REVIEW: Web Site: Squirrel Nut Zippers, The Epitome of Musicianship Submitter Miriam said: The site is dedicated to a wonderfully talented band called "Squirrel Nut Zippers" (SNZ). It is intended for SNZ fans as well as future SNZ fans. It contains valuable information on the current happenings in the band; i.e. tours, special guest appearances, individual projects, etc. __ What makes this site unique and exciting is the personal touch that the author conveys. An example of this is the way the site is updated. Updates are made on the SNZ aspect of the site, as well as what has been updated on the overall site. * Reviewer says: "Doesn't really give an idea of the personality of the band." Personality: There are photos of the band on various pages, which is good, and on one page there are graphics taken from Perennial Favorites. This idea could be expanded to good effect. The various background colors of the pages give an impression of randomness and scatter. It would be better to pick a color scheme (perhaps from the album art) and a set of fonts to use and be consistent through the site. __ Speed of loading: Excruciating. Glacial. Maybe the problem is the server hosting the page. __ Use of graphics: I would be happy to see more, but not if it would slow the page. __ Navigation: Not all the links work. The main page needs to be updated. The promised trivia question and comments from Tom were absent (probably available on a previous version of www.snzippers.com). __ The links on each page should be in the same order on each page to help you know where you've been. The site index, in particular is not arranged like any other page. "The Links" page is very nicely layed out and easy to read. I hope that there is a lot more work going in to this site, though, because "The Music" links are incomplete and the viewer feedback page doesn't function. "The News" and "What's New Here" overlap content and fucntion a little, and long pages such as "The News" could benefit from top-located navigation. __ General Comments: I am disturbed by the Swatch logo on the main page. First, it has nothing to do with the SNZ site. The Zippers themselves should be paying for this site, or some other invisible form of funding should be found. Secondly, the Swatch site is offensively sticky (the "back" button doesn't let you leave, you have to find your previous sites using the Go menu). __ The blue pages with pink writing do not show well on a Mac. Maybe they look good on a PC, but I would overhaul the design of those pages entirely so they show better on different systems. The page source code is unreadable. I'm unable to find out why. __ As a Squirrel Nut Zippers fan, I think this site has some useful information, but it's not easy to navigate or read, and it's disappointing in its incompleteness. R. Agin * WD&R Comments: We have to agree with much of what is being said here. However our access speed didn't seem too bothersome. Perhaps this reviewer was surfing at a high traffic time of day, and it's really not the fault of the site, but the Internet load as a whole. __ What was most disconcerting however was the "design-on-the-fly" personality of the site. While we agree with today's reviewer, we also have to caution that the site creator may want that look. We've see many sites submitted where the author takes pride in designing each page differently. If this is the case, then some care should be taken to assure that there is some thread of continuity. __ We're going back and take another look. Anyone else care to comment?

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