Some Pro-Bono work.. watcha think?

[BrettNooyen]

http://www.poochproject.com

Smart combination of CSS and Tables to give the client exactly what they wanted, as well as a PHP backend and Administrative side to control donations. Use of Flash where appropriate.

And yes, nothing is broken, the margin is there on the bottom for a reason.

[BrettNooyen]

Note: I'm ignore the W3C invalidation for our flash at moment, as well as the invalid JS.

[skilled1]

reallly sleek design, however why is there soo much dead space down at the bottom of the page, where there is no content down there?

and at the bottom where you sign it P.O.O.C.H. Project I think you should make an image to go with the origional logo you created up at the top to round the page out.

[Mania]

Just out of interest.. what is a K-9 unit? I suspected from the text it is a special trained dog or something. Also I did not get what was meant by entering your bone info? Looks ok otherwise. Oh and please do tell what is the reason behind the bottom margin.. :)

[BrettNooyen]

The reason for the bottom margin is... innovation.

It keeps the visitor's eyes in the middle of the page, so they can keep scrolling down and never have to move their eyes towards the bottom of the page.

[skilled1]

The reason for the bottom margin is... innovation.

It keeps the visitor's eyes in the middle of the page, so they can keep scrolling down and never have to move their eyes towards the bottom of the page.

there is no need for this, it will just confuse the people that will visit your site. the stark contrast with the color on the side and the background color of the center area is what keeps the user's eyes where you want them.

[BrettNooyen]

there is no need for this, it will just confuse the people that will visit your site. the stark contrast with the color on the side and the background color of the center area is what keeps the user's eyes where you want them.

I disagree wholehearteadly :)

[KDLA]

Too much blank space at the bottom. The scrollbar makes me naturally look to see what's at the bottom of the page. It doesn't keep my eye in the "center." I get suckered into scrolling to the bottom.

NICE GRAPHICS! You might add one color, besides red and black. It's a little Goth right now. Maybe "P.O.O.C.H." could be something other than black - blue? It would make it stand out from the subtitle and dog, too.

Lastly, you might change one of the text phrases at the top of the page, possibly the "Canine Fundraising" section, from all caps to regular case. The overload of all caps text at the top, makes the page not only top heavy, but difficult to scan quickly.

Good Luck!
KDLA

[BrettNooyen]

And yes, nothing is broken, the margin is there on the bottom for a reason.

I must stress this again, we do this on all of our websites, and will continue to do so. We have our reasons for doing so, and have researched them. :)

Thank you all for your reviews!

[EOBeav]

I must stress this again, we do this on all of our websites, and will continue to do so. We have our reasons for doing so, and have researched them. :)

Thank you all for your reviews!

I'd just be curious as to what those reasons are. Your general layout is really nice, though.

[Launchnet]

I use two 15" screens so I can see what the page looks like in 800 X 600 and also in 1024 X 768.

I personally think you can eliminate the vertical scrolling by slightly modifying the bottom of your text and bringing up the bottom border. This will work for 1024 X 768.

For 800 X 600 viewers, a very slight reduction on the right keeps them from having to horizontal scroll. No one likes to scroll horizontally. Yes, they would still have to scroll vertically.

I agree that a little added color would be good around the area of the P.O.O.C.H. Project.

[JayM]

It keeps the visitor's eyes in the middle of the page, so they can keep scrolling down and never have to move their eyes towards the bottom of the page.

I know you have been bothered with this subject with quite a few posts, but I feel intrigued to voice my opinion as well :p. Are humans really that lazy? We move our eyes 1000's of times a day all over the place. Is looking down at the bottom of a webpage going to cause any discomfort? I highly doubt it. I'm curious to know what kind of research has been done.

Well designed website.

[Launchnet]

In answer to my discussion, I worked a good number of years designing front ends for databases. I also did alot of work automating Excel spreadsheets while dealing with people and their learning ability and habits.

Yes, people are lazy when it comes to reading and using computer screens. I found that people did much better work on the computer when they did not have to jump around or move screens.

I've also done a lot of training of people in Excel and Access front-ends and in the area of usage, I feel very confident in the average person's computer usage.

We have to remember that programmers are another breed of people and they use many things and have many ideas that the average computer does not use or have. I am not knocking programmers. To some extent I guess I also qualify as a programmer, but I have always tried to watch the eyes of my targets so I know what they are thinking. Maybe another explaination would be: I am a very good listener.

[JPnyc]

None of your links have a hover state. That's kind of an unofficial standard.

[BrettNooyen]

I know you have been bothered with this subject with quite a few posts, but I feel intrigued to voice my opinion as well :p. Are humans really that lazy? We move our eyes 1000's of times a day all over the place. Is looking down at the bottom of a webpage going to cause any discomfort? I highly doubt it. I'm curious to know what kind of research has been done.

Well designed website.

Research as in client base, as well as other on-line opinions.

Whatever small things we can do to make the visitor remember our websites from the rest, we try to implement. For instance, you know all will remember this site a little more than others, just due to our varying opinions.

[BrettNooyen]

None of your links have a hover state. That's kind of an unofficial standard.

Not quite feeling what you mean there. In FF, at least, we have borders coming and going as well as a color change. Do you mean the top navigational links or all standard hyperlinks?

[JPnyc]

The top and bottom navs have no hover state. Those in the middle of the page do.

[pungkerton]

i have no idea why people are actually "offended" by the bottom margin... when i code, i consistently leave myself carriage returns on the bottom of the window so i can keep my eye in the middle of the screen. Microsoft Word is designed to keep the text in the middle of the screen when typing... therefore, other research has apparently proven that visitors like to look the the middle of the screen for content.