Developer Forum

Let me start off by thanking everyone for their patience and help with me.

I did a rudimentary site for a relative's art show, and felt okay about it.
However, there are 2 issues I can't seem to get over.

Here's the site:

http://www.yqcomputer.com/

First problem: when you load up the splash page, there are animated .gifs that
load up. I don't know why, but they take an awful long time to load in many
cases. I know that the hosting service they are using is pretty good, and my
computer and connection are fast. Is there something I can tweak in the code to
make those load up faster, or is it just that way with animated gifs?

second: if you click through to the artists page, you'll notice that in
Firefox, the top of the artist menus are aligned well with the top left header
text. However in i.e. this isn't so. I know that there can tend to be problems
between i.e. and firefox, and I saw this before the site went live. I just
couldn't figure out what happened?

Anyway, it's my first site, so it needs work:).

Oh, and the artwork isn't up yet, as you can tell... so it looks horribly
minimalistic. They still have to take the photos. Thanks again!

re: your gifs" by my math, the 5 images you have there add up to about 2
megs... and you have them each there twice, for a total of 4 megs. that's
really, really big and that's why the page takes so long to load. you'll want
to optmize these images better and also probably rethink the design.

Having each 10 times wouldn't add significantly to the load time of the
page, though since once fetched they will be loaded from the local cache.

--
Murray --- ICQ 71997575
Adobe Community Expert
(If you *MUST* email me, don't LAUGH when you do so!)
==================
http://www.yqcomputer.com/ , Tutorials & Resources
http://www.yqcomputer.com/ - DW FAQs, Tutorials & Resources
==================

I would reconsider the whole design. The "text" up top and at the bottom
is not text, but an image, so not accessible to search engines, users
with impaired vision, etc... Page is too wide - have to scroll sideways.
Way too much animation. All those jiggling pictures at the bottom are
distracting - and difficult to read. Not enough contrast between the
lettering/background. What benefit does the "splash" page offer? Why not
do your users a favor and put actual content on the homepage? Why are
you using frames? Nothing appears to be framed. What benefit are you
gaining by using frames?

Everyone has to start somewhere. :-) Don't take my comments to mean "you
suck". Take them to start thinking about design which can make your site
more usable. You might want to pick up a book or two on actual design,
like http://www.yqcomputer.com/
http://www.yqcomputer.com/

--
Alec
Adobe Community Expert

For what it's worth, Alec...

I really do appreciate the criticisms. The artist wants a lot of those things
there. He wants the images to go beyond the page. He prefers we use images on
the text since he can be very specific with the fonts. Although, can't I get
the same effects with the fonts by doing flash text or something?

Yes you can, but you'll have the same problems. Flash text is not
accessible either. It's tough, but I have to educate my clients all the
time on the differences between print and web. Fact is, the web is
dynamic and gelatinous. It's not a static magazine layout where everyone
sees the same thing. Screen resolutions, text size, browser width, color
depth, available fonts - all these things are variances that must be
embraced, not fought.

Does he really want the images to go off the page so users have to
scroll sideways? Ugh. Or does he simply want them to bleed off the edge?

Using images instead of text is bad for many reasons. Not accessible.
Not readable by search engines. Can't be resized by the user with poor
eyesight. Difficult to update. Increases page load time.

Pick up one of those books I mentioned. (And buy a copy for your client
:-) )


--
Alec
Adobe Community Expert

>>The artist wants a lot of those things

That's fine. Just tell him that the site is built for him because many
(most?) people who come to the site will not wait to see it. That's the
nature of the web. He likely won't believe it because many artists think the
world revolves around their wonderfulness. Oh well.
--

Walt

ok, so its two megs. still a lot.

Yes. Too much, in fact.

--
Murray --- ICQ 71997575
Adobe Community Expert
(If you *MUST* email me, don't LAUGH when you do so!)
==================
http://www.yqcomputer.com/ , Tutorials & Resources
http://www.yqcomputer.com/ - DW FAQs, Tutorials & Resources
==================