Review my personal site, please?

[WorldBuilder]

Hi all,

It's not done yet, but I've built myself a little website. At this point, the main thing I need is for people to visit it and just let me know if everything's working.

I've tested it extensively, and I think it's good to go, but I want to make sure.

If anything looks out of whack, please let me know, as well as what screen size you have, resolution, browser, and all the usual crap.

http://www.ChrisBartlett.net

Oh, and all comments & critiques are welcome!

Chris

 

[Vitnir]

On the technical side I think the jpg-compression has been unkind to you top banner, you might want to redo it with some vector program instead. And I noticed one of the quotes didnt have an author.
I like the overall design of the site.

 

[MRC_Hans]

Quite nice, although the readability of a red font on a dark background is below par.

I think the main problem is, what is the PURPOSE of your site? What is your message? There are 20 million (or something like that) websites out there. You need to have an obvious message if you want anybody to give yours more that a quick glance before they zap on.

Hans

 

[WorldBuilder]

On the technical side I think the jpg-compression has been unkind to you top banner, you might want to redo it with some vector program instead.

Agreed. I'm actually working on it. I know what you mean. Lots of artifacts there...

And I noticed one of the quotes didnt have an author.

Several of them do.

I like the overall design of the site.

Thanks.

Chris

 

[WorldBuilder]

Quite nice, although the readability of a red font on a dark background is below par.

I've heard this from a great many people. Changing it soon.

I think the main problem is, what is the PURPOSE of your site? What is your message? There are 20 million (or something like that) websites out there. You need to have an obvious message if you want anybody to give yours more that a quick glance before they zap on.

Hans

Understood. Well, it's just a personal site, nothing major. Tutorials, and some other things are coming, but for the most part, it's just meant to be there so friends and family can keep up with what I'm doing. It's certainly not meant to be Yahoo!

ATM, the main thing is for it to help me get a job! Eventually, it'll also be a place to display all my photography, but content's lacking there now.

Right now, I'm mainly concerned with the functionality being ok.

Thanks,

Chris

 

[MRC_Hans]

Well, that is a perfectly legitimate purpose, of course. That and learning website design. Yours is certainly far, far better than many out there.

I started in the same way, with just me and my hobbies, and had 3 hits on a good month . Well, it shouldn't matter, but somehow when you know half the world is passing by, you want some of them to at least have a look.

Oh, and good luck with job-hunting. What trade are you in?

Hans

 

[mummymonkey]

The buttons along the top look like text entry boxes and red on green is just yeuch! Much better than the majority of personal web spaces though.

 

[Vitnir]

I made mine using a template in Frontpage (no blushing smilie?) and for the same reasons, fun and to see if google would ever find me but also in the unlikely event if someone would be interested in my PhD thesis. I got my picture with Randi there

 

[WorldBuilder]

Well, that is a perfectly legitimate purpose, of course. That and learning website design. Yours is certainly far, far better than many out there.

Thanks!

I started in the same way, with just me and my hobbies, and had 3 hits on a good month . Well, it shouldn't matter, but somehow when you know half the world is passing by, you want some of them to at least have a look.

True enough. More content coming soon.

Oh, and good luck with job-hunting. What trade are you in?

Hans

IT in general. Network Administrator in a few years, but for now I'll take pretty much anything in computers.

Chris

 

[WorldBuilder]

The buttons along the top look like text entry boxes and red on green is just yeuch! Much better than the majority of personal web spaces though.

Agreed, and thanks!

Chris

 

[MRC_Hans]

The buttons along the top look like text entry boxes and red on green is just yeuch! Much better than the majority of personal web spaces though.

Buttons with mouse-over effects are fun to play with, just don't overdo it. Actually I like the metal strip look in the navigation bar (look at my site, which has an update long overdue to see why, heheh) (here)

Hans

 

[WorldBuilder]

Ok, based on suggestions from communities all over the web, I've made some changes.

Several people didn't like the FF logo as it was (square with a white BG). I've now changed it so that it is integrated seamlessly into the gray BG. Better?

Several people said that the Google search field was too large and overlapped to the right on certain resolutions. I resized it. Better now?

Nearly everyone hated the old RED text because it was hazy and hard to read against the gradient BG. I changed all the text to white and increased line-height so it's a little less cramped. Better now?

Still working on other things, but what's the verdict in the meantime?

ChrisBartlett.net

Thanks, everyone! This has been invaluable.

Chris

 

[Yahweh]

On the technical side I think the jpg-compression has been unkind to you top banner, you might want to redo it with some vector program instead.

It would probably be easier to make the image a GIF with a transparent background (or, if he wants the image to blend with the background slightly smoother, he can use a PNG with several alpha settings).

 

[WorldBuilder]

It would probably be easier to make the image a GIF with a transparent background (or, if he wants the image to blend with the background slightly smoother, he can use a PNG with several alpha settings).

Workin' on it, fellas!

Chris

 

[DrMatt]

There are basically two choices.

1. Almost-white text on a nearly-black background. Or
2. Almost black text on a nearly white background.
   [/list=1]
   
   Middling text on a greyish background doesn't cut it.
   
   Try loading your site from a modem. Check whether you're satisfied with its behavior.
   
   Also load all your pages using text-only Lynx--that's how blind users will get access to your site. Make sure the title of every link is descriptive--stuff of the form "please click here to read about my really interesting experience" will be presented to blind surfers as the word "here" out of context.

 

[WorldBuilder]

There are basically two choices.

1. Almost-white text on a nearly-black background. Or
2. Almost black text on a nearly white background.
   [/list=1]
   
   Middling text on a greyish background doesn't cut it.

1. 
   Agreed. I'm working on a new BG and that will allow me to further play with text to make it more visually effective.
   
   

   Try loading your site from a modem. Check whether you're satisfied with its behavior.

   Don't have a 56k handy personally, but my neighbor does and I will check it later. I feel compelled to say that my site is so optimized it's ridiculous. Everything is CSS-driven, most images are preloaded. The main page will certainly take a while on a slow connection, but after that, it should run like **** through a goose.
   
   

   Also load all your pages using text-only Lynx--that's how blind users will get access to your site. Make sure the title of every link is descriptive--stuff of the form "please click here to read about my really interesting experience" will be presented to blind surfers as the word "here" out of context.

   Understood. Actually, if you'll take notice, the main page validates to WCAG standards. Hell, it validates to LEVEL 3. The other pages will soon follow, just have to add the code. I'm pretty proud of this.
   
   Thanks for your comments!
   
   Chris

 

[Anti_Hypeman]

Personally I hate email forms just put your email address under contact.

If this is a measure to protect you from spam harvesters it wont do any good since you have your email on the HTML resume.

 

[Paul C. Anagnostopoulos]

The red type on the red screen would be aided by making it bold. It's just too spindly.

The white type on the green background is tough to take, but would be improved by making it a bit bigger. I like the tall cap at the beginning of each paragraph.

Click on Weekly Poll and then move the mouse up and down over the menu items. Epileptical.

What's up with the links turning blue as I move the mouse near them?

~~ Paul

 

[WorldBuilder]

You guys obviously haven't seem the NEW design! LOL

New thread here: http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=59932

Chris