On 06/06/01 15:12 (GMT-0400) James Cutts apparently typed:

> Since you didn't answer my original question, and instead answered a  
> completely different one, I thought I take a quick look at your site  
> - after all someone with such strongly held convictions on web design  
> should surely have something impressive to show.

> I was disappointed.

On my site, design doesn't mask the content. The content is the reason
it exists. Like most sites, it should live or die on that basis alone.

> It doesn't start well with the layout. Or rather the lack of layout.  

Layout can get in the way. It purposely starts out extra simple, leaving
a minimum of choices to make.

> There are several things competing for my attention - the giant mazda  
> banner, the bizarre form with the strangely asymmetric animated gif.

Several things, but considerably fewer than on typical web pages.

> Trapped glumly between these two objects are a bunch of purple links, 

Purple/blue are the standard web link colors. You may remember those.
They're the ones you see used for links on unstyled pages, and on pages
with author colors disabled. I don't confuse visitors by making them
guess whether or not they are links.

> highlighted with a garish yellow.

Yellow is the color of warning. That background highlight color only
happens on mouseover on offsite links. The idea is to promote a pause
that might cause the user to notice that link characteristic in his
statusbar in those cases where onsite and offsite links may be intermingled.

> The whole lot is simply centered in
> one big messy column with not even the slightest attempt to make it  
> remotely attractive.

In your opinion. Some people prefer simplicity to ostentation.

> As soon as i click on one of these links i am taken to a new page -  
> with no idea how to get back.

I give my visitors credit for knowing how to use their browser's back
button. Any link that purports to take one back to where one came from
in fact causes one to proceed forward to a previously visited page, not
back.

> Some navigation appears periodically

Once into the site more than two pages, sometimes more options than
going back to the previous page makes sense, so some options other than
the back button do make sense and are provided. You'll notice though
when the primary content of the page is text, rather than links to
choose among, that they number very few.

> with wobbly rollover affects as the text scales - nice. I click on it 

Sometimes.

> and whoosh it disappears, leaving me stranded once again. Felix, the  

Huh?

> first rule of web design is to have constant, consistent navigation.

The first rule is content. Without that, navigation is pointless.

> The number of fonts used on the site is also detrimental -

Since much of the site is about fonts, it's hardly possible that a
considerable number aren't required. Sometimes I specify no font, or
only a generic, for the primary content, which means you're seeing your
own choice. Only you can change that.

On any given page that doesn't exist primarily to render multiple
font-families, the number is usually limited to less than 4, and I
believe always to less than 5, not counting any text that may be
embedded in an image.

> and the blue text is hard to read.

It passes the http://www.w3.org/TR/AERT#color-contrast test. You can
turn styles off if blue is a problem for you. Or you can make it bigger
with your browser's text resizer.

> The overall feeling is that this isnt so much a website as a jumble  
> of differently formatted and 'styled' web pages with no common theme  
> or navigation

That's pretty much what collections of anything tend to be, assemblages
of differently styled things, often with no relationship to each other.
It isn't like other websites, and needn't look like other websites, or
work like them. It's simple enough that the differences between it and
typical websites should pose little to no problem for its intended audience.

My guess is that you missed your cue. The index.html page has a grand
total of 6 links. The one intended for you was right smack dab in the
middle of your viewport, if your viewport was of typical height and width.

> No page designed for the web requires such poor design. None.

It's your opinion that it's a poor design. You're stuck in the cookie
cut magazine page paradigm. I'm not.
-- 
"All have sinned & fall short of the glory of God." Romans 3:23 NIV

 Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409

Felix Miata  ***  http://mrmazda.no-ip.com/

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