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review / comments / suggestions

Thanks

Get rid of the iframes. There is no need for them. People are less likely to scroll in them than to scroll on the site.

Looks very good.
Clean.
Clear navigation. I am not a fan of the click sound on the menu.

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Dave Barnes
+1.303.744.9024
http://www.marketingtactics.com

Dave, I am curious to know what you base this statement on?

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Clicken
Math Flash Cards Online

the are not iframes

I think the design is quite nice, professional and corporate. What I don't love is the fixed height aspect of it, as this seems quite short on my large monitor. I feel like I only have a very small space to see any of the "further info."

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Austin video production - Full service corporate, non-profit and broadcast video production - Video production Austin

brentjlaf,

You are correct. Not iframes. They look like iframes to me, but I had not looked at the source code.

clicken,

I believe that people don't see scroll bars that are buried in a page. No data, just a feeling. I agree with sformby who wrote: "What I don't love is the fixed height aspect of it". Many of the page would not need any scrolling if the page height expanded the fill the visitor's browser window.

,dave

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Dave Barnes
+1.303.744.9024
http://www.marketingtactics.com

Let's start with graphics:
I really like the colors and the vividness of the images. Very interesting and beautiful. I especially love that background image and how it has a subtle gradient to it. Very rich looking.

Now the rest:
DO you need Flash? Why? Does it make you look more professional or less so?

The design is scrunched on a big monitor and your content pocket is very small; then again there doesn't seem to be much content at all.

I clicked Dream. Believe. Realize. Kinda mysterious words for a Development Corporation site, but I clicked them anyway. I was curious. Thought they might lead me to somewhere mystical. I may have been Dreaming, I wanted to Believe, but then I Realized that I was linked back to the home page that I was already on. Kinda silly, isn't it? I am still mystified.

Then at the bottom of the page, Resort. Residential. Commercial. Those could be links to a project brief or description, but they aren't links at all. Missed opportunity there to tell us what you actually DO.

The 'read more' link takes you to the DEVELOPEMENTS page does it not? Then why not say "Have a look at our developments"??

Why do you have HOME NEWS and CONTACT links in the main nav and the footer and not the others?

Why do you need a link in the main navigation for Financial when all you provide is an e-mail address? Put the e-mail link somewhere else and get it off the main nav. It doesn't go anywhere.

What an unfortunate surprise! When I click 'Hotels' I am jarred out of the comfort and security of the sameness of all the other pages, and I feel like I've been teleported to a different site.
There is only one Hotel name and logo (with a beautifulimage, I must say)... but where did the content go? Oh, wait, it's in the left sidebar now. Gee that's kind of funny. **THINKING OUT LOUD: why didn't he put all the content in the left side bar from the beginning, since there is so little of it? That would have left plenty of room for all the pretty images...**

Why does the main nav on the HOTELS page now drop on top of the footer nav? Do you need two links to HOME NEWS and CONTACT one on top of the other?
** THINKING OUT LOUD AGAIN: Why did I come here again? Who am I? At least I have 2 redundant links to take me back home, but which one should I click? Do they go to the same place?**

It seems that there is no really good reason for breaking the consistency of the rest of the site. Why do it for HOTELS only? Did I miss something? If I did, maybe other users will miss it, too.

To me, it looks like the site is the work of a talented graphic designer who knows little about usability, information architecture, or the power of the Web. This site would make a beautiful printed booklet, but it's not a great site.

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amorphic8
http://www.amorphicmedia.com

1. FLASH: I personally don't like the flash but the owners seen some other sites and wanted it.

2. The fixed height is something else the owners wanted. They wanted somethings that can all be seen on a page with no scrolling.

3. Dream. Believe. Realize. is on all the marketing material.

4. Resort. Residential. Commercial. - Are you suggesting links to separate pages explaining the 3?

5. The 'read more' link - Changed

6. HOME NEWS and CONTACT links in the main nav and the footer - Will be fixing.

7. Financial - The owner wanted to add this section and hasn't provided the content for it yet.

8. Hotels Surprise Page - It isn't the only one, one the developments page if you click any of the CURRENT developments they too are formatted in this way.

thanks for your comments.

Ok, fair enough, but be careful about what site owners say they want; You as the professional know best.

The same comment as above, with the addition of, if the user wants to increase the text size with their browser, what happens to the layout? HINT: the text bleeds out of the box onto the dark blue background graphic and becomes difficult to decipher.

I learned when doing usability testing on an intranet I was redesigning that many people inadvertently resize their text on IE with the mouse scroll-wheel and don't know that they can change it back. This was much more common, than you might think, especially with office workers. Perhaps you can convince them that a longer page height could benefit them by providing more breathing room on the page, and making it more flexible. Pixel perfect font sizing and placement is fine for print, but on a Web page it isn't realistic nor do I think it is even desirable.

Fair enough, but I was saying that they linked nowhere. I see you removed the links....

Well, since they have the same approximate typographic treatment as the main navigation, users MAY think that they would be links as well. Would it be so bad to make them link to a featured portfolio project in each of those areas? Just a suggestion.

Cool. Much better, I think.

If you take the suggestion of making the page expand vertically, it may not be a bad idea to put them back in the footer; but keep them consistent with the main nav on top.

Fair enough.

Yes, I noticed this after my original post, however, I still think it is a bad idea to break consistency this way, especially since all other pages maintain a different layout. Curious: why do the 'current developments' have the same treatment as the HOTELS but the 'completed developments' portfolio has the same treatment as the HOME page and all the rest?

I also have the same problem with the scrolling area within a page as mentioned by DaveBarnes above. I am afraid that many people would miss that they can scroll it. It also causes a problem when using a mouse wheel because if the mouse is over the scrolling area, it will scroll, but if it's over anything else on the page, the whole page will scroll.
This is often annoying to users and frustrating if they have to keep moving the mouse to read all the content. Again, I would suggest breaking the fixed height layout, but if you must maintain it, maybe a subnavigation in the left pane so that people can click through to see each project.

Rethinking your whole layout/architecture may not be a bad idea either. There is an awful lot of clicking going on with very little content; perhaps it could be redesigned to combine some of the links; home, about, and news come to mind as an 'about us' page. you get the point...

Finally, I want to say again that your images and graphic treatment are gorgeous. Having said that, since you are maintaining a fixed-height page, I don't know if I would use up 40% of vertical and 33% of the horizontal space with design elements as opposed to content.

My pleasure; I am here to help.

Good luck.

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amorphic8
http://www.amorphicmedia.com