School/Class Site: Round2

[LJK]

Hello-
Man, you guys sure aren't gentle on the newbies, are 'ya?! (A disclaimer would be nice...;-) Forgot that Code was King and content not somuchso. Went back and redid it all - - sans tables and with a bumped-up DOCTYPE.

You probably still won't like the color scheme; but hey, that's taste, yes?

Humbly submitted,
El.

[sisko]

A link or a url might be helpful....

[LJK]

[Sorry; should've tacked this post onto the prior thread!]

http://elsite.us

[sisko]

erg.

You're HTML is valid, and thats a good start, but your CSS is not, which can be just as bad (or worse) as invalid HTML.

http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/

Things aren't lined up (eg site map and welcome boxes with the red banner).

I have no real beef with the color scheme. Reds and browns typically work very well together, but that bright cyan just doesn't seem to work. Also the dark blue text is hard to read. Try increasing the margins around the light brown boxes to get a better "buffer"...so the text in it doesn't seem so crammed.

Eliminate clutter. For example, the "program notes" section at the bottom. Is that really necessary? It doesn't seem important to me (maybe it is to your viewers...I doubt it, but I don't know for certain)...just take it out.

Have you tested your site in all browsers? I doubt it, because it looks horrible in Netscape. "Program Notes" is horizontally aligned to "site map" There is a random grey bar running across the screen, and I can't even read the text under the "site map"....its just too tiny.

If you can, make your site less image intensive (a strange paradox for an art site, I know) but it takes ages to load on dial up.

[LJK]

Thanks!!! -
For letting me know about Netscape 'yuk' and general problems - I will work to correct them as soon as I can!

Is there a way that I can run my own browser tests without downloading a bunch of them? (i.e. a site that will let you do this?)

I really do appreciate your feedback/time,
El

[sisko]

I don't think so, but Macromedia Dreamweaver has the ability to check for browser compatability (Netscape, IE, Safari, Mozilla, IE for Mac, and Opera).

Its a pricey program though, I wouldn't suggest investing your money into it unless web design is something you intend to do a lot.

[zingmatter]

Here's a site that you can download a trial version of a compatibility test program (you get 8 hours to do it!?).

http://www.masternewmedia.org/2003/0...ing_online.htm

Personnally, I'd just download and install Mozilla (it behaves the same as Netscape but isn't as bloated and crappy), Opera and maybe
Safari (you'll to test that on a Mac)

According to Wikipedia the number of people using the following browsers are:

Microsoft Internet Explorer-based browsers 94.6%
Version 6 68.1% of total
Version 5.5 13.8%
Version 5 11.8%
Version 4 0.7%
Mozilla-based browers (including newer versions of Netscape) 1.8%
Opera version 7 0.8%
Safari 0.5%

So it's not worth bothering with any others (that'll stir up trouble) though if your ok on the main ones you'll probably be fine with the rest.

Hope this helps

[LJK]

Thanks again, everybody. Hope I won't be remiss by just using IE 6.x and Mozilla 1.x to check my sites (and to ask my Mac friend how things are looking, too)!

Due to your suggestions, I'm at least becoming a Validating Fool...

Back to the drawing board,
El

[sisko]

Thats all I use. Generally, if you can satisfy those two, you're in pretty good shape.

Your site is already looking better, just line those corners up!

[LJK]

Hello again-
Okay, did more tweaks and would like to know if things are getting any better!
(spec. for Netscape...) Appreciate it -
http://elsite.us .
El