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dtwebs
11-17-2004, 04:26 PM
Hi!
I am currently working on an email reminder site at http://www.joereminder.com/

The site provides a service that reminds you of upcoming events and appointments via email.

Comments and suggestions discussing the look and feel of the site, site layout, and any features you would like to see on the site would be greatly appreciated

Thank you for your time and look forward to your feedback,
dtwebs

Mr Initial Man
11-17-2004, 08:02 PM
I like the idea! It would indeed be useful, to get an email reminder. Of course, the person would have to take into account how often he/she checks his email. But, overall, a good idea. The info on the front page is simple and direct. Just one minor warning on the info on the front page:


This service is great!
Yes it is!


That might sound a tad egotistical. You might want to be aware of that.

Okay, now for the real problems. Looking at the page itself, it seems too dark. I believe changing the text color to white would be a big help.

Now, looking at your source, that is where we run into real trouble.

First off, a couple of validation errors.

<img src="/images/spacer.gif" width=10 height=74> That should have an alt attribute. Also, it wouldn't hurt to have quotation marks around all attribute values. (width="10" height="74")

<table id="tblHeader" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" width="698" background="/images/Title.gif">Background as an attribute doesn't work with this tag.

But those two things will be rendered moot with what's coming up.

I see you have a cascading style sheet, so that should be used to replace the tabular layout. Takes up a LOT less room, I promise you. You've got a lot of nested tables, and you'll run into problems with that, especially when it comes to bandwidth. Considering you're offering a FREE service, you'll want to keep a very close eye on your bandwidth costs.

In your CSS, you have class and id names that don't seem to make a word. It may help to use words to remind you precisely what those ids and classes do.

I'm not all that good at cascading style sheets, but I know a lot of people here can help you with converting your tables into a CSS layout.

If you have different layouts on other pages, don't be afraid to create a second external style sheet. I've got a dozen of them (okay, 11) in my own website, and then I've got internal style sheets here, there, and everywhere.

Another thing about replacing tables with a CSS layout, is accessability. Someone who is blind would not be able to make sense of so many tables. If you used a CSS layout, it would be completely ignored by a screen reader, or a tactile moniter (A moniter the blind can feel), but you would still have a usable website.

Lastly, a suggestion for your signup sheet. You may wish for a "confirm Password," so that people can be sure they wrote down what they REALLY wanted, instead of having a typo in their password.

Again, you have a good idea, and I'm giving you suggestions so you have a website to match. :)

UPDATE:

Looking at your website, I think I could give you a few pointers myself. :)