It's been ages since I've done a new site for which I needed review. My wife, Wella, and her two associates have started a flower design business. They are not florists exactly because they do flower arrangements more for special events like weddings and corporate banquets.
Of course, I'm doing this site for them but not getting paid... in money that is. It's more like I better do a good job on this site to keep things running smoothly on the home front
Anyway, I don't have the gallery section completed but I am planning on having popups for thumbnails but I've seen here in other reviews that a warning should be place nearby for popup blocker users. I would definitely like some opinions on popups for this site versus alternatives given the design I've come up with.
Any and all comments and constructive criticism are greatly appreciated, thanks!
[edit] I forgot to mention that it has only been tested in IE and I know it basically works in Mozilla but I've not gotten to other browsers yet... sorry but that will come.
Don't have time for a full review or even to check the site out beyond the front page, but just wanted to say - fantastic logo! Love it. Over all very easy on the eyes and intuitive front page as well
Well, I can't take credit for the logo. That was done by Lanie's (one of the flowerbuds) sister who is a graphic designer. But I'm glad you're liking the overall look
Looks good, very good.
I'm a little...uh, what's the right word...disheartened(?) by your use of tables for layout instead of going all CSS, but most clients don't care so I suppose that is an academic issue to be argued among web developers.
There are little coding things like making sure all your numbers have units:
<img src="gfx/mardigras_thn.jpg" alt="" width="111" height="175" border="0" class="fimg">
becomes
<img src="gfx/mardigras_thn.jpg" alt="" width="111px" height="175px" border="0px" class="fimg">
I personally have zero issue with using pop-up windows in the way you describe. I'd recommend a note of warning, just to be polite.
The visual appeal is great. Truly, I expected nothing less from you.
Honestly, I'm not sure what seperate purposes are served by a portfolio AND a gallery. Maybe there are, but I can't think of any right now.
Recommendation for cool feature:
That quote that sits just below the logo, "Reflection is a flower of the mind..." -- unless that quote has some very special significance, it would be really cool if that little piece was a flash file or animated gif and subtly 'shape morphed' into a new quote every 60 seconds or so.
Maybe it wouldn't work, but I think if this was my project I'd try it. To work at all I think it'd have to be subtle -- so subtle a viewer probably wouldn't notice it happening unless they were specifically staring at that region of the screen.
From: A graveyard of dreams Insane since: Mar 2001
posted 04-09-2003 23:24
Looks good
There is some problem with the first paragraph in the Portfolio section ("For this Mardi Gras themed event...") when using Opera7.03. Sometimes the text is shown in a very light green so it is almost impossible to read it. It happens when I load the page and then move the mouse away from the menu...
There is also another problem with Opera. In the areas that has a scrollbar (Portfolio and Contact) the scrollbar isn't long enough. So in the Portfolio section I can barely read the second line of 4th paragraph.
Using pop-ups are ok as long as you add a little note informing the user about it. I personally would have preferred opening the image in the content area and add a little 'back to content' link bellow it.
You should also add a character encoding declaration in the beginning of the document.. If you add that the page will validate as html 4.01
_________________________
"There are 10 kinds of people; those who know binary, those who don't and those who start counting at zero"
Yup, I like the look. Purple and green never looked so good.
In addition to the comments above, I have one thing to add: change the menu so that you cannot click on the page you are currently on. In fact, I would change it so that the current page is "highlighted" (green at top) and wouldn't react to the rollover, giving the user a visual clue that this is the page they are on and they don't need to click that link. I must admit that I clicked on the "About Us" link about five times, wondering why nothing was happening, before I realized that I was already on the "About Us" page. Yes, I tend to be a bit dense at times...
Thank you thank you thank you all. This is just the sort of feedback I was needing. I'm going to get to work on those improvements. I think I'm going to upgrade from 4.01 transitional to xhtml strict too.
I do use tables when I can find no other solution. I think I may be visiting the CSS section for some help with that.
From: Den Haag: The Royal Residence Insane since: Jul 2000
posted 04-11-2003 00:04
Bugs you might find a an altenative for popup-windows with stacked div's which you can switch on and off at will.
Or make visible or invisible using a link and some JS&CSS. You could even change the Z-index from the div's to show the selected one.
If you use div's instead of pop-uppers there would be no problem with blockers whatsoever.
Sorry i did not have time for a review... maybe tomorrow or in the weekend.
"Freedom of speech is by no means freedom to insult others" from the Razorart goodbye letter.
let's go 'stream of consciousness' style on this one.
----------------------------
wow.... i think he may actually be pulling off this colour scheme! impressive.
very elegant appearance.
draws the eye throught the page in a natural and effective way.
the page change is too minimal in my opinion. i would absolutely love to see the flower and quote change with each page.
the portfolio page.... how do i say this....
i really don't like this page.
i feel it needs an introduction (preferably saying how this is a small taste of the range of jobs fb can do, or something like that), for starters.
the photos just don't cut it, in my opinion. I'm sorry if i'm being harsh, but they seem to lack focus, vibrance, composition.
this website has instilled in me complete confidence in the web designer, but these photos are (currently) the only evidence of fb's work - and they aren't really all that compelling. (now, before wella starts crying - the arrangements themselves look beautiful, really, they do - but they aren't well represented in the photos)
moreover, the thumbnails aren't all that enticing, either. none of them really say 'click me' - for instance, the lack of focus in the top one makes me think i will get little more detail from the enlarged picture.
i hope this isn't too harsh, dear bugs - but the rest of the website sets a very high standard, which means that anything below this standard goes all sore thumb on me.
the contact page is absolutely lovely. only comment i have there is that there should be an 'other' option - just to show that FB are flexible enough to cater for a variety of needs - which can be elaborated on in the following text area.
...oh - your form needs some verification. (tip: make it constructive, not constrictive.)
i should point out that a phone number could be handy too, and maybe even an email address. the more points of contact, the better.
finally, some copy pedantry:
quote:All floral displays are designed collaborating the unique needs of your event, building upon your ideas and will suit your budget.
the last bit doesn't sound right. something more like "to suit your budget", or "and within your budget" could be better.
also, the "Please contact The Flower Buds to discuss your upcoming event. " looks to me like it should be a paragraph below the previous point, not another point.
I was going to type a clever reply here, but I think I've done enough damage to poor Bugs' review thread as it is. You are spared this time--you may not be so lucky next time.
Awesome review, reitsma! By all means, that was extremely constructive and it is going to help a lot. I showed Wella the reviews so far and she uttered a strong and clear "GOOD". She knows that kind of feedback can only help make this site what it needs to be.
The photos do need some work. Unfortunately, we don't have a lot to work with at the moment. We are going to focus on improving what we've got and taking some better photos in future.
I'm not reading any of the other reviews thus far so I'm not pulled in one direction or another by other people's comments...
If I repeat some comments by other folks... apologies.
I'm on a 56k and the page loaded before I made any grunting noises..... so that's a good thing. heh.
I'm a little thrown immidiately by the white to purple transition.. but we'll see how it goes when the page loads.
Oh.. wonderful logo! I like that a lot.
While I'm taking in the view of the entire page, I must say that I'm still not pleased with the tansistioning background. In my opinion it may be worth looking at it with a simple off-white background. Something with a slightly greenish tint like is found in much of the actual website area perhaps.
For the background behind the main content area... I thought you could possibly incorperate just a little more to the corners...
Little 'squiggley' things that sort of fade off from the top right corner going to the right and going down.
Then do the same with the lower right corner... trailing them up and to the left as well. Am I making any sense?
Basically this will throw off the (dare i say) plain look to corners with a little bit of subtle spice.
In the menu bar I think the separator lines could be a little more distinguished.
When someone hovers one of the buttons, the image changes... but if the separator line can't be seen it looks a little cheesy... and not so fluent. This may of course just be me and my eyes being quite tired right now.
It might also help if I put my glasses on or my contacts in. =)
In the "Services" section just one little suggestion of wordage...
"All floral displays are designed collaborating the unique needs of your event, building upon your ideas and will suit your budget."
Might be better as, "All floral displays are specifically designed and crafted for the unique qualities of your event. Building upon your ideas and our experience, together we can create something perfectly suitable for under your budget."
~ just a thought.
For the "Portfolio" section I have no problems with the pop-up windows. Works well.
However, if I were a potential customer, I think it would be much more beneficial to me to see 2 pictures of each one in this section.
Yes, you need the close up shot of the arrangement...
But I also think a second shot is needed of the room/area as a whole.
The angled pictures are good for dynamic purposes of a picture... but I think 2 separate pictures for each event would suit things much better. With the angled shots you're trying to pull off a photo that encompasses both the close up and the entire area... but you're ending up with something in-between... (and might I say... a little less than mediocre in my opinion.)
This is your product... make it sell by making it look the best. If two pictures are needed... go with two.
(on a side note... i quite like the second arrangement in that section... but still don't like the photo)
Keeping all the thumbnails the same size might be something worth trying as well. Small squares usually work well. Overall the thumbnails aren't really making me want to click them. A decent example of what I mean can be found by looking in the speed painting threads in the PS forum...... often times the small thumbnails highlight an interesting area of the painting.... and it just makes you want to click it. Know what I mean?
This sort of leaves me at a loss as to why you have both a portfolio and a gallery...
But I'm guessing the portfolio will be more along the lines of things that have been used for specific events... and then the gallery would be a slew of images for potential arrangements that have been created but not nessecarily used.
Overall I like it.
It's light on the eyes and creates a good atmosphere for the subject of the site.
It's simple... easy to navigate.. and gets to the point without a whole lotta excess baggage.
-----------
additional comments after reading other's replies:
- A little blurb about the pop-up window might be a good idea. Even if you had not said anything, I think I would have anticipated it given the design.... but overall it's good practice to make a note of it.
- I did the same as Suho.. and clicked 'about us' a couple of times before I realized I was an idiot. I disagree however with his solution. I don't like the look of the 'hover' so I wouldn't like to see that as a de-pressed state. I think the 'hover' should be done away with altogether and mebbe just slip in a little arrow beside the words for whatever page you're on.
Overall.. I don't think it's a pressing issue.
- I like the quote changing idea as well.... it'd be a nice added feature.
- haha... just read reitsma's review.... he's spot on. I'm agreeable to everything he mentioned. =)
The contact page is quite nice.. I hadn't mentioned that...
But I don't like the scroll bar touching the corner-markers.
I absolutely read it and I am actually digesting and working on updates! I have already made the page nearly xhtml compliant as a result of mobrul's post.
Michael, my apologies for not letting you know sooner that I had read your review. I have gotten pulled onto one or two other things for the last few days and that is why I haven't been able to address each point here but, trust me, I read your review very carefully and I am actually seriously re-thinking a few issues on the site as a result. All of the feedback so far has been extremely helpful.
Actually, no, you shouldn't put the "px" values in. If you were using a style rule to set these values then yeah, you'd specify the value types like this but because 'height' and 'width' are attributes of the <img> element the rules change a little. This isn't a CSS rule, its a element attribute and there's a difference.
HTML and XHTML element attributes of type "length" have three possible value types; Pixel, Length and MultiLength. If the value is specified as ="50" then it is treated as 'pixel', if the values is ="50%" then it is of type 'length', if the value is ="50*" then it's a 'multilength' value -- both a pixel and relative part of the avaliable percentages. For a more detailed explanation of this see the w3c spec: http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/types.html#h-6.6
Oookkk. No px in the img tags, got it. No prob, mobrul. I am so very thankful for all the quality feedback and I think I've finally found time to get back to work on this site. I'll be posting updates as soon as I have some decent ones.
posted 04-09-2003 15:51
