Site Review

[tylivia]

I just finished a website for a new client. Please visit and review. All comments and constructive criticism is welcome.

www.centralcreditaudit.com

Thanks in advance,

Har

[NogDog]

There's a bit of a discrepancy between how FF and IE6 display the border just below the header graphic. IE shows a dashed line just below the graphic, FF appears to have the bottom of the graphic overlap on top of the line.

[KDLA]

Please correct your spelling of "Welcome."

The "CA" logo is quite pixelated. The cropping also isn't quite tight enough. There are lots of little white pixels edging the red.

The gif for the "American Collectors Assocation" image is quite fuzzy. You might have over-optimized that.

KDLA

[bajanboost]

The banner seems to be overlapping the header line. The logo looks pixelated. The ACAI banner to the left is also pixelated. The copyright should spawn accross the bottom like a real footer (personal prefference).

The site is nice overall. I like the color scheme.

[tylivia]

Please correct your spelling of "Welcome."

KDLA

OMG...talk about subliminal gloss!!! Fixed...thank you. I even run spell check...I guess I started it after the <h1>.

The "CA" logo is quite pixelated. The cropping also isn't quite tight enough. There are lots of little white pixels edging the red.

I will edit that.

The gif for the "American Collectors Assocation" image is quite fuzzy. You might have over-optimized that.

On the wider screens it didn't look too bad, but on the lower 600 X 400 and 800 X 600 it did look fuzzy> I will re-optimize that as well.

The banner seems to be overlapping the header line.

How can I fix this, because I have noticed that too in FF. With every other browser, it looked fine. I checked and rechecked the code and can't figure out how to fix....would nesting another <div> inside the current one fix that? Would that be valid?

Thanks all for taking the time to check things out so far. All coments were helpful and the problems wll be fixed.

Har

[KDLA]

Fuzzy gif - I'm using a 1024x768 res. -- not exactly a low resolution.

[thewebman]

I agree with KDLA, the gif was fuzzy on my 1024x768 screen also. the only things that I would add to what's already been said are:

1. Make the header the same width as the lines above and below it.
2. Remove the line at the very bottom of the page.
3. Validate (http://validator.w3.org/check?verbose=1&uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.centralcreditaudit.com%2Femail_directory.html)

[tylivia]

I fixed the edges on the logo; Changed the width of the header container to match the header image; also re-optimized the ACAI banner.

How does it look now?

Thanks for the critique.

[KDLA]

They look OK. (They look a little homemade - the "erasing" isn't very smooth.) A smooth anti-alias might help them not look quite so jagged.

Good Luck -
KDLA

[thewebman]

looks much much much better. the C in your logo has a very thin line around the edges still, like KDLA said. just don't forget to validate.

[tylivia]

They look OK. (They look a little homemade - the "erasing" isn't very smooth.) A smooth anti-alias might help them not look quite so jagged.

Good Luck -
KDLA

I can only do so much with the logo. Unfortunately, this was what they sent and pretty much the best logo they could muster-up to send to me.

The ACAI logo was sent to me as well. I actually went to the site to look for a better one, and could not find one. I'm guessing this logo is outdated.

I'm surprised that it still looks jagged. I'll try again. I even used the "blur" tool around the edges and added the drop shadow to try and hide it as well. It also is already smooth aliased...believe me, I use this stuff often...most of the time with success, when cutting out images. This one has been difficult due to the poor quality of the original images.

Maybe I'll try a smooth bevel, but I'm not sure if the client will be nuts about it.

Thanks again for checking this out for me.

To thewebman:

Also, I checked the validation, and almost all of the errors seem to be errors. Try looking at the error comments...than look at the code...and it makes no sense. I only saw 2 valid errors out of the 15 that is states it caught using the "Validate HTML" link from firefox (goes to W3C).

I got it down to 10 errors..but the alleged errors that are there, I actually need, as is, for the page to view correctly

I'm not sure...maybe I am missing something!

Any thoughts?

[Bamm Bamm]

I just finished a website for a new client. Please visit and review. All comments and constructive criticism is welcome.

www.centralcreditaudit.com

Thanks in advance,

Har

Not bad, Har. Except for one thing:

Your http://www.centralcreditaudit.com/credit_card.html page appears to be altogether insecure. This is entirely unacceptable.


Work on it.


Respectfully,

Bamm


:)

[Bamm Bamm]

After further investigation of your site, it looks like https://www.usaepay.com/interface/epayform/ and https://www.secureach.com/secureach/atibin/PayByCheckWindow.cfm? are obviously secure, but some sort of reassurance would by nice. Maybe you could put something to that effect in your footer.

Also, your main page banner photo looks like the output of an old dot-matrix printer. Is this a scanned photo? Sometimes, my old scanner produces images with horizontal artifacts, much like what I’m seeing in your banner.


As far as the CA graphic goes, tell the client that your buddies at WebDeveloper.com all agree that they should float you a little more cash so that you yourself can redo their apparently substandard logo.


: )

[tylivia]

After further investigation of your site, it looks like https://www.usaepay.com/interface/epayform/ and https://www.secureach.com/secureach/atibin/PayByCheckWindow.cfm? are obviously secure, but some sort of reassurance would by nice. Maybe you could put something to that effect in your footer.

Also, your main page banner photo looks like the output of an old dot-matrix printer. Is this a scanned photo? Sometimes, my old scanner produces images with horizontal artifacts, much like what I’m seeing in your banner.


As far as the CA graphic goes, tell the client that your buddies at WebDeveloper.com all agree that they should float you a little more cash so that you yourself can redo their apparently substandard logo.


: )


Yes...you are absoulutely correct!!!! The header and logo were both given to me to use. I absolutely hate it!! But, as we all know, the customer is always right. I have already sent them an email yesterday about the comments made here. In fact, I refer all clients to this forum for additional un-biased comments about their sites. 99.9% of the time, it works! In fact, I perform usablilty testing at the client's POB and I usually get some defensiveness when they get the results. It seems that when I send them here, they seem to treat it as a more valid argument.

As far as the secure site, yes it does re-direct. This was something else that I mentoned to them. I told them that they needed a secure certifictate on the site and explained why. They insisted on having it integrated into their own template and then re-direct to the secure server. So I simply used a minimal form that would fill in and re-direct to the secure site to satisfy them.

You know, the thing that bothers me most, is that even though I have all of the certificates, degree, and knowledge in this business, you will always have the Uber Type A client that insists on having things his way...know matter what you suggest.

I appreciate all of you who have critiqued this site. IT was all very helpful and hopefully to my client as well.

Har

[tylivia]

After further investigation of your site, it looks like https://www.usaepay.com/interface/epayform/ and https://www.secureach.com/secureach/atibin/PayByCheckWindow.cfm? are obviously secure, but some sort of reassurance would by nice. Maybe you could put something to that effect in your footer.

Also, your main page banner photo looks like the output of an old dot-matrix printer. Is this a scanned photo? Sometimes, my old scanner produces images with horizontal artifacts, much like what I’m seeing in your banner.


As far as the CA graphic goes, tell the client that your buddies at WebDeveloper.com all agree that they should float you a little more cash so that you yourself can redo their apparently substandard logo.


: )

Good idea. Will be fixed tonite!

Thanks,

Har

[KDLA]

Have you thought of tracing around the images, to create a smooth line? Might help.

KDLA

[tylivia]

Have you thought of tracing around the images, to create a smooth line? Might help.

KDLA


Do you mean something like feathering them just slightly, or blurring them. I already tried to use the blur tool, only slightly though, so as to not make it look like I tampered too much with their logo.

[KDLA]

No, I mean drawing a line to the contour of the image as an overlay, i.e., the new line becomes the edge. (It also hides the jagged original edge.)

[tylivia]

I'll try it.

Thanks,

Har