I agree with pretty much everything that Taco said: Get rid of all the frames. Frames can sometimes be put to good use in administration systems and the like where you truly need a "panel" layout. I can't see how they are adding anything to this particular design.
One of the main disadvantages of frames is that Search engines will link right into the content. Imaging I was searching for "Marty the Starfish" - Google would most likely take me to this URL: http://www.getsmarter.net.au/item.cfm?menu=6#Marty%20Merchandise. This is a problem because all your navigation and branding are gone. Another disadvantage of frames is that if I wanted to send a link to a specific page to a friend of mine I would not be able to simply copy & paste the URL from the location bar and put it in an email. I would need to right click on the frame, select properties or page info, then copy & paste the URL. This is beyond most users knowledge and patience levels. OK, looking at that URL posted above there are a few more things to point out. Never use the font tag. Let me rephrase that... never, ever, ever, on pain of death and promise of eternal misery... use the font tag. Please learn to use CSS. The world does not need any more font tags. Underlining words..... an underlined word jumps off the page saying "I'm a link, click me". Underlining text that is not a link is pretty poor usability IMHO. Now there is some text on that page that looks like it really should be a link for example "click here" and "order now". The "click here" text even has the purple "visited" color making it look even more like a link. Go to click it and.... nothing?!??#?$?$ One more thing - never use the words "click here". Reasons #1 users can generally work out that some underlined text is a link. Reason #2 links should provide meaning - "click here" is meaning less. Reason #3 Google loves text within links why waste it by joining the 11 million results of the search http://www.google.com/search?q=allinanchor:%22click%20here%22. OK moving on..... Marty's Star Club Application Form I don't quite get it - am I meant to print & mail this form? This is the Internet, we should not have to resort to snail mail to use a site. Also if I print this page I get 6 pages of content for 1 short form. Think of the trees bubba... Font consistency.... I'm not going to count the number of fonts you've used on the one page but there are way too many. If you can stick to <h1> -> <h4>, <p>, <em> and <strong> you are doing pretty well. Think twice before you start using more than this number of fonts on a page. Again if you were using CSS I think you would find this consistency issue to be less of a problem. Lastly: <p> </p><br><br><br><br><br><br> <p><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br> <p></p> <br> What is that? Maybe this should be a new page? I don't mean to be too harsh here - everyone on this list has been through this same learning process. My main advice would be to: #1 Learn HTML & CSS very carefully - Zeldman's DWWS book is probably a good place to start (http://www.zeldman.com/dwws/). #2 Try to keep it as simple as possible; frames, fonts and the like just make things more complicated for you and your users. #3 Try to stick to unofficial web etiquette where ever possible (underline links, make the logo a home button, use HTML forms, use link colours for links, etc...) #4 Read a lot: - http://webstandardsgroup.org/ - http://www.qld.gov.au/web/cue/overview/ - http://diveintoaccessibility.org/ - www.zeldman.com - www.alistapart.com Good luck! Cheers Mark ------------------ Mark Stanton Technical Director Gruden Pty Ltd Tel: 9956 6388 Mob: 0410 458 201 Fax: 9956 8433 http://www.gruden.com --- You are currently subscribed to cfaussie as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] MXDU2004 + Macromedia DevCon AsiaPac + Sydney, Australia http://www.mxdu.com/ + 24-25 February, 2004
