Desk Crit: Joy Drzyzga

Sent 3/7/2008

Hi Joy,
I thought your project sounded really interesting when you told us about it in Studio, so I took a look at your prototype and I'm sending you a desk crit. :)

-I really like the way you've laid out the site. The video screen is large and the navigation buttons at the bottom are easy to see.
-On my screen, the start button (the one that is a cutting board) has a purple box around it that cuts into the text on the page (it is cutting into "go back at anytime"). I would move the button down or remove the purple link border so it's not blocking the text.
-On the first video page, I had trouble hearing the audio. (I realize this is a prototype so you may already be aware of the audio issues). I was able to hear it a little bit better when I adjusted the volume control on the flash video, but I still couldn't really hear it.
-I like how you have the text to the right of the screen, and all of your text is very easy to read.

I'm looking forward to seeing your project progress! Let me know if you have any questions about any of this.
Thanks,
Carrie

Desk Crit: Vici Decker

Sent 3/7/2008

Hi Vici,

It was nice to meet you last night! I had fun talking about CSS and Dreamweaver with you. I think the concept for your project is really great, and I think it's a unique and interesting project.

I really like the images that you are using in your project. As I said last night, I think the images work great on the poetry pages, but I would be careful about using an busy image for the entire background on a page that has lots of text. Even if you change the text color, it might still be hard to read. One possibility is to put a white box around the text so the image is still there, but the text is legible.

I also really like your idea of giving your learners several routes to explore your site. It might be a good idea to also have a "home" button on all of your poetry pages so they can always return to the main page if want to.

I look forward to seeing your site as it progresses! Let me know if you have any questions about CSS or anything else.

Have a nice weekend,
Carrie