Topic: Long overdue redesign (Page 1 of 1)

http://www.in-dented.com/

1) Yes, it is fixed width.
2) Yes, I realize it is too wide for 800x600

Aside from that, comments and crits always welcome =)

DL, overall I like it. The code is clean, css checks out, and the design is pleasing.

I personally have no problem with fixed width, and considering the intended audience (or my presumption thereof), I don't think breaking the 800x600 barrier is a problem.

Aside from some rendering problems in IE55, it seems to check out well in all modern PC browsers. I can't speak for mac. I'll try and remember to give it a gander tomorrow in Safari. Not sure that anyone really gives a rats ass about MacIE anymore, but I am guessing the results will be similar to IE55. If you want some screenshots for anything in particular, let me know.

Here are my initial thoughts, no real problems, just suggestions:

1. From a user standpoint, I always want to click on the header of a site to get back to the homepage. I know you have the home link, but this is not a deterrence to me and probably many others. Just a personal peeve, and yes, I know, my site does not do that. I have also been working on a redesign...for the past six months...slow going since I got a ft coding gig.

2. Some title tags on those nav links would be nice.

3. In the case a user wants to print a page on your site, the text/graphics are being cut off on the right side. You might consider a print style sheet with just plain text.

4. On the contact form page, close the gap of whitespace in the textarea field. It is kind of bothersome for the user if they click in the textarea field and their cursor is a line and a half down.

5. I am guessing the inline style on the h1 in the header is for the random image being generated by the PHP. You might want to consider another solution. Just link to a rotator script in your css file like so:

background:url('/graphics/headers/rotator.php') left top no-repeat;

and then place this file in your headers directory. A working example can be seen on a site I did a while back.

That's really all I could pick out at the moment.

Nicely done IMO.

Ram

AUGH! PApyrus!

/me falls over dead



actually looks ok there (if that's what it is indeed)

fixed width = yay. bigger than 800 = knows his audience, again, yay

I really can't find a thing to pick, I'm particularly impressed with your handling of the type and white space, very commercial professional grade stuff. Another thing that strikes me is the homage to hozone background tile, that's clever and perfect.

Not usually one to pop in just to dote on something but I felt compelled. CAn't be arsed to look into code and accessibility crap at the moment but dag is the design isn't top notch and very much you.

Ramasax, I was considering doing a rotator from within a stylesheet for an upcoming thing, thanks to you I don't have to test it and know it will work thanks

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Ramasax said:

1. From a user standpoint, I always want to click on the header of a site to get back to the homepage. I know you have the home link, but

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Knew I was forgetting something
Will get that link in there...

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Ramasax said:

2. Some title tags on those nav links would be nice.

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I'm not sure I see a need, really. I'm not against it in the bigger picture...but I think the link text for the nav is about as self explanatory as it can get. For a commercial site, the more explanation the better. But for a personal site, and given the small number of options....I don't know. I'd be happy to consider anything you might have to convince me otherwise though...

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Ramasax said:

3. In the case a user wants to print a page on your site, the text/graphics are being cut off on the right side. You might consider a print style sheet with just plain text.

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Yeah, haven't gotten around to looking at the print side yet

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Ramasax said:

4. On the contact form page, close the gap of whitespace in the textarea field. It is kind of bothersome for the user if they click in the textarea field and their cursor is a line and a half down.

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Hah. thought I managed to fix that quick enough that mobody saw it

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Ramasax said:

5. I am guessing the inline style on the h1 in the header is for the random image being generated by the PHP. You might want to consider another solution. Just link to a rotator script in your css file like so:

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Probably a little cleaner overall that way. Something to keep in mind for the future.

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Ramasax said:

DL, overall I like it. The code is clean, css checks out, and the design is pleasing.

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Always nice to hear =)

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JKMabry said:

AUGH! PApyrus!

/me falls over dead

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heh...
'tempus sans itc' actually
But it is *very* close.

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JKMabry said:

I'm particularly impressed with your handling of the type and white space,

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Well thank you. I spent a lot of time on that aspect, and still have tweaking to do as I play more the gallery areas.

Anyway, thanks for the comments. I always love to hear what I'm doing right and what I'm doing wrong =)

basically there is not much to add to ramasax's post, so i'm just gonna throw in some "I LOVE IT" in here
honestly, i absolutely love this design. i just checked your site some weeks ago, and saw that something had changed...but I didnt really like it. but this one...oh well...you made a great job, DL-44

(the only thing which my eyes dont really love is the grey border on the bottom of the 3 boxes of the home page. dunno why, i am sure its just me my brain and eyes just dont see a reason why they should be there.)

The Space Between Us | My Blog: lukas.grumet.at

From 'About'

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and the very rare oil painting will work there way in as well.

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Only because I know you know better. =)

Very easy on the eyes, pleasing to same and super easy to navigate... did I say super easy to navigate. 'User stupid' types like me thank you. =)

Just noticed a few alignment? problems. Using FF 1.5.0.3 Want me to keep looking or is that enough to figure out what's wrong?



(Edited by NoJive on 06-05-2006 12:50)

The left border/background image on the same level as your main site links appears to be off. It doesn't appear problematic on the right side as there it does not occur at a drastic jump.

Your fieldsets on the contact page might want a little more contrast, when I look at that page I keep wanting to see what is happenning there but not being able to pull it out. That could just be an issue with my monitors settings.

An on state for your tabs might be nice, have you experimented with anything?

I like all of the random images that you have loading for your header image except the two scrabble boards. The one that is taken from a distance bothers me for some reason, it might be a little blurry. The one taken up closer is not so bad, but they do not seem to fit with the rest of teh images that you have up there.

Overall good job. Really clean code, I like it.

Dan @ Code Town

I believe I mentioned this before, but I'll say it here for the record: I like.

Re: the alignment issues. I'm using FF 1.5.0.4 and have no issues with the alignment. I wonder if it's just as 0.3 issue.


___________________________
Suho: www.liminality.org | Cell 270 | Sig Rotator | the Fellowship of Sup

I just upgraded to ff .04 And I still have alignment problems with same stuff in the screencaps.

Double post. But look at the difference in times. Sent the 2nd because the 'first' resulted in an 'error.' Seems I was lied too. =)

(Edited by NoJive on 06-05-2006 16:59)

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mas said:

i just checked your site some weeks ago, and saw that something had changed...but I didnt really like it. but this one...oh well...you made a great job, DL-44

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I had an issue quite some time ago where my layout was breaking in IE. I did not have the time to fix it properly, and reverted to an old design. Not everything converter back however, so there were some oddities going on.

This redesign is about 2 years late. Glad you like it =)

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NoJive said:

quote:and the very rare oil painting will work there way in as well.

Only because I know you know better. =)

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oh for shame!

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NoJive said:

Just noticed a few alignment? problems. Using FF 1.5.0.3 Want me to keep looking or is that enough to figure out what's wrong?

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Thank you. Yes, that's plenty of info to fix the problem. Should be good for the most part now, though I am still playing with how/where I am placing the gallery descriptions, so that will be up in the air for a bit.

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WarMage said:

Your fieldsets on the contact page might want a little more contrast, when I look at that page I keep wanting to see what is happenning there but not being able to pull it out. That could just be an issue with my monitors settings.

An on state for your tabs might be nice, have you experimented with anything?

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I am guessing that your settings have a very big impact on this, as there are in fact 'on' states for the nav links. Not drastic changes, surely, but clear enough on any screen I have viewed it on!
The field sets are intentionally low on contrast, but again - not so low as to be problematic from my testing. Of course, the fieldsets themselves are just boxes with borders....so perhaps it is just that you are trying to see something that doesn't exist?

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WarMage said:

I like all of the random images that you have loading for your header image except the two scrabble boards...but they do not seem to fit with the rest of teh images that you have up there.

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You are right - they don't quite fit with the rest. But I am drawn to them somehow....so they stuck

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WarMage said:

Overall good job. Really clean code, I like it.

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Clean code was definitely a goal of mine. There are still some things to get cleaned up, but overall I am pleased.

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Suho1004 said:

I believe I mentioned this before, but I'll say it here for the record: I like.

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Come on now...surely you can find something to criticize

Well, thanks everyone. Feedback is always nice to have - I appreciate your time.

Something to criticize? Uh... well, I'll give it a shot.

Let's see... oh, on the Links page, you know how the categories under the "Main" heading have numbers in parentheses after them? I thought that was the number of links, not the number of categories (lame, I know).

And a collapseable tree view of the links would just rock (but that's not really a criticism).

The "message" box on your contact page is kind of small.

And that's about the best I can come up with. Next time design a suckier site if you want more criticism!


___________________________
Suho: www.liminality.org | Cell 270 | Sig Rotator | the Fellowship of Sup

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Suho1004 said:
design a suckier site if you want more criticism!

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thou art a true wordsmith

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Suho1004 said:
The "message" box on your contact page is kind of small.

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Oh, what cruel irony....

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Suho1004 said:And that's about the best I can come up with. Next time design a suckier site if you want more criticism!

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Ha! I'll see what I can do




(Edited by DL-44 on 06-06-2006 15:56)

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JKMabry said:

thou art a true wordsmith

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Glad to see that my efforts have not gone unnoticed.

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DL-44 said:

Oh, what cruel irony....

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Yeah, I can't believe I missed that the first time around. I've been waiting to say that for a long time!

You did a great job DL, your revision really looks great. The only aspect of your site I don't love entirely is the "tab" you have on your random image, link, and quote headers. That tab seems to disappear once you leave the index page and I think it looks better without it. Other than that everything looks great!

I think you're right on that Jestah. I had played around with various means of visual separation. In the end I was please with how the tabs looked, but overall they are a little out of place.

You work fast. It looks better like that, IMO.

Just wanted to say that I really like your new layout. Very nice and pleasing to use and look at. Also want to say thanks. I tried out HTMLBeauty after reading about it on your site and I have to say I'm quite pleased with it so far.

Have a question - what do you use for your galleries? Are they custom or did you use a separate program for them?

_____________________

coeur de feu :: Grimwell Online
Qui sème le vent récolte la tempête!

Thanks =)

Galleries are purely custom made. Still working on a good bak end for it, as well as ways of handling some of the info/layout issues on the front end (like how/wher to place the description depending on varying circumstances).

Where'd the site go? I was looking forward to checking it out.

Claim jumper?


___________________________________________________________________________
Deja Moo: The feeling that you've heard this bull before.

site will be down for a while.

will keep you posted when it is active again...

a long lasting while will the site come back? whats been going on?

The Space Between Us | My Blog: lukas.grumet.at

it will be back....but as it stands at the moment I cannot get the domain name back.
Unfortunately this has had to be lowered on my priority list...

more to come

Well, I have not been able to regain ownership of in-dented.com, but after a bit of work on some gracious help, here is the next best thing: http://in-dented.net/

There are some kinks here and there to work out of the code still, but it is almost byte for byte re-established...

Good to see. Thank you. =)

___________________________________________________________________________
"I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying that I approved of it." Mark Twain

YAY TO THE DL.


Thank you, that is all.






Welcome back to the non-world, duder.

-steve