Site feedback?

Elizabeth

I don't know if the issue of a separate section for requesting feedback on a site was really ever resolved, but I was hoping to get some feedback on our site- specifically regarding
1) loading times, and
2) layout.

I've just revamped it and I took away some of the bells and whistles - (going back to the KISS method) so I'm curious to see if y'all have any suggestions. Also I have gone from the site being about 1/3 powered by PHP to 3/4 powered by PHP. It seemed to be sluggish on my machine. I know there are some bugs- that will be the next few days worth of work 😉.

www.giftsforengineers.com

(and yes, if you view the code, you will see a prime live example of the broken source method in action 😃)

TIA!

-Elizabeth

Mordecai

The loading time is pretty fast for me (on cable). As for layout, everything is fine except the gradient at the top. I'd much rather a straight line than a gradient, but then again, the gradient seems to be sort of a theme ("go" button, logo, giant one I'm talking about).

The image at the bottom seems not to work. URL is http://www.inflection-point.com/menu-topnolinks.gif .

I went ahead and looked at the parent directory, and it looks a tad jumbled up.

I hope you can use this information for good. 🙂

Mordecai

http://www.inflection-point.com/giftshop/MOT1102-detail.jpg (Circuitboard Square Lamp) does not exist, by the way.

Elizabeth

Thanks for the replies, Mordecai!
I know I've got a few loose ends to tie up - few missing pics and broken links that leaked through. Also agreed that the main corporate site is incredibly in need of updating as well. Next on the list! 🙂

I appreciate you taking the time to check it out and let me know what you thought!

-Elizabeth

dalecosp

I think I like the 'new' better than the 'old'...but I'd only seen the 'old' once and that was some time ago (lotta page loads since 🙂 )

Looks like it would've loaded pretty quick if I was[EDIT]n't[/EDIT] piping 'make' output through SSH over the same modem. I'll get Elli Mae to climb the pole and see if the birds have been pecking on the phone wires agin....

On a more serious note, the one thing I've noticed is that the right-hand side bar seems way over there (lots of whitespace).

Of course, I'm on a 17" with a fairly high screen res, but if it were me I'd be playing with that. Of course, it's you, not me...your site is a lot prettier than most o' mine... 🙂

Mordecai

There's a bit of whitespace on mine (21", 1600*1200, 72dpi), but not a whole lot. I think it looks fine. I didn't notice prices were right aligned at first, though.

goldbug

<nitpick>

It seems the "whitespace" (bluespace in this case) at the top (above the main content) is misproportioned/too-big in Mozilla/Phoenix.

You could probably ignore that, but we IE-haters will just grumble and move on. 🙂

</nitpick>

Elizabeth

Originally posted by goldbug
It seems the "whitespace" (bluespace in this case) at the top (above the main content) is misproportioned/too-big in Mozilla/Phoenix.

Hey, it's goldbug!! Thanks a lot for checking out the site and providing feedback on the Netscape angle. I forget you guys exist sometimes. Haha, kidding of course!

Glad to see you came to the dark side of php builder! 😃

-Elizabeth

Elizabeth

Dalecosp & Mordecai- thanks for the feedback from someone with a "big" screen- I usually try to cater to those with the smallest screen sizes (ie. 14 or 15")- it would be a damn shame to have to scroll horizontally 😉.

But I will definitely take your comments into consideration, as I think the majority of users are getting bigger and bigger screens. I really appreciate you guys taking the time to check out the site!

-Elizabeth

dalecosp

Right, I didn't check the source, but figured that perhaps you'd either used a "%" width or marked that column off the right margin with CSS; probably the latter.

I could be wrong on either point.

I just thought that if your blue border were visible on the right and the "cust support" table and maintext closer together it'd look better here. I was definitely <nitpicking> I don't really care much for people who cruise the web at 640x480 anymore...

change($subject);

Welcome, Goldbug!! 🙂

Elizabeth

Originally posted by dalecosp
I don't really care much for people who cruise the web at 640x480 anymore...

Ah yes, understood. 😉 But it seems that these are the people with the most disposable income, as they've not invested their money in updating home computer systems like we have 😃

BTW, Goldbug was another one of our PHP Meetup buddies- very cool guy!

-Elizabeth

goldbug

IMO, 640x480 is gone.

However,
800x600 still warrants some attention unfortunately (even some of our enterprise customers/users for some projects at work use 800x600).

Another thing burning in the back of my mind, is users of handheld devices w/ small screens that chew on regular html instead of/in addition to wml.

Just my 2 cents.

P.S. If it were up to me, all sites would be targetted (sp?) towards 1600x1200 or 2048x1536 or higher 🙂 (but that would require I get my 22" monitor fixed in the near future)

P.S. version 2: BTW, I'm bored at work, someone finish this SOW for me (NOT an Everquest reference) so I can work on personal stuff (shhhhh).

dalecosp

Yep, I still code most sites specifically at widths of 800 pixels. Most site footers I do state that "this site is best viewed at 800x600 or greater resolution".

Of course, I also do a Javascript check on navigator.appname that warns that most of our testing is done on IE, as that's what the majority of (l)users surf with...fortunately for the Opera/Konqueror/Mozilla crowd, I cookie it so you won't get it again for a coupla' hours 😉

As for IE users, it's me included, tho' it's mainly that I've not yet spent enough time with the man pages/hacking around to be great with XF86 yet, and I've not the patience to wait around for some bloated Windoze-like Linux auto_GUI distro to download via a shared 56K modem :rolleyes: or is it just that I'm too chintzy to dedicate topline hardware to 'Nix?? :eek:

goldbug

I guess I'm just one of the few that feel more at home in the "coziness" (take that as a joke if you like) of FreeBSD or Gentoo. 🙂 (heck, I'd be using QNX if there were more Photon apps for what I do.)
Regarding IE, I've never given IE on Solaris a try, though I've wanted to--it seems Solaris (x86) doesn't like most of my hardware.

dalecosp

Oh, I love FBSD. It's on every box that serves anything, anywhere. But I haven't bitten the big one and put it on the desktop yet. Possibly because every time I buy a complete box, it already has this other OOS (Occasionally Operating System) on it, that so many people seem to use. And when I buy just hardware, it always ends up in some other box, rather than just building me a FBSD workstation. Like I say, I figure I'll need some time to make that adjustment. It is a goal of mine, after I get the walls up and carpet down out here....