Tell me what you think

I would value some constructive criticism on my website. I quite
obviousely think i can design websites i wouldnt give the industry a
shot. I would really appreciate feedback though. The link is
www.geekwaredigital.com

Thanking you in expectation.

On 2006-09-05, Geekware Digital wrote:

I would value some constructive criticism on my website. I quite
obviousely think i can design websites i wouldnt give the industry a
shot. I would really appreciate feedback though. The link is
www.geekwaredigital.com

First, run it by the HTML validator and correct your errors.
<http://validator.w3.org/check?verbose=1&uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.geekwaredigit al.com>

Second, why does your design leave almost half my browser window
blank? See: <http://cfaj.freeshell.org/testing/geekwaredigital.jpg>.
(OK, not quite blank, but devoid of content. HTML automatically
fills the window unless you do something to prevent it. Why do you
do that?)

Third, why are you using a monospace font, which is somewhat
harder to read than a proportional font?

Fourth, use margins or padding to put whitespace around your text.

Fifth, fix the typos.

--
Chris F.A. Johnson <http://cfaj.freeshell.org>
================================================== =================
Author:
Shell Scripting Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach (2005, Apress)

On Tue, 05 Sep 2006 07:15:13 -0700, Geekware Digital wrote:

www.geekwaredigital.com

Transitional doctype, tables-for-layout, and off-centre-fixed-width
layout. Looks like it's 1995 all over again.

Check out:
<http://www.ericmeyeroncss.com/bonus/render-mode.html>
- for information on doctypes and 'quirks' mode
<http://www.hotdesign.com/seybold/>
- why tables-for-layout is bad

Regards,
--
Ben Measures
$email =~ s/is@silly/@/

Geekware Digital wrote:

I would value some constructive criticism on my website. I quite
obviousely think i can design websites i wouldnt give the industry a
shot. I would really appreciate feedback though. The link is
www.geekwaredigital.com

Thanking you in expectation.

ow, my retinas!

--
Jason Edelman
http://fixmysite.blogspot.com


Chris F.A. Johnson wrote:

> On 2006-09-05, Geekware Digital wrote:

> > I would value some constructive criticism on my website. I quite

> > obviousely think i can design websites i wouldnt give the
industry a

> > shot. I would really appreciate feedback though. The link is

> > www.geekwaredigital.com

>

> First, run it by the HTML validator and correct your errors.

>
<http://validator.w3.org/check?verbose=1&uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.geekwaredigit al.com>

>

> Second, why does your design leave almost half my browser
window

> blank? See:
<http://cfaj.freeshell.org/testing/geekwaredigital.jpg>.

> (OK, not quite blank, but devoid of content. HTML
automatically

> fills the window unless you do something to prevent it. Why do
you

> do that?)

>

> Third, why are you using a monospace font, which is somewhat

> harder to read than a proportional font?

>

> Fourth, use margins or padding to put whitespace around your
text.

>

> Fifth, fix the typos.

>

> --

> Chris F.A. Johnson
<http://cfaj.freeshell.org>

>
================================================== =================

> Author:

> Shell Scripting Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach (2005,
Apress)

I appreciate the response.

The site was designed with
an 800*600 resolution in mind.According to a survey i read this is the
most common resolution used by online users.

I did the validation
check an their are a few things i will have to fix these include adding
padding on the tables so the text is less cramped.

The i ran a
spell check on the site already but i will run it again if its left out
some stuff.

Which fonts are not monospaced?Cant i just change the
spacing using CSS?

Thanks alot for the feedback,i would anymore
that anyone else has to add.

Geekware Digital wrote:

I appreciate the response.The site was designed with an 800*600
resolution in mind.According to a survey i read this is the most
common resolution used by online users.

You are assuming that people all run their browsers maximized. Monitor
resolution is irrelevant.

http://allmyfaqs.net/faq.pl?AnySizeDesign

--
-bts
-Motorcycles defy gravity; cars just suck.

On 2006-09-05, Geekware Digital wrote:

?Chris F.A. Johnson wrote:
?> On 2006-09-05, Geekware Digital wrote:
?> > I would value some constructive criticism on my website. I quite
?> > obviousely think i can design websites i wouldnt give the
industry a
?> > shot. I would really appreciate feedback though. The link is
?> > www.geekwaredigital.com
?
?> First, run it by the HTML validator and correct your errors.
?
http://validator.w3.org/check?verbos...edigit al.com
?
?> Second, why does your design leave almost half my browser
window
?> blank? See:
http://cfaj.freeshell.org/testing/geekwaredigital.jpg>.
?> (OK, not quite blank, but devoid of content. HTML
automatically
?> fills the window unless you do something to prevent it. Why do
you
?> do that?)
?
?> Third, why are you using a monospace font, which is somewhat
?> harder to read than a proportional font?
?
?> Fourth, use margins or padding to put whitespace around your
text.
?
?> Fifth, fix the typos.

I appreciate the response.

The site was designed with an 800*600 resolution in mind.

Why have any resolution in mind? It takesd more effort to make a
layout that only works at one resolution (and there's a good chance
that it will not work for all event at that resolution).

According to a survey i read this is the most common resolution used
by online users.

A survey I saw dated 2001 said that fewer than 50% of users used a
800x600 resolution. If the non-respondents to that question were
factored in with the same proportions, it would still have been
more than 40% using a different resolution.

A more recent result I've seen suggests that 1024x768 is currently
the most common resolution.

Whatever the most common resolution is, it has no relevance to a
site design. 10 people all using 800x600 could see 10 very
different results. How do you know how big the browser window is?
It may or may not be 800px. How do you know what font size their
browser is set to?

If you do not use fixed widths, your site will work for everyone.
If you do, you break it for a large percentage. Whatever percentage
that is now, it will change in the future.

I did the validation check an their are a few things i will have to
fix these include adding padding on the tables so the text is less
cramped.

Good.

The i ran a spell check on the site already but i will run it again
if its left out some stuff.

A spell checker will not catch the first typo I spotted.

Which fonts are not monospaced?

Most. If you are not sure, don't set any font. Let the user's
default font come through.

Cant i just change the spacing using CSS

Only if you do it for every letter or even every letter pair.

Thanks alot for the feedback,i would anymore
that anyone else has to add.

--
Chris F.A. Johnson <http://cfaj.freeshell.org>
================================================== =================
Author:
Shell Scripting Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach (2005, Apress)

Geekware Digital wrote:

I would value some constructive criticism on my website. I quite
obviousely think i can design websites i wouldnt give the industry a
shot. I would really appreciate feedback though. The link is
www.geekwaredigital.com

Thanking you in expectation.

GD,

This portion of the review was written before reading the comments of
others.

Unless stated otherwise, I reviewed the site with Firefox on a 600 X 800
display and a 56Kb dialup connection.

First impressions:

The home page took a while to load. While that was happening, the
entire screen was filled with diagonal zebra stripes, which looked odd
to me.

As the color appeared, I felt a distinct revulsion, which does not
happen often with sites reviewed here. Some monochromatic colors would
attract me, but pea soup is not one of them.

Something about the combination of font, font-size, and lack of margins
around the text left me with the impression that I was looking at a
draft rather than a finished product.

Looking a bit more:

After some contemplation, I'm unable to determine what the 'passion'
graphic is; it appears to be the side of a building sprayed with
graffiti. I was unable to correlate that in my mind with web site
development.

The navigational links seemed to be the least prominent things on the
page. Some reasons: those across the top are so widely spaced as to
seem unrelated to one another; those at the side do not LOOK like links,
as the usual underlining is absent.

The text within the menu_top.jpg image appears fuzzy. Generally JPEG
images do not provide the crisp edges that are best for text
readability. In this case, the font, squashed from top to bottom,
aggravates the problem.

There are language usage, spelling and punctuation errors. In the
ad.jpg image, 'an' should be 'and'. In the second paragraph of text,
there should be a space after the comma. In the third paragraph, 'turn
time' should be 'turnaround time'. English is a very error-prone
language; you should have an expert go over everything and correct the
errors.

I could not connect the World Cup directly with the importance of having
a web site for a business. I think you intended it as an example of how
quickly time passes, but I'm not sure. If your intended audience
includes the US, be aware that the World Cup is not, as yet, a major
event there.

The image for Live Chat seems to have been compressed from something
larger. In the process, the text has been messed up; the 'l' in 'Click'
is completely invisible and there are gaps in the 'C' and the 'k'. When
I tried to view the original image, Firefox told me it was of type
application/octet-stream and didn't know what to do with it. I don't
know if that indicates a problem or not.

There's a huge vertical gap between the bottom of the center column text
and the links at the bottom of the page. It doesn't seem to contribute
anything.

The first set of links at the bottom of the page is black text on a dark
gray background. The only part I can see easily is the vertical bar
that separates adjacent entries.

The second set of links at the bottom of the page is not centered
vertically within its box (there's extra space at the top). That seemed
inconsistent with the appearance of the rest of the page. When I
followed these links, they all seemed to go to lists of website
developers. Yes, it will show people that your company appears on those
lists, but it will also show them how to reach all of your competitors.
I wouldn't do that.

In the left column menu, the title 'MAIN' is followed by an underscore
character. I could see no reason for this.

I don't care for visible site statistics counters on a page, nor
copyright notices, but if you are going to use the latter, and this is
really new or recently-revised work, you might want to update it to
reflect the current year.

If I reduce my window width a bit, when the right side of the window
touches the yellow background, obscuring the zebra stripes, a horizontal
scroll bar appears. This indicates a fixed-width design. Sure enough,
when I increased my display resolution to 1024 X 768, your content used
only about 2/3 of the screen width, with the balance showing just the
zebra stripes. Search for "Liquid design" or "Fluid design" for
information on how to avoid this.

Looking at the source:

Transitional DOCTYPE, almost certainly obsolete.
Tables used for layout. This is part of why the page does not adapt to
different window sizes.
JavaScript. I did not test this, but will all of the functions on the
page still work if the user has JavaScript disabled?

All of the preceding was based on the Home page. Looking at other pages:

It's not clear why you have both a Contact Form page and a separate
Contact Details page, which includes the same form.

Although your list of available services is long, the examples you show
of completed work, both accepted and rejected, seem to consist entirely
of graphics images (logos, etc.). You need examples of the other things
you claim to be able to do.

On the Evolution page, you state "Yellow means victory..". In English,
'yellow' when applied to a person means 'cowardly' (or, though now
seldom used, is a derogatory term for a person of Asian descent),
neither of which is what you intended.

Your Design Process is clearly stated, makes sense, and agrees with my
own experience. It's the clearest part of the site.

I took a peek at the CSS:

For font-family, the last entry in the list should be 'monospace'. Just
'mono' is not one of the 5 generic fonts.

You've specified font-family all over the place, usually with the same
set of values. If you just specify it for Body, everything else will
inherit it; you can explicitly specify any exceptions.

Values of '0' do not require units, so you can just say margin: 0
instead of margin: 0px. It won't hurt, but you want to look
professional and this doesn't.

OK, now I've looked at the comments made by others thus far, and I agree
with all of them.

Some folks have offered you pointers to useful information on web site
design. Since I don't want to feel left out, here's mine:
http://pages.prodigy.net/chris_beall/TC/index.html

Chris Beall