Redid my site

Hello again,

I redid my old site, http://www.tambourinewebdesign.com/, which I
posted here about a month or two ago.

I've sacrificed some fluidness for design, but hope I've found the
happy medium.

The text is small, but when larger than it is, it looks a little ugly.
On the plus side, it is % and em orientated - no px - so its
resizable.

Don't hold back now, I've braced myself already!

Thanks again,
Stephen

Stephen O'Brien wrote:

I redid my old site, http://www.tambourinewebdesign.com/, which I
posted here about a month or two ago.

Only one thing I don't get: why isn't the page centered? On
1280x1024 it is stuck to the left, but not quite, leaving
large whitespace on the right and on 640x480 the page would
fit nicely if there weren't a fixed left margin.

Just wrap the whole lot in a div#container which you center.
(set a min-width to avoid content loss on the left side in
Gecko browsers in smaller windows)

About the text size: I think it's a tiny little bit too
small. Not the menu text, but the content. When I resize it
to 120% the content is readable, but the menu gets too big.

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

Quoth the raven Els:

Stephen O'Brien wrote:

I redid my old site, http://www.tambourinewebdesign.com/, which I
posted here about a month or two ago.
...

About the text size: I think it's a tiny little bit too small. Not
the menu text, but the content. When I resize it to 120% the
content is readable, but the menu gets too big.

body ( ... font-size: 62.5%;

This is far and away too small. Stephen, you should not expect
potential clients to resize, or even know how to resize, in order to
be able to read your pages. Personally, I wouldn't contract with a
company whose pages were illegible.

In addition to Els' suggestions about width and where it goes, change
the body and content font size to 100%.

--
-bts
-This space intentionally left blank.

stephenob (AT) iol (DOT) ie (Stephen O'Brien) wrote:

http://www.tambourinewebdesign.com/

For starters, the cymbals on the tambourine are too faint.
This is followed by "affordable visual dynamic" also being too faint.
You are correct that the text is too small.
You have too much dead space, penned in, as it is.
The logo is off-balance.

It does validate though.

The Doormouse

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

In message <58a37fec.0406050405.7a279589 (AT) posting (DOT) google.com>, Stephen
O'Brien <stephenob (AT) iol (DOT) ie> writes

Hello again,

I redid my old site, http://www.tambourinewebdesign.com/, which I
posted here about a month or two ago.

I've sacrificed some fluidness for design, but hope I've found the
happy medium.

The text is small, but when larger than it is, it looks a little ugly.
On the plus side, it is % and em orientated - no px - so its
resizable.

Don't hold back now, I've braced myself already!

Thanks again,
Stephen

Looking at the site in IE at 1024 x 768, I'd echo Els' comments re: text
size and positioning. "font-size: 100%" for your body text is still your
best choice.

The pages are well put-together.

I like the use of plenty of headings -- this will make the job of
navigating the pages easier for assistive technology (AT) users.

Suggestions.

(a) On the menu on each page, don't have a link that points to itself.
In other words, on the 'Maintenance' page don't have the 'Website
Maintenance' as an active link. It's OK to be there -- but not as an
'active' link.

(b) Run *all* your text through a grammar/spell checker to get rid of
the typos.

e.g.

" .....Targeting small businesses who would not be willing to pay the
thousands that web design firms now charge, Tambourine Web Design has
successfully recieved business from many small businesses in the area.
Interest is high, and word of mouth is spreading fast..."

i. 'recieved' should be 'received'
ii. 'Interest is high, and word of mouth is spreading fast.' should be
something like 'Interest is high, and our reputation is spreading fast
by word of mouth.'

(c) "Navigate around the site using the menu to the right." is only
valid for people seeing the page as you do. Text-only browser users and
AT users (probably) won't.

As your menu is quite clearly headed/labelled 'MENU' you don't actually
need this.

(d) If your link is an abbreviation (e.g. CSS ), make the underline a
solid underline. A dotted underline is usually used by most browsers to
show that the abbreviation (or acronym) has been marked up as such, and
that more information is available via a tool-tip.

(e) A fluid design would have been better.

However, basically .. quite a nice design.

Now to have a look at your portfolio ....... ;-)

regards.
--
Jake

"Beauregard T. Shagnasty" <a.nony.mous (AT) example (DOT) invalid> wrote:

Personally, I wouldn't contract with a
company whose pages were illegible.

That's the bottom line. How will my company's page look to my clients?

The Doormouse

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

In message <biKQ0EVHxdwAFwLE (AT) gododdin (DOT) demon.co.uk>, jake
<jake (AT) gododdin (DOT) demon.co.uk> writes

In message <58a37fec.0406050405.7a279589 (AT) posting (DOT) google.com>, Stephen
O'Brien <stephenob (AT) iol (DOT) ie> writes
Hello again,

I redid my old site, http://www.tambourinewebdesign.com/, which I
posted here about a month or two ago.

[snip]

Now to have a look at your portfolio ....... ;-)

A quick glance at the portfolio site shows clearly that you have

improved a lot since constructing those.

If you are using these sites as 'showcases', you might want to consider
spending some time tidying them up:

(a) Lots of images with no alternative text
(b) Styled headings not marked up.
(c) Non-resizable text
(d) links with no underlining
(e) image map as menu with no alternative text navigation
(f) "NOTE: This site uses frames, but apparently your browser does not
support this feature. Sorry. " ................ ;-)

regards.

--
Jake

Looking at the site in IE at 1024 x 768, I'd echo Els' comments re: text
size and positioning. "font-size: 100%" for your body text is still your
best choice.
I just think making the font size that large doesn't do the design any

good. 62.5% = 10px. 10px font size is often used off the web - in MS
word documents, in programs, OS systems etc - why is it too small for
the web. I don't mean to sound too defensive, but I'm genuinely
interested.

The pages are well put-together.

I like the use of plenty of headings -- this will make the job of
navigating the pages easier for assistive technology (AT) users.
Thanks

Suggestions.

(a) On the menu on each page, don't have a link that points to itself.
In other words, on the 'Maintenance' page don't have the 'Website
Maintenance' as an active link. It's OK to be there -- but not as an
'active' link.
Ok, I thought in the way it was displayed it was alright - but I see

now that you are right.

(b) Run *all* your text through a grammar/spell checker to get rid of
the typos.

e.g.

" .....Targeting small businesses who would not be willing to pay the
thousands that web design firms now charge, Tambourine Web Design has
successfully recieved business from many small businesses in the area.
Interest is high, and word of mouth is spreading fast..."

i. 'recieved' should be 'received'
ii. 'Interest is high, and word of mouth is spreading fast.' should be
something like 'Interest is high, and our reputation is spreading fast
by word of mouth.'
Will do :-)

(c) "Navigate around the site using the menu to the right." is only
valid for people seeing the page as you do. Text-only browser users and
AT users (probably) won't.

As your menu is quite clearly headed/labelled 'MENU' you don't actually
need this.
Didn't think of that. Thanks.

(d) If your link is an abbreviation (e.g. CSS ), make the underline a
solid underline. A dotted underline is usually used by most browsers to
show that the abbreviation (or acronym) has been marked up as such, and
that more information is available via a tool-tip.
While I see your point, the abbrvs are under the heading of "Validate"

which i think makes it obvious enough.

(e) A fluid design would have been better.
However, basically .. quite a nice design.
I think one must find a compromise between complete fluidity and

design. Thanks for the "nice design" comment.

Now to have a look at your portfolio ....... ;-)
Indeed. We are improving though...

Thanks for the comprehensive critique.

Quoth the raven Stephen O'Brien:

[I think Jake said:]

Looking at the site in IE at 1024 x 768, I'd echo Els' comments re: text
size and positioning. "font-size: 100%" for your body text is still your
best choice.

I just think making the font size that large doesn't do the design any
good. 62.5% = 10px. 10px font size is often used off the web - in MS
word documents, in programs, OS systems etc - why is it too small for
the web. I don't mean to sound too defensive, but I'm genuinely
interested.

Then why not change your own browser default so, when your page is
100%, it will look good to you.

With 100%, all your visitors will get to see their own preferred size
as well. This is the object to using 100%.

10px on my monitor is too small for my fairly good eyes. Your 62.5%
looks smaller than 10px, though. I really could not read it, until I
bumped it up 120-130%.

--
-bts
-This space intentionally left blank.

http://www.tambourinewebdesign.com/

In message <58a37fec.0406051042.205a2f1d (AT) posting (DOT) google.com>, Stephen
O'Brien <stephenob (AT) iol (DOT) ie> writes

Looking at the site in IE at 1024 x 768, I'd echo Els' comments re: text
size and positioning. "font-size: 100%" for your body text is still your
best choice.
I just think making the font size that large doesn't do the design any
good. 62.5% = 10px. 10px font size is often used off the web - in MS
word documents, in programs, OS systems etc - why is it too small for
the web. I don't mean to sound too defensive, but I'm genuinely
interested.

That's because the size of text marked up as 'px' will appear as a
different size on-screen depending on how users have set their systems.

However, '%' says:" I want the text to look the size relative to my
system set up". '100%' will show as the users' default 'normal' setting.

(If every time someone goes to your site they have to use the browser
settings to adjust the text size, then count that as a design flaw.)

[snip]

(e) A fluid design would have been better.
However, basically .. quite a nice design.
I think one must find a compromise between complete fluidity and
design.

There's really no need to compromise between design and fluidity.

Have a look around, you'll find plenty of examples of 2-column fluid
layouts.

[snip]
--
Jake