Crap, isn't it? Awful colours, half the links don't work, it has minimal informational content - and what there is of that is hard to make out.
Now, I've repeatedly offered to do something about this. I'm the only one in the IT Dept. who knows anything about HTML. My suggestions have been ignored, my proposals declined, and instead they decided to get an outside designer to do it. They haven't actually done anything about it, and it's been six months.
Eventually we'll have our own web server. Correction: we HAVE our own web server, have had it for a year. It sits there taking up space and hasn't been touched since I built the damn thing. For now, though, the people who provide our direct web connections act as an ISP and hold the HTML pages on their server.
So you can imagine my delight when I get a rabid call from a member of Marketing complaining the link doesn't work (I hope it does by the time you all read this). She largely implies that I am solely responsible for this, that as long as the problem goes on the firm is losing business. As if the webpage is going to tell prospective clients anything but "we're crap, go elsewhere."
So please, shred our corporate webpage. And spread the word - RJ&W are rubbish.
posted
I've seen worse, but for shear lack of imagination and outright dullness it must be right up there. Its the legal mind at work. There also seems to be a very common corporate philosophy which goes something like 'never trust your existing employees to do something if you can pay large sums for an outsider to do the same job'. Sound familiar?
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The First One
A lovely little thinker, but a bugger when he's pissed
Member # 35
posted
Oh, you'd be surprised.
Right now they're planning to move part of the London to a new location, down the other end of Gray's Inn Road. Which is about a mile long and is one-way for most of it (the rest being the other way). Providing support to people down there is going to be impossible, and when I jokingly asked if I should bring my mountain bike to work, they took me seriously.
posted
Of course they took you seriously, members of the legal profession undergo total sarcasm and sense of humour by-passes when they take their bar exams. My company are moving next week from Chancery Lane out to Docklands. Might just as well be Outer Mongolia as far as the train connections go. Not that I mind, my contract with them runs out a week later and I'm on holiday for the last three days of that!
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Charles Capps
We appreciate your concern. It is noted and stupid.
Member # 9
posted
Hmmm... Perhaps ya should contact Goffy?
------------------ Avon: "You really do believe in taking risks, don't you?" Tarrant: "Calculated risks." Avon: "Calculated on what? Your fingers?" -- Blake's Seven, Ultraworld
posted
I would make a comment but I fell asleep half way through.
Seriously though, I have a friend who is a lawyer and was thinking about going out on his own. He enlisted another pal of mine and I to design his site, he has since joined anothe firm ending the need for the site. However, before that time I spent a good deal of time looking at various coporate lawyer sites and thinking of ways to build his site (I also got some practical expereince by helping design the LA Times Intranet, ooo ahhh)....
I can't think of a single one of those lawyer sites that looks as bad as this one!! Who are the people that are going to represent you for goodness sake?? Where did they go to law school or what do they specialize in???
It serves no real purpose other than some middle management putz can tell some upper management putz that "We have a web presence now sir." "Oh, jolly good."
And I know a small dog that can write better!!
Oi, that is a horrid site!!
Hows that for a review First?
------------------ We sneaked into the nearby Peabody Museum. There, under the smiling eyes of four stuffed Eskimos, we expressed our love physically, as was the style at the time. ~ C. Mongomery Burns
[This message has been edited by Jay (edited September 17, 1999).]
posted
I'd break my own legs on a city pavement, and have absolutely no doubt in my tiny little mind that this company, THIS COMPANY, of the finest that the noble profession of Law and champions of Justice has to offer, would assist me in suing the city fathers to within an inch of their offshore investment accounts.
Not.
Pathetic, First, no wonder you complained. That *thing* (I refuse to call it a site) is shameful. I've seen better design in graffiti and more organisation in an angry mob of rabid dogs.
No style, virtually no substance.
Make sure your employers cop this. This highlights their promotional ineptitude, and doesn't do much for their future turnover. Moreover, it displays a shocking disregard for Web denizens, who should deserve something, anything, better than this palty half-effort.
To hell with them, Lee -- do it yourself, only don't expect any thanks or free love from your bosses.
------------------ The unexplained phenomenon that crippled the U.S.S. Unimpeachable -- Gaseous Anomaly... What anomalises gaseously.
The First One
A lovely little thinker, but a bugger when he's pissed
Member # 35
posted
Well, the boss finally cracked. Wearying of my constant sniping (sample telephone conversation: "hello, can I have the address of your webpage?" Me: "well, it's www.rjw.co.uk, but don't bother looking, it's shite" - at least that's how I recounted it to him later!), the boss cracked this afternoon and told me that I should go ahead and do something better then.
Oh, bugger. He called my bluff.
So now what do I do? How do I make a sh*t-hot corporate legal webpage? They're definitely attached to the blue, it's the company colour, so I'll have to use it a bit. . .
------------------ "The next time the workplace seems especially hectic, remind yourself it could be worse: you could have two-dozen sharp-toothed creatures chewing on your nipples." - James Lileks
posted
Hmm, blue. Well, even though it makes it 'different', I'm not a big fan of background colours. I prefer plain old black or white. Black to look a bit trendy, but white has a nice crisp feel to it. Reading black or white off of a blue background though isn't going to be nice to anyone.
Apart from that nugget, my knowledge of webdesign stretches about as far as my bedroom door to one inch outside my bedroom door.
Still, I've always liked the format of having a left-aligned border, with links to all the important bits on your site. It can add a bit of colour, and enable you to get to the information quickly.
And a nice logo never hurt anyone either.
------------------ You know, when Comedy Central asked us to do a Thanksgiving episode, the first thought that went through my mind was, "Boy, I'd like to have sex with Jennifer Aniston."
------------------ "If you will not have me as myself, Perhaps as someone else. Perhaps as you, I'll be worth noticing. Then even a eunuch won't resist, The power of one kiss, from such as me. I'll be that girl: and you would be right over. If I were a field, you would be in clover. If I were the sun, you would be in shadow. If I had a gun, there'd be no tomorrow." ~ Barenaked Ladies
posted
Well, the ugliest thing about the site is the black color for the links on the blue background *shudders*.
Leave the logo where it is, but make the rest of the page plain white, maybe with dark blue text. The navigation bar could remain blue too, or change it to horizontal. "London * Birmingham * Bristol * ..." would look more impressive, like a sub-title.
Besides that, I have no idea how to cheer up such an incredibly boring thing like a lawyer page o:
------------------ "Invaders from the fifth dimension!" - or: the canon proof that subspace is the same as hyperspace Ex Astris Scientia
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