dinosaurden
New site about dinosaurs and their timelines.
Please could you give constructive views and provide any ideas for this new site.
Many thanks
Mandy
New site about dinosaurs and their timelines.
Please could you give constructive views and provide any ideas for this new site.
Many thanks
Mandy
Megan posted this at 13:59 — 17th November 2006.
She has: 11,421 posts
Joined: Jun 1999
You forgot to post the link!
mandyjb posted this at 23:30 — 17th November 2006.
She has: 164 posts
Joined: Aug 2006
Sorry about that:)
http://www.dinosaurden.co.uk
demonhale posted this at 02:14 — 18th November 2006.
He has: 3,278 posts
Joined: May 2005
Looks fun! What I could suggest though is to wrap the content area and make a lighter or darker background to remove it from the body background to have more focus on it and improve readability. Second the logo lookes pretty good, although some minor improvements could help, like replacing the dinosaurs background to blue hues, and Make the DinosaurDen one word and put the .co.uk at the bottom.
The layout is pretty basic and simple which I like, but you need to ante up the links/navigation area to make it outstanding and clickable. To appeal to younger audiences, you need big buttons and colorful stuff like the dinosaur mascot. You need to make him appear somewhere else on the page to make a branding impact. I really like your KISS approach on this design. It think the content is superb too btw, I let my niece read them, and she asked "where are the pictures?"...
mandyjb posted this at 03:20 — 18th November 2006.
She has: 164 posts
Joined: Aug 2006
Good points - more pics would do it justice. I dabbled with text bg colours and couldn't decide on what to do about that, whether to leave it or make the text bg a different colour to the actual bg. I do want it to be very clear and readable because i thought it to be very interesting when I researched and applied the content. I will see what will look best. I am pleased you neice enjoyed it - it is an amazing subject and I have been mezmorised by most of this subject. Watching 'Walking With Dinosaurs' really was interesting and gave me alot of inspiration for this site.
Thank you for your review,
Mandy
markov posted this at 08:13 — 18th November 2006.
They have: 87 posts
Joined: Aug 2006
The site looks amazing in content, but it could be appreciated if you add pictures to the site. The images could add value to the site. You are throwing a light on the extinct species, so it could be better to have the "dinosaurs" on the web.
Moreover, the font size of text is too big. Overall, the site is good in a simple design.
aka Rohan posted this at 10:51 — 18th November 2006.
He has: 200 posts
Joined: Feb 2006
I definitely agree with everyone about the content of your site which is great.
I'm no expert about web design but I did notice a few things which could be improved in my opinion:
First is the s which are 'index' for every page. For someone like me who has many tabbed browser windows open at a time, how can I tell which tab refers to which page? There's some good advice here http://www.w3.org/QA/Tips/good-titles.
Second is that the links are only on the home page. I clicked on Jurassic and then wanted to look at Triassic, but had to click back to the home page first, which is a little frustrating. Perhaps you could carry the links on the homepage through your other pages. Or at the very least have the 'Timelines' links on all the Timelines pages.
Thirdly, is the lack of pictures which has already been brought up but is very important I feel. Reading the Jurassic period you have some named dinosaurs in itallic one of which is the Ceratosaurus. I wanted to know what one looked like as i'd never heard of that particular dino. My next stop was Google images and there you go, lots of pictures... and also traffic away from your site. Who's to say that whilst i'm there I don't decide to search for other dinosaur images... which link to other dinosaur sites. What I think i'm trying to say is that you don't want to give your visitors any reason to have to look somewhere else. By simply linking a few pictures of the dinosaur to its name in the text and you've kept me there at your site
Those are the only potential issues I can see with the site. I do have some ideas for a few aesthetical improvements though.
I agree with demonhale here, the text seems a bit lost amongst the background, although it isn't helped by the higher resolution I use.
I also agree with markov about more pictures on the site. As this site is aimed at children (althoughg still an informative read for us adults
), the more you can add to keep them interested the better. No child really likes to learn so you have to make it as fun as possible (sorry I know i'm talking to a teacher here but I know that's what I was like as a child). Possibly break up the big blocks of text with a few images or sub-catagories as well, even now, I find big blocks of text a bit daunting.
How about some 'Did you know's, or 'Amazing Fact's? Little things like that can really spice up educational sites/books, small facts hand picked to amaze the child and make then think 'WOW that's soooo cool, I want to know more'
Ok my final point. I would really like to see an actual graphical timeline. This could be along the top or bottom of the page(s) say,and would be a graphical representation of your list on the homepage. I find timelines like that help to put the whole thing in perspective. Sure I know the periods from your list but where do they really fit into the grand scheme of things. For example I need to vist each link in turn to find out the time and length of that period. It doesn't need to be anything special, but could just be a simple bar divided up into the periods. There are lots of examples around e.g. A quick sample from google.
You could even add links to the timeline too.
I'll tell you a great source of ideas... Usborne Books. I used to read them all the time as a nipper. I assume they still publish them but they were ace.
Anyway, please excuse my rant, I kind of got into a flow there (must be the coffee). Once again though the content as great. It's simplistic enough for a child to grip and still in depth enough to give adults some things to think about too, well done
pisstaker posted this at 22:54 — 22nd November 2006.
They have: 63 posts
Joined: Sep 2006
Lots of interesting content, which is the main thing, but a close second has to come looks for a kid's (or big kids like us) audience. Don't know that youngsters like brown, do they?
I think the layout as it is, is fine, but it needs to be condensed a little ie there is too much brown space. I feel like my neck is working more than my eyes trying to see everything on the screen.
I just read a lot of stuff on typography, and I think you should take a look at this article if nothing else but to read the perspective of a typography nut.
I think the concept is great and looking more through the eyes of a child, it will end up a great design, I am sure.
aka Rohan posted this at 08:55 — 23rd November 2006.
He has: 200 posts
Joined: Feb 2006
Hello again, I've just been looking at the site agian.
I've just noticed the 'Other dinosaurs' section with the timeline. I'm not sure if this is new or was there before. If it was then apologies for the comments about a lack of timeline. A small point with this is that the 'period' bars are all the same physical length although representing varying chronological lengths. It might be a nice idea if the length of bar gave more of an indication of the length of time. This helps put everything a little more in perspective I feel. The Upper Triassic section (linked) on other dinosaurs is great
Another minor point is that the 'man' in the 'Size comparisons of the Tyrannosaurus Rex' diagram is out of scale looking about 10-12ft. I only bring this up as it makes poor old Mr Rex look like a bit of a wimp.
Otherwise yeah looking good
mandyjb posted this at 09:21 — 24th November 2006.
She has: 164 posts
Joined: Aug 2006
Thanks for the points - sites had a total revamp and should be up in a couple of days. I hope the new look appeals.
Thanks again for all your support.
Mandy
fancypants posted this at 13:48 — 24th November 2006.
They have: 3 posts
Joined: Nov 2006
i like your site a lot - fun and informative.
does anyone else think it would be a good idea for the menus to stay put on the left-hand side when entering a subpage?
maybe it's just me...
otherwise, thumbs up!
maahan posted this at 07:48 — 25th November 2006.
They have: 12 posts
Joined: Sep 2006
hello friend ,
i like your idea good site. but i have some questions
01. why yo are using a old design - change the design
02. when i click a image that is not zooming i think zoomin is good
03. why you are not put any ads i think u can put some image ads or text ads i seen an ad in top i think that is not innough put some ads and earn little more
ggod work REALLY HELPFUL STUDENTS i wish you open diffrent kind of animal sites i am expect
thanks
:wave:
Free online Games
Dressup games
aka Rohan posted this at 19:26 — 4th December 2006.
He has: 200 posts
Joined: Feb 2006
Hey i've just checked out the new site and immediately thought 'wow'. Good job, the aesthetics are much more pleasing. Links on all the pages, again a huge improvement. Oh and lots of pictures... ace stuff.
A few bits I noticed however:
1. You still just have a single title (dinosaurden - Home) for all your pages which is really frustrating if you have several tabbed windows.
2. Question 6 on the dinosaurs quiz needs re-wording i.e. Where dinosaurs hot or cold bloodied?
* Uncertain
* Yes
* No
yes they were hot or cold blooded
The question should really be more like 'Were dinosaurs cold blooded?' (or of course hot blooded but needs to be one or the other). Also the spelling of 'were' is wrong.
3. On the 'Dinosaurs' page, maybe you could have the A-Z links on the top of the page as well as the bottom to save scrolling down if you decide you've picked the wrong letter.
4. The 'Links' and 'Link to us' links should really be at the botton of the list or at least further down as I wouls say that the other links are more important.
5. Some of the 'Dinosaur fun' pages have a different layout (green background for example) to the main site which makes them look out of place. The Hangosaurus is a nice idea too but I was dismayed to find it was a bit of a naff ASCII hangman game but with dinosaur word which was a shame.
6. I find the links at the top of all the pages a little bit confusing to look at. On the plus side they do allow you to link to different 'periods' on the timeline without going back to the 'Timelines' main page which is good.
Hmmm I think that's about it from what I can see at the moment. They're only minor points (except the page titles when reading your site as I like to open lots of links in new tabs in advance). Otherwise yeah, the site's looking ace. I like it alot
Edit:Oh yeah notice how none of my points are content related. That's because its ace
ron23ron23 posted this at 14:54 — 7th December 2006.
They have: 5 posts
Joined: Dec 2006
looks like a fun site and it is noticable that a lot of effort was put in it
good luck dude
pisstaker posted this at 19:10 — 7th December 2006.
They have: 63 posts
Joined: Sep 2006
What a great improvement. I take back what I said, dismissing brown totally as a kid's color. Brown can be good in small doses!
The content is all there to click on without the links being intrusive. Excellent.
The only issues I would look at are the use of bold or headings to break up your text and make it easier to scan. And on the Links page I noticed a couple of typos - "you links" and "aswell"
cheers
darkstar_tfd posted this at 17:26 — 11th December 2006.
They have: 18 posts
Joined: Mar 2006
It`s nice , few colors and a good layout. Alltough it`s simple I consider that is nice as it is, maybe that top part is a bit crowdet because of those links...
aka Rohan posted this at 17:53 — 11th December 2006.
He has: 200 posts
Joined: Feb 2006
A few more things i've noticed.
I like the Jurassic Seas special feature. There are a few typos though, several 'it's' instead of 'its' and 'drown' instead of 'drowned'.
I like the Phonetic spelling of Cryptochidus however you do not do it for the two dinosaurs talked about later in that passage which would be nice.
So did the first sea reptiles appear 75 or 149 million years ago?
Magnolia posted this at 11:35 — 31st December 2006.
They have: 60 posts
Joined: Feb 2006
Love your site!! Very informative and easy to get round and to return to the main page. Well done you
aka Rohan posted this at 13:21 — 31st December 2006.
He has: 200 posts
Joined: Feb 2006
I've just noticed the background sound effect on your homepage. I don't think embedded sounds are a good idea on webpages and they generally annoy most people I know. I listen to music on my computer and having a lound T-rex roar burst in halfway though a song is not what I want to hear. Your website would have more to gain through losing that sound I feel.
Otherwise i'm looking forward to your 'Kings of the sky' section
Magnolia posted this at 15:03 — 31st December 2006.
They have: 60 posts
Joined: Feb 2006
Didnt know there was sound on there as I surf with the volume on mute - maybe an option to turn sound off might be a good idea. Kids will love the t-rex roaring at them
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