Following the crowd

T

Tucci

New member
Treeline, Weatherbill, and Demensia all recently posted threads asking for critiques of their websites. That seemed like a good idea to me as I am also a newbie with the web site stuff....(I use MS Word). Anyway, any sort of criticism, flattery, or pummelling is welcome:

www.locuststreettaxi.com

I especially want to know if you think the Junk Drawer is a good idea. It is still in its infancy, but I'm hoping it will add to the content value of the site once I start regularly adding stuff to it. I've thought about adding a message board too. Just trying to think of ways to get people to come back on a regular basis.
 
The site is very generic. Very much "top to down" format. Which was popular about 8 years ago. I would investigate using one of the editors like Front Page, etc. Also, lose the hotmail email address, looks VERY non professional. I would recommend a contact form where people can enter messages to you on your website and then it gets emailed to you automatically. It's not a bad site, again it's just very generic.
 
I would say this site is better than 90% of the band websites I have seen, including ones for "professional" artists. (Have you seen Jack Bruce's or Robben Ford's sites?)

If by "very generic," homeuser means that you don't have a fancy Flash animation intro, or that your graphics were not obviously done by a high-proced graphic artist, then maybe that's true. I suppose it could be a little more fancy. But as I said, it's better than most already.

You don't need FrontPage, trust me -- if you could do what you already did in Word, there's no sense in getting that app to hold your hands for you.

I think the Junk Drawer is a very good idea, I've not seen anyone use that metaphor before.
 
Appreciate the feedback..

Thanks for responding fellows. I've been wondering about the hotmail address myself. We retain just because so many people are used to contacting us at that address. I suppose I can start using Locuststreettaxi@locuststreettaxi.com though. We can just keep checking both accounts, or have one automatically redirected to the other.

AlChuck, I'm really glad you think the website looks good. That's some nice praise. Especially coming from someone who seems to have some experience in web design. I basically just tried to make it simple and easy to read.
I'm also glad to hear that you think the Junk Drawer is a good idea. I'm fond of it myself because I thought of it. I just need to start getting more junk to put in it.

Tucci
www.locuststreettaxi.com
Horns, Harmony, & humor
 
ummm...

Well, not to speak out of turn,
i would think one thing that homeuser could have meant by "generic" is that, the navigation buttons arent buttons, just links, and that they stay stuck on one part of the page so to speak, so that you have to scroll back to the top of the main page to navigate the site, the other pages dont even have navigation buttons...Im far from an expert, but when i did our site ( www.kickstandsavant.com shameless self promotion...tsk tsk ;-) ), i kept the idea that the visitor should never have to hit the back button when navigating the site...using frames you can make a generic nav. button page that you can attach to all your pages and its always there, plus will add to the overall "flow" of the site...
As far as style goes personally i prefer the "cleaner" look to web sites in general in my mind excess clutter is the true mark of an beginner website and this site is clear of all that, one small point, i would make the name of the band stand out more, at the very least make the color of the font different than that text up there,
if youre feeling really adventurous go into a paint program like paint shop, use the text tool to type out the name, then mess around with some of the effects you can add on there untill you find something you like save it and put the picture on the top of the site instead of typing in the text as html...again if you check out our site you should get the idea...
again, these are only my opinions and i am far from a pro, ive done one site, it was my first, i used notepad and paint shop...FWIW im cultivating ideas for our new one as we speak, initially i was going to use Front Page this time, but after poking around on it i may just stick with typing out the HTML...so as far as that goes, whatever floats your boat, try them all, find what you work best with...
All in all good site, it gets the word out which is all it really needs to do, everything else is a bell or a whistle...
hope this helps
Bryan
oh yeah...the junk drawer is a good idea...
 
Frames

Thanks for the feedback Bryan....since I don't know how to use frames and from what I've heard it's pretty tricky.....maybe I'll add a small link to every other page at the bottom of each page. that would eliminate the need for the back button.

Tucci
www.locuststreettaxi.com
Horns, Harmony, & Humor
 
Frames arent that bad man...

Tucci,
everything i learned to do that site i got online, there are numerous sites with html primers on them, search online
one good one is
http://www.htmlgoodies.com
most of them explain how to do it in plain english and give you examples that you can cut and paste and tweak so they fit youre site, just mess around with it...i bet in a little time you can get it..
 
Thanks for the link Bryan. I'll check that out. Your site looks good. I'm missing a bio though. The picture on the front page is neat, kind of different.
Where exactly is P.B. CA? For some reason I feel that it's in the Bay Area. I ask because I booking an end of summer tour and I'm trying to find good venues in Northern CA. Would you reccomend Thrusters?

Tucci
www.locuststreettaxi.com
Horns, Harmony, & Humor
 
Thrusters is great, but were at the very bottom of the state... PB is short for Pacific Beach a section of San Diego...how far south is your tour going to go?
 
I was bored so I did a quick logo for you. Use if you want to. It's a transparent .gif file that will look better if you use a white or light colored background on your website. It might look ok with with yellowish background you're using now. :)
 

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My opinion as a part-time website designer.

most of what you could do with frames can also be done with tables, which are easier to use and less likely to break. Long loading flash animations and moving graphics are not needed and would in this case only get in the way of people getting to your message and information. The navigation to the sub-parts of the site is kind of hidden and does not replicate on each page, so if you go to one sub-page you have to go back up before you go to the next. Not user-friendly.

There are lots of good and cheap wysiwyg html editors out there. I use FrontPage, but you can use somtehting else. Many of them will automate the process of having a consistent top, side, and bottom navigation menu.

Does the site really represent the personality of your band. You talk about horns and humor, but I only see horns.

What do you want your visitors to your site to do as a result? Remember your name? Attend a performance? Buy a CD? Book an Event? Depending on what it is you may wish to add features and or change how prominently those features are displayed. For example if it is book an event then you should have more emphasis on the kind of events you do, what to expect, and who to contact (do you have an agent?, do you only work at union scale?).
 
you know, it's funny-i PREFER to use the back button (or backspace key) when browsing, and it pisses me off when i can't (extremely common on newer websites) can't we all just get along?
 
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