Critiques and advice greatly appreciated

[BOF]

I'd be grateful for any feedback on http://www.dbdiving.com (or dbdiving.com - one or two of my friends can't access via the www address).

Thanks in anticipation - and regards to all.

Chris Nowell

[Stephen]

came up fine for me, and hey i like those bubbles! looks like discovery bay's a fun place to be--especially this time of year.

[Armand]

The "Get IE" button isn't linked....lol.[nbsp][nbsp]I sort of like that![nbsp][nbsp](Sorry, NS preference).[nbsp][nbsp]Sort of seemed out of place, either overall or layout wise.

Might suggest left align text for the main page.[nbsp][nbsp]Tends to be easier to read I think. But that's me.[nbsp][nbsp]Plus most of the sub pages I saw were more left align text wise.

Otherwise, very nice and well done I thought.

[Dan Kaplan]

I agree with Armand about left aligning the text -- generally a good idea for anything other than a heading.[nbsp][nbsp]Overall, it looks very nice.[nbsp][nbsp]Clean and friendly.

One thing I would try to do on the front page is tighten it up vertically by using more of the available width.[nbsp][nbsp]There is a fair amount of white space above both sets of buttons (top and bottom), and the mailing list box could probably go beside the Padi logo if the diver/bubble graphic moved to the right (width=100% on the table?).

Dan

[BOF]

Thank you, Stephen and Armand, for your response.

I think I'll take that IE button off - and I take your point, Armand about the text.

Thanks again for taking the time to review the site.

Dan: thanks, too.[nbsp][nbsp]I deliberately kept the page width to about 625 to be sure of accommodating smaller monitors.[nbsp][nbsp]Is this a good idea, do you think?[nbsp][nbsp]I see what you mean about the white space, though, and will try to expand the width somewhat.

Oh - and I've now added a date/time script at the top which takes away a bit of the white space!

Best regards,

Chris
[This message has been edited by BOF (edited 06-15-00@11:22 am)]

[Justin]

I believe I can go as high as 600 pixels only if you set all margins to zero. However, the trend these days is to go 100% again. Hm. Interesting, that everyone did that before, and the 600 pixel table was "the way to go". Now suddenly we're back to the "wider is better" theory...

I tried to stick the Aota forums in a fixed width table, and it just was not accepted at all... so this is what we have (and I like it now). Works in any resolution and on any size monitor ( ;)[nbsp][nbsp]), though the text links at the top go off to the right at 640 x 480... even on a big monitor :P

------------------
Justin Nelson
FutureQuest (http://www.FutureQuest.net/index.php) Support

[Dan Kaplan]

Hi Chris,

Allowing for smaller monitors (resolution settings (Justin! ;)[nbsp][nbsp])) is a good idea.[nbsp][nbsp]However, your buttons account for a width of nearly 800, so I don't see any reason to confine the rest of the page to less width.[nbsp][nbsp]I generally prefer to size the outer table to 100% and fit everything inside it accordingly.

Dan

p.s.[nbsp][nbsp]625 might be a bit high, 20-30 pixels is usually allowed for the scroll bar and other variances, leaving about 610-620 on a 640x480 setting.

[David]

Nice job, Chris.[nbsp][nbsp]I like the fact that you placed the link buttons at the top and the bottom of the page.[nbsp][nbsp]However, I have two questions regarding the buttons.[nbsp][nbsp]Why are the ones at the bottom different than the ones on the top?[nbsp][nbsp]Why two (2) "About Us" buttons on the bottom?

David Herdlinger
www.herdlinger.com (http://www.herdlinger.com)
david@herdlinger.com

[BOF]

Thanks for your response, David.

The button problem is a glitch in the program I use - NetObjects Fusion.[nbsp][nbsp]It sometimes confuses buttons and banners when the site is FTP-d.[nbsp][nbsp]I'll try and correct it.

Thanks again for your time.

Best regards,

Chris