Commission-Advance.ca

Commission Advance

I'm looking for a critique on the layout. The whole website is not complete ( content isn't all thier as of yet, and I'm still having content positioning issues... /me goes to the box model ) However, it is built to standards ( xhtml, css), nothing flashy, I'm aiming for the 'corporate and boring' look. I think I got it pretty much.

Any ideas, or suggestions are welcomed.

Regards, and TIA

Don't disparage corporate boring. Web sites fall into 2 categories; they sell some product, service or idea, or they are 'look at me' ego sites. In the first category, content is king. The designer has the job of making the site easier and more pleasant for the visitor to use. That includes using graphics, plugins, javascript, &c. as appropriate to enhance the message and improve the user experience.

This is a category 1 site, and you have managed to keep your designer ego in check. That counts as a Good Thing™.

I have only a couple of suggestions. The image map links at the top would be better served as separate links in images. Structurally they should be coded as a list of links. This applies to the links at the bottom of the page, too. These changes would make no difference in appearance, but would improve accessibility.

The tag line is weak. The first sentence or even paragraph should be about what you do rather than what you are. For example, "Invest and Beyond, Ltd offers one of the lowest interest rates in the industry" is stronger than "Invest and Beyond Ltd, is a Canadian Company." Perhaps it should be the header, "Invest and Beyond, Ltd Offers Low Rates." This is an SEO issue.

I give this a solid "A". Fix a couple of accessibility issues and get stronger content text and you're golden.

cheers,

gary

Very nice and clean, nothing un-nessessary. Like it alot, very prof. looking. But do ditch the image maps.

Excellent suggestions, I don't really understand what you mean by the accessibility issue? Are you reffering to the tab order?

Agree, the tag line is weak. The content for this website is still being created by me

Do a google search for c o m m i s s i o n a d v a n c e and this post comes up as number one... gah... that's going to be a problem

The visually impaired, using assistive technology will likely have a two step procedure to use the top links. First, the map as a whole is treated as a link. This link leads to a 'page' which displays or reads all the links using the alt text. Separate image links would be available without having first to go somewhere else.

Tab order isn't that important with so few links. What is important is that it be obvious which link has focus. The weak dotted border that seems to be the default in most browsers is not sufficient. This would be a good place for artistic endeavors. Flip the images on :focus and :hover.

Someone who must labor at each keypress may not see the humor in two extra tabs on invisible links.

gary

So content has been added, and the website is in it's completed status, I've chosen to stick with the image maps, simply becuase it's more work than I really want to go through to remove them, however, I have removed 'seemingly hidden' links as per Gary's suggestion.

I would appreciate if you could kindly comment on the FAQ section, especially regarding navigation, and the explanations therein. I'm not looking for an editor, although if you read through it quickly and notice something that leads away from clarity or simplicity please do mention it.

That's my aim, with the writing for this site. Simple, and clear.

Specifically, I'm looking for a little more critique of this section:

http://www.commission-advance.ca/re...-questions.html

Thanks for all of your suggestions...

Hi, on my comp the title loads up after the rest of the page? Maybe reduce the filesize a bit?

Nice easy prob eh

Jack

http://www.GuitarAd.co.uk

I thought the text links in the Apply page could have been more obvious, I wasn't sure where to download the PDF application form from until I hovered, maybe you could just put square brackets round the links if you don't want to change your stylesheet, that would give more of a hint than the very subtle colour change.

John.

I've got that complaint twice now... changed.

Hi, nice site!

About the faq's...

I think they'd be more interesting if they were more like a collapseable menu, as in, you have your list of links, and the answer to each one directly beneath it in a hidden <div>, then onClick shows/hides the div appropriately.

It'd be a nice touch I think... [not sure what it'd do for assistive tech though...]

Just a suggestion.

Thanks for the suggestions/comments/help everyone

I really mucked the SEO of this page up... anyone have any suggestions for what I could do to get it back on track...