JamesDimick.com

[Jick]

Wow! When was the last time I posted something of my own in this forum? :p

Anyway, I know I'm just asking for a bunch more work by submitting my new design here but I think it's worth it to get some useful (hopefully) feedback. I know it's probably not the most spectacular design in the world but I did my best. Please let me know what you think of it. Are there any errors? Suggestions? Comments? Etc? Thanks for your input and time. :)

Oh, also, have a look at my latest blog post (http://www.jamesdimick.com/thoughts/once-more/) if you're wondering why it doesn't work in IE and why it looks a little off in Opera and Safari. ;)

Again, thanks for your feedback. :)

[dtm32236]

i think it's a really nice design.

easy on the eyes, good color scheme, easily navigated, no errors.... good job with it.

[Jick]

Thanks for the feedback! I really appreciate it. :)

[Warblade]

James,

I love the design. It just flows and looks very professional. However, one thing I have found is that ALL of your links go to seperate websites in the SAME window. Maybe for ease of use, I'd recommend changing the target attribute to show up in a new window. Just a thought. Other than that, flawless.

[Jick]

Yes, I see what you're saying. I want to do that, it's just that I'm using XHTML 1.1 Strict and it doesn't support the target="_blank" attribute. I've been searching for a good alternative but there just doesn't really seem to be any good ones. I'm looking at a JavaScript solution right now though.

[roondog]

Javascript solution is

<a href="somepage.html" onclick="window.open (this.href, ' '); return false">Link</a>

[Jick]

Thanks for that. But I'm looking for a more automated script. Something that will scan through the page and automatically add that to links. Because I use WordPress so some external links I don't have access to add that to.

[dtm32236]

I like this script:

JS:
function externalLinks()
{
if (!document.getElementsByTagName) return;
var anchors = document.getElementsByTagName("a");
for (var i=0; i<anchors.length; i++) {
var anchor = anchors[i];
if (anchor.getAttribute("href") &&
anchor.getAttribute("rel") == "external" ||
anchor.getAttribute("rel") == "external nofollow"
)
anchor.target = "_blank";
}
}
window.onload = externalLinks;

<a href="site.html" rel="external">site</a>

it works perfectly - even if JS is disabled, and it still acts as an anchor link.

[Jick]

Thanks! That does work. Now I just need to figure out how to target links that have more than just "external" for the rel attribute. Like, for example, some of my links might have something like rel="external friend" or something to that effect. But there are several different possibilities. So maybe some sort of regex to see if it has "external" in it and just disregard the fact that it might also have other values. But unfortunately I'm no JS expert so I'll have to do some searching. Thanks again for that though. :)

[dtm32236]

I'm no expert either, I'm not gonna be much a help.

but maybe you can have a third rel that would do both or something.... like rel="friend_newwindow" you know?

i dont really know though.

[Jick]

Hey guys, I'm bringing this back because I want a re-review. I changed a few little things so I want to see if people still like it. The biggest change is I replaced the flash titles with static images to reduce the size/load of the overall site.

Anyway, any feedback would be greatly appreciated. :)

[yamaharuss]

The light fonts on the light gray background hurts my eyes after reading a sentence or two. I don't have bad eyes but I can see how someone who did would have a hard time. Like most media, dark font on light background is always clearer and easier reading.

Other than that I like the design. Nice and clean

[Jick]

So what are you suggesting? I should make the text brighter? Or what?

Thanks for the feedback. :)

[yamaharuss]

So what are you suggesting? I should make the text brighter? Or what?

Thanks for the feedback. :)

It's up to you. Maybe get more feedback, but if it was me, I would use a lighter gray background for the text , maybe with rounded corners, then use black fonts. That would read much much better.

Something like this...

http://www.internetdesignconcepts.com/code-testing/dimick.jpg

[dtm32236]

i think it looks fine - i see what yamaharuss is saying about the gray font on a dark background - maybe the text could be a little lighter - but to me, it looks fine as is.

[Jick]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I'll take it into consideration. ;)