Critique of work in progress

Hi all,

Any advice on the site as it stands would be great.

http://smallwww.net/test/index.htm

Thanks,

John.
smallWonder Web Works.

On Tue, 25 May 2004 23:32:57 +0100, John Small
<john (AT) smallw (DOT) de7m7o7n.co.uk> wrote:

Hi all,

Any advice on the site as it stands would be great.

http://smallwww.net/test/index.htm

Thanks,

John.
smallWonder Web Works.

Just looking at main page.

alt text isn't great. Make your alt text a replacement for the image, not
a caption for the image. Use title to provide a tooltip explanation of the
image, not alt.

<p>You are here: &gt;&gt; Home</p>

Is this a paragraph? div markup alone is sufficient here.

<ul>
<li><span class="norm">rely on the image you present to make a good
impression,</span></li>
....

No need for the spans. Style the ul element.

<li id="active"><a id="current" href="#">Home</a></li>

Better off making this unclickable.

..85em is smaller than my preferred font size, many users will need to
enlarge the text. Advise main body text at 100%. Non-critical text like
legalese and such can be smaller.

Overall, not bad.

John Small <john (AT) smallw (DOT) de7m7o7n.co.uk> wrote:

http://smallwww.net/test/index.htm

It is pretty cool that the page makes XHTML strict.
However, graphic design is not quite as easy as it looks.

It will take just as long for you to develop good graphic design skills as
it did to develop your coding skills. In the meantime, please take some
encouragement that you can design good code.

If it's any help, there are tangible, hard rules for good graphic design.

The Doormouse

--
The Doormouse cannot be reached by e-mail without her permission.

The Doormouse wrote:

there are tangible, hard rules for good graphic design.

Where can I find those?

--
Els
http://locusmeus.com/
Sonhos vem. Sonhos vão. O resto é imperfeito.
- Renato Russo -

On Tue, 25 May 2004 18:47:38 -0400, Neal wrote:

Just looking at main page.

alt text isn't great. Make your alt text a replacement for the image, not
a caption for the image. Use title to provide a tooltip explanation of the
image, not alt.

Thanks I know this - don't know how I missed it!

p>You are here: >> Home</p

Is this a paragraph? div markup alone is sufficient here.

Didn't realise straight text after a <div> was valid, thanks for the
pointer.

ul
li><span class="norm">rely on the image you present to make a good
impression,</span></li
...

No need for the spans. Style the ul element.

Ah, now there is a reason for this but you may have a better solution - I
wanted the list bullet to be the same colour as the logo square but the
list text to be black. This was the only way I found to do that.

li id="active"><a id="current" href="#">Home</a></li

Better off making this unclickable.

Again I have my reasons! This is due to the CSS formatting of the nav
list. If I make it 'unclickable' it ruins the button.

.85em is smaller than my preferred font size, many users will need to
enlarge the text. Advise main body text at 100%. Non-critical text like
legalese and such can be smaller.

I'll try it at 100% and see what effect it has.

Overall, not bad.

Cheers - I may make a web designer yet!

John Small
Throw the lucky 7s to reply by e-mail

In message <pan.2004.05.25.22.32.57.510561 (AT) smallw (DOT) de7m7o7n.co.uk>, John
Small <john (AT) smallw (DOT) de7m7o7n.co.uk> writes

Hi all,

Any advice on the site as it stands would be great.

http://smallwww.net/test/index.htm

Thanks,

John.
smallWonder Web Works.

Looks OK, if a little plain. Still, the mark-up's not bad, the pages
have a fluid design, and I can re-size the text.

Anyway, a few odds-and-ends:

(1) Run your text through a grammar/spell checker to get rid of the
grammar and spelling errors.

(2) "click here" as a link doesn't make too much sense, but
"click here to see who we are." does.

(3) "pay for the registration" takes me to the start of the 'price.htm'
page ... not to the appropriate 'registration' entry.

(4) On the email page there are 4 fields to be entered. You have loaded
text into 2 of them, but not all 4. Load either all or none.

(5) I am not quite sure why the 2-cans-and-a-piece-of-string image is a
link to the 'credits' page - or how I would know without going there.

Regards
--
Jake

On Wed, 26 May 2004 00:28:53 +0100, John Small
<john (AT) smallw (DOT) de7m7o7n.co.uk> wrote:

Ah, now there is a reason for this but you may have a better solution - I
wanted the list bullet to be the same colour as the logo square but the
list text to be black. This was the only way I found to do that.

No, you're right. I missed that.

li id="active"><a id="current" href="#">Home</a></li

Better off making this unclickable.


Again I have my reasons! This is due to the CSS formatting of the nav
list. If I make it 'unclickable' it ruins the button.

Compare with my nav on http://www.opro.org - not saying it's perfect, but
you'll see what I mean.

On Wed, 26 May 2004 01:00:51 +0100, jake <jake (AT) gododdin (DOT) demon.co.uk> wrote:

(5) I am not quite sure why the 2-cans-and-a-piece-of-string image is a
link to the 'credits' page - or how I would know without going there.

I could see that for a Contact page...

On Wed, 26 May 2004 01:20:15 +0200, Els <els.aNOSPAM (AT) tiscali (DOT) nl> wrote:

The Doormouse wrote:

there are tangible, hard rules for good graphic design.

Where can I find those?

At risk of a standard Usenet faux-pas...

Me too!

A good start would be:

"Using Design Basics To Get Creative Results"
ISBN 0-89134-651-1

I have seen these concepts elsewhere, but this book was cheap enough with
enough pictures, sooo ....

The Doormouse

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The Doormouse cannot be reached by e-mail without her permission.