Topic: FLRBA Demo

Finger Lakes Regional Burn Association

I am working our a redesign for this groups webpage. As a background this is a non-profit group based out of the finger lakes region of New York State. The goals of this page are too

1) Educate the public about our cause
2) Educate about burn hazards and prevention
3) Provide a reposity on events and news for the group

I am wondering how this site would hold up to that, as well as some general design ideas. I am not really looking at too much input on the code. I will probabally ask for that later. I am just looking to get the design down now so that from there I can work the code around that, breaking up the pages and the database tie ins.

Any and all comments and ideas would be appreciated.

Don't know if this is what you're looking for but ... The top left graphic "Finger Lakes" is (for me at least) *very* hard to read. "Regional" is only marginally easier to read ... I think that can/should be re-worked /improved *because* other than the footer, there's nothing else on that page that actually sez "Finger Lakes Regional Burn Association." but FLRB appears no fewer than 4 times. Make sense?

I agree that the logo needs to be redone. It is a really hard to read. What about making the flame in the shape of a heart sort of? Just a thought.

Some design things:

It may work better with the logo on one side and the pic on the other side. Might fill it up some at the top as right now it looks a little empty.

There are two menus that have the same thing? Is there a reason for that?
The horizontal menu needs to have the black background go all the way across. It looks a little strange.

That picture of the president is a little flat. Just kind of "stuck" there.

That's about it. None of the other pages are there are they?

Later,
C:\


~Binary is best~

No, I don't have any of the other pages up yet.

With the logo, I am able to rework it, however, I am not able to change its look since we have that logo on hundreds(if not thousands) of different publications already, the readability came from me scalling it down ( http://www.flrba.com ). I can only make it look clearer. I will get on that.

The repeating of the menus has no real purpose. I did it only for ease of use. Within the main site there will be 6 different areas, each with sub categories, I wanted to make traversing the main areas as easy as possible. Not sure if that is wrong or not.

NoJive: Do you feel that the use of "Finger Lakes Regional Burn Association" over the use of FLRBA would be better?

C:\> When you say to seperate the title graphic are you sugesting that I seperate the completely make the image anchored right and the logo anchored left?

If you haven't noticed design is not my forte. My code turns out much better. Thanks for the help, it is really appreciated.

WarMage:

The thing about the two menus just makes it a little confusing at least to me. I thought they were two different things, but they turned out to be the same. If there are going to be sub pages you may want to use something like BrotherCakes dHTML menu or Milonic menu.

Yes you are right about what I meant about the logo. I think that it would look better with the logo on the left and the picture on the right. Then you could do something like:

<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%">

<tr>

<td background="mybackgroundimage.gif" align="left"><img src="logo.gif"></td>

<td background="mybackgroundimage.gif" align="center"><img src="bgimage"></td>

<td background="mybackgroundimage.gif" align="right"><img src="people"></td>

</tr>

</table>

You probably already know that trick but it will make the background image span across the top of the page and align the logo on the left and the people picture on the right.
It will fill out the page. Same thing can be done on the menu.

Later,
C:\


~Binary is best~

[This message has been edited by CPrompt (edited 06-21-2002).]

The problem with DHTML menu's is that it is not ADA compliant. Anything done with JavaScript must be replicated without the use of JavaScript. I am not sure exactly how I could do that with a JS based menu.

Ideas on that would be great. The noscript tag might just print out what I have there now... I don't know. I like your menu idea though.

i will look into that. You think that the milonic one is better than the DHTML Central on (coolmenu)?

Never mind that above about the DHTML, fixed it with a noscript.

Have the updated DHTML version online same link

Finger Lakes Regional Burn Association

I am now off to work on the image things that the two of you reccommended.

"NoJive: Do you feel that the use of "Finger Lakes Regional Burn Association" over the use of FLRBA would be better?"

I think you have to, somehow or another, work in the full name on the first line of text and then use the FLRB after that... but I'd also do that on *each* page. You might think that's a bit too much... but I don't because the full name doesn't just kinda 'roll-off-the-tongue' now does it? So lets say I'm into the 2nd 3rd 4th page whatever... As a "user-stupid" type I really don't want to go back to the front page to get the full name. Yes sure you've got a logo up there in the corner but I think you get more of a 'burn/branding' (no pun intended) re-enforcement of the logo..the FLRBA with and by using the full name on each page...again other than the 'footer.'

Ok, I will keep that in mind as I get to the content. Thanks for the input.

I have gotten a temp fix up for the whole image thing... I am really not sure how to handle this thing here. I am open to sugestions on it. It is not quite as nice as I would want it, gonna do some thinking on it.

There is not much that this association uses on any of their graphic design stuff other than the logo and maybe a picture of some personel. It gives me a lot of leway, yet at the same time gives me a handful with developing the groups image on my own.

_____________________________________________________________________

The mission of the Finger Lakes Regional Burn Association, also known as the FLRBA,
_____________________________________________________________________

I don't think 'also known as' is required. In a letter or promotional material and in most anything gov't related you'll usually just see; "The mission of the Finger Lakes Regional Burn Association, (FLRBA) The abbreviation is then used at will.

So I went through the pages and *personally* I like the full name on each page.

WarMage:

It's coming along. I like the Milonic menu better than dHTML Central simply because the Milonic menu works in NN4 and dHTML Centrals doesn't.

I am not sure about the color blue that you used around the picture at the top. Not sure about the shape either. Have you thought about just making the background one color with the logo on one side and the picutre on the other side instead of having something wrapped around it?

Just a suggestion.

Later,
C:\


~Binary is best~

didn't think of that. It might work... Still has the whole empty space issue though.