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Since I've torn enough sites apart in my time, so it's only fair that I let you guys rip mine apart. Have at it any way you like: aesthetics, code, accessibility, etc. The url is http://www.infinitywebdesign.com/
I've also written up (http://www.ryanbrill.com/archives/infinity-web-design-40/) a little bit about the release on my personal site, if anyone is interested.
lindamulder
04-30-2004, 01:40 PM
I reeeeally like it.
My only criticism would be that the words you have italicised are a bit too light. I am squinting ever so slightly in order to read those words.
I would hire you! (except I do the same work you do...heehee) I also admire your compliancy.
Vladdy
04-30-2004, 02:16 PM
Other than microfonts and pixel-fixed width, I have nothing to complain about (which knowing me - is a HUGE compliment) :D :D
BTW, I see nothing in the design that would prevent using font units for element sizes to make the design scalable.
Originally posted by Vladdy
Other than ... I have nothing to complain about (which knowing me - is a HUGE compliment) :D :DYes it is, and it was taken as such. :p
Originally posted by Vladdy
BTW, I see nothing in the design that would prevent using font units for element sizes to make the design scalable. Perhaps that will be version 4.1 ;) The original plan was to make a liquid layout, but as design elements started falling into place, the variability that liquid layout bring was rather undesireable. An elastic layout is a thought, though.
tonyh
04-30-2004, 03:21 PM
Nice.
I really like the "rice paper" look you have implemented and as samij586 could testify I'm not that big on patterns.
Yeah, the italized words need to be a darker colour, I'm sure that this is not a text-decoration but <em>, or for semantic purposes should be. And since it is near the same colour as your link hover, I can see some getting these two mixed up.
Also, your bottom footer graphic keeps attracting my attention, for some reason I keep mousing over the graphic thinking its an anchor. Probably because it looks like an underline :rolleyes: .
And finally, I saw your other works on the previous portfolio, so I know that your earlier designs aren't as sophisticated, but shouldn't they be presented as well? At the very least they can be used as a chronological timeline showing your progress. Potential clients may look the other way if all they see are examples of personal works and not previous clientel. After all this v4.0 right? What did the first three versions do? It suggests that you've been in the business for a while now, but haven't had any customers. Someone is bound to ask why.
Vladdy
04-30-2004, 04:43 PM
pyro, out of curiousity, what monitor do you use when developing???
Paul Jr
04-30-2004, 04:45 PM
Very, very nice. :D
Mad props all around!
I'll agree with everyone else on the color of the emphasized text.
fredmv
04-30-2004, 04:54 PM
You already know my thoughts on it. Very nice work. ;)
Originally posted by tonyh
Yeah, the italized words need to be a darker colour, I'm sure that this is not a text-decoration but <em>, or for semantic purposes should be.You lost me on that one. What do semantics and the color of the <em> have to do with anything? Thanks for the suggestions on the color, though. I may darken it a bit.
Originally posted by tonyh
Also, your bottom footer graphic keeps attracting my attention, for some reason I keep mousing over the graphic thinking its an anchor.There are links in the footer.
Originally posted by tonyh
It suggests that you've been in the business for a while now, but haven't had any customers. Someone is bound to ask why. There are a few projects that I am in the middle of that will end up in the portfolio. Frankly, I'd rather not have my older work showcased next to my newer stuff, as some of it (the older work) is very unprofessional.
Originally posted by Vladdy
pyro, out of curiousity, what monitor do you use when developing???A Samsung 150s LCD monitor. I'd like to get something with better color, as soon as I can afford it. Why? Do the colors look weird?
Daniel T
04-30-2004, 05:29 PM
Good job man! Two critisisms:
1. I think you should make the navigation menu in em's, because if you increase the font size, it kind of screws it up.
2. You have accesskeys, but the usr has no way of knowing that they exist. You should underline/bold the accesskey character in each link.
Other than that, it looks SWEET!
-Dan
Originally posted by pyro
There are links in the footer.
I believe he's refering to your div.hr's. Speaking of which, why are those in div's rather than just styled hr's?
Originally posted by DanieLTomaS
1. I think you should make the navigation menu in em's, because if you increase the font size, it kind of screws it up.I tried that. It messes the hell out of the naviagtion bar.
Originally posted by DanieLTomaS
2. You have accesskeys, but the usr has no way of knowing that they exist. You should underline/bold the accesskey character in each link.The site information (http://www.infinitywebdesign.com/siteinfo/) page explains them.
Originally posted by samij586
Speaking of which, why are those in div's rather than just styled hr's?I could have, but semantically, it really doesn't matter. They are more a decoration at the bottom of the page than anything else.
Originally posted by pyro
I tried that. It messes the hell out of the naviagtion bar.
setting #nav ul li a's height to 1.6em allows it to go 8 mousewheels of font size up before the layout breaks at all (and at that point its only because Portfolio is a long word), granted, I only tested this in mozilla, but it seemed to do the trick there
Daniel T
04-30-2004, 05:48 PM
Also, one more thing: I think you should have a bottom glow at the foot the pages for pages that don't have enough content to scroll. For example, hosting (http://www.infinitywebdesign.com/hosting/). As you can see, the glow effect looks rather cut off or discontinued, and it looks like it's missing something at the bottom...
Due to my "scan-lineish" (??) background, I'm not sure how well this would work. I can give it a try, because it if would work, it would indeed be better. I actually switched the background just yesterday, and with the old background, there's no way it would have worked. It may work, but it usually does not with backgrounds like mine (check out photomatt.net (http://www.photomatt.net/) to see what I mean - some pages look find, some don't. It all depens on the page's length). Since mine has some noise added, and the colors aren't very pronounced, it might work.
Paul Jr
04-30-2004, 06:37 PM
It seems your whois (http://www.infinitywebdesign.com/hosting/whois/) page is a bit funky. I always get a 404 when I enter in a domain to check. But if I check it from the hosting (http://www.infinitywebdesign.com/hosting/) page, then it works fine.
tonyh
04-30-2004, 10:17 PM
Originally posted by samij586
I believe he's refering to your div.hr's.
Yes, sorry I didn't clarify.
There is one other thing I wanted to mention, but it goes beyond a simple "website review" and may even be considered offensive. But, I feel we're all mature enough for me to say it and that's your comment:
At Infinity Web Design, we're raising the bar. We aren't satisfied with conventional methods of web design, so we take a different approach.
And yet, you've implemented a conventional layout as the design for your company site? The three column design has been around since the beginnings of table layout. It's old, traditional and mundane, no matter what is under the hood.
It's one of the reasons I wonder "what's so special about csszengarden?" It proves that CSS makes skinning sites easy, but the fact remains it still follows a conventional design. It's one of those things I worry about regarding "css and accessibility elitists" is though the colours and graphics may change nothing new is going to evolve from standards compliance.
Pyro, you should have posted, "Hey everyone congratulate me on my excellent site, because I know it's accessible, looks better than anyone else's, and is all valid code"! :p
The site's just awesome... just... totally awesome. I'm speechless.
You're too good, man... My role model. :D
Originally posted by tonyh
But, I feel we're all mature enough for me to say it...And if we aren't, that's our problem, not your's. No offense taken.
Originally posted by tonyh
...you've implemented a conventional layout as the design for your company site? The three column design has been around since the beginnings of table layout....and all this time I thought I was making a two column layout. :p Either way, the context is talking about our coding methods, not our design.
Originally posted by tonyh
It's one of those things I worry about regarding "css and accessibility elitists" is though the colours and graphics may change nothing new is going to evolve from standards compliance. Again, you're obviously only looking at design here. There are other benefits to using CSS (http://www.ryanbrill.com/archives/why-use-web-standards/). You might want to read Nodes of design inspiration (http://www.cameronmoll.com/archives/000016.html) by Cameron Moll (or Good Designers Copy, Great Designers Steal (http://www.sitepoint.com/article/copy-great-designers-steal) for that matter). Here's a quote from something I said in a comment over on Cameron's site:
...there's very little "true originality" in web design - and maybe there shouldn't be. Users come to expect web sites to look a certain way, so if you were to make a wildly original site, you'd better do some user testing.
Sorry to resurect this thread so late in the game, but I've noticed a very serious usability issue (at least to me). You've mapped an access key to d (on both your personal, and on this site). Access Keys are wonderful, however when I press alt+d, I expect my cursor to move to the browser's address bar, not to load a new page. I don't know if anyone else experiences this, but It's something I've seen as a problem.
You're probably right. I added them late in the game and didn't research out which keys have default values. I'll make a note to look into it. Thanks.
PhillMc
05-05-2004, 06:42 PM
I like it. I didn't have time to get my hands dirty, but I'm pretty sure its all been pointed out :) 'Sides, I gotta hurry up and finish my current project so you can 'tear it apart', you still get first review :)
DaveSW
05-12-2004, 10:50 AM
Originally posted by pyro
You're probably right. I added them late in the game and didn't research out which keys have default values. I'll make a note to look into it. Thanks.
According to my research x and z are the only safe keys, so on that basis accesskeys are a waste of time.
It's still an excellent job by the way...