please review my site

[gecko91]

Hi, just finished redesigning my photoblog, Claroscuro of Guatemala (http://cloudforestconservation.org/claroscurov2/). Hope someone has a little time to tell me what they think.

Thanks,

gecko

[SimonRoskrow]

It's good looking, but I'm not really sure what I'm look at! I can see two (very nice) photos, and, if I click on the thumbnails, I can switch between the two (the scroll arrows at the sides don't seem to do anything). If I click on the main picture, I get a comment box appearing.

Clicking on the picture of the group (when it is displayed large), I can then scroll through many more pictures. If I click on the picture of a person holding a "webpage" (you?!) I can then no longer scroll to any other pictures at all.

Hope that helps...I know it's not good news, but your site has the potential to be stunning once the glitches are sorted out.

Thanks, Simon.

[gecko91]

Ok, thanks. This really helps. The index page lists the posts, and the big pictures lead you to the actual posts where you can leave comments. I realize that I won't be able to explain this to everyone visiting the site, so I have to make this obvious on the site. Again, thank you.

gecko

[lukaz]

In right arrow is below the white image container when I browse in firefox, it looks like it should be on the right hand side within the container.

Its nice to see someone developing in xhtml strict, however your site does not validate, missing things needed such as alt elements for img's.

But +1 for deciding to use xhtml strict

[gecko91]

I added the alt elements on the imgs and some other stuff that was missing. So the index validates. I fixed some other things on the post page (http://cloudforestconservation.org/claroscurov2/post.php?post=Biotopo%20del%20Quetzal) but I not getting it to validate because of the form? Here's the link: Validator (http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fcloudforestconservation.org%2Fclaroscurov2%2Fpost.php%3Fpost%3DBiotopo%2520de l%2520Quetzal&charset=%28detect+automatically%29&doctype=Inline&group=0&user-agent=W3C_Validator%2F1.654)

Thanks,

gecko

[gecko91]

I added the navigation at the top of the photo, I think that helps understanding the structure of the site. Or tell me if it doesn't.

Thanks,

gecko

[lukaz]

Hey Gecko
2 things for your form, you need to contain the form in fieldset tags

<form action="" method="">
<fieldset>
<!-- inputs -->
</fieldset>
</form>

Also please dont use spans for field labels, instead use the label tags.

<label for="input1">Input one required</label>
<input type="" id="input1" />

[lukaz]

Just a couple of other things, Your form says required for name and email but i just put a quick test in the comment field only and it posted. So you need some validation, preferably php as its much harder to circumvent than JS. Also its hard to navigate back to the image gallery once you have selected an image to comment on, and finaly maybe i missed where you wrote this but the arrow navigation for the image gallery still doesnt work, I'm using firefox to view it.
Luke

[gecko91]

Perfect, thanks. Fixed the form problem so now my site validates to xhtml 1.0 strict. So that's good. And I added form validation with php, I dare you to try to break it :) The arrow navigation on the index page is the same as the post page, is the thumbs do not fit in the visible space it allows scrolling. So you're right, it doesn't scroll, but that is how it should be.. I think. Thanks for taking time to do this, it's really helpful.

gecko

[lukaz]

Fatal error: Call to undefined function ↪checkdnsrr() in /home/cloudfor/public_html/claroscurov2/post.php on line 93

I dare you to try to break it :)

entering example@example.com

I guess you copied the email validation from a site, you need to remove the hard return character ↪

Also your form does not retain the infomation i write in it if i make a mistake and submit. Imagine I wrote 100 words in the description and forgot to put .com on the end of my email, the form would say put in a valid email and I would have to enter all 100 words again. :(

Also your validation only tells me my first mistake. So if i dont put in a name or email, it will only tell me i forgot a name. You could do with a full list of mistakes for me to enter.

Luke

[gecko91]

I guess you copied the email validation from a site
Of course, no need to reinvent the wheel. I added the form information that was submitted and fixed the other error. Thanks.
Design-wise how is the site? Concept, execution... what do you think?

[lukaz]

Dont worry wasnt insulting copying the validation, was just pointing out why the error occured, I use email validation from some blog somwhere too. As to design, not really my area, I'm a php developer with little design ability :) Would say though, your still not returning all errors from the form, only the first error.
i.e if i leave the whole form blank it would be good to see

please enter your name
please enter your email address
please enter a message

And im not really sure the little nav at the top is very clear, when I want to go back to the "home page", the little "posts" in the top left doesnt make me think to click it. Would be better to have "back to main page" or "home" or something like that.

[gecko91]

Ok, got all the errors to return. You're right, the navigation in the site is weak. I'm trying not to break out of the centered fixed width to add navigation on the side. So that leaves the little white div over the big photo. I don't want to make it bigger so I keep the scrolling thumbs are above the fold on smaller monitors. I tried variations of Home > post name, Posts > post name, Back to Posts, Back to Main Page. No sure which works best.

Thanks,

gecko

[gecko91]

Hi, I made a few major changes in the design. I would really appreciate it if someone would look it over and tell me what they think.

Thanks,

gecko