A New Phase of Design...

[michaelward]

Ok, maybe it's not that grand [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

Anyway, I'm on to the next stage of design with www.metalandplastics.co.uk (the plastic injection moulding website - woohoo!!).

I would like opinions on the design (esp. colours - links, etc.), the layout, technical browser problems, ease of reading, etc.

I would also appreaciate opinions about the speed of the site from 56k/33.6/28.8 modem users...

I do know of two issues with the site.

1) Opera 5 displays a dark blue colour next to the vertical light blue strip(??)

2)Both Opera 5 and Netscape 6.1 seem to add a lot of vertical space to the main body section, thus the background logo seems to drop off the bottom of the screen - which isn't the desirable effect unless the content goes that far down.

I have tested on the Windows PC versions of Netscape 6.1, Opera 5 and IE6 so far, other browser opinions would be appreaciated.

Plus there's still only the front page for the moment - soon there will be more [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Thanx for comments [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Michael Ward
http://LeighCenturions.net

[michaelward]

Ok, maybe it's not that grand [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

Anyway, I'm on to the next stage of design with www.metalandplastics.co.uk (the plastic injection moulding website - woohoo!!).

I would like opinions on the design (esp. colours - links, etc.), the layout, technical browser problems, ease of reading, etc.

I would also appreaciate opinions about the speed of the site from 56k/33.6/28.8 modem users...

I do know of two issues with the site.

1) Opera 5 displays a dark blue colour next to the vertical light blue strip(??)

2)Both Opera 5 and Netscape 6.1 seem to add a lot of vertical space to the main body section, thus the background logo seems to drop off the bottom of the screen - which isn't the desirable effect unless the content goes that far down.

I have tested on the Windows PC versions of Netscape 6.1, Opera 5 and IE6 so far, other browser opinions would be appreaciated.

Plus there's still only the front page for the moment - soon there will be more [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Thanx for comments [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Michael Ward
http://LeighCenturions.net

[gwpriester]

Michael

This is 200% better than your first design.

I still think you could air out the buttons a little more so they are not all bunched up.

I like the watermark and the location map graphic.

Good work.

Now you need to check with Ross Jr. about getting your buttons to work [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_eek.gif[/img]

Ah, and could you make the text a wee bit larger? I know it probably is bigger on Netscape but on IE 5.5 it's very tiny.

Gary

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[Soquili]

Hi Michael,

I like the changes you've made. The page loads in about 18 seconds on my 26.4KBps dial-up connection.

Soquili

[michaelward]

I'll have a go at spacing out the buttons a bit more.

Gary, I have posted a pic below of how the text looks on my PC, could you do something similar so I can compare plz?

Now I know this isn't really the place to ask, but does anybody know which is the most reliable method for setting a font size by CSS? There are a lot of different sizing options, but the implementation varies wildy between platform and browser, it seems. So which sizing unit is most reliable?

I'm very glad the site loads in a reasonable amount of time on a modem - which was worrying me since I only have my cable modem internet connection on this PC, I had no real way of telling [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]



Michael Ward
http://LeighCenturions.net

[michaelward]

I am currently having problems with the main server (it's gone crazy) so if you want to look at the site then you'll have to look at my temp mirror at http://www.mward82.pwp.blueyonder.co...dPP/Index2.htm

Thanx



Michael Ward
http://LeighCenturions.net

[michaelward]

The original URL should be functional again now.



Michael Ward
http://LeighCenturions.net

[Mickie]

Michael,

There is alot of debate over how to control font size with css.

Here's A List Apart article that might help.

Mickie

[michaelward]

Thanks for that, an excellent article and an eye-opener certainly!

It's unbeleiveable how broswers can render simple things so badly!

I reccomend that anybody who is serious about creating a web site using CSS (and if you're not you should be considering it!) should read this article - it'll help no end!



Michael Ward
http://LeighCenturions.net

[michaelward]

I've now added a command at the top of the site to quickly alter the size of the text in the browser, allowing the visually impaired to read the body section of the site easily.

This feature should work in IE5+, Netscape6+ on both Win and Mac apparently...

Opera doesn't support it, but already has it's own text zooming abilities.

Look at: www.metalandplastics.co.uk/Index2.htm

Michael Ward
http://LeighCenturions.net