[thelist] Site critique, please?

[Charles Johnson]

"mccreath" <mccreath at ak.net> wrote:

> Hi, Charles --
> 
> Looks good! I noticed a couple of things:
> 
> NN 4.08/W2K --
> 
> 1) On the homepage, the liquid cell of the "Welcome", "Surf Report", etc.
> tables isn't displaying anything. I assume that's one of the background
> problems that you mention below.
> 
> 2) The left hand menu doesn't display the background image on the homepage.
> You could specify that in hex; it's a solid color.

Looks like we flushed the mystery bug out of hiding again! Have you tried
with a more recent version of Netscape? 4.08 is pretty out of date, I think.

I assume point 2 is referring to the same problem. This is very frustrating,
since I can't personally reproduce it, and not everyone sees it. So far I
haven't identified any pattern to it, either. The images are simple GIFs,
and the code is very simple too; until I gather more data I still don't know
what to do about it.

> 3) The links at the bottom of the pages do that squinchy, impossible to read
> thing. They look okay in IE, and none of the other text does it...maybe just
> bump it up a px.

Hmm. Do the 'Quick Forum Links' on the left navbar also look too small? They
use a different font but I think it's the same pixel size.

> In general --
> 
> 1) Put a link in that bottom menu back to the home page.
> 
> 2) I'd personally like to see a link to the home page up  closer to the top
> of the page. I *always* look in the upper left for a link home, then start
> scanning down and across. Took me a few seconds to recognize the home link
> in the breadcrumb trail.
> 
> 3) Make the breadcrumb trail less prominent. It's a tool, not content. :)
> I'd remove it from the table it's in, change the link colors to the normal
> link colors and just let it float above all the content. That would close up
> the gap between the top bar and the content table.

Agreed, more links back to the home page are needed! About the table
containing the breadcrumbs -- you know, I originally tried doing exactly
what you suggested. But it just didn't look balanced with the breadcrumb
trail text floating all footloose and fancy-free up there.

> Good job!
> 
> David

Thanks very much, David, I appreciate the critique! I wish I could get a
handle on the missing background problem.

Charles F. Johnson
Little Green Footballs Web Design
http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com