Preserved Topic: At last - it's becoming reality... (Page 1 of 1)

Hi, all!

As I mentioned in my introductory post a few weeks ago I've been without a site of my own for about three years. Not anymore! Well... soon...

I've been kind of busy since christmas putting up my new pages. And here they are, www.dlc.fi/~jto . It's a prerelease version for testing and debugging - just ready for you guys and girls to rip it apart and shred it to pieces. Just remember: it's a test release, it's probably not too well optimised yet (might be a bit slow to download, I'm afraid) and it's still kind of short in content (well, that's definitely going to be fixed for sure).

The purpose and justification for the existence of the site? Well, first and foremost it's my personal web-site. I hope it will also act as a promotional graphic design site - someday in the future when I've grown up... And of course it's a collection of tips and hints etc. to be (ie. an informational graphics site).

The things I would be most interested in are cross-browser compatibility (I've been testing it on IE 5.5 and NN 4.5), download times and a couple of yet undefined technical issues (I'll think about these later). Of course any opinions/advice are gratefully acknowledged (both technical and design). Oh, yes... I almost forgot... I'd like to know about a good way to preload all of the image slices needed on the splash page - before the reader needs (sees) them.

Thanks for your opinions (and happy hunting ),

-- jto

[Jumps up and starts running around the Asylum screaming madly...]
"OH, NO! Don't touch them! Don't touch them! It hurts... I can't stand it anymore..."
[Flees to a corner and collapses down hugging himself. Starts swaying quietly from side to side sobbing...]
">SNIF!< My baby, my baby... Don't hurt..."

Oh, well... NURSE...!!!

Had just the time to stop by briefly, but I seem to have some troubles with the mouseovers in NN4.08.
(My IE has chrashed)

They just blink occasionly, so it took me some time to figure things out.

Be back when I've had the time to check it more..



-nimraw
If you can't convince, confuse!

so, in all honesty, my friend...you're asking us to critique a site that is comprised of one single image? tough call.

nice image, hate the code.

twItch^:
That's just what I was getting at. He's got the rest of the site, but there's something very wrong with the mouse-overs. If you click just outside the logo-ting you enter the site. (If you want to tear something. I have'nt had the time to look at it yet)

Nice images.

Horrible splash page navigation (add a little something to make it easier).

I like the main page, I hate the main page's frames, you could do the same thing with tables and it would be a lot smoother. Everytime I visit a page that uses frames I have to maximize my browser window, fiddle with the frames or do some other god awful task to make it look good. I don't have that problem when I view a page with tables.

If you use tables you could also make the background static instead of a plain color, that doesn't match.

I would also clean up the letter on the buttons, they are a bit hard to read.

decent site, take it the extra distance to be a great site.

We await version 2.0

I agree with everything said above. That splash page code is real glitchy for me.

One other thing. What is the point of the tiny redlight mouseovers? I mean, they are barely noticeable and don't add much to the effect of the page except to increase its load time. I would either make those more visible (Like have the gear engage) or do away with them.

Nice start!

The image is very nice. The site over all makes me feel like Im looking around for something in the dark. And right when i see it it moves. It makes me want to find a flash light to shine around to find things.


[rubbing eyes from straining to see]

I'd suggest preloading your triple moouseover states for your main navigation from the splash page. It seems the splash is in serious need of redo, you should make it smaller in kb weight also and give the user a little something to toy with still while you preload those onMouse graphics for the interior. Hmmm, didn't mean that to sound like a command. The concept for the mousedown is tough to deal with, it creates more swaps, more kb's. The timepiece is a little disconnected too. If I close my browser and come back, it reloads the entire site from the server instead of my cache, is that on your end or mine?

Can't wait to see it when it's done. Looks pretty sharp all in all, lotta work in it.

This was very confusing. The gear graphic thingy looks pretty good, but what's with those mouseovers? It's like you don't want anyone to see your pages! I don't what you want to accomplish, but total confusion is the result for me. It took very long for anything to happen, and I was just about to leave when I saw some text flash by all around the gear graphic. That's about all I got out of navigating this site. On your design page (which I accidentally found) you mention "interest in presenting information in a more understandable way". I wish I could see that in your design here. Sorry for sounding harsh, but I think you dug a hole for yourself with these rollovers. The left navigation bar with the gear theme is a good idea, but you could improve them a bit by making the embossed effect more subtle. Maybe some rust or scratches or something on those nav buttons? Most pages seemed to take a bit of time to load, but there could be many reasons for that. Overall, you have a good thing to build on, and I am sure you will end up with an excellent site.

loading time, too large for 800x600 browsers...mouseoevers didn't even show for me...looks good though...the design (aside from the typography) is good...nice color scheme...

note on typography:

seriffed fonts are an automatic red flag for cheeziness...i would suggest losing the inset type all together...you don't need to put a copy right on your images and beside that your copy right sticks out, too major...

otherwise i like it...good work...



www.netmosis.com - we're on the leading edge of a false reality...

Thanks, guys... just what I needed...

No, really, I mean that. I do agree the mouseover code needs something of a redesign - especially on the splash page. Currently it's virtually straight out of ImageReady and I'm not too happy with it. It doesn't seem to work the way I wanted. On a local pc and on a fast (T1+) connection the mouseovers work pretty well, but on anything slower they seem to break apart. The problem is, I'm not too familiar with JavaScript code and all my manuals are still buried deep in the boxes after our removal (a weak excuse, I know... ).

The basic idea is that when you drift over the clockwork image it shows briefly all the links available in a nice clockwise animation giving you a hint of the links. This doesn't seem to work on a slower connection. Would probably need kind of a smart preload mechanism - or... Neither seem the actual link mouseovers work quite the way I meant them to work. Same reason - sigh... If the animation seems to be too quick it's very likely my mistake - I timed it on an old (=slow) machine where it shows really nicely. Needs obviously some reiterating.

The reason for using frames is that I really want the sidemenu and the additional link list to be always visible on the screen. That's something I can't do just by using tables.

Other than that, do you find the overall appearance too dark? I made the graphics on a calibrated monitor, so it might not reflect the actual reality... I would really appreciate it if someone could point me to a good preload algorithm that would load all images needed without it showing to the reader.

JK: It shouldn't force a full reload everytime you restart. The problem must be either on your end or on my ISP's server (very likely...). Oh, unless it has something to do with the linked css-stylesheet... Dunno, beats me (>WHACK< Ouch!)... I thought about swapping the splash page images from gifs to jpgs - that should take about half away from the size... I might also have to scale the image down a little bit.

Thanks [shuffles back to the old drawing board...],

--jto

[This message has been edited by jto (edited 01-10-2001).]

[This message has been edited by jto (edited 01-10-2001).]

Oh, one more thing...

I chose the seriffed font for the inset button texts because I tried to achieve a beginning-of-the-century industrial atmosphere. Kind of... You know, old brass, copper, bronze, whatever "clockwork" mechanisms with texts engraved on the metal.


--jto

nice, but i need 10 minutes to load it, be more saver. :mad

Whoa! There's got to be something wrong either with the connection or on the server side. I timed the download on a 56 kbps modem connection and it was ~20-30 seconds (= still way too much, I think). Plus the mouseovers (15-20 s)...


--jto

Dear oh dear...
[Banging my head against the table...]
I feel such a fooo-oooo-ooo-oooolllll...!!!

About that preload algorithm I've been asking for... Ahem >cough<... It's been sitting right in front of me all the time like a fire-engine-red wooden duck and I HAVEN'T SEEN IT!!! [More banging...]

I guess I need some kind of disciplinary action for excessive stupidity... Would ten lashes be ok...?!?

Sigh,
--jto

Hmmm, I think someone needs me to whoop out my file of "completely dumb things I've done when a better solution was right in front of me" file. Can you help me carry it over to the table here...it's kinda heavy....

OK, the splash was too screwy for me too, I was scrolling around the middle and all I kept seeing was the "about me" link lighting up periodically! It never occured to me to mouseover *outside* the cool looking gears and such, only an accident that I did! (I was stubborn, I knew there had to be more!) Reading all of the comments on the splash, I would consider doing something much simpler, your splash should be a quick and easy way to grasp the contents, not a barrier. I like the image, but simplify the link scripts and make them more noticeable. (You could save the fancy one and link it from inside, perhaps on a "how I made this site" archive. Waste nothing!)

The serif font doesn't bother me *too* much, but a couple things about it bug me. Because it's a relatively thin serif font, it gets jaggy at the edges of the serifs, I'd recommend using something like Clearface Bold, or artificially bold the type you're using. The inset is too much, instead of making the highlight so bright, try being a bit more subtle, it'll read smoother, but still inset.

Same thing with the notched metal pieces, the highlight is so darn bright, it brings out all the jaggies, makes them ugly. Try a much lighter hand on the highlights and the whole thing would look much more realistic.

Hmm? That's about it, I like the dark look overall, although the clock doesn't seem to match in too well, some better transition to where the buttons are would be a good thing IMHO. No background on the content areas? Like the header text, want more content, etc, etc... Good work for a first version, needs tweaking.

Your pal, -doc-

It looks to me like each slice has a onOver event, If I were you I would use image-maps to control the mouse over events. As is, the event that makes all of your images flash once gets called over an over again as I pass over the image. It should only get called when I pass over the main image once. Another thing I noticed is that there are parts of the image that I can move my mouse over that are not directly over the circle, and the 'show all outside links' event starts going.

Also, instead of having them flash one after the other in a clockwise fashion, you may want them all to flash at the same time, it would save time.

Ya, I think that would solve a LOT of problems.

Doc: Did you see the Jan 9th version or the one saying: "Updated January 16th..." ? On the older splash page the inset text was way too prominent, I agree to that. It didn't look real. On the newer version it's much more subtle, just like it was engraved on the metal. It may not be too easy to read on the ring, but on the other hand it's just a decoration - to give the surface some texture and details... The image itself is a bunch of 32-colour gifs with loss-factors of 30.

I think the splash is still just as screwy as it was - at least it takes still way too long to load (in my own opinion). The weird thing is that on IE 5.5 the page displays and works very nicely but on Netscape 4.x it just falls apart. Not literally - the alignment of the slices is ok - but the animations don't work the way they should (the ring of links around the central image, the moving gears in the middle etc.).

I think it needs something more than just tweaking... <g>

The inner pages are next in queue for treatment as soon as I get the splash page fixed. I already made the text a little brighter - it was almost impossible to read on a regular out-of-the-stack pc monitor.

Drakkor: This may be a stupid question but how do you make a sliced picture an imagemap (I know normal imagemaps and I had an impression that you can't do it)? I have a hunch of an idea but tell me anyway, just in case... It's over three years since the last time I did anything more ambitious regarding web-pages and because the world has moved on quite a bit I'm practically learning this thing from scratch. However, learning is fun (usually)...


--jto

<edit: This is a better url: www.saunalahti.fi/~jto1 . The dlc-address acts strangely, once in a while.>

[This message has been edited by jto (edited 01-17-2001).]

[This message has been edited by jto (edited 01-19-2001).]