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    I have recently re-designed my personal website and would like some critique.

    http://www.sodhi.org/

    Appreciate all your help.
    Thanks.

    PS: The site is a bit slow; DreamHost are investigating this issue.
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      CommentAuthorSpookyET
    • CommentTimeDec 28th 2005
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    When I saw that it is 970px in width, I thought hat you used an elastic design, but you have not. For a site that wide, you should use a larger font size. I like the colours, but the light gray (#e6e6e6) text is unreadable.
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    Done... I have changed the font size for the entire site, and modified the color of the bottom section to #666666
    • CommentAuthorspyyddir
    • CommentTimeDec 29th 2005
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    The little icons under the nav look like you copied them straight from Dan Cederholms example...

    Otherwise its cool. I like the extra big footer type section on the front page.
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    Actually I got the nav entirely (originally) from the free CSS Tab Designer. This tool can be found at: http://www.highdots.com/

    I have changed the background CSS to allow for a single NAV that can control all pages rather than having to embed the entire NAV in each page and highlight the current Page/Selection.
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      CommentAuthorSpookyET
    • CommentTimeDec 29th 2005
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    #666 is too dark. It's almost black on LCDs.
    • CommentAuthorspyyddir
    • CommentTimeDec 29th 2005 edited
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    The images still look exactly like these.

    Also, check out this page: final sliding doors example from ala. Now take a look at the highdots css list tool screen shot. Don't those look like the same tab images?
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      CommentAuthorSpookyET
    • CommentTimeDec 29th 2005
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    We should report them. They are charging $50 for other people's work.
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      CommentAuthorGustavs
    • CommentTimeDec 29th 2005 edited
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    Well, heres some critique:


    • for starters you should not design web pages for 1024x768 only. If you want a one that takes the full window you should use % so that it resizes it self on 800x600. I know, I know, no one uses 800x600 these days, but still I think it just looks better.


    • You should try making some color scheme as blue and gray don't go togeather well.


    • That background-image with those lines does not look good in this web page, becouse what looks good un one site, won't look the same on other. This time I think you should go with solid color.


    • Try adding some padding from all the sides and maybe add a option not to have that large fonts. You can make a css style switcher with JS. Personnaly I don't like that big fonts.


    Any way, hope it helps. :)
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    CSS Tab Designer is cool - but now I feel like I just ripped someone off.

    This sucks - I guess need to re-design the Top Menu.

    Gustavs: I will work on making this site a bit narrower; actually the width was warranted due to the 3 and 4 column layouts that I wanted. Let me play with this and see what turns up :-).
    Actually my Ver 3.0 code did have a CSS switcher, but I got rid of it due to the complexity in maintaining these separate files. Back to the drawing board I guess.

    SpookyET: color change on its way... guess I need to find something that is in between the two colors (e6e6e6 and 666666).


    Thanks for all the critique - please keep it coming.
    Ranjeet
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      CommentAuthormoondoggie
    • CommentTimeDec 29th 2005
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    A note about that software. When looking at the screenshot spyyddir posted, I was interested to note that the style was actually called "Sliding Doors." I downloaded and installed the software (which is free - the $50 was for another piece of CSS software they offer) and noticed that other themes included "Eric Meyer's tabbed navbar" and "Zeldman's DWWS Menu." I looked under help, and sure enough, there is a credits section crediting the original designers of each style, including Cederholm for the menu style Ranjeet is using. In fact, there's a separate section in Help for online resources, with ALA and SimpleBits being listed as resources.

    So, it's free and at least they're crediting people in the software, if not in the code's comments. Who knows - maybe they even got permission first. They apparently take comments at support@style-sheets.com if you'd like to ask.

    Now I'm going to uninstall it and go back to my old CSS methods - a little bit of UltraEdit and a lot of beating my head against a wall.
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      CommentAuthorSpookyET
    • CommentTimeDec 29th 2005
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    I suggest you try TopyStyle 3.12. It should meet all your XHTML and CSS needs. It was the original CSS Editor. Now, there are many copycats, including the ones form this company that fail where it succeeds. It's made by the creator of HomeSite, bought by Macromedia and to improve Dreamweaver's Code View.
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    Phew!! I finally updated the menu system to look a bit more unique.
    • CommentAuthorspyyddir
    • CommentTimeJan 6th 2006
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    Nice. I think they match your site better then the other ones anyway.
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    Thanks :-).
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    What are you using to manage your news ?
    its defenently not wordpress....
    • CommentAuthorNick Presta
    • CommentTimeJan 7th 2006 edited
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    Moveable Type, Wordpress, Custom CMS?
    • CommentAuthorsebastienb
    • CommentTimeJan 7th 2006 edited
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    I would also make the edges square and without outlines like this http://sebastienb.com/squared.png
    • CommentAuthorNick Presta
    • CommentTimeJan 7th 2006 edited
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    Server not found
    Firefox can't find the server at www.sebasteinb.com
    • CommentAuthorspyyddir
    • CommentTimeJan 7th 2006
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    It looks like it might be Expression Engine, look at the full article url:

    http://www.sodhi.org/<strong>ee</strong>/index.php/weblog/comments/[...]
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    I fixed the link its http://sebastienb.com/squared.png
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    Apologies for the delayed response..

    1. My website is running on Expression Engine.

    2. Sebastienb : Thanks for the idea, I will change the outside border to be square edged rather than the current rounded ones.
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    I wasn't satisfied with the old design - so I redesigned the website.
    This time I have tried to ensure that the site conforms to the XHTML Strict standard and also be free form/floating for any browser width/size.

    comments/critique? anyone....
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    BTW- I added some details on how I developed my code in the following article:
    http://www.sodhi.org/ee/index.php/v6/comment/sodhiorg_is_now_wearing_new_rags/
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    Working on adding some cool scriptaculous effects to the index page (check out the plus sign on the "recent comments" section (bottom left on the home page).
    Got the idea and the code/help from this great website: 24ways.org

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