http://barelybad.com

Please take a look at the 230-page site starting at http://barelybad.com, my vanity site.

I'm particularly interested in your impression of the various navigation links I've offered. Because there are so many pages, and becuase so many link to so many others in such a random way, it seems to me that making the visitor's job of figuring out where he came from, where he is, and where he can go next is important.

How easy is it for you to figure out the navigation of this site? How easy is it for you to figure out how it's organized, and how good is that organization? Which links produced a result you didn't expect?

Thanks.

--Johnny
johnnyg aattssiiggnn kc.rr.com
barelybad.com

Well, the navigation is OK in IE, but in Firefox I didn't get the drop-downs.. so you might want to change that. Also, the background is a little to, um, distracting.. try fading it a little, so it wont draw away from the rest of the page.

You certainly have a lot of content, and I commend you for that!

Josh

Thanks, Josh, for your response. I will look into the problem with Firefox, which I admit I have never heard of.

As to the background, I'm unclear which background you're referring to, seeing as how there are several. Which pages or pages specifically are you referring to?

possibly every single one...

i could go on for a long time with everything that is wrong with this site.. its got the content going for it man, plenty of it. someone could spend a long time in there.. but ill have to start with there isnt many sites ill stay at for long if i get instantly dizzy and an instant head ache from the overwhelming effect of the background and very contrasting colours! argh im still squinting. i recommend you approach it with some more milder colours for starters

I agree with the comment above. Those horizontal bars with the rainbow effect have to go. There is also too much grey, maybe use white as the background. I think you need to pick some sort of theme that you like. look around the net and take elements you think are cool, or just sit down and draw a layout. There is loads of content, but the design doesnt make me want to read it. See what others are doing and then do it better.

While I originally asked about the navigation aids on my site, I'm pleased that other problems have been pointed out, particularly the backgrounds.

I have to ask again, which backgrounds are any of you referring to? There are six combinations of backgrounds, each combination for a reason, and all the text is black. About 90% of the pages are black text on a white or quite pale background. Which exact pages should I take another look at, keeping in mind that I'm slightly color-blind?

And if you have any comments on ways to improve the navigation, please let me know that too.

Thanks.

The site has a lot of text... and way too much thrown on one screen to read all at once. Of course the menu already has a lot of items, so adding even more to that would be bad too, because people wouldn't know where to go anymore. I wouldn't know how to make this part better.

Especially all the blue around it makes my eyes hurt. The site loads fast, but maybe some images to cheer things up might make it look a lot better. No matter how interesting the text is on the page, people will click it away if it isn't presented right.


Those rainbow bars, like people already pointed out, are really ugly and don't fit in with the already not so pretty color scheme. The background with the BB's has to go, it only makes your site look low budget. These days people want to see crisp sites, and this looks really distracting.


The pix page really really doesn't look inviting, you might want to make pages with 12 thumbnails or something on each one of them. Then people can see what to expect when clicking this link. Also the ##kb behind every picture link isn't really necessary and might scare people away because of the 'nerdiness'.

The worst part about the website is the intro screen. It really gives me the idea to click it away as quickly as possible, because I don't know what to expect and it looks really low budget.


The menu is well made, but I doubt a site like this is easy to navigate no matter how a menu is implemented because it simply has so much info to look through and no specific target except to entertain the viewer.

I'm not bashing your site, but the cosmetic side of it needs more than a little make-up, a face lift and botox would be better. A website is just like a striptease dancer, an ugly one can still do the job for some people, but most will run away from it and look for a prettier one.

That's a good one. Never thought of design that way.


1. The first page has a dark background with "BB" as the background. Nothing wrong with that, but what text on a dark background is really irritating.

2. The grey background is on the other pages is fine, IMO. The contrast between that and the text is fine. However, I would strongly advise you to get rid of the, for lack of a better description, rainbow lines. They are distracting to say the least.

3. My only other suggestion would be to tone down the color of the blue used for the header and footer of the site. Of course, this is a matter of taste.