Voluteer fire dept Review

[kimberlybarryd]

I am building a website for my community volunteer fire brigade. I would like some input on the site including design and code. I'm having a few issues with my CSS. There interfering with other rules. I'm not a good designer and the site is not finished so any imput would be welcomed. I would also welcome any advice on how to get a good PR.
Thanks very much
Barry
Site http://www.cobequidfire.com

[davemcnally]

A good PR isn't something which is going to just appear, it's going to take time for that. You can help by keeping your code valid and looking at some SEO techniques.

As for the site, I would change the code somewhat. When listing the Captains etc further down the page, you should try using a list as opposed to a lot spaces - this is going to cause more problems as it is now and isn't very semantic.

The main text is a little hard to read with it being broken up some much with the images.

As a side note (not meaning to be picky), this isn't a blog ;)

[kimberlybarryd]

A good PR isn't something which is going to just appear, it's going to take time for that. You can help by keeping your code valid and looking at some SEO techniques.

As for the site, I would change the code somewhat. When listing the Captains etc further down the page, you should try using a list as opposed to a lot spaces - this is going to cause more problems as it is now and isn't very semantic.

The main text is a little hard to read with it being broken up some much with the images.

As a side note (not meaning to be picky), this isn't a blog ;)
Do you think the images would look better all to the left or right? Also The text came from a word doc. Maybe I should set it up with div's and get rid of the non breaking spaces?

[davemcnally]

You could leave the images where they are but format the text around it. Maybe have some text to the right of the top left image image but then have a space and some text to the left of the bottom right image rather than text running in the middle between them.

I think a list is probably going to work best in place of the spaces as, afterall, it is a list that you're displaying and that's what is meant to be used in that case :)

[kimberlybarryd]

You could leave the images where they are but format the text around it. Maybe have some text to the right of the top left image image but then have a space and some text to the left of the bottom right image rather than text running in the middle between them.

I think a list is probably going to work best in place of the spaces as, afterall, it is a list that you're displaying and that's what is meant to be used in that case :)
Thats a good Idea
Thank You

[kimberlybarryd]

Thats a good Idea
Thank You
I updated the site with your suggestions. Tell me what you think
Barry

[davemcnally]

It's looking better now, more readable.

[kimberlybarryd]

It's looking better now, more readable.
Thank You for you help

[ses5909]

I think for not having graphic design skills the site looks great. The layout is nice and clean. I would love to see some kind of border around the images, maybe just 1px, #cccccc. Also with about 2px of padding between the border and the picture.

[shyflower]

Most of the information on your site's home page would be better placed on a "history" or "about page". A home page for this type of organization should give a brief summary of what is important about the fire company and direct the visitor to other more detailed areas of the site.

For instance, "The two fire halls of the Cobequid District Fire Brigade are the workplace of the approximate 30 members of the Cobequid District Fire Brigade today. The firehalls house the brigade's four firetrucks which our firefighters use to respond to an average of 130 firecalls per year. Of those calls 60 percent are medical assists."

Then go into a summary of other activities of the brigade as noted on the site. A fireman's ball? Toys for tots?

If the fire fighters are volunteers, that is also a good point to build on.

Use the rest of the page to direct the reader's attention to other site areas. You have to tell Internet visitors why your links are important if you want them to click.

Structure your content with Hx headings and use bulleted lists where appropriate. This allows web readers to scan the content for the information they want from the page as well as drawing their attention to the information you want them to see.

Structurally

1.do remove any MS Word code from your markup, and yes, especially superfluous non breaking spaces.

2. In your header, this phrase is nearly hidden. "Cobequid District Fire Brigade Lower Truro Nova Scotia Canada" Style it with a lighter color. I suggest #fofofo which is a very light gray. It will keep the glare of bright white away while making your text readable.

3. Sans-serif fonts are much easier to read on the screen than serif fonts. Change the body of your pages to sans-serif. If you want to use serif fonts, use them for headings. Whatever you do, keep your fonts consistent from page to page.

I would also mention the Junior fire brigade on the home page... but just mention... and I would follow the opening statement with something like, "The Cobequid District Fire Brigade continually seeks new and better ways to serve the residents of our area, and has since our beginnings in 1971."

Use the underlined "our beginnings" as a text link to an "about us" or "history" page. Also use the title attribute to let the reader know where he/she is going.
<a href="historypage.htm" title="The Cobequid District Fire Brigade History Page"> our beginnings</a>

[kerrygrafx]

I agree with Shyflower that a sans-serif font, such as Arial, would be easier to read. It looks like the way your css is set up, that there is no space between the paragraphs (at least in Firefox on my mac) which makes the whole home page look like one big run-on sentence.

I would remove the grey line to the right of Email in your navigation.