Critique my site?

[JSWski]

I would love to have people's comments and suggestions on my site:CFIDS and Fibromyalgia Self-Help Program (http://www.cfidsselfhelp.org).

We are a non-profit organization that seeks to provide self-management strategies for people with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFIDS or CFS) and/or fibromyalgia. We also hope that people will register for the course that we offer and purchase our books or CDs. We aren't in this for a profit, rather we feel that these products will help to improve the quality of lives of people with these chronic illnesses.

We are getting ready to re-evaluate and possibly re-design our site, and would love your feedback that we could include in our re-evaluation. One important element to keep in mind is that people with these illnesses often have low tolerance for spending much time at the computer and also are easily subject to sensory overload. Another issue is that they often have financial difficulties, meaning they may be viewing this information from a public computer or older technology at home. These factors have led to us purposely designing a very simplistic site without "pizazz." Our main goal is user friendly function.

Thank you for your help. - Jan

[Wassercrats]

The "1st Visit to Our Site?" section has a link to a page with just six links, I'd put those links on the home page.

Use white text for the green tabs to make it easier to read.

I read twenty something years ago that light blue calms people down, so considering your audience, I'd use a different color on top.

The blue on blue in the menus are probably bad color combinations because of contrast and because they're bland.

[sheila]

I put a screenshot of how it looks on my iMac in Opera 9 here
http://www.thinkspot.net/photos/cfids.jpg

The little gray and green tabs are floating above the green bar, with a disconnect (the blue region intervenes). That doesn't look right to me. I would think the tabs should sit solidly on the green bar?

I have to agree that a lighter color text on the dark green tab would look better. Likewise, I don't think the white text in the light-blue region provides enough contrast.

Ok, that's a quick couple of remarks...

[Erica C.]

It looks like you have a lot of interesting information.

I agree about insufficient contrast in the navigation and about the disconnect with the tabs that Sheila pointed out.

How about increasing the use of headers on the home page? I'm not sure why things are in the different columns. Headers might make that clearer. Also, wouldn't a person with CFS have processing problems and find two columns more overwhelming to sort through?

There are ways to provide "pizazz" without overwhelming older technology. It's something to keep in mind.

HTH,

Erica

[scottmanning]

I would love to have people's comments and suggestions on my site:CFIDS and Fibromyalgia Self-Help Program (http://www.cfidsselfhelp.org).
Just an FYI, your site is blocked by SonicWALL: Reason for restriction: Forbidden Category "Cult/Occult".

It doesn't sound like your site fits into that category, but I'd recommend contacting SonicWALL and having it unblocked if it doesn't.