Please Review This New Site For Me I welcome any and all comments

Well, it is just about time I got this unit out on the web for people to see and criticise.
My pet project lately is a site for the local Minor Hockey Association.
I know it is not perfect (what site is), but it does what they asked for (more actually) and I am pleased with the features.
This version is full of 'dummy content'.
At one point, it validated strict, but this copy has a few (59) missing end tags that are being fixed, so please ignore the w3c validator link. And the maps on the contact page aren't ready yet. They are getting built as we speak. Other than those two items, I think it is ready.

Thanks for having a look and please leave some comments for things that are missing or don't work other than the above noted items.

Minor Hockey Webpage

Site Review

 

Okay the first thing I see when I load the page is a glaring blue background which burns my eyes. A couple of seconds after which I see the proper background image. So, I think the blue background should be removed.

 

Secondly, on the navigation menu you have headings which group the links. There is nothing defining the difference between a heading and a link (ie underlined text etc).

 

I like the way that the site works well in firefox and isn't one of those "ie only" sites and how the pages load nice and quickly on the 56k <20s on first page load and <8s thereafter

 

All in all a rating of:

 

9/10

 

Suggestions: Remove blue background, define the difference between links and headers on the navigation menu and maybe create 403, 404 error pages etc for the site...

Site Review

Suggestions: Remove blue background, define the difference between links and headers on the navigation menu and maybe create 403, 404 error pages etc for the site...

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Hmmm, I have no idea where the Blue comes from. But I will do something about it if I can.

 

And the error pages are in the works. You must have tried the "team" button on the top nav bar. One file (that one) failed to load on the ftp for some reason. *Fixed*.

in your "*/nolinkyet.html" page the left menu has disapeared; other than that it looks like an excellent site

Here's a quick tip. Make your navigation links bigger. I just feel that your visitors should be able to find what they're looking for easily.

in your "*/nolinkyet.html" page the left menu has disapeared; other than that it looks like an excellent site

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Yes, planned that way. The nesting of the file structure was getting a bit complex, so I eliminated the announcement bar for the second level of files. Might add it back when I have some time free. Haven't decided yet.

Overall I really like this site.That is strange though with the blue screen flashing in the way it does before it goes to the normal background. Does it have something to do with transition?It looks like you've worked very hard for the minor hockey association and I hope they appreciate what you've done!

Thanks to everyone for their comments. All valid, of course, and each of them will be considered before the project is finalized. Thanks to all of the fine folks in the html/xhtml forum for the current and past threads which assisted greatly during the construction of this project.

Hmmm, I have no idea where the Blue comes from. But I will do something about it if I can.

I have never touched xhtml colours (and if they're the same as html ones, it proves my ignorance even more ) Anyhoo in this cascading style sheets document, you have the code:

body {margin: 1em;background: #00f url(grey.gif) repeat;font: 0.85em Arial,Helvetica,Verdana, sans-serif, serif;}

If I'm right #00f must be the XHTML colour-code for blue and therefore your site is displaying that background before the background image is loading.

Well that certainly explains it. the "#oof" is the hex colour code for blue.The background must get painted prior to the placement of the background image. I remember changing it from the colour to an image a few days back. I guess the url got inserted and didn't replace the hex colour code.

ok, its got good info, but the design is BEYOND confusing. it has no real structure. The highlighting, the inversion of the headers are a bit confusing. It took me a sec to figure out what i was reading, and under what header it was. Maybe if you centered the subject titles and then left the content as is, then it would look neater.. maybe if u added more content it would seem more filled out. You need more flashyness though, maybe some hyperlink effects, some button effects. get rid of the highlighting and replace it with underlining or boldness.

The layout's structure is odd. Have the navigation stay at the left for all pages. Also, change the navigation bars background color to something besides a solid color, or a solid gray color (goes with your other background). Also, in a lot of your pages, you have giant bold font saying you don't have anything there yet. Get rid of that and just put in red "Under Construction" or something similar. I like the logo though

it looks too profesional for hockey page...there should be pictures, white bacgruond, news...