Re: [WSG] Website review : http://webprocafe.com

[Stewart Griffiths]

Harsh is fine, it's a critique / review we asked for ;o)

Got rid of all but one error, which is a vb one, so will work on finding
that. As for breaking when the text is increased, well, as you state this is
due to the way vb spits out the code. But we can work on that going forward.
WE will look at the typography we are using and look to make it consistent
across the site, the background gradiants and the nav icons we will again
look at updating.

Thanks for the feedback, this is all great stuff.

Stew

2009/1/16 Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis 

> On 16/1/09 16:41, Stewart Griffiths wrote:
>
>> Please can you provide feedback on the following website
>> http://webprocafe.com/
>>
>> We are looking for thoughts on the design and usability of the site,
>> plus any general feedback you want to provide.
>>
>
> Hmm.
>
> Just looked at the homepage.
>
> Pointless XHTML formedness errors, lack of heading elements, table layouts,
> presentational markup, inline styles, obtrusive JavaScript, unnecessary
> browser detection, presentational class names, and a layout that begins to
> break with only two text size steps up (at least in Safari) may be
> byproducts of vBulletin but they undercut the site's ostensible purpose of
> discussing professional web development in a way that I find hard to
> overlook given you've adopted a self-hosted solution for the forum.
>
> More subjectively, I think the random bits of sans-serif (menu links at the
> side and some of the menu links at the top) look discordant, the lack of
> contrast between the brown backgrounds and darker brown text may make the
> content hard to read for some users (I'd suggesting using coffee text on
> white instead of brown text on brown), and the icons in the left-hand
> navigation menu look too randomly generic.
>
> Sorry that's harsh, but I hope it helps.
>
> --
> Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis
>
>
>
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Re: [WSG] Website review : http://webprocafe.com

[Stewart Griffiths]

Thanks Chris, we will look at that now.

Stew

2009/1/16 Christian Montoya 

> On Fri, Jan 16, 2009 at 11:41 AM, Stewart Griffiths
>  wrote:
> > All,
> >
> > Please can you provide feedback on the following website
> > http://webprocafe.com/
> >
> > We are looking for thoughts on the design and usability of the site, plus
> > any general feedback you want to provide.
>
> The sub-nav bar (register, faq, members list) could be combined into a
> vertical list and sit in the row above it, between the site title and
> the login form. As it is, it's very awkward.
>
> Also, there's a billion links on the page that all point to
> webprocafe.com... the two title images, the navigation sections, etc.
> Why so many? It takes attention away from the other links.
>
> --
> --
> Christian Montoya
> mappdev.com :: christianmontoya.net
>
>
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[WSG] Website review : http://webprocafe.com

[Stewart Griffiths]

All,

Please can you provide feedback on the following website
http://webprocafe.com/

We are looking for thoughts on the design and usability of the site, plus
any general feedback you want to provide.

Thanks all,

Stew

-- Forwarded message --
From: russ - maxdesign 
Date: 2009/1/9
Subject: Re: website review
To: Stewart Griffiths 


Hi Stewart,

Sounds fine, as long as you phrase your request clearly to the group ­ ie,
what you are asking them to review.

Good luck with the launch!
Thanks
Russ
---
Russ Weakley
Max Design
Phone: (02) 9410 2521
Mobile: 0403 433 980
Email: r...@maxdesign.com.au
Skype: russ-maxdesign
MSN: r...@maxdesign.com.au
Website: http://www.maxdesign.com.au/
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/russweakley
Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/maxdesign/
---




on 10/1/09 12:33 AM, Stewart Griffiths at wrote:

> Peter, Russ,
>
> I see that the list allows website reviews. We are just about to launch a
new
> forum and would like to ask the group their opinion.
>
> However, the site is a web design and development forum and I did not want
to
> send it around without contacting you first, as it may be misconstrued as
> selfless promotion.
>
> Please let me know your thoughts.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Stew
>


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Re: [WSG] Mobile phone support of CSS

[Stewart Griffiths]

Paul,

Check out these great resources:

   - http://dev.mobi/
   - http://mobilewebbook.com
   - http://www.w3.org/mobile/

And for testing you can use http://deviceanywhere.com which provides remote
access to actual handsets (not emulators).

Good Luck.

Stew


2008/6/24 Paul Collins <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:

> Hi all,
>
> I'm trying to find a comprehensive list of Mobile phone browsers and
> CSS support. I currently have a Nokia N70 and as far as I can see it
> doesn't support CSS at all. But, perhaps with a stylesheet targeting
> mobile phones it would?!
>
> The main reason is, I am trying to decide whether putting the main
> logo of a site in as an inline image is better than a background, as
> it would still show up with CSS not supported. But then, how many
> mobile browsers still don't support CSS whatsoever?!
>
> Any advice or links would be great.
> Cheers
> Paul
>
>
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Re: [WSG] Firefox 3 candidate

[Stewart Griffiths]

firebug 1.2 works fine on FF3 and is available from the add-ons on the
mozilla site:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1843

Stew

2008/6/18 Ken Robinson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:

> Quoting kate <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
>
>  Ken,
>> Its said this am that there is a problem and so no Firebug for my FF3
>> at least.
>> This was at the Mozilla site.
>>
>
> [snip]
>
>  Firebug is available for FF3 at the normal FF addons area.
>>> 
>>>
>>
> I just went to the above site and it's there with no problems. I downloaded
> it this morning. It works fine on a PC.
>
> Ken
>
>
>
>
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Re: [WSG] transparency, png IE6?? & Screen Resolution

[Stewart Griffiths]

There is a way to produce portable network graphics (png's) so that they
render correctly across all browsers without the need to employ complicated
hacks and ie filter-based
solutionsor
heavy javascript files, such as the twin
helixapproach
or the
supersleight
.

Most times when a png is exported it is done so as a png32, which provides
lossless compression and allows for more complex settings. All the goodies
we love when designing a site.

However, within Fireworks you can also export png's as a png8, which
provides a palette based colour model (like gif's) and which many believe
only offers a 1 bit transparency option. However, if we play with some of
the settings we are able to offer similar semi-transparency colors as a
png32.

So if you use the export wizard and set it to export as png8 with indexed
transparency, you will see the palette colours have been flattened and you
are offered one, single transparent colour.

However, if you change these settings to alpha transparency, you will notice
a few small "chunks" cut out of the some of the palette colours. These are
the new semi-transparent colours.

The only downside is that complicated fade effects on images are not seen on
IE5.5 & 6, but it still is a transparent image.

This works for IE5.5 and above (I haven't tested lower than that), FF,
Safari and Opera, so it's a winner all round.

Also, the generated image files are smaller, which will increase delivery
time, and , more importantly, there is no need to implement hacks,
javascript files or any other third party coding, making the total delivery
package smaller and therefore increasing the speed of your site.

Hope the above helps you all.

I am planning on writing an article on the web design forum I moderate (
www.webforumz.com) around this, once complete I shall let you know so you
can bookmark it for future reference.

Stew

2008/6/10 IceKat <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:

> Hey,
>
> I recently looked this up for someone else. I've found this link (below) to
> work well for regular images but don't seem to do much for background images
> pulled in with CSS. However having said that I've used this script without
> much trouble for quite a while.
>
> As for the 800x600 thread. I've been interested in reading the replies and
> thank everyone responding to my thread. I asked because I was making a fixed
> width layout which was looking very odd on my computer when made to fix for
> an 800x600 and my screen being a wide screen. Some of you might be glad to
> know I've since started trying to make it fluid width but it's been great to
> read all the replies and get the opinion of everyone.
>
> IceKat.
>
> PNG Link: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bobosola/pnghowto.htm
>
>
> Michael Persson wrote:
>
>> HI people,
>>
>> I have tried to not use transparency for years as it is not working IE6
>> properly.
>>
>> I have not a situation where i need it and there is no way out, I have
>> tried some
>> tricks and there are some that works half way to the full solution.
>>
>> There is a solution with a js file called htc somethnig where i get the
>> transparency
>> working but only in one of the images i need them to appear.
>>
>>
>> Does anyone have a clever full functional solution for this transparency
>> crap
>> to make work ?
>>
>> I have grey hair already but its starting to fall of soon...
>>
>>
>> Michael in Athens
>>
>>
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Re: [WSG] Marking up company logo

[Stewart Griffiths]

For the title you should really switch it around so that it is more specific
to the page, and will be much better for SEO purposes.

Page title - Section Title - Site title

For the Logo &  aspect, I would personally use the gilder/levin image
replacement technique, using within this the "Page title - Section Title -
Site title" combination within a  tag.

This way you get a fancy logo, plus the benefits of you keyword rich "Page
title - Section Title - Site title" combination to help boost your on-site
SEO.

Stew


2008/6/3 Paul Collins <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:

> To throw another question in here, should the page title therefore be
> different to the main heading of the page? I thought the content in
> the page title should be as specific as possible for SEO, including
> the heirarchy?
>
> So, for example
>
> Site title - Section Title - Page title
>
> And
>
> Page title, section title or Logo?
>
> Once you have it in the title tag, does it matter whether you have the
> logo in a H1 or not? Should you have something different between the
> title and main heading?
>
> Cheers
>
>
> 2008/6/3 Darren West <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
> > My 2 pence ...
> >
> > Page title - Site title
> > 
> >
> > 
> > 
> >Page Title
> >...
> > 
> > 
> >Search
> > > 
> > 
> >Navigation
> > > 
> >
> >
> > 2008/6/3 Rick Lecoat <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
> >> On 3 Jun 2008, at 07:04, Matijs wrote:
> >>
> >>> How about:
> >>>
> >>> The Times
> >>>
> >>> Homepage
> >>>
> >>> There's water on mars
> >>>
> >>> 
> >>>
> >>> The Times
> >>>
> >>> Financial stuff
> >>>
> >>> Redmond stock going down further
> >>>
> >>> etc...
> >>>
> >>> Where would one fit in a company logo? Wouldn't a background image be
> >>> best? And if so, where?
> >>
> >> My understanding of the  tag is that it is the title of the page,
> not
> >> the name of the site, and ideally every page should have a different
> title
> >> (at least from an SEO point of view) appropriate to its content -- so
> the
> >> above examples are not ideal IMHO.
> >>
> >> Re. logos as background images, that leaves anyone viewing the page
> without
> >> styles turned on out in the cold as far as seeing the company logo is
> >> concerned. Dan Cederholm uses a method whereby the logo is both a
> background
> >> image *and* a regular img tag, depending on whether you have styles on
> or
> >> off. That's my preferred technique.
> >>
> >> I just put the logo image in a  and keep the H1 for the
> >> page's own title.
> >>
> >> --
> >> Rick Lecoat
> >>
> >>
> >>
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