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Andrewpca
09-10-2005, 11:10 AM
ok - this is a site for a new business. No one is seeing it yet because no one knows about it. Had to get that out of the way because it's FULl to brimming with glitches.....

glitch 1. dynamic menu is in javascript and has security issues on client machines.

glitch 2. email forms are a bit um....primitive??? if that's the right word.

any other feedback is most welcome.

Thanks guys.

Andrew
bathurst_guy
09-10-2005, 06:16 PM
theres some weird things going on in firefox.. have you tested in it first
LiLcRaZyFuZzY
09-10-2005, 06:22 PM
oh! that's why i couldn't see what your menu was supposed to do, in that other post!
it doesn't work in Firefox
e-realmz
09-10-2005, 11:34 PM
It looks cool but when you resize the screen, the text and the image get all distorted.
aznchong91
09-11-2005, 03:18 AM
I think you should change the colors a bit. They don't really work, especially the drop down menus. And you should really look at it in firefox...
Andrewpca
09-11-2005, 12:01 PM
OK - this is good stuff guys.....

first. I know it won't work in firefox because I have absolutely NO idea how to address cross browser compliancy. I'm also of the opinion (and shoot me down if I'm wrong) that my traget audience (Uk grain merchants) will still adhere to the massive proportion of business that uses Internet Explorer.

Second: lilcrazyfuzzy - I know the menu doesn't work very well....i'm trying to sort it out.....one of the MANY things I need to do.

I also don't know how to make my site fit to the browser window. This is an issue because I have used javascript layers on the index page to keep adding and removing new things etc. Only when the window shrinks they layers move! woo hoo!!!! but no....that's no good.

I quite liked the colours - the logo needs making more orange though cos it doesn't really fit. maybe when it is the same as the rest of the site it will look a bit better.

Anyone willing to lend a hand will be fully recognised on the site. large contibutors will receive some sort of payment if required.

Thanks.

Andrew
pollyx
09-11-2005, 05:56 PM
Andrewpca,

the easiest way to address browser cross-compatibility is not to develop a site in IE and then try to emulate or work around IE bugs while trying to make it look similar in Firefox. The other way around is much easier: Develop it for Firefox, get out all the html errors by using the W3C compliance checker, and then try to address IE problems. Otherwise you might end up in big trouble when the next version of IE comes out.

First of all you should add a DTD specification to all pages such as

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

which causes IE to render your pages in a more standards compliant way. This alone should lessen the differences seen between IE and Mozilla / Firefox.

You may then use a free tool called IE7 that makes IE behave even more similar than Firefox by fixing some CSS bugs. If you apply both techniques there is good chance that you won´t have to manually deal with browser compatibility issues at all.

pollyx
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LiLcRaZyFuZzY
09-11-2005, 06:55 PM
and browse it in both browsers or if possible even in other browsers to test it when you are building the page
e-realmz
09-12-2005, 12:16 AM
478536jc
rincewind456
09-12-2005, 08:01 AM
You should seperate your content from the style by putting the style in an external style sheet, so that when you decide you no longer like the colour :eek: you only have to change it in one place not hundreds.

Why are you using javascript for the layers, you would be much better using a more fluid structure, because when I resize my viewport below 760px the columns start to overlap making it unreadable, I hope all your intended audience use a high resolution :)

You are using deprecated markup, are you using dreamweaver or frontpage by any chance, these are pretty good tools for graphic rich sites, but they are not good at producing valid markup, When your site validates you usually help remove most problems that appear to be cross browser.

You may like the colour of the site, but have you considered how hard it is to read the menu (small black script on an orange background) for anybody who has less than 20/20 vision, this combined with the fact that you've used pixel sizes, therefore denying the user the oppurtunity to resize, makes it even harder.

Why use a menu that causes problems, there are many sites that show how to produce DHTML drop down menu's, or CSS driven ones which would eliminate any security problems.

For some reason you have the characters ÿþ at the start of your page, this now means that your page cannot even be viewed in Firefox.
ian_h
09-12-2005, 10:06 AM
Andrewpca,

re: the menu - try http://www.dynamicdrive.com or similar - loads of easy to use free cross-browser dynamic menu systems to be had.

My major thoughts were not on the technical aspects of the site but on the business aspects.

- The main point is that I wonder if the company has focussed onto the point of the site. I would guess that the point of having a website is primarily to drive visitors to view the services offered and then get in touch to buy them. Along the way you will want to build some sort of trust/brand as well. As it is I got the impression that the site fell half-way between these two functions;
- A more specific issue; a lot of the really good stuff is buried (e.g. meet new EU mycotoxin regulations with your new service could be made much bolder to make visitors aware of it?);

A suggestion (and some empathy):
Have a look at the dell website. Their homepage allows visitors with different needs to choose immediately what they want to look at and takes them straight to their relevent product pages without the visitor having to work to find them. Along the way a strong brand identity is being built. In your case you have visitors with different needs also - make it easy for them to go where you want them to go!

I build high tech businesses professionally for a major University and am in the process of building my own business processes/web development business at the moment, so I realise how much there is to try to remember and do. If your webhost supports it you might consider using a free (and excellent) content management system like mambo/joomla to provide the framework for the site? This would take care of a lot of the issues relating to navigation and layout and stuff and leave you free to concentrate on the site's content.

Finally and with my newco hat on - I am going to guess that your company will be very much into relationship building with buyers. You may want to consider building in a customer relationship management system integrated with your website? Have a look at SugarCRM - there is a free version!

Ian