I too was puzzled by the lower link, not even seing the green click here to enter link until I started searching for another way in.
If I had simply browsed to the site I would have thought there was no content and passed on.

Ditch the navigation keep the great content.
Cheers
Guy

[tony vines]

A very quick, belated and off topic thanks to Geoffers for the link to the excellent Norfolk Mills site. Great pictures and drawings and understandable process explanations. There are millers in my wife's family and I now know much more about where and in what conditions they worked as well as why they probably went out of business in the late 19th century. Nice one!

cheers

[Clive Blackaby]

Oh dear,
I was just going to compliment Jack on the attractive layout and the huge amount of good content when I read Myth's comments.

Sorry guys, I can only agree with you on the one point about the front page, which is a bit pointless. Otherwise I thought the navigation through the library shelf was novel and very quick and easy to use. I've not done a full test on it, but for me the whole lot seems to work as I believe it was intended to!

[marionh]

Yes, I agree with Clive.
I liked his site. Thought the front page a bit of a waste of time but the rest was great and easy to navigate. Main problem was I didn't know where Palterton was until I got back to this thread!
Marion

[Burrow Digger]

The books is definitely interesting but they should really have an ALT tag which shows up much more easily then the print below the shelf. Also for those people who have older PCs there should really be a small text menu on the page as well.

Burrow Digger

[Clive Blackaby]

The books is definitely interesting but they should really have an ALT tag which shows up much more easily then the print below the shelf. Also for those people who have older PCs there should really be a small text menu on the page as well.

Burrow Digger
Oh, yes - sorry folks, it's a very good point to remember when testing your website.

Enlist the help of someone who still runs their pc on paraffin :D (kerosine).

(No affront intended - so used to working on a fairly new pc, I tend to forget that others are not so fortunate)

C:)

[Jack Richards]

Sincerest apologies for my late response to those persons who offered a critique on my web site. I've had

a minor fault with my broadband connection.

Thank you for finding the time and making the effort to answer my request for a critique. Also, to those

who viewed the site.

It is when I read such comments that I too note improvements are required to the Home Page. Already, I

have engaged my thoughts as to how best it can be achieved. Meanwhile, I have removed some duplicated

wording on the page.

It is my intention to email privately those of you who responded.

To Mythology - I appreciate, respect and value the honesty in your response. Unfortunately, I cannot

email you privately because you do not wish to receive emails. I would welcome the opportunity to send

you a private message, if you would consent. Thanks.

A couple of comments. At present my Home Page was so designed to load fast, provide a little text to

read, whilst the books on the second page loaded. As Guy kindly suggested, I need to look at the

navigation.

Also, originally I included my Home Page address at the bottom of the page in the mistaken belief that is

it was/is the correct protocol and that is how search engines "pick up" a site. Clearly, I am wrong.

Again, thanks to all for your valued comments.

Jack

[Lesley Robertson]

[QUOTE=Jack Richards]Having noted the comments posted in this thread, I wonder where my site rates in the rankings and critiques - basically it is a one tiny village site and my ancestory with still more to be uploaded.


Having had a look at it, I liked the site but found the index via the book volumes a bit annoying. I only looked in detail at the farms as I'm busy sorting the Whitsome ones out at the moment, and liked the format.