Hey everyone,

I just redesigned this site and would appreciate some comments. I know of a few mac compatability issues that I'm in the process of working on, but comments on the general appearance and functionality would be great.

http://www.bbrescue.org

It's pretty graphic heavy, so info about load times would be great too.

Very cute, very pretty, very large. Took too long to load on my cable modem, on dial-up I would have left. You want your load time under 30 seconds no matter what, and some say you want it under 15 or even 10. (Poor Load Time: 105.18 seconds)
Try spinwave http://www.spinwave.com/ for image optimization.
Use Site Report Card http://www.sitereportcard.com/ for a comprehensive review of your site, including load time.
What are the Hugs in the store? I clicked on store from the home page. (I found it later, but that right there is enough to lose a visitor.) How do I get back to the site from the store?
I expected the Rescue page to be more like an About page. It should link to an About page and the Contact page.
The right part of the top graphic is off on the Contact page.
Is there a Site Map?
On the pages with more steps, like the Fostering page, you could order them like a process, "Next: FAQ".

__________________
Melissa French - Chronic nitpicker, but I mean well.
http://www.NetCastles.org/

Hi There,

I visited your site and have to agree with a lot of what netcastle had to say.

The site takes far too long to load, even on my T1. You'll have to optimize your images better for the web.

It is also very dark and very heavy, it has a foreboding feel that is quite at odds with the party pictures on your main page. The pictures on the main page are quite overwhelmed by the background and they really need to pop. You really want this site to be cheery and convey how wonderful Bassets are, right now the darkness gives the site a negative feel.

I did some checking around for other rescue sites and found this one in my area. This is a fast loading site with a bright colour scheme that is attractive. It is incredibly easy to navigate, very intuitive...
AND it is also heavy on pictures, but keeps it light on graphics to balance out the load time. Keep in mind that if your load time is too heavy, the average at-home user will not wait around anymore.
http://www.bassetrescue.ca/

In almost every case, the simple solution is the best solution.

Same point about the store - I can't get back to your main page. Also, you seem to offer only one product, but never explain what that product is... What is a Hug? Why do I want to buy one for my dog, my friend's dog? What will they do with it?

Thanks for the great feedback. The store is one of the next on the list to be overhauled, and I actually never realized that there was no link back to the site :o - thanks for that.

I've got my page load down to about 28.9 or so but I'm really aiming for somewhere around 10. I'm probably going to have to move my slideshow to a new page and warn of longer download times, the compression quality really detracts from some of the images. I tried spinwave, but found I got better results by compressing harder when I do the intital exports since I use a lot of slices.

Thanks for the link to sitereportcard.com, I remember using sites like it in the past but had completely forgotten services like that existed.

I'd actually like more feedback on the darker color scheme. While I agree that it may be a bit heavier feeling I don't really know if I'd say it's foreboding.

Again, thanks for the reviews. I got some really valuable feedback!

I think it's a tad too dark. Just a tad though, I wouldn't say foreboding. Maybe make the background and top buttons white instead of blue?

__________________
Melissa French - Chronic nitpicker, but I mean well.
http://www.NetCastles.org/