Apart from the technical aspects, you really should make a very high priority the basic designers question - "Does it do the job it's for?" In other words, if it's an information site, does it inform? Can you find the information you're looking for easily? If it's a site selling something, is it easy to find what you want and buy it? (think about it as a non-technical person would if you can - how do the customers/users of this site see it?)
We often get so close to the technicalities of a web site, we forget to look at it like the end users. If the site isnt filling the needs of its users (whatever they might be), it's a bad site. If it fills their needs how they want it, it's a good site, whatever the nature of the code and hardware. A great example of what i mean is the Microsoft site (I pick it because it's a site that most us would have seen). There's a company with more resources than the rest of us could possibly imagine. Yet just try to find out something there. Good grief it's agonising. I was advised by my XPPro that there was a service pack 3 to install. I'm not inclined to just install stuff because Microsoft says i should - i want to know more about what it's goign to do. So I went to the site to find out what is in Service Pack 3. Try it yourself. It's almost impossible to find. You get vague statements like 'it includes small feature enhancements". Ok what are they? Or almost any product in the Microsoft product line since DOS claim a 'richer user experience' or 'faster and easier accces to information' - so those motherhood statements are pretty well useless. What exactly does "Silverlight" do?? To those of us in the ColdFusion world, comparing it to Flash makes it fairly clear. But I had one of my clients, who doesnt know much about computers - he's an extraordinarily talented furniture builder, but uses a computer only when forced to - call me asking if he should install SIlverlight becasue Microsoft said he should. I wanted to find a page on the MS site that describes what it is, so he could see. There's nothing informative there for him. It's all technical gobbldegook or bland motherhood statements about richer user experience. In other words, with all the resources anyone could imagine, Microsoft have built one of the worst sites on the web, in my opinion. It's supposed to inform, and its almost worthless for that purpose. If it's supposed to sell, you cant buy anything there. It's not alone by any means - i just picked it out because it's so familiar to us all. But that's my answer to your question - far more important than technical aspects of code, standards comliance, cross-browser compatibility and all that - DOES IT DO THE JOB ITS FOR? Cheers Mike Kear Windsor, NSW, Australia Adobe Certified Advanced ColdFusion Developer AFP Webworks http://afpwebworks.com ColdFusion, PHP, ASP, ASP.NET hosting from AUD$15/month On Wed, Jun 4, 2008 at 12:47 AM, Richard Dillman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Oh Yea, > > The absolute first thing I do with any newly inherited site is to view it > via Firefox with a few plug ins: > > - Cold Fire > - Firebug > - Firefox accessibility extension > - HTML Validator > - Kgen > - Load time Validator > - SE Open > - Window Resizer > - YSlow > > Not to hijack a topic but any other add ins you guys find useful? > > > On Mon, Jun 2, 2008 at 5:42 PM, Dave Francis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > >> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;192386516;25150098;k Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:306785 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
