Preparing for a re-write

[wamboid]

I'm getting ready to do a rewrite of www.mmumo.net (http://www.mmumo.net) and am looking for any suggestions. Before the usual stones get thrown, yes, I know it uses tables, has no doctype, and has numerous validation problems. That is part of the reason for the rewrite.

I've been designing sites for about 10 years now, but have only recently begun to use css, so any help would be greatly appreciated. I feel kind of silly that one of the problems I'm having is getting the maincontent div to fill the remainder of the screen correctly so that the header is centered.

I'd also appreciate any comments on overall organization and design. I personally don't like several things about it, but my boss has the final say. I'm not going to mention what my dislikes are, but I hope to get comments supporting them. Maybe if I get confirmation from other experts my boss will have to agree.

[rapid]

youve already mentioned table layout, doctype and validation so i wont.

background is a bit disorientating, would be much better as a clean, clear, crisp, professional-looking single color.

the menu at the top uses javascript which many visitors wont be able to use, and they dont look too good as they dont line up with the menu titles.

the side menu is better but when you redesign you could use css buttons instead of text links to improve usability and make sure visitors know it is definitely a menu.

dont really need three menus on every page, probably a bit confusing. stick to one effective means of navigation so visitors know what to expect.

you might also want to rethink how the menus on the subpages are displayed as they dont have links to all the other pages which means that if you want to go from 'About MMU' to 'Electric Production' you have to go back to the home page to do so. i realise at the moment the top and bottom menu provide the top level links, but if you do remove them youll need to find a way around this problem. could have the css button menu horizontally across the page beneath the logo and header, and have a sub menu appear below the main menu on subpages.

the paintshop pro images look a bit messy for a professional company site.

its a good idea to make the company/site logo a link to the home page as an escape route for visitors who get lost, or just want a quick way back to the home page. and make sure its right at the top of the page. information architecture says that we understand information at the top of things like website pages as the most important with information of lesser importance lower down.

the text changes size well, but the font is times new roman, which lots of people dont like so one or two different fonts in the redesign will give it a much more professional appearance.

the layout needs some rethinking:
on the home page, the mission statement would be better on the 'about us' page, with a rewitten/jazzed up version on the home page to tell visitors what you do and why they should spend they time looking at your website. the contact info would be better on a 'contact' page, not only because it will tidy up your home page but also because visitors expect to look for a 'contact' link in the menu. unless your 'whats new' section gets updated every couple of days, its taking up too much space on your home page. might be better in a smaller box below the menu as each item contains a link so visitors looking to immediately go somewhere other than your home page know that they only have to look down that left-hand column and can ignore the rest of the page as it only has info they are not interested in and not links(so avoid putting them their if you can). make better use of the office building photo. at the moment its just sitting there for no reason and with no reference to it. if your going to keep it, have it in the middle beneath the new version of the mission statement, with something that says 'The MMU Office building - its from here that we manage all your utility requirements. our friendly, professional staff ensure that you get the service you deserve, etc, etc.' this provides a real-world connections to something that most people have no idea about; where their electricity comes from. also makes the home page friendlier.

'clicking here' and 'this link' are not good names for links. 'report electrical faults' and 'Minutes of the latest Board of Public Works meeting' would be better.

id suggest a color scheme of monotone greys, black and white. providing electricity, etc. to people is quite a serious business so theyd probably expect a serious looking website, nothing too flashy, just clean, clear, precise, effeicent, i.e. all the things youd want from the company itself. this kind of color scheme will also make the text links, logos and images stand out more.

on the about page one of the links opens a pdf. its not a good idea to have links in a menu that do different things. visitors expect, and rely on, consistency. having most of the links open another page while just one opens a pdf is not only inconsistent, it is also timewasting and annoying.

a site map on a site the size of yours is estential. the one you have is good in the way its link organisation follows how the pages are organised on the site and gives an overview, but that is only half of it as many visitors wont know what they are looking for. to improve you could also display the links in alphabeticall order and add a serch function to everypage. and the menu on the site map page doesnt have a link to the home page. again, be consistent.

its always a good idea to look at other companies websites to see how theyve done theirs, figure out whats wrong with it, and do better.
these showed up on the same page of yahoo search results as your site:
http://www.omu.org/
http://www.rmu.net/
http://www.smunet.net/
none of them are perfect, in fact they all need redesigning, but theyll give you some ideas and highlight some of the problems with your site.

[wamboid]

Thanks for the input so far. You touched on many of the things I don't like about the site, and hinted at a few others. I'm intentionally not mentioning what I don't like about the site for now so as not to influence anyone else's comments.

The major problem with the situation is that we have a micro manager in charge. In fact, I'm posting this from home because at work we never know when he will be checking up on us with a program that logs every keystroke. I hope that by showing him some of the comments posted here, he will listen when other experts agree with me. Another part of the problem is that he is out of town at meetings quite often, and is continually told by other General Managers from other small towns in the state how wonderful our site is. It's hard to convince him that things are bad when he's constantly being told by others like him that it is good. Actually, it is better than most of the small utility sites in our state. By that, I mean that the others are really really bad.

You can see this is probably the toughest client I've ever had. I have worked on web design full time in the past, but this was a much higher paying job to work in the IT department at this location. Luckily, I've been given the website to work on. I've got to be careful not to be too critical, since if I lose the client, I've lost my day job! I still do web design work after hours for some of my old clients, as well as new ones.

Thanks for the help so far, and everyone please keep the comments coming.

[wamboid]

Good news! I just got the go ahead from our General Manager to do a complete overhaul of the site using css. Any further advice would be greatly appreciated. One thing I had hoped to get comments on was the overall organization of the site. Currently, it is arranged along our company organizational chart. This is organized, but I don't think our customers would make as much sense out of it as our employees. I think it needs main areas such as Electricity, Water, Wastewater, etc.