Topic: Site update...

I've updated my site quite a bit.
Would love some feedback.

NA/..the site is for IE 5.5 and above (not because I can't do cross browser, it's just what I prefer..sorry die hards..)

Cheers,

pwhitrow

http://www.pwhitrow.com

i.e. You prefer to code lazy and sloppy...

back after I look at it.

It at first appears rather simple. Then there is some more advanced things going on there.

I am concerned about a couple of things.

1) Usability
2) Infringements on Copyrights

Lets get into the usability issue first. You hide the scroll bar by using settings that colors of both aspects to black. Prolly done for artistic reasons, but the sacrifice of usability is just bothersome.

The next issue is the onclick event for navigation which on 3 of the five links brings up a drop down yet on the other 2 it takes you to a page. Lets try for consistancy here. It is logical to make it scroll down on a mouse over even or at least give us some indication that we are in for a drop down type menu. Something like that. It just didn't work right for me. Didn't give me the correct vibe, and on top of that you give us that horrid scrolling thing again, without the scroll bar. That shows progress as well, so it makes it very important so we know where we are. It just doesn't work.

So lets move onto this copyright infringement issue. I know I have seen some of those pictures somewhere else. If you were the one to take them props to you, good deal. If you paid for them or got permission to use them props to you for picking some extremly sexy ladies, you have IMO good taste. However, I find the about to be a little unlikely, and believe that you used them without permission, and are violating copyright stuff... not too cool. Might want to think about that one. If you have been laying in wait for a while on this board you would know we tend to not like that kind of thing.

So on the whole. Pretty good site. Dark, very dark but it looks good. You might want to think of changing the colors to integrate with your javascript things, or maybe change the colors of your javascript things. Either or. You might want to think of using a "sexier" font, but that might be a hard one. I am not sure what system fonts would be "sexy", maybe do the titles by hand with photoshop to get them looking all sortsa sexy.

Good job. See about the issues. Hopefully I helped and didn't hurt.

Thanks for the thorough run through...I'm not offeneded by constructive critisism.

Ok....

Menus:
This is THE single biggest issue for me. I just can't decide on what I want to do with them. I have made all sorts of differing types and style of menu, but ultimately none of them appealed to me when integrated with the site. I like the usability of the new one, but am still trying to decide exactly how to lay it out. Good point with redgard to defining which menu is a drop list. Will correct this mistake post haste.
Copyright:
DOH! .. Busted .. actually, before I went ahead and sought permission from the site that I (ahem) 'borrowed' the pics from (which incidentally, is linked in the 'Other' menu), I wanted to give folks a chance to decide if they were a good or bad addition to the site as a whole. General feedback seems to be good. I was going to give it a few more weeks, but I will seek permission now. Thanks for the knuckle wrap...
Site Colour:
The default colours of the site were chosen because they look good...to me... I know some folk will dissagree, that is why I have added the option to set all the colours, and the background pic, to that of the visitors choosing.

Thanks for the feedback, some positive stuff there to go away and think about.

BTW...lazy coding.?....not at all. As I said, it's just what I prefer.


http://www.pwhitrow.com

Hmm... I'm getting a 404, so I can't tell you what I think. I do find your lax attitude toward borrowing pictures to be slightly disturbing, but you did say you're going to get permission, so I guess we can give you the benefit of the doubt.

I would have liked to have actually looked at the site, of course. I'll have to check back later.

Ok, went through the site...interesting...I found this - the radioactive 'logo' on the welcome page of the Wallpapres is full of 'jaggies', esp. the 'shadow' thing...that should be fixed...it looks very unprofessional, and detracts from the site as a whole...clean that baby up!

That with the pics...hmmm...I would hope that you get permission...and fast. That is definetly copyright infringement...though I doubt that the 'originator' of the pics is the one where you got them from...and that could be a problem...find out if the site you got them from is the original creator, or if he/she got them from somewhere else...if the latter, then drop them entirely...and take your own! Then there is no doubt of copyright...I'll be keeping an eye on that...

Overall, I find the site to be nice...but (as with most sites...) can always use a bit of 'pep'...and that's what the others are pointing out...so don't be afraid of doing a little bit of 'extra' work...it'll just improve the site all the more!

Tried to get back on the wallpaper siet, but it seems to have been dropped.
Any other thoughts....

www.pwhitrow.com

just because it may not work as well in Non Ie 5.5 browsers dosent mean you should lock us out
i find it kinda rude and off putting
id still like to see your site even if it doent look as great in my browser

[Dam my Grammar]



[This message has been edited by Trigger (edited 06-26-2002).]

Won't let me view it with Mozilla huh? Typically, I would have been unimpressed with you only coding in one browser and would have left. Since this is a review, I dusted off the ol' Internet Explorer and braced myself.

Your color scheme is bad. No scratch that, it's terrible.

To be dark is one thing. To be completely void of any given color is yet another. What makes it worse is the entire site is test. There are next to no images throughout the entire site and little contrast between your text and background makes your site very difficult to view IMO.

Your navigation is not very appealing or desireable either. I don't like clicking on something only to get a scroller of 200 items. Why not create seperate pages for each section? It would be much more effecient and nicer.

Spice up your website a tad, and no I don't mean 'remove' images of girls from other websites. Add more color and improve your navigation system. Don't squeeze everything into a box thats an inch wide. Utilize your space better.



-Jestah
Cell 277

Just to add to what's been said so far...

There's no left margin in the "news" section--the text runs right up against the left border. I also want to reinforce what WarMage said above: I think making the scrollbars all black is a bad idea. At the very least, it's quite disorienting--there are no visual clues that there is scrollable content, and no indicator telling you what fraction of the total you can currently see.

Also not sure why you have the forward and back buttons on the page itself. That's basic browser functionality--does it really need to be duplicated?

Thanks guys...

I've taken some suggestions onboard and updated the site a bit........

www.pwhitrow.com

I found your site useful and interesting, if a little dark. I've never a flash-js-enhanced but I might try it now.

Allewyn

Glad you found something useful in there Allewyn. Feel free to join in the forums discussions.

Paul

www.pwhitrow.com