Member Discussions

Hey all,

I'd like some feedback on my site so-far, granted there are a couple of links not filled in yet, but the majority of the site is completed. Also I'm on a Linux box using Netscape 6.2 so that's what the site is geared towards right now, though I am working on a javascript that will detect, browser, language, and screensize and adjust accordingly, though I want to finish all of the site and get some general interest built up, before I go through all of that.

I'm looking for hardcore critizing here, I'll take all opinions at face value, harsh or praising. I want to make sure the site is giving enough information and is easy to navigate.

Thanks in advance!

John Mariotti

Just realized I didn't give you guys the web address :)

http://epmud.tripod.com

Let me state that I'm in NO WAY a web design expert. My opinion is that of an 'average user'.
That being said...
The only problem I can find is the left frame seems to run off at the bottom like it's cut short. Also, the tripod advertisments/webring takes away from 'fantasy feel' of the page. Other than that, I like the design, fonts and graphics...pretty sleek!

Thanks,

I didn't even realize I had the left frame set to no scrolling, Doh! Well, fixed that. And I'm with you, All that crap that loads up on the 'main' page irritates me as well, but it's not a permenant feature of the site, it's only there to generate some trafffic and once enough interest has been built it goes bye-bye.

Thanks for the input, glad you liked it!

John

Too much commercial ads screwing up the page.

There's Two (2)....not counting Tripods lil' popup which is easily gotten rid of.

But duly noted, and I do have plans to get rid of them.

Thanks for the input, always appriciated! :)

Still looking for more people, feed me ;P

John

All of it's gone now, aside from the unalterable Tripod popup and the webRing, because I like the WebRing and it doesn't intrude.

John

There doesn't appear to be very much to comment about yet. The only thing that I really caught was that in the top frame, the 'g' in 'passages' fell below the frame and so was cut off. I'm also not a fan of static top frames in general because they take up room that could be showing something important, like text. It would be better to put the 'Endless Passages' picture at the top of each page and then let it scroll off when people read through the text.


-Lexa

Wow, that's something I didn't even really consider that...hmmmm, Shouldn't be to difficult to incorporate that in right quick.

hehe, I have a feeling you guys will whittle me down to no frames at all ;P

Thanks for the input

John

Changes made, thanks for the info!

John

No, to get the Official Lexa Seal of Approval, it's okay to have navitation frames (although I like tables better than frames; I just don't like frames in general). *sniff* If only others were as enlightened as you. Everyone should ask me to look at their web pages. I know what's best for all of them, of course. Without me, everyone might have pages that look like... like... Timecube! That would be horrendous!


-Lexa

Well I made a low-end, no frames, no fancy stuff, table happy page.

Bear in mind this is just a template and none of the links work, but I'm looking to see if it loads fast or not.

http://epmud.tripod.com/nf

Thanks for all the input, still looking for more feedback for both parts of the site.

Thanks again!

John

Well I threw the Occupations page up on there, just to see how it would look without the IFrame so that link for the no-frames, low-end version of the site is up. And yes I'll be putting page tags in there to jump down to each one without having to scroll, I just threw all this together to get some general feedback, honestly, I've always used frames in my pages, so not using frames is a little ackward for me I always want to put a target= in the href but old habits die hard I suppose.

John

It looks nice, but the right-hand part of the table, with the actual page on it, could be bigger - it didn't extend to the side of the screen. You can look at my page to see how I did my tables - http://www.arpage.org. Looking at your source, it seems like you have more tables than you actually need - did you do the source yourself or did you use a WYSIWYG editor?

If you have lots of pages, the downfall of tables is that to edit a the navigation table, you have to change each page instead of just one page of a framed version. A disliking of frames is really just an idiosyncracy of mine, so if you prefer frames, you really can go ahead and use them *g*. They both have their pros and cons, and it's up to the editor's choice.

-Lexa

I'll have to correct something I said - it appears the web page for my MUD isn't up any more (it was a project of mine and a friend's that neither of us really has time for any more, so it's not very surprising the page doesn't exist any more), but if you want, email me and I'll email you a sample page with a good, clean (IMHO) table layout.


-Lexa

Well those empty tables do have a purpose, but for right now they're just placement holders. Another reason for doing the low-end thingie is for the people that, for some reason or another, seem to upgrade their browsers, as that part of the site is also 'Lynx' viewable, so it's just an all-around version of the site, which will be incorporated later when I put my javascript detect script in.

Err, that should read 'can't seem to upgrade their browsers'

Hey, I didn't read through all of the posts yet so someone may have mentioned this, but you may want to set the laft frame to be larger horizontally...horizontal scrolling on a webpage (unless it is an integral part of the design) can be very annoying.

-Hobo (Andy)

I like the no frames version as well, but using my version of IE, it seems as if the 'Endless Passages' part is beginning to overlap the top horizontal bar - not a big deal, but I think it adjusting it would make it look a bit cleaner. Also, have you considered making the 'Endless Passages' transparent - the black background sort of jars with the smoky gray right next to it.

BTW, I noticed when looking at your source that your table width is 770, which is fine for my screen resolution and yours, but people with older computers with resolutions of say, 640x480 (the resolution of my other 'puter which I still use on occasion), would have to do a bit of horizontal scrolling. All in all, I think it looks very sleek :)

Based on all your suggestions comments and ideas, I've decided to go with the noframes version completely, so the site is down, and I'm putting everything over to the new design, I'll put it all back up when I have the entire site done, shouldn't be more than today for me to finish that, I'll let you guys know when it's back up if your interested.

Thanks again for all the usefull insight guys (and gals)!!

John Mariotti

>--people with older computers with resolutions of say, 640x480--

This is very unfortunate.. I make all my designs for width 800 (765).. I'd hate to exclude anyone, but making a lower res screen interferes with creativity too much.. and it's kind of hard to guess the monitor people're using.. I upon occasion make a low-res available in case someone feels more comfy with it, but a lot of the design unfortunately is disabled with it.

It sucks.. :/