Site Ratings & Reviews - Re: www.elarchitect.tk

Author

Re: www.elarchitect.tk

Paul

2004-09-04, 4:19 am

R_ wrote:
> Heya guys,
>
> I guess this is the right forum for this. I would like to get some opinions
> on my portfolio website. Tell me what you like, and what you dislike etc.
> http://www.elarchitect.tk
>
> Thanks a lot!
>
>

Home link points to index.html: it should be index.php.

It took me a while to notice the quote at the top and also to work out
how the side navigation functioned.

Deryck

2004-09-04, 4:19 am

"R_" <respect_richard_rich@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:4138af02$0$32124$ba620dc5@nova.planet.nl...
> Heya guys,
>
> I guess this is the right forum for this. I would like to get some
opinions
> on my portfolio website. Tell me what you like, and what you dislike etc.
> http://www.elarchitect.tk
>

I didnt like the fact that you used frames.
I didnt like the navigation with stars.
I didnt like it when some of the links (eg photos) opened up new windows.

I liked some of the content.
I liked the fact that it seems to work with javascript disabled.

The Home button doesnt work properly although a link that appears gets you
there.

> Thanks a lot!
>

You're welcome.

Deryck

Dave Patton

2004-09-04, 4:19 am

"R_" <respect_richard_rich@hotmail.com> wrote in
news:4138af02$0$32124$ba620dc5@nova.planet.nl:

> Heya guys,
>
> I guess this is the right forum for this. I would like to get some
> opinions on my portfolio website. Tell me what you like, and what you
> dislike etc. http://www.elarchitect.tk

Visually, I think the homepage looks ugly.

More importantly:
- I don't have Flash, so I do not see the navigation
menu going down the left-hand side
- my deesktop is set to 800x600, and your page is
truncated at the bottom when my browser is maximized
- it is not valid HTML:
http://validator.w3.org/check?verbo...elarchitect.tk/
- you are using frames

--
Dave Patton
Canadian Coordinator, Degree Confluence Project
http://www.confluence.org/
My website: http://members.shaw.ca/davepatton/

Chris Beall

2004-09-04, 4:19 am

R_ wrote:
> Heya guys,
>
> I guess this is the right forum for this. I would like to get some opinions
> on my portfolio website. Tell me what you like, and what you dislike etc.
> http://www.elarchitect.tk
>
> Thanks a lot!
>
>
R_,

I like the design of your RA initials logo.

I kinda like the color scheme, though I would probably put more emphasis
on the gray and less on the red and gold; it comes across pretty strong.

I like the Will Shakespeare quote.

I don't like that on my 600 X 800 screen, text goes right up against the
right side of the screen and the bottom goes BEYOND the bottom of the
screen, but there's no scroll bar to let me get at it. I used both
Netscape Navigator 7.1 and Internet Explorer 5.5. In the latter, the
navigation links are a little lower, with the "Links" link off the
bottom of the screen.

I don't like the winking arrow pointing to the menu.

I don't like that the menu items have the double-arrow background. There
are two problems here. First, text is harder to read against any kind of
textured background, i.e. not solid. Second, the white text doesn't have
sufficient contrast against the other colors. This is particularly
obvious when I hover and the yellow arrow moves under the text.

I don't like the menu hover effect. I prefer an effect that alters a
solid background, or alters something in the space around the text, but
not behind it.

I don't like that in Netscape, the first journal teaser ends with "This
summer vacation I" and I don't see the "...(read more)" that is present
on IE.

I like that if I reduce the window size, the page reflows, indicating
that you tried to make the design liquid.

I don't like that when I reduce the window size, the center column
(which normally contains the most important stuff) eventually disappears
altogether.

Although the colors are OK, I don't like the red text on a gold
background. I'd use black text on either the red or gold backgrounds,
for easier reading.

I don't like that if I try to change the text size on IE, almost none of
the text changes size. To avoid this, specify text sizes in %, using
100% for the user's default size.

I don't dislike the width of the right column, but I'd like it better if
it were 50% wider.

I don't like that you open a new browser window when going to other
pages within your own site.

I don't like ambiguous date formats. 19-02-04 can only be one thing, but
04-02-04 could be February or April, depending on where you are. 4 Feb
2004 is unambiguous.

I thought the concept of the guestbook was interesting, but I was
annoyed that I couldn't navigate to each of the three states from each
of the others:
- From 'all stars' I saw no way to get back to the initial 'one star'
mode.
- From 'join the stars' I saw no way to cancel.
- While looking at 'all stars' the (random?) 'joint the stars' star
was sometimes outside my view. At 600 X 800, the guestbook has both
horizontal and vertical scroll bars, so not all of it is visible at once.

I like that you had a <DOCTYPE> on most pages. Many don't (and you
missed at least one). I'll assume that means that you validated your HTML...

I liked the 'Emotion' animation.

I liked the photos under 'Personal Work', 'Static design'.

In the journal, I don't like the darkness of the links. Hard to read
against the black background.

I am mystified as to why you pointed us to elarchitect.tk, which only
wraps an unnecessary frame around stud.cmd.hro.nl/0554054/. This is the
second site I've seen recently that does this. Why?

I didn't like that you:
- used a lot of deprecated (obsolete) HTML, even though you are
obviously aware of CSS. Switch your DOCTYPE to STRICT, then revalidate
and replace everything it complains about with CSS.
- used frames, with no apparent need.

Suggestions:
This forum usually focuses on HTML. You either learned yours a while
back or from down-level sources. IF you want to get more proficient with
website design, read other critiques here and check out
comp.infosystems.www.authoring.stylesheets and other newsgroups to see
what others are doing.
On the other hand, if you just want to show off your traditional-media
portfolio, try to address the specific comments you got here, then move on.

Cheers,
Chris Beall

The Doormouse

2004-09-04, 4:19 am

"R_" <respect_richard_rich@hotmail.com> wrote:

> http://www.elarchitect.tk

Ouch.

Check out this link:
http://www.colormatters.com/colortheory.html

Also this one:
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=h...architect.tk%2F

The Doormouse

--
The Doormouse cannot be reached by e-mail without her permission.

Dave Patton

2004-09-04, 4:19 am

The Doormouse <doormouse@att.net> wrote in
news:Xns9559B33102C21doormouseattnet@68.12.19.6:

> Dave Patton <spam@trap.invalid> wrote:
>
> I am not sure that Richard can see all colors.
>
> The Doormouse

Well, neither can I - I'm partially colorblind,
but it still looks ugly :-)

--
Dave Patton
Canadian Coordinator, Degree Confluence Project
http://www.confluence.org/
My website: http://members.shaw.ca/davepatton/

2004-09-06, 12:17 pm

Thanks a lot!

Especially Deryck and Chris, that was really constructive feedback. As for
the doormouse, sorry but that's hardly helpful at all. You pointed out the
W3 validator that was already pointed out by others and then you tell me
about colourstudy, which is actually part of the site (if you would've
actually gone through it properly), and the colourscheme's I used for the
side are valid ones.

Maybe the red on yellow is not the very most ledgable, but I did decide this
after reconsidering various other options (it made it seem much more in line
with the rest of the site to me, and made it brighter/happier than when I
used a 'hard'contrast) I guess if you do have a valid suggestion (from a
design point of view instead of a usability point of view) on this subject.
I would be happy to hear it.

Anyway, again thanks a lot!

Richard

"R_" <respect_richard_rich@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:4138af02$0$32124$ba620dc5@nova.planet.nl...
> Heya guys,
>
> I guess this is the right forum for this. I would like to get some
> opinions on my portfolio website. Tell me what you like, and what you
> dislike etc. http://www.elarchitect.tk
>
> Thanks a lot!
>