Does this sound any good? A job I applied for asked me to email them with thoughts I had on their existing sites, and such.. I've already had an interview with them, and so this should be the deciding factor. Also note I already sent the email, so don't bother on editing or giving me helpful hints.. I just want to know if it looks okay, thanks!!
Dear Gordon Halkett,
I would like to begin my response to your e-mail by giving a little history about myself regarding computers and
web design.
Three years ago when I was 14, my brother moved out from our basement to Vancouver. With him he took his
computer - the same computer which I was not allowed on very often. I immediately moved into his room and
purchased my own computer. I now had privacy from the basement, and a brand new computer - the fun began.
I had originally started off in the online world we call the Internet by discovering web pages - after all, the main
content of the Internet. It had me perplexed - how did these webpages get up there? What were they made of?
How do I make one? From hereon out I was determined to discover how to make a webpage. I learned entirely
from online information, books, and asking the pro's online. Web Design, as I later learned, was a fun - not a
labourous task to fulfil - I enjoyed, and enjoy doing it.
I have recently graduated from high school with honors standing and achieved a final grade of 97% in Information
Technology 12. I have been working at the Vancouver Island Regional Library - Harbourfront library for a full 3
years (September 1998 - September 2001) and am only leaving it as they can only hire pages that are in school,
and I am taking at least one year off to find work so I can afford a techincal school. I have pointed this out to
show that I stick with a job, an attribute I learned was a must for this job.
Now that you have better learned my passion for web design, I shall continue my letter by critiquing each of the
three sites as requested in your email. Please note that the following critique, as all web critique should be, is
made at the harshest level that I see. This is done to fully point out any inperfections, if any. Please don't take
the critiques to heart, as every site needs tweaking. I will now commence:
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http://www.marketinghomes.com/cameronisland/
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This is a very nice site. It has a great colour scheme, good layout, easy navigation, and easy readability. There
are no major issues needed to discuss with this site, but here are some small concerns:
The Pictures - The oval-shaped pictures on the front are clean cut, but are much too round for the layout of the
site. What you then get is 'whitespace' - space that is basically wasted and very empty. I would of made the
pictures a rectangle, and then give the corners a rounded trimming - thus still keeping the sharpness to the
picture, but blending into the site better.
The Font - The webmaster uses Arial, which is fine for print and instructions, but is not too user-friendly as
verdana - the sacred font of the Internet. By using arial, the text is not as pleasing to read as it could be.
Bottom of front page - This simply does not match the rest of the site. It looks like it was either added later, or
added quickly. The spacing and font on this bottom footer needs to be redone.
Leftside links - I tend to use text for my menu links, but if you use graphics, you might as well use rollovers. Also,
not all the images are the same size - take a look at Contact Us and About Us under Information.
About Us link - This link takes you to the marketing homes site. Why? If this was my first visit to the site, and I
wanted to know more about the site, or Cameron Island, I would have no idea why I was jumped onto a different
site - nothing to do with Cameron Island. Also, when I tried to return back to the Cameron Island site, the
Javascript detection scheme on the index page of marketing homes, prevented me from returning. Luckily I have
the address of the page. Visitors will have no way of returning. This is crucial if you want to keep your visitors at
your site.
Contact Us Link - This page looks rushed - it needs to merged into the sites design - the form is not laid out well
at all, and there is no need at all for the mailto element with the email listed.
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http://www.marketinghomes.com/edgewood/
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Similiar to the last site, this is a great site - simply breathtaking overview of Nanaimo integrated within the site.
Here are my concerns:
Top Links (located top left) - When the mouse hovers over these buttons, ugly black text appears oddly
underneath. Futhermore, the text does not help you learn any more about where the link will take you, for
example Edgewood Video shows "Enjoy our Edgewood Townhomes Video", and Contact Information shows "Please
contact us for more information". This is quite self explanatory.
Header Text (View Edgewood Townhomes "Video" here!) - Header text should never be used. It is much too
choppy and looks very ugly. When large text is needed - always use an image.
Scrolling Text - Horizontal scrolling text is one of the biggest no-no's in web design laws. I was very surprised to
find such an appalling thing on such a graceful site.
Leftside links - This is really a shame - the site looks fabulous to explore, but the links are bright red text on black
background - one of the worst color combinations. The links also are not aligned at all, and placed in the center
of the left side bar - you need to scroll down before even seeing them.
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http://marketinghomes.com/cowichanlake/
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As I have been viewing the sites in order critiqued, I find it difficult to believe this site is related to the others. To
be quite honest - it appears as it was made by a novice. I will thus only touch on the major issues with this site,
as there is a lot to be worked on.
Top graphic - a lot of sites use a top header graphic, and it usually works like this - they either look great, or
horrible - this is unfortunately of the latter calibre.
Click Here - The first thing you see when you enter the site is VERY ugly text reading "click here for Cowichan
Lake Video" - this is very obtrusive, and repels the visitor from actually doing so!
Realplayer link - I see "this site needs RealPlayer to view videos. You can download it free here" - when I put my
mouse over the 'here' text - I didn't see a hand come up. After several moments of thinking the webmaster forgot
to make it into a link - I then realized the image of RealPlayer was the link. Visitors will always read text and be
more inclined to click on text first rather than small images (not including buttons).
Contact Us - The contact us link at the bottom of the page is simply a mailto tag, which calls up the browsers
default email program (usually outlook express in Internet Explorer). Instead, the site should have a page giving
out telephone, fax, mailing address, and a form which sends the message straight from the webpage to the email.
No program will be launched.
I greatly thank you for reading my follow-up letter, and for the interview you gave me at my home.
Always web designing,
Tyler Cruz
taff posted this at 12:05 — 15th August 2001.
They have: 956 posts
Joined: Jun 2001
Arial is not a user-friendly font???
Re cameronisland, you may also want to mention that centering blocks of text is very unprofessional.
.....
Megan posted this at 13:21 — 15th August 2001.
She has: 10,288 posts
Joined: Jun 1999
Lose the biography unless they specifically asked for it. Sounds cheesy and it's not all that impressive. Are you trying to get a job reworking these sites? If so you should probably be trying to convince them that they need a lot of work.
Not true at all. When used properly white space becomes a design element in itself. I don't really mind the pictures like that, but it's true that they don't work well with the rest of the layout
I disagree - I think rounded corners would be worse than square
See taff's comment about that - it is a well known design fact that sans-serif fonts are good for reading on screen but not for print - serif fonts are always better for print.
If you're going to recommend plain text links you should state why.
That's it for now - maybe I'll come back later and comment on the rest.
Megan
My web design blog