Topic: New design

Well it's not leting me post a 604 word post so here is a short verson

Well the re-design is - Here - Old site here - Well what do you think of it? Yes simple it is but that's the way I want it, nice and simple. I think personally that there is something missing (And not meta tag's (Emp ) they will be added later on ), but can't put my finger on what it is . It is not fully finished yet as I have the info page to do and some other little things to add, but that will be done later on.

Just a few questions:-

Does it sell me or my artwork?
Does it show the best of me?

I have tested it on Win 2K with opera 6, NS 6 and IE 6 and all works fine, but in NS 4 (which is crap anyway ) the rollover actions do not work, so for NS 4 uses they go to page asking to upgrade there browser. Now I have broadband I can?t test it on a 56K, so if some can and report how it downloads that would be great. Also can some one test it on a Mac, I would myself as my college has Mac?s but where not in till 9th as where on a holiday break .

Well that?s it now back to floating around the hall?s .

Chris C


[This message has been edited by Darkshadow (edited 03-18-2002).]

DS: Well you wanted subtle and you have subtle (as far as I'm concerned it is on the right side of being too subtle - if that makes sense). I really like it and it works well on a dialup connection. A few points:

1. On the main page you have quite a gap between the bottom of the text and the navigation and in 800x600 it can be just off the bottom of the screen which is a little confusing.

2. That text is pretty small - its not too much of a problem on most pages but when there is a block of it, like on the first page, it can be a bit of a strain (esp. in those subtle colours).

3. All the text are graphics and this will cause some problems to search engine robots and other devices (Lynx, browsers for the blind, etc). As it is your own personal site I don't see that being too much of a problem.

4. I'm not sure why your rollovers don't work in NS4.x - they don't seem too complex. I'll have a nose at you code and see what I can find.

Overall I think you've done what you set out to do which is make a very minimalist and subtle site (less is more/Zen) which brings nearly all the focus on to your artwork (which is great too). Its a balancing act between being subtle and being usable and, at least as far as I'm concerned, you've got the balance right there. Nice work.

I'll drop my thoughts on your connection problems in the other thread (I deleted the first test one as instructed).

Emps

Just a quick thought, I am using IE6 and NN6 at a resolution on 1280*1024 and its really hard to read the text at this resolution. but it looks clean and nice just a tad difficult to read

Well thanks for the input Emp & tomeaglescz, right I'll start off with Emp first:

The 800x600 screen is hard to work for but never the less it does work with it.

In IE 6 without the links toolbar you can see the nav bar at the bottom. But the question is that "Do people with screen res of 800x600 have the link toolbar showing?" if yes then I have to re- think about it, if no then it's ok. In NS 6 it's ok at 800x600. Now in opera it's really missing the nav bar, But I think opera is really unfair as a browser as the toolbars are so big. The toolbars take up to much space and is bad to design for opera at a screen res at 800x600 because of the toolbars. I don't know what the opera is like with out the advert in the top right, so I can't say if it would better with the full version.

Yes the text is small but I like it small if I have it any bigger for the rollovers it would be bad, I have tried the rollovers with 9px font and it's bad. Now the first page text is the same as the rollover text so it would be better if I made it bigger so people bigger screen res can read the text. so here is a 9px font of the first page, is that better or does it not fit with the rest of the page?

All the text is graphics so people can't change the font size by there browser text size tool. Yes search engine robots will be blind but the meta tags should sort that out (meta tags are for search engine bots to pick up on aren't they?)

The rollover don't work in NS 4 and I don't know why or care as NS 4 should fall of the face of the internet. But to be on the safe side it would be better if it can be fully working in NS4.

quote:

---

which brings nearly all the focus on to your artwork

---

, that?s what I want you to focus on as that?s the work I'll be trying to sell of

Tomeaglescz: I know the text is small so is this better for you?

Well I know what is missing it's the acknowledgement of where you are, so for that I'm going to get rid of the "Christopher Cope portfolio" and place some thing better I hope! If not that will have to stay.

Thanks for the replies


Chris C

Chris thats better i can read it now, wasnt really an issue i guess but as larger monitors become increasingly cheaper then target audiences are going to be using higher resolutions. but that works great for me now. the only thing that still isnt too clear is i think well it looks like a copyright notice under the main panel located in the middle.


I loved version 1 by the way.

/Tom

Ok I have changed the font size I hope to a readable one on bigger screen res's .

It's here

So is it readable on bigger screen res's than 1024x768?

I'm still in the process of sorting out a name for it, so that's going to be sorted later .


Chris C

Darkshadow:
Is it supposed to be all white? I'm not getting much in the way of images... just curious mostly.

- the big wannbe, me -

fallacy: "Is it supposed to be all white?" ? It's a nice light grey and that's all I want to show as if you have read my first post about it selling my talent in artwork to future clients and not to have that much content in there as having to much content would just get in the way.

Anyway what screen res do you have? If it is bigger than 1024x768 can you read the text?


Chris C

Its better now....but my opinion is that its still to small....But it works as it is, except for the index page, more spacing might be a solution?
and the link-text is hard to read because of the light-grey color...

Overall its a clean and nice site, nice pics :-)

my screen res: 1280*1024 @ 21'

/m

glad to know opera 6 users who identify as opera get told to go screw themselves with your little "go upgrade" page.

------
this rose has a thorn...

DS: That is a good point about Opera on that setting (I'd forgotten I'd readjust mine to indentify as IE5 during some testing) although I noticed the word 'please' and nothing about screwing oneself!! I do dislike such abrupt upgrade pages and prefer (if anything) a small notice somewhere explaining that some features may not work in older browsers (if that is the case). You aren't doing anything that breaks badly in older browsers (are you? I didn't spot anything) so I don't see the need for that screen.

[edit: And I understand you point about Opera's big advert pushing things down but there is a lot of white space above and below the text and it would only take a light trim to make the navigation appear from below the fold. Then again we are big boys and girls and you do explain in the text and there is a big scroll bar which should alert even the most impatient of us so it might not be such a big thing]

Emps

[This message has been edited by Emperor (edited 03-25-2002).]

Hmm...la'dsasha & Emp: I only set it detect NS4x as the rollover swap image does not work in NS4 so I have that upgrade page ONLY for NS4. Don't understand why it re-directs you to it because I have tested it in opera 6.01 and it does not re-direct to that page.

Can I ask what version of opera you two are using?

Then I can try and fix it or just re-direct NS4 uses to that page and explain that some features won't work but that can still access it.

Puzzling that is?


Chris C

No time for an all out review, but wanted to say I enjoyed the pieces in your portfolio a great deal.

I also love the setup of the portfolio and the way it links and displays the images.

I would like to see a *little* more umph on the main page though.

DS: Op6 File >> Quick Preferences >> Identify as ...

The simplest thing to do would be to make a little graphic for NS4.x owners explaining that some features won't work and set it to display: none - this is the trick used for the oops pages on CSS-only layouts and will only display in older browsers (like NS4.x) which has trouble with such things. (I'd put it in the top righthand corner).

Emps