Beta-question

[Svenskaflicka]

*Experimenting with heavy animation*

 

[Svenskaflicka]

How about that one replacing the Flash? Too long? Too boring? OK? Bad quality? Does it take very long time to download?

 

[Svenskaflicka]

made the mistake of clicking on the link before reading Lauren's post - scared the piss out me too!

Nice work tho!

Thanks. Tee-hee, perhaps my site should come with a warning? "Not for the faint of heart"..?

 

[Svenskaflicka]

Hi Svenska,

I've had a quick look, and on first impressions: I like it.

Looking at it from a purely aesthetic point of view, it's good. Your choice of colours is classy and nothing cried out and smacked me in the face. One of the secrets of good design is having such a good design that nobody really notices it, if you get my meaning. It should suit whatever the site is promoting, and I think yours does.

Thank you, that was exactly what I was aiming for. I didn't want to make it too in-your-face, but a little elegant and sophisticated. I added the stars on the left afte I was told that the previous solid blue space was dull and unglamourous.

I haven't looked at it on a very deep level yet, and as you have already received some great advice from both Liar and F5, I won't add much. A couple of minor gripes I do have is with your use of frames - I just don't like them, and the fact that I have to knock off my favourites, to view the whole width of the pages without needing to use the horizontal scroll bar. You should aim to design your pages with this is mind... Most surfers are lazy, and like all of the information in front of them, without having to adjust their browser preferences.

True, very true... frames can be a bitch. I chose to use them so that I would be abl to keep the navigation space stay put, and just flip the content, changing text and pics.
I'll keep your words in mind for my next project.

 

[NoJo]

Overall, you've done well, SF.

Yeah, frames. Big mistake, as I found out. They're a sign of a beginner nowadays. (I count myself as one, too).

I'm busy de-framing my site -- tricky cos it has tons of code in it.

Flash is "de rigeur" in certain business areas, like it or not. This includes virtually anything to do with the Media, like the music and film biz. Personally I'm not intersted in Flash. But you must be experienced in it if you want to be a pro web designer.

The challenges of web design really come with large sites, where consistency acorss the site and maintainability are paramount.

Are you using Dreamweaver? Looks like it. I hope so. Overall, it's the most reliable tool around.

The "gunshot" (I think it's meant to be camera shutter) is not good, slowing down the site. REplace it with a tiny "click" like a pro camera shutter, if anything. No more than 1/10 sec long.

How much of the backend are you learning to do? Are you meant to code the targets of the forms too? If so, how?

 

[Liar]

GREAT exampel, Liar, thank you so much! I'll have to take another look in the manual, though, to figure out how to do the vertical line. I once missed a couple of points on a test because I fialed to get that detail right.

If you used tables, there's an easy way. Make one gif image that is transparent and 1x1 pixels in size. then do this (this example is for a pink line ten pixels below the content):

<TABLE border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=10>
  <TR>
    <TD width=300>
your content goes here
    </TD>
  </TR>
  <TR>
    <TD width=300 bgcolor=FF7777>
<IMG SRC="1x1.gif" width=300 height=1>
    </TD>
  </TR>
</TABLE>

 

[Svenskaflicka]

Yes, I'm using Dreamweaver, and no, we're not doing any programming, just design. That's why none of the forms nor the little shoppingbag actually work.

Yeah, the sound is annoying. I've heard from many people that they didn't like it, so I'll remove it. Probably replace the whole Flash-file, as it doesn't really do much for the site.

But I need something to fill the empty space of the mainframe, so I'm gonna try replacing the Flash-file with an animation, to see how it looks like.

Atleast it will be quiet.

 

[Svenskaflicka]

If you used tables, there's an easy way. Make one gif image that is transparent and 1x1 pixels in size. then do this (this example is for a pink line ten pixels below the content):

<TABLE border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=10>
  <TR>
    <TD width=300>
your content goes here
    </TD>
  </TR>
  <TR>
    <TD width=300 bgcolor=FF7777>
<IMG SRC="1x1.gif" width=300 height=1>
    </TD>
  </TR>
</TABLE>

Thank you. And for the one standing up?

 

[Liar]

Thank you. And for the one standing up?

*grumble - what do they teach kids these days...*
Seriously, you can work with positioned layers, but not with basic tables? Damn, I'm feeling ancient...

Same thing, but no new row, and only 1 px in width.
(Remember, the "width=300" should be set to whichever width you want, of course.)

<TABLE border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=10>
  <TR>
    <TD width=300>
your content goes here
    </TD>
    <TD width=1 bgcolor=FF7777>
<IMG SRC="1x1.gif" width=1 height=1>
    </TD>
  </TR>
</TABLE>

 

[Svenskaflicka]

I just never done that...

Veckans Erbjudande updated, and I think it looks OK.

Thank you, Liar! *biiiiiig hug*

 

[NoJo]

My teacher told me to repair broken links before I did anything "fancy".

Frontpage 2000 does a "links" report on any web site, which can be saved in Excel. Very useful. Also incredibly simple to generate.

 

[Svenskaflicka]

I've gone the long road, and clicked on every link manually.

My poor hands..! I won't be able to masturbate for weeks!

OK, only 2 more things now: fix something for The Space On The Left, and add Alt-text for pics.

Time for lunch.

 

[Guest]

I've gone the long road, and clicked on every link manually.

My poor hands..! I won't be able to masturbate for weeks!

OK, only 2 more things now: fix something for The Space On The Left, and add Alt-text for pics.

Time for lunch.

There is one more thing I'd suggest you do (sorry, hon!). You should give each page a title. At the moment each one is called "Untitled Document". I don't know if you've been told to do this, or how to do it, but it's a simple process and doesn't take that long. It will probably also push your mark up. That kind of thing not only aids surfers and looks more professional; it also helps with search engine optimization - which every commercial (and most personal) sites want to be as good as possible.

Lou

 

[Svenskaflicka]

Well spotted, Lou.

All of these comments are great. I asked my mum for feedback too, but I think she's being too nice to me.

 

[Guest]

*Experimenting with heavy animation*

I can't tell if you got an answer to this above. The page turning is cool but too slow and uneven. I love those shoes. P.

 

[Svenskaflicka]

OK, I removed the bad animation and replaced it with a smaller, cheaper one. I've also spiced up the blue background and the logo.

All the links work, and I've decided to leave the rest as it is. Overdoing it will only destroy it.

But, honestly - are there too many stars? And what about the credits in the left space? Too much?

This is the final question, I promise!

 

[Guest]

OK, I removed the bad animation and replaced it with a smaller, cheaper one. I've also spiced up the blue background and the logo.

All the links work, and I've decided to leave the rest as it is. Overdoing it will only destroy it.

But, honestly - are there too many stars? And what about the credits in the left space? Too much?

This is the final question, I promise!

I think the stars are cool, I'd leave them. The credits on the left space are a little too much, it's not something I'd normally do. However, it is your site, and if you want them there, I'd maybe reduce the size a little. I do think that whole left-hand blue band is too wide, it would look better in proportion with the band across the top.

Oh, one more thing... the page titles.

You have done a great job with it. Must just add... my hubby just took a look and he's impressed (he knows his stuff, big time - has developed many commercial sites), and he said it looks cool. Very clean and professional looking.

Lou

 

[Svenskaflicka]

I think the stars are cool, I'd leave them. The credits on the left space are a little too much, it's not something I'd normally do. However, it is your site, and if you want them there, I'd maybe reduce the size a little. I do think that whole left-hand blue band is too wide, it would look better in proportion with the band across the top.

Oh, one more thing... the page titles.

You have done a great job with it. Must just add... my hubby just took a look and he's impressed (he knows his stuff, big time - has developed many commercial sites), and he said it looks cool. Very clean and professional looking.

Lou

How nice!

Yeah, I think I'll remove the credits - they look kinda silly. And yes, I WILL look over the other pages to see where I've forgotten to put a title to the page.

Tomorrow. After a cup of coffee.

 

[fifty5]

Excellent points. *makes notes*

I'll see what I can do, I might have to prioritize, since I only have up until Sunday midnight to finish everything. My teacher told me to repair broken links before I did anything "fancy".

Smart teacher!

I always used to praise the KISS principle to the skies. (KISS = Keep It Simple Sunshine! [used to be 'Keep It Simple Stupid!' {the Brit Marines' slogan} until one student complained...])

Do well.

f5

 

[Guest]

Smart teacher!

I always used to praise the KISS principle to the skies. (KISS = Keep It Simple Sunshine! [used to be 'Keep It Simple Stupid!' {the Brit Marines' slogan} until one student complained...])

Do well.

f5

Yep, I always follow the KISS principle, too (although it always has been, and always will be "Keep It Simple Stupid!" to me).

And, failing everything else, it's over to good old RTFM (Read The Fucking Manual!).

Lou

 

[fifty5]

*Experimenting with heavy animation*

Judged on its own merits, I like that, Svenska. Where it fits in with the rest of the site is a rather different question. My thought is that just maybe it could go in the left-hand frame (if you keep that).

However, do experiment with different browsers. On mine (Mozzilla Firebird 0.7 under Linux, hooked up with 1/2meg broadband) it started up quickly, so that was fine for me.

Of course, time permitting, the ultimate would be an animation that went through every item on the site - if it starts quickly.

Ho hum, I suspect that other things ought to have higher priority.

Go girl!

f5

 

[Svenskaflicka]

I've tried it on Mozilla, IE6, Netscape 7.0 and Netscape 4.78. I tried to install Opera, but something went wrong, so I have no idea how it looks like to Opera-folks. Maybe Perdita can tell me..?

It looks OK on IE6 and Netscape 7.0, OK on Mozilla, and I can't see it AT ALL on Netscape 4.78.

Perhaps I'll do what my ex did for his webpage, and make a little alternative page that your browser will direct you to automatically if it's too old to understand frames, Flash, DHTML, etc; and on this alternative page leave a little message saying "Time to update your browser..?", and links to suitable pages.

Preferably accompanied by a .

 

[fifty5]

RTFM

Definitely! Whenever I'm developing anything, the docs are open concurrently in another window, so [Alt]-[Tab] takes me straight there...

Fuck me, Lou - we've so much in common that you really should, "Fuck me Lou"...

More seriously, the advice and feedback here (I except my own, which boils down to riding my stable of hobby-horses) has been so positive that I'm tempted to shed anonymity and turn you lot loose on my latest effort (first go with PHP & MySQL).

In fact - on the basis of "you show me yours and I'll show you mine" - if anyone here will PM me with a real email address, I'll send you the URL.

Caveat - the site in question is almost my first-born - and she's nearly 8 now - so you'll have to be a bit gentle. Nevertheless, real constructive criticism is something that's in short supply - and would be welcome.

Luv y'all,

f5

 

[fifty5]

I've tried it on Mozilla, IE6, Netscape 7.0 and Netscape 4.78. I tried to install Opera, but something went wrong, so I have no idea how it looks like to Opera-folks. Maybe Perdita can tell me..?

It looks OK on IE6 and Netscape 7.0, OK on Mozilla, and I can't see it AT ALL on Netscape 4.78.

Perhaps I'll do what my ex did for his webpage, and make a little alternative page that your browser will direct you to automatically if it's too old to understand frames, Flash, DHTML, etc; and on this alternative page leave a little message saying "Time to update your browser..?", and links to suitable pages.

Preferably accompanied by a .

Thanks, Svenska - you reminded me that I hadn't yet installed Opera since migrating from Big Bill's monopoly to Linux. (Odd that you had problems; Opera's always installed fine for me, both under Doze and now, under Linux.)

Anyway, dun that - and the site works fine. (Opera 7.23 for Linux)

Just a thought - animate the credits too, and stick that and the 'goods' animation in the left-hand margin, leaving the main area to 'cut straight to the chase': "Vårt sortiment"? (Dunno what that means, but it works for me!)

One last question...

Why does a Lit member chose to use sexy clothing and accessories (loved the 'Underkläder'!) as the content of her student Web site? Me, I can't imagine! [ROFL]

Go girl!

f5

 

[Svenskaflicka]

DONE!

OK, I'm done. Or actually, the site is done.

I'm keeping the left space empty, with only the pretty stars for decoration. Why? Because I like the way it looks. The L-shape is a classic web layout, and it works well. Ofcourse, it's a little silly to keep an empty space just for decoration, but I've tried taking it away and it looks horrible. It stays the same size, too, because my experiments show that it looks best when the left space ends together with the end of the logo above.

I've looked at the links, and I think they're all fixed now. Atleast as far as I can see, and I've looked at them so many times that I'm getting "home-blind".

I've given the site a title, as Lou suggested.

I've decided to skip the idea of adding alt's to the pics, not because it's a bad idea, on the contrary, it's a great idea, but it's to be considered as "cosmetic changes", and I've got several hundred pics to name.

Not all pics are exactly the same size, due to sloppy cropping on my part, but I think they're good enough. Besides, I'm afraid of messing something up at this stage. I don't want to have to redo all this... [Insert favourite word for feces here]

I'm uploading the final version to my school, I'm taking the weekly homework test, and then I'm turning off the computer to go to my parents and celebrate Easter.

Thank you, each and everyone, for all your help and support. I appreciate it very much, and send tons of cyberhugs to you.

*takes a bow and exits room*