Topic: Website Critique (Moderators Please Move if in wrong Place).

[aschulz90]

Please provide Critiques. I used Joomla! 1.5's framework, it has it's problems but version 1.6 is rolling around soon and it looks really good...too bad with all the custom php I did it's going to be impossible to migrate!

Site Notes:
Most site functionality is there but not all content is up. Please however mention things that are missing, broken or just seem weird. look for things you might have needed to look for on your own municipal site. Thanks for any help.
-Adam.

http://test.durham.nh.us Note: this site is running on IIS 5.1...which is very slow, the site will launch on Apache.

Things worth Mentioning:

The major "non-core" components being used are:

-a hacked version of com_contact

-Jevents (what an awesome component huh?)

-JoomDOC (1.5 native version of DOCman)

-A custom map program I created using joomla! and the google Maps API (check residents and visitors->At a glance)

-A custom town code program I wrote...something I'm quite proud of.

-Akeeba Backup.

Plug-ins

We're using the JoomlaCK Editor

A PDF indexer for searching of PDF's

A custom plugin which links categories based on their name (so the jevents police department can be associated with the Article category for police department...useful for the modules down the side)

Templates
Two very similar HIGHLY MODIFIED templates created with an Artisteer base. (pretty solid program)

This was my first Joomla! site ever, I've used a Joomla development book and had some programming experience in highschool. This is my second summer working on the site and my boss will hopefully be launching it in a couple months.

[bford21]

I recommend optimizing all your images some of them took way to long to load and I simply exited out. I have fast internet, I can only imagine how long they would take with a slower connection.

[radar]

here is what ive found

maps.js error(s)
reports page: images with spaces in their name?  also images take too long to load
mailing list is missing

on accessors online database the link opens in a new window but on the register a dog online link it does not.  both are taking you away from the website.  one or the other should be the norm.

some odd characters (“40) showing up on contact directory page.

other than that looks good.. search works.. calendar works..  i like it...  which is saying something because i HATE joomla.  i take the harder route and program everything by hand.. sure it takes a bit longer but its not too bloated.

[xcandiottix]

Aside from images loading very slow (i'm on 6mbps comcast) this site is very nice and looks just like any other government page i've been to. Very 'expected' design... which in this case is a good thing.

[aschulz90]

Thanks so much for so many quick replies..Gotta say this community is much better and more responsive than Joomla! (I'll be sure to look @ your pages if you have any up which need critiquing).

responses:
Bford21: Sorry about the speed, I'm running this off of my local machine so it's not going to be too snappy with IIS... (Microsoft equivalent to Apache) which for some reason slows down image speed. Most speed issues should be corrected on a real server with apache.

radar: Thanks for your awesome response. I already fixed the link isues and yeah there is some kind of photo naming problem going on there..good eye. The odd characters are because I lazily copied something I'll fix that in a few minutes and as for joomla! were hoping that it will provide a way for multiple people to edit content from both the front and back end if you will. I also like that I didn't have to make half the stuff they did initially! Your right though it can be a little bloated.

Xcandio: thanks I'll let our "designer" know. and those speed issues were the result of IIS I'm quite sure.

Any other responses, in particular about content...like how hard it is to find the recycling schedule for instance?

[radar]

I'm glad you mentioned the recycle schedule.  i found more stuff

on the How & What to recycle page:

table headers are white (or clear) but the text color is also white!

the Refuse and Recycle Pick-up schedule is completely missing however

[aschulz90]

So I asked Nightslyr via PM what he thought of the site and he went to great lengths to answer the question. I found it so helpful in fact I thought I should regurgitate his reply here:
Nightslyr

There are a few things about the overall design that don't look right:

1. The placement of the search bar is odd.  Since it has a green background, it looks like it should sit flush at the bottom of the header.  Instead, it sits arbitrarily below the 'Town of Durham NH' text.  Or, you could simply reverse it - have the two drop downs sitting on top of the search box.

2. If town members are able to log into the site, the login boxes should be at the top of the page.  If not, you may not want them visible at all (probably a pain to do in Joomla if it's anything like PHP-Fusion).

3. The community calendar box takes up a lot of room, especially since it's there on every page.  Why not use some jQuery to slide it out when a user hovers over/clicks on a 'calendar' tab?

Other than that, the graphic design is solid if not mind blowing.

As far as accessing the info, the home page does its job.  Some of the other pages could use some work:

The 'Durham at a Glance' page has a lot of unused white space, and the map itself is a bit narrow, since it makes room for the drop down and the community calendar box.  A bigger map would be a big help.

On 'Education' - if the school is called Granite State College, you should just have that for the link. 

For the FAQs, I wouldn't have them as separate pages.  Instead, do what a lot of other sites do and have the FAQs contents at the top, with each link going to a FAQ entry lower on the page (think Wikipedia articles).  People aren't going to want to go through pages of FAQs in order to see the answer to their question.

You have some text issues at the bottom of 'Starting a Business in Durham'.

I think that in most cases, it's easy to access the town info.  The biggest issue is the FAQs page.  It really needs to be streamlined.

Phpfreaks and it's community rocks!