General Comments Please . . .

Hi there

I'd like to ask the members of this group for the benefit of their undoubted
experience and knowledge in all things web design.

I'm working on a small site at http://www.leurbost-interiors.co.uk and, as
I'm sure you all know, when you're working on a site it's quite hard to be
objective about it, so any comments good or bad would be appreciated.

There are a few issues that I'm trying to get right with the navigation tabs
in Opera, and also when text size is changed. Advice on this would also be
gratefully received.

Thanks in advance,
David

In message <1085557797.6388.0 (AT) iris (DOT) uk.clara.net>, daibhidh
<davidheggie (AT) clara-remove (DOT) co.uk> writes

Hi there

I'd like to ask the members of this group for the benefit of their undoubted
experience and knowledge in all things web design.

I'm working on a small site at http://www.leurbost-interiors.co.uk and, as
I'm sure you all know, when you're working on a site it's quite hard to be
objective about it, so any comments good or bad would be appreciated.

There are a few issues that I'm trying to get right with the navigation tabs
in Opera, and also when text size is changed. Advice on this would also be
gratefully received.

Thanks in advance,
David


Quite a nice, neat layout. Resizable text. Fluid design (for the body

text, if not the menu).

A few thoughts:

(a) Accessibility problem. The use of the Fahrner Image Replacement
(FIR) technique to show a background graphic in place of text will mean
that the headings are 'invisible' to most assistive technologies (AT) --
screen-readers, talking browsers, text-to-Braille devices, etc.

Read more.
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/fir/

Here's the output from a typical AT User Agent:
http://www.gododdin.demon.co.uk/ng/LE1X.JPG (78k)

Note that headings play an important part in page navigation for AT
users.

(b) Provide a link at the start of the page to allow AT users to bypass
the menu, etc. and go directly to the main contents.

http://www.gododdin.demon.co.uk/ng/LE2X.JPG (32k)

(c) You have some random images displayed on each page, but no
alternative text description other than "[IMG - Random Sample Image of
Leurbost Interiors Work]". If you don't want to provide any descriptive
text, you might just as well set ALT="" to save AT users from having to
listen to the text 3 times.

Incidentally, prefixing alternative text with 'IMG' is a good idea --
but it should be spelled IMAGE.

(d) You've a couple of typos to sort out.

(e) ‹ top of page › works OK in IE, but not in my version of Opera.

(f) The low contrast between the links and the surrounding text makes
the links hard to see.

regards.

--
Jake

"jake" <jake (AT) gododdin (DOT) demon.co.uk> wrote in message

(a) Accessibility problem. The use of the Fahrner Image Replacement
(FIR) technique to show a background graphic in place of text will mean
that the headings are 'invisible' to most assistive technologies (AT) --
screen-readers, talking browsers, text-to-Braille devices, etc.

Read more.
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/fir/

Here's the output from a typical AT User Agent:
http://www.gododdin.demon.co.uk/ng/LE1X.JPG (78k)

Thanks for the link and image. I was sure I'd read somewhere about
accessibility issues with FIR, but couldn't really think what it was. Your
screenshot helps make it clear, thanks again.

(b) Provide a link at the start of the page to allow AT users to bypass
the menu, etc. and go directly to the main contents.

http://www.gododdin.demon.co.uk/ng/LE2X.JPG (32k)

Again, thanks for the screenshot and the comments. Sensible, obvious
suggestions that I should really have done in the first place. I'll also
have another think about the link colours too.

Thanks again for your useful, intelligent suggestions and helpful
screenshots.

David

"daibhidh" <davidheggie (AT) clara-remove (DOT) co.uk> wrote

Hi there

I'd like to ask the members of this group for the benefit of their
undoubted
experience and knowledge in all things web design.

I'm working on a small site at http://www.leurbost-interiors.co.uk

Hmmm. Grey text on white. Hard to read. I have to make my text size larger
to be able to read it.

Yes, it fits in nicely with the pastel colours but are you looking for
asthetics or usability?

The design is very clean, nice colors. The fact that the pictures on the
left kept changing was a little confusing to me. If I were a customer, I
think I would want smaller pictures, maybe of each of your product lines
that would take me to a page that showed me the entire inventory for that
product line. For example, a pic for curtains, one for blinds, one for
fabrics, and one for soft furnishings. Maybe with a caption under the pic.

Take Care, Sharon

*Stands up Clapping*

Of all the websites I've been looking through in this newsgroup, this is the
by far best one. I love that you lined the borders with the product. When
you stop reading the text you don't have to keep scrolling down to see the
rest of the pictures. All in All... I LOVE IT.

"Sharon" <me (AT) privacy (DOT) net> wrote

The design is very clean, nice colors. The fact that the pictures on the
left kept changing was a little confusing to me. If I were a customer, I
think I would want smaller pictures, maybe of each of your product lines
that would take me to a page that showed me the entire inventory for that
product line. For example, a pic for curtains, one for blinds, one for
fabrics, and one for soft furnishings. Maybe with a caption under the
pic.

Take Care, Sharon

"Geoff Ball" <usenet (AT) geoffball (DOT) ca> wrote

(2) "IMG - Random Sample Image of Leurbost Interiors Work" should have
an apostrophe after "Interiors."

Thanks for your comments Geoff, although I've a few comments about the
apostrophe.....

I'd left out punctuating "Leurbost Interiors" as I can't figure out how to.
You see, although the word "interiors" is a plural, "Leurbost Interiors"
itself is a singular "thing". I agree that if it was just "some of
interiors' work", then it most definitely should have an apostrophe, but the
only "correct" way I could think of puncuating this would be, "Random sample
of Leurbost Interiors's Work", which just looks daft to me. Hence I didn't
bother at all I'm just going to change any such text to "our work" which
solves that particular problem for me.

But thanks for the positive and helpful comments. I'll get to work on your
(and all the other good) suggestions that folks have made.

Cheers,
David

"Taste" <no1liketaste (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote

*Stands up Clapping*

Of all the websites I've been looking through in this newsgroup, this is
the
by far best one.

*blush* Thanks very much. It's a nice, warm, fluffy feeling when someone
likes what you've done.

"Sharon" <me (AT) privacy (DOT) net> wrote in message
news:2hjplvFdd2o7U1 (AT) uni-berlin (DOT) de...
The design is very clean, nice colors. The fact that the pictures on
the
left kept changing was a little confusing to me. If I were a customer,
I

That did cross my mind when I was doing that, but I decided to keep it in to
try and make the page a bit more dynamic. The content is all fairly static,
and having some random samples of the company's work seemed the best way to
give the page a bit of interest. I'm thinking of maybe having a gallery, or
portfolio-type page on the site. If I do that, I'll probably rethink the
image-swapping idea.

Thanks again for your comments,
David

"jake" <jake (AT) gododdin (DOT) demon.co.uk> wrote

(a) Accessibility problem. The use of the Fahrner Image Replacement
(FIR) technique to show a background graphic in place of text will mean
that the headings are 'invisible' to most assistive technologies (AT) --
screen-readers, talking browsers, text-to-Braille devices, etc.

Just out of interest, would having an alternative, text-only stylesheet for
screen-readers etc be a sensible solution to this, or am I stuck having to
replace all of my <h..> tags with <img..> tags (which jars with me a little)
instead ?

In message <1085644027.48011.0 (AT) dyke (DOT) uk.clara.net>, daibhidh
<davidheggie (AT) clara-remove (DOT) co.uk> writes

"jake" <jake (AT) gododdin (DOT) demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:R4syS1QrnGtAFwS4 (AT) gododdin (DOT) demon.co.uk...
(a) Accessibility problem. The use of the Fahrner Image Replacement
(FIR) technique to show a background graphic in place of text will mean
that the headings are 'invisible' to most assistive technologies (AT) --
screen-readers, talking browsers, text-to-Braille devices, etc.

Just out of interest, would having an alternative, text-only stylesheet for
screen-readers etc be a sensible solution to this, or am I stuck having to
replace all of my <h..> tags with <img..> tags (which jars with me a little)
instead ?


You could examine some of the image replacement techniques mentioned at

the end of this article:

http://www.stopdesign.com/also/articles/replace_text/

regards.
--
Jake