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.  I sort of like that!  (Sorry, NS preference).  Sort of seemed out of place, either overall or layout wise.

Might suggest left align text for the main page.  Tends to be easier to read I think. But that's me.  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.  Overall, it looks very nice.  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.  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.  I deliberately kept the page width to about 625 to be sure of accommodating smaller monitors.  Is this a good idea, do you think?  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 (   ), though the text links at the top go off to the right at 640 x 480... even on a big monitor

------------------
Justin Nelson
FutureQuest Support

[Dan Kaplan]

Hi Chris,

Allowing for smaller monitors (resolution settings (Justin!   )) is a good idea.  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.  I generally prefer to size the outer table to 100% and fit everything inside it accordingly.

Dan

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

David Herdlinger
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.  It sometimes confuses buttons and banners when the site is FTP-d.  I'll try and correct it.

Thanks again for your time.

Best regards,

Chris