Ok So I Went Crazy - Review My Design Site

[Baz]

Thanks guys,
I'll look into that in a hour... my Vista desktop has just gone bang so I have to deal with data recovery... fun!

I will try conditional statements and look into the other link. Any other code / layout recommendations. I have run the site through a browser compatability viewer Test your web design in different browsers - Browsershots just as an initial check, but I will try and hack away with different browser settings to insure it is fairly cross browser accessible.

Cheers,
Baz

 

[davkell]

You could also maybe try increasing the line-height of the text. I reckon that'll make the text a bit easier to read - I'm finding it pretty hard on the eyes. (don't know if it's the white text with all that's going on in the background, or that I've been in front of the computer too long )

 

[Goodshape]

PNG in Internet Explorer: How to Use

Unfortunately I don't think that works when the PNG is a background image, or when it's called from the stylesheet.

Baz, as davkell was saying about the line-height, try adding -

        line-height : 1.4em;
        padding : 3px;
        padding-left : 5px;

to the 'maintextlines' class in your CSS. I think it makes things a little more readable.

 

[Baz]

Just firing accross the files now, hopefully will make a difference. I think it does seem to make everything a lot easier to read. Obviously a few formatting issues down to left div menu due to new line spacing but I will sort that out tomorrow.

The PNG issue is being worked on. I have gotten as far as knowing how to code it all out, it's just down to figuring out how to make it work in it's semi-transparent form! Fun!

Regards,
Baz

 

[gav240z]

Hi gav240z

I'll try and work out the clickable image. On my previous site it was clickable and I agree it is important, I'm just trying to figure out a way to make it work. Image maps won't be the best though... could work I suppose! I am thinking maybe a transparent GIF located in the DIV, but I will have to position it - I have plenty of time

I suggest if you have a genuine interest in website usability have a read of a book by Steve Krug.
Advanced Common Sense Home
Its called "Don't make me think". It will open your eyes to design faults on the web. Its a bit outdated but the concept is still the same.

What do you think of the transparent DIVs, good idea or not? - They are murder for W3C standards, the CSS file won't validate, as apparently CSS 3.x isn't the normal for them at the moment, oh well!

Transparency might look fancy, but I don't think it has a place on serious sites like for e-commerce or business. I think its more useful for Band, music, online folio's etc.. Another words sites where you want cool looking design, but not so much functionaility. I'm not too up to scratch on what browsers support it, but I'd say there is a good chance many are still using browsers that don't support this properly anyway.

It may help to look up some frameworks of CSS design layouts already out there. What i mean is a CSS wireframe to get you started. I understand you probably want to learn and that's great, but I learnt a great deal by examining other designs by experts.

Max Design - standards based web design, development and training is a good place to get started.

I would also recommend Jeffrey Zeldman's book's on Web Standards.
Eric Meyer's CSS books (although they are a bit stale to read, they are a good reference book).

There are plenty of CSS books out that show you how to achieve WEb 2.0 ish design. I found that reading some stuff on the web confused me more than neccessary.

That's mainly because things change so quickly and many of the tutorials on the web are several years old.

Another words buy the latest up to date books. Or read websites like A List Apart: A List Apart

Hope that helps!

 

[n3tFl0w]

Have to agree with above. Maxdesign is a great site. His light reading links are alone enough to visit it every day.

Also Eric Meyer's books are excellent. I don't find them stale at all. I also recently read a couple of sitepoint books - "The art and science of css" and "beautiful web design" and can say that these books really helped me see and (try to) build some nice websites. if nothing else they helped me build a process towards designing a site.

 

[Baz]

Thanks gav240z,

I really do want to get somewhere with it. I don't always intend to be codeing and the like but have an industry as a whole... I love IT in general (*smiles as boots partianed hard drives with vista after trying to fix the computer for four hours*).

I will have a look into those books. Transparency appears to be pretty cross compatable using the CSS method, (not valid though) but until 3.0 comes standard I think I better try the PNG method which is best when used with plenty of JS rules here and there.

I kind of do want to be the nutty one in the corner with the design side of things, I don't really graphic design myself but a few of my friends do that... generally something that will get me through college when the time comes. But I do have a genuine concern for everyone I deal with and always try my best to give them the best service I can, hence why I don't pretend I deal with things I am really bad at, I don't have a clue about adsense or anything other than viral marketing, I let the biz I apprenticed with over the holidays (4 weeks experience) last year to do that.

In conclusion I'm in for the pretty long haul, just would like to have my own small niche market. I like the bread winners, but I get just as much personal satisfaction working with bands, etc as you suggested for little financial reward, that doesn't mean I don't try to run what I have as professionally as I know how - I'd much rather to recommend a potential client to go to someone with the right knowledge than make a total hash of things for them.

Idealistic aren't I!