Review request for my first Website

[gregmatic]

This took me a long time to make, as I was learning as I went. I've already found a better way to do some of the things I've done, but since it is my first site I am sure there is a lot I am missing. Any input about the source code, or general usability would be appreciated.

There is one thing I am aware of, and I don't know what to do about it. I use a script to generate my FAQ pages, because it gives me a lot of fucntionality I wouldn't have otherwise. The benefits are that it is searchable, you can submit questions to it, it tracks statistics, and records searches. It also makes adding new questions and answers quick and easy. You can even answer submitted questions, and it will email the answer, and post the question and answer to the website. The only drawback to this is that it does not validate. I've weighed the pros and cons, and I think it is worth keeping, but since I am not that web knowledgeable I figured I would ask you guys.

I'd also like to add that this forum has been very helpful.

Here is a link to the site:

http://www.becontrols.com/

Greg

[the tree]

Your code could be worked on, for instance, where you have:<td valign="middle" width="38%"><font size="+1"><b>Holidays</b></font></td> Why not try this?<th>Holidays</th>You're navigation bar, looks a bit stnadard, you could try something other than blue underlined no?

[gregmatic]

Thanks for pointing out the table information. I had forgotten that the tables on this site are mostly a cut and paste from our old website that was done by some one else. The old website used no CSS.

I have been thinking about those links a lot lately. I have been meaning to turn off the underlines on the ones in horizontal and vertical menus for a while now. I may keep the blue, but I have been thinking about using border inset and outset to give them a more "buttony" look. I've also been toying with the idea of going with a completely left hand menu instead of using the top and left menus, but I'm not sure if it would be any better.

Thanks for your input. I'm going to get started on this table now. I'm just learning how to apply CSS to tables, so all of my tables are pretty marked up at the moment.

Thank you for your input, I really appreciate it.

Greg

[mrmazur]

Those NEW animated GIFs have got to go. They are rather amateurish and degrade the site. The cleaner more professional your site is visually the more credibility you will have with your potential clients.

[gregmatic]

Those are actually copied from the old website too. Would they be okay if they looked the same, but weren't animated?

Greg

[the tree]

I wouldn't recomend it, a simple and sweet but sublte image is what you want.

[Nevermore]

Originally posted by the tree
Your code could be worked on, for instance, where you have:<td valign="middle" width="38%"><font size="+1"><b>Holidays</b></font></td> Why not try this?<th>Holidays</th>You're navigation bar, looks a bit stnadard, you could try something other than blue underlined no?

While they may not look exceptional, blue underlined links are by far the best in usability stakes.

[gregmatic]

Usability really is my biggest concern. I'm going to be refining it for a sharper appearance, but having everything clear and easy to find is the most important thing for me.

[gumbystation]

Originally posted by gregmatic
Usability really is my biggest concern. I'm going to be refining it for a sharper appearance, but having everything clear and easy to find is the most important thing for me.

That's something you really should just take to the customer then.