[thelist] Re: thelist Digest, Vol 10, Issue 25

Diane Soini dianesoini at earthlink.net
Fri Dec 12 20:50:20 CST 2003


Oh my gawd. Ok, here's my $.02.
On Friday, December 12, 2003, at 01:29 AM, 
thelist-request at lists.evolt.org wrote:

> 1. Functionality
Applet doesn't work. I only see half a graphic. What is it? A blank 
white wall? It is causing a memory problem for my browser.

> 2. Usability
Is there navigation? That animated gif isn't a button. I'd guess the 
nav would be in the top frame, but it's not, or in the left side, but 
it's not.

I keep trying to scroll down to the bottom to find the navigation, but 
the applet is crashing my browser or something. Spinning beachball.

Where's the navigation? I tried clicking all the colored text and 
images on the page but it's not nagivation. I give up. I guess there is 
only one page.
> 3. Accessibility
Without navigation it's not very accessible. Oh hey! I just found the 
navigation! I had to select the text in the top frame and force it to 
scroll down. I might not have seen that if I hadn't noticed that the 
address in the top left was cut off at the bottom.
> 4. Aesthetics
Scrolling status bar: eww.

Frames for no particular reason: eww. (oh, yeah, it has the nagivation. 
That's why frames. But I think he got the target name for the links 
wrong. They keep popping new windows. Maybe he just doesn't understand 
frames?)

Top frame is taking up way too much space with nothing.

Animated gif: eww. I know of only one commercial web site where 
animated gifs are excusable. It's that web site that sells the parrot 
diapers. If you are going to do something that quirky you might as well 
go for the rainbow flashy graphics jumping all over the place. But 
maybe not for this type of commercial venture.

Applet loaded on my cable modem in about a minute. At first I thought 
it was a stolen Apple Java graphic of a coffeecup. It's so tiny why 
bother? It says FAST!! underneath in red. Why? I clicked a button on 
the applet and all I got was the spinning beachball cursor. That's not 
fast to me.

> 5. Miscellaneous
The tenant info page looks pretty good. But it doesn't match the other 
styles and it has missing graphics.

I actually like that background image in the top frame. It kind of 
reminds me of Kathmandu. But I wouldn't use it for this web site, or I 
wouldn't use it this way.

Well, obviously it is very badly done, but I'd let him go ahead with 
it. Everybody has to start somewhere. I think he's just really proud of 
himself for making a web site. But when he doesn't make any money he'll 
come to his senses.



More information about the thelist mailing list