Topic: Site Redesign

Im just letting people know I updated my site:
www.icklepix.com

Comments would be much appreciated.

Things to see:
-I added to the Gallery.

-All the old interfaces/designs in the stuff section, in which there are wee extras.

-The dhtml is toned down a little , more subtle, the page has a much more cleaner look than it used to.

Anywho .. please comment, send me an email or sign the guestbook or something


**********************************************
EDIT: It should now work in NS6, could someone test it ?
**********************************************

icklepix

[This message has been edited by Hew (edited 03-10-2002).]

I really like the site, and want to kiss that loading graphic, ok mabye not kiss but it's a great loading graphic..

The site has a clean layout, quick navigation, fast loadtime... and some cool graphics... also I really like that little pixel thing that follows the mouse at the top of the menu, very different.... I like

Hew: I'm looking at it in Op6 on dialup and it acts a little odd:

1. When it starts loading your loading screen appears in the top left corner with what looks like a form element on it. This then changes to the loading screen being in the middle of the screen. The copyright text is slightly truncated, the balck border doesn't go all the way around the box and the box appears to be positioned too high on the screen as part of the loading sign appears to be off the top of the screen).

2. It seems to be taking forever to load....

in fact this is as far as I've got (I wonder if Op6 isn't responding to the next stage of the loading screen or something). I'll leave it loading in another window and post this 'review' anyway. Synthetic's review has got me intrigued about the content so I'll check back later with IE6 (which is still acting funny on me - hence using Op6!!) and let you know how that goes.

[edit: Still 'loading' after half an hour]

Emps

[This message has been edited by Emperor (edited 02-16-2002).]

Clean and cute. Very nice work there.

The only thing I don't like is the email page. Kill that annoying animation and I'd be happy.

I just got to a decent computer, oddly enough on the computer I posted with before a P2 with "MSIE 5.0" the e-mail section didn't move like that, on this computer a "P4 MSIE 6.0" it does... The "DHTML fancery" is a nice effect but I don't know that it should be on a e-mail page. Where people are trying to type out a message, that makes it much harder to think, much less type out what you wanted to say. I just think that will discourage others from even trying to type you anything in that form mailer....

Just a thought....

very good!
i like it a lot!!
but as said above, the moving email-page....very annoying

I really like the "back-function" in the gallery...

the search-function with the drop-down-rollist acts a little weird here...a little hard to describe but after you have choosen a search engine the drop-down-rollist moves (its true!) into the keywords area...have no idea why...

in netscape 4 I seem to get the same problem as emperor, just the loading page...
but when i type in the adress: http://www.a1ireland.com/icklepix/home.htm it loads...but man thats rather different from IE...I like the "explorer-look" much more ;-)
you might want to view it in netscape 4 & 6...it is not shown that good...



/my opinion only...
/m

I'm guessing that this isn't going to be really cross-browser friendly, but oh well. I kind of like the floating guestbook form. The only thing that I would change is the graphic that you use on the loadind page. It doesn't fit with the rest of the pages. Other than that I really like it. I'm really going for the "minimalist" feel these days.

Later,
C:\


~Binary is best~

Hew: I'm still struggling I'm now trying it on IE5/WinNT and I get the nice loading page but then it clears and all I get is a grey screen. When I grab the address of the page being loaded into the frame and use that (or follow hallon's link - thanks for that) then I can get in. There is clearly something seriously wrong with your preloading script or with something else that you are doing on that page as you appear to excluding an awful lot of browsers (I see your button about throwing away NS6 so perhaps you don't care).

I'll do a proper review in a bit but I thought I'd pass on my initial impressions:

1. I can see why you are using frames to mask your actual URL (although you could try to get free domain hosting - details on request) but I don't see any reason for the IFRAME. Use something like overflow: auto instead.

2. I'm curious about this:

quote:

---

<meta name="forwarder" content="cbs.nz.att">

---

[edit: Silly Emperor - its clearly something to do with the framing/forwarding business]

3. How wise is it to give out your phone number online?

4. On your art pages (nice drawings by the way) you could add a next and back link too.

5. I now see what Synthetic meant about the email page - I really don't see the point (other than because you can). If it was a theme running through the site (probably a bad idea in itself) I might see the point. The way form slips in in the guestbook is nice (although this computer didn't cope with it as well as it should but its pretty low grade) and perhaps you might want to do something like that instead.

6. You'll need keyword and description metatags.

Overall I like the look and feel of the site and there are plenty of nice little touches whcih work well I suppose its the less subtle ones like the email form which stand out from the understated design. Nice art, good clean interface and some good DHTML touches - all good work but the browser issue needs addressing.

Emps


A good buttock will always find a bench for itself - Estonian proverb

[This message has been edited by Emperor (edited 02-18-2002).]

Wow, thanks everyone for the replies, I think I just have to say, my older more dhtml designs where Cross-Browser friendly, but I have my Leaving Cert soon ( Thats like the SATs or the A Levels or something in other countries) , so I havent had a load of time on my hands.

The reason, about the frames thing, when you go to icklepix.com , that actually goes to "namezero.com" it basically , for a few quid , redirects , via a 100%width/height frame, you to my friends hosting account at hostrocket.com, so its the only way for me to get good cheap hosting width Perl etc..

synthetic: yup , the email form is a bit whacky, but not many use it, and .. um, I kinda dont care it looks good though I think.

Emporer: The Iframes, are becuase Im really lazy , and they look real nice, and with my page, I reckon its better that a lot of people see a really good site, than if everyone sees a medium one, if you get me.
- I explained above about the hosting.
- My Phone number ... um, you'd think that , but in reality, whos gonna ring me ? From Americe or any other country, it'll cost a fair bit to ring me, sure, if you do a domain whois, you can get my address.
- I will add , back and next buttons in the gallery, thanks.
- Also, that grey screen, I think thats like the server kinda cutting out, that loading script has served me well, I think the image preloading bit it is evem NS friendly, something I really didnt bother with , especially NS6, it wont run on my Computer !! it just crashes, I believe a lot of people get this.
- Yea and in Opera, I dont know any code for it, shouldnt it be the exact same as NS6's code ?

Again, thanks everyone for the visits and thanks for ignoring any typos



icklepix