Website Review and Suggestions

**johnnyz525** · 08-08-2009, 08:04 PM

Hi Everyone,

I am brand new to this forum, but from the looks of things people seem to be very honest and approachable.

I need some feedback on my sites usability and overall appearance, colors, fonts, navigation, bugs....any feedback is welcome...

It displays different in Chrome/Safari, IE and Firefox for the rounded boxes, but let me know if you have any specific issues....

Thanks

Archetype Interactive Media

Cheers!

**TWD** · 08-08-2009, 10:47 PM

The written content sounds very long winded.
What you should do is count how many words you have on each page,
halve that number, then re-write it to within that limit.

Also I felt lost within the navigation or your site.
There is no HOME link

**johnnyz525** · 08-08-2009, 11:51 PM

I actually have the logo linked to the home page with ALT text and a Title tag but true I do not have a text link....good suggestion..I think I will put it at the top right with the other text links for "Request a Quote" and "Contact Us".

I was trying to be different than all the standard site links but I guess that is confusing to users.

Also agree about the content, I am more of a designer and developer then a writer, I was thinking of finding and using a good SEO copy service as an option for my clients but I have not found one that is both affordable and quality...suggestions on that would be great if you know of any....

Thanks for the input!

**TWD** · 02:29 AM

Re: Home Link

A convention is a terrible thing to waste.
You should leverage web user conventions...not
try to create new ones.

And most users expect to see a HOME button
somewhere on the page.
Its just like when you walk into a new building
if you somehow "loose" the way back to the
front door, how does it make you feel?

Not everybody will realize the logo is clickable
or where it takes them.

I will send you a private message with some ideas about copy writing.

**LadynRed** · 08-09-2009, 11:23 AM

Ok, here's my 2 cents;

One of the first things I noticed is the top section "Creative Web Design" - it's an image - why? First of all, there's no reason for that to be an image, and secondly, it's inaccessible to search engines and people using assistive technology. As an aside, you have typos in your text, which tarnishes your professional message.

I think the text is a bit small to be easily readable, many people will have to make it larger to read it.

You might want to have someone go thru your text and edit for punctuation, spelling, and grammar, you've got a number of run-on sentences, misplaced or missing punctuation, mis-spellings and grammar problems.

Layout is good, as is the color scheme.

In your code, I see an awful lot of absolute positioning, generally not a good idea, and mostly unnecessary. It WILL cause problems with IE6 and 7.

**johnnyz525** · 08-09-2009, 11:40 AM

LadynRed,

Thanks for the comments,

In regards to the images used for the text, I want to use a specific font type that I know will not be available on most users systems, I used title and alt tags to replace the lack of actual text. Should I possibly make the entire alt text the text that is embedded on the image? Other than using flash to embed the font I know of no other way to get the desired font.

I agree about the content having issues, I am more of a designer and developer than a writer, I am in the process of getting a reliable copy service to add that aspect.

As far as the absolute positioning, I have tested it in both IE 6 and 7 and have not seen any issues with the output. Is there a specific bug that you are getting? As far as IE 6 the lack of support for PNG images makes me not care so much about that particular browser. I use Sitegrinder to cut my PSD files then tweak the code for CSS as needed. It streamlines the turnaround time for projects. I tend to use absolute in the upper areas of the page where content will not be expanding to fit.

Thanks for the input!

**johnnyz525** · 08-09-2009, 02:04 PM

I changed the image text to actual text per your suggestions...I agree that it should be that way for SEO and Accessibility purposes.

**LadynRed** · 08-09-2009, 04:01 PM

Quote:

Other than using flash to embed the font I know of no other way to get the desired font.

You might want to look into sIFR - a flash method of text-replacement, best used for small amounts of text, but it works like a charm for ANY font you want to use.

IE7 still retains the 'stacking order' bugs that it's predecessors had when it comes to a lot of positioning. I find it much easier to 'go with the flow' - the DOCUMENT flow that is, as much as possible and only use positioning where it's really needed for something I'm trying to accomplish.

Quote:

I tend to use absolute in the upper areas of the page where content will not be expanding to fit.

Do you mean that the box isn't expanding to fit, or that you will NEVER put anything in the box that will be longer than what you defined ??

**TWD** · 08-09-2009, 09:37 PM

LIR
I've always been curious about using sIFR but it seemed like more trouble than it's worth.

I found this site which might be an easy alternative.
Haven't tried it yet but it looks promising.

http://www.sifrgenerator.com/

**johnnyz525** · 08-09-2009, 10:17 PM

That sIRF generator site is pretty sweet. I think I am going to play around with it a bit, seems easy enough to install the scripts etc.....Thanks!

**johnnyz525** · 08-10-2009, 01:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LadynRed

You might want to look into sIFR - a flash method of text-replacement, best used for small amounts of text, but it works like a charm for ANY font you want to use.

IE7 still retains the 'stacking order' bugs that it's predecessors had when it comes to a lot of positioning. I find it much easier to 'go with the flow' - the DOCUMENT flow that is, as much as possible and only use positioning where it's really needed for something I'm trying to accomplish.

Do you mean that the box isn't expanding to fit, or that you will NEVER put anything in the box that will be longer than what you defined ??

I mean that I will NEVER put content that will go outside of the absolute elements I defined in the in the DIV...I do use relative positioning but only when it does not have an impact on the layout of the page....if I need an area to be relative or expanding then I place it accordingly.

Anyway you can place an absolute element inside any container and it is relative to the container, so I'm not sure what you mean by go with the flow?

**johnnyz525** · 02:14 PM

Thanks for all the feedback everyone

**fansite** · 08-10-2009, 04:53 AM

That's good layout but I think for better if you have any 2-3 picture inside.