Well, do you want an information architect's analysis?
The content is great -- I can see the purpose and I read it and educated myself a little about what happened (but I don't know what role the Pathfinder performed -- ?) I have no problem with the site and its design/layout.
Honestly, I feel bad criticizing the web design of someone who protected my country, but you asked. I hope you were looking for a straightforward answer. This is part of what I do for a living.
Let me apologise in advance if I tread on any toes, please.
So, here goes.
WARNING: Below lies a critical reading -- very nitpicky. If you don't like nitpicky stuff, don't read it.
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1) Content-rich -- a lot of information! Needs to be split up a little bit.
2) Java loads and displays too slowly, even
on this PIII/500/128M. Don't need the java, could replace with static images. Doesn't add too much to presentation.
3) pageone.html (Home) is not the same as the menu.html, confusing viewers -- redundant? Why not just return to the home for the menu?
4) Hard to read blue-on-black -- for colourblind people (or contrast-sensitive people -- it even hurts my eyes after a while) it might be difficult to read.
Black background itself is a little difficult to read. Black and white is good; white on black is ok, too.
5) History page is hard to read and scan. Put in headings for each sub-section, preferably 10-words or so long with a brief description of what happens.
Also, have a chronological submenu at the top to let people jump ahead to whichever section they want. Could help by putting in context -- events that were happening in the US during those dates.
Break down those pages into some logical sequence: ("Stage I: The beginning, Stage II: Marilyn Monroe...")
6) Image section is fine, you might want to add "Page 1 of 4...2 of 4..." or something just to make it clear where the user is and how many pages remain.
Also, add a link to let the user return to the main menu during any of the images.
Finally, subheadings at the top of the first section might be helpful in communicating just how many images there are.
7) For the contacts section, put the email addresses of each contact in parentheses, just to make it obvious you aren't going to those people's pages.
i.e. "Joe Schmoe (
[email protected])"
Hope this was helpful.
-Jon