Preserved Topic: My new Running Page

http://www.dolphinstreet.com/running

Give me some feeback on design and functionality if you have a minute, awwrighty?

--rotren--

it has a good look to it, very clean and professional.

i dont like the mystery meat navigation. yours is clever, but still mystery meat (i cant even tell *what* images are the links just by looking at it).

the only other issue is the fact that your other pages only link to the main page. it makes one extra click (either back or using the home link) to get to the next page.

------
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned

Very classy.

I agree with what sasha says with the mystery navigation on the sides.

Speaking of navigation, I think I'll take this opportunity to speak again on paths of navigation...because it's important if you're going to make sense.

You've got 6 paths. Four of them are classified in one level (buttons on the side) and two are on the other level (buttons on the bottom). However, it seems very arbitrarilly placed, without much thought as to their position or use.

Links is a path to leave the site. Who is a path to stay. So already you've got some differentiation.

News and Who seem informative, yes? Keep them together.

Forum is most like another site in itself--keep that with links.

Racing is more info -- goes with News and Who.

Training is info, goes with News, Who and Racing.

So now you've got a 4-2 ratio::

Informing : News, Who, Training, Racing.
Action : Links, Forum

That's just for the sake of navigation.

And I do, indeed, love the design of the sub-pages, but theres a little bit of mystery there, a well...in terms of navigation.

Lets say I want to read "Who" and then go to the "Forum." Well, I go to who, then have to click back to go to the Forum. Put navigation on *every* page. And don't be so ambiguous with your terminology: "Back" to someone that found one of your pages (a sub-page) on google doesn't make sense. Back where? Back is different for every person.

In closing, your design is *strong* I love it. Your navigation is where it's a bit weak and confusing.


s t e p h e n

Not a clue what is going on here ... tried visiting the site three separate times with NN but crashed the browser every time. I get the "performed an illegal operation" error message.

In IE the page just pulls up as a page with blue background ... nothing else. I'm totally lost here ...


BeeKay
Murphy's 50 Laws of Combat Operations
14. Never share a foxhole with someone braver than you.
31. If it's stupid and it works, it ain't stupid.

I was wondering where that watch went! It's still cool and now you've gone and done a site to go with it. I dig it all, completely. Well, not completely, like's been said, you need nav so you don't have to go back to the main to go anywhere.

I don't mind the mystery meat a bit, it's sweet and I don't think even my grandmother would miss it.

BeeKay: aren't you the one that had your browser explode on one of Doc's DHTML toy pages? You need to check that suckah.

Thanks guys for excellent feedback! Twitch, you are very observant. That part about Links and Forum being together, great suggestion, Twitch. I never really thought about that when I started (a long time ago...). The actual pages weren't coded at the time the watch was created. However, the mystery navigation part was intentional. If you look at a real running watch, the navigation is the same. Since I am targeted users who many are using these things on their arms as they run, I figured this would be cool to implement for a runner's web site.

I have been thinking lots about whether to have a navbar on each page. Obviously, the usability now is lower than it could be, although for a reason. I thought that making people having to return to my jewel in order to get anywhere, they get to see it more. Cruel, I am, and maybe that's a poor choice. Well, I like your reviews, and I do feel I should add navigation links on each page. I respect the opinons of you guys, and I agree with what you're saying. This is just a little personal page, but I cannot justify poor usability for the sake of showing off, can I? haha

--rotren--

Okay, I removed the DHTML stuff, so it should work better now. Beekay, try again and let me know how it works. I had more people complain about it not working, so I just put the stuff in a frameset instead, like Doc often does it. The most 'safe' way to center DIV's, it seems...? I was getting into dynamic repositioning like Jeff Rouyer did at www.htmlguru.com
I guess it may not work 100% in all browsers... I hate that! When you learn some cool DHTML stuff, it doesn't always work. WTF is the point learning it then, when some of yer visitors can't get to yer page? We really should have only 1 browser. One for all! Browser Totalitarianism! Yeah! [but which one, heh?]

--rotren--

GREAT! I love that stopwatch. It's very clean, professional and fun to use!

Only problem I have is the lack of cross-navigtion throughout the site. You force the user to go back to the stopwatch in order to visit another section of the site. It's not just a guideline you read in books, either; I went to one of the interior pages and actually got irritated that I had to head back home to go anywhere else.

Otherwise, very cool! Great job!!

I agree with your frustration about learning new things you can't really use. I messed with CSS recently, but found that much of what I wanted to use was only supported in newer browsers. CSS might come in handy some time in the future, but right now it's a waste.

BeeKay


BeeKay
Murphy's 50 Laws of Combat Operations
14. Never share a foxhole with someone braver than you.
31. If it's stupid and it works, it ain't stupid.

It looks great in NN6. I won't repeat what others have said (which I agree with-especially about navigation), just point out that there are a row of little black dots in the upper part of the screen that show up as a link (little hand appears) that goes nowhere at all. Really like your site! Almost got my joggin shoes on...

BeeKay, CSS is no where near a waste, learn CSS1 and 90% of all browsers out there will handle it acceptably, if not perfectly.

Okay, I've added navigation links on every page now. Like it? I just threw in the same nav bar on the Links page, but it doesn't really fit there, does it?

--rotren--

Oh, yeah, totally. Sweet nav bar, fits with the feel just fine...except in the links area. On that page, I'd throw up text links.

I can't comment on the navigation since I subscribe to the "harder to navigate the more interesing it is" philosophy...

BUT...

I absolutely *love* the look of the site. I like the color scheme, dark blues and metallic feel. The detailed work on the menu bar is very clean and has a very professional feel to it. In short, excellent.

hey, today is Vienna City Marathon! (actually im not running myself, i just assist my uncle who wants to finish it below 4 hours)
that is really a spectakel. 25000 people....

How was the race, Grumble? I heard the finishing time was 2:10 or so. Very good time. Here in Edmonton, the Japanese guy who won had 2:18.

yea, the winner (Novo L. , Portugal) finished in 2:10:28. everybody expected the africans to win, so this was quite a surprise!
my uncle finished in 3:54 (which is very good for him! ).

i didnt know that in edmonton was a marathon at the same time!