Of course, I wouldn’t post this if I wasn’t open to constructive criticisms. But note that “I did not write the content” but just copy pasted as requested. Actually, the client could have logged into the admin section and “posted” the content himself, but wanted me to do it. Mostly, I just did the design.
The site is hosted on my own dedicated server, as I find even the best shared hosting providers to be less than optimal. Notice the clean, readable URLs. If not for some server-side configurations they would look like jibberish to both humans and search engines.
Other to-dos..
He wants a gallery for before, during and after photos. I’m going to install a couple of options – one integrated with the site and another separate application – and let him choose.
I will spend some time boosting it’s search engine rankings by promoting it in various ways. However, posting it here doesn’t help much in that matter, since Google and Yahoo would have to log-in to find this post.
So anyways, what ch’all think?
~ Ted W ~
Cheap Tools! – MyToolbox.net
See my work at TedsCarpentry.com
Replies
Only thing I notice on a quick scan is that the "home" button is active on the home page. I'm told that "best practices" is to hide it or make it inactive (and likewise the other buttons on pages they link to).
Otherwise looks good -- attractive and not too busy, easy to navigate.
This web site (which interestingly breaks many of its own recommendations) contains a list of guidelines: http://www.useit.com/homepageusability/guidelines.html
Thanks for brining that up. I tried to find a way to make active pages inactive on the menu, but doesn't seem to be an option. But I say thanks because you brought something else, even more important, to my attention. The URL of the "Home" button is http://aciroof.com/home-mainmenu-1, thus creating replica pages - a really big no-no for search engine ranking.
Of course, I'm going to go and fix that right now.~ Ted W ~
Cheap Tools! - MyToolbox.netSee my work at TedsCarpentry.com
The picture at the top flashes during mouse mouse movements in certain areas of the page.
Other than that, looks good.
Thanks Chucky. It doesn't do that in my browser so glad to get this kind of feedback. Not sure what I can do about it, but at least now I'm aware of it.~ Ted W ~
Cheap Tools! - MyToolbox.netSee my work at TedsCarpentry.com
I understand what is happening now.
The picture appears to change by itself on a 5s cycle. It also changes when you move your mouse between the 3 text sections below the picture.
If you move your mouse between text sections just as you are at the end of a 5s cycle, the picture above changes twice in quick succession. It looks like it is flashing.
I can also get it to flash several times by moving the mouse from the "learn more" colored bars to the white section just below. Move the mouse up and down a few times and you might see it.
That could be avoided by changing the JavaScript to check the time before each change, and not change if it's been less than, say, one second since the last change.But probably not worth the effort.
As I stood before the gates I realized that I never want to be as certain about anything as were the people who built this place. --Rabbi Sheila Peltz, on her visit to Auschwitz
Yeah, I think checking the time would be a good way to go. I wouldn't say it's not worth the time, but I would say it's probably beyond my capacity. As mentioned in my reply above, I can probably change the fade speed to make it smoother. I'll look into the timing thing while I'm at it, but not expecting too much. While the fade speed is already a part of the code and just needs editing, the check for timing thing would require introducing new code.~ Ted W ~
Cheap Tools! - MyToolbox.netSee my work at TedsCarpentry.com
I changed the timer to 10 seconds. Hopefully that will make it a little less jumpy. Unfortunately there is no setting for the fading effect during transition, which is what I think it really needs. I'm going to look into possibly hacking the code to make it a smother transition.
Maybe you didn't realize at the time that it was flashing because you were inadvertantly mousing over the 3 smaller boxes, but if this topic is any indication, you represent about 30% of the people who will visit the site. So yep, definately gotta fix that if I can.~ Ted W ~
Cheap Tools! - MyToolbox.netSee my work at TedsCarpentry.com
that's better. But you're right, it the transition between the pictures that's the problem. There is a short amount of time where the picture is white as the new one fades in. Can't you get rid of the fading completely and just have the picture change ?
That whole slideshow thingy needs reworked or, better yet, replaced. I'm looking for another solution and have a few I'm checking out now. Only drawback is they are designed as image gallery type extensions, rather than banner or ad rotators, so now sure how that's gonna work out. But soon we'll all know. ~ Ted W ~
Cheap Tools! - MyToolbox.netSee my work at TedsCarpentry.com
The home page has 4 misspellings and one typo. (insureance, workmansip, speciallized, construciton). The typo is a "the" that should be a "they". I did not look at any other pages.
Thanks for pointing it out, Ben.
Like I said, I just copy/pasted the provided content. Still, I missed it and it does reflect on my attention to detail. I'm also working on several other websites, so maybe have too many balls in the air at once. As you can see by this post, I'm a stickler about speeling. <g>
Guess I better go and correct that stuff.~ Ted W ~
Cheap Tools! - MyToolbox.netSee my work at TedsCarpentry.com
I'm sorry I didn't catch the spelling errors -- normally they stick out like sore thumbs to me (which is odd because my spelling is lousy), but I guess I was looking more at the layout and such.
As I stood before the gates I realized that I never want to be as certain about anything as were the people who built this place. --Rabbi Sheila Peltz, on her visit to Auschwitz
but I guess I was looking more at the layout and such
Obviously, I was too. <g>~ Ted W ~
Cheap Tools! - MyToolbox.netSee my work at TedsCarpentry.com
Hopefully I will represent 30% of a larger sample than the current 3 people who posted here :-)
Nice job.
I didn't see any of the above mentioned flashes.
Wait, this is a canned template...How are you charging for this, by the hour, or for the finished result?
And what's our cut?
As I stood before the gates I realized that I never want to be as certain about anything as were the people who built this place. --Rabbi Sheila Peltz, on her visit to Auschwitz
And what's our cut?
What's that, somebody cut one? I'm out'a here!~ Ted W ~
Cheap Tools! - MyToolbox.netSee my work at TedsCarpentry.com
Hi Jess,
Yep, canned template it is. What gave it away?
For this site I'm charging him $600, but keep in mind the template is just the starting point. There's a lot of work involved, plus I'm hosting it on my own server for a year. The 600 is about the lowest I could reasonable charge for this site. A better quality site with more features would cost substantially more. The features I added to this particular site include the Free Inspection request form (using Fabrik from fabrikar.com) and I'm working on a photo gallery, to be launched pretty soon. ~ Ted W ~
Cheap Tools! - MyToolbox.netSee my work at TedsCarpentry.com
I'm reminded today why I don't want to do this for a living. I spent all yesterday afternoon and evening and into this morning getting a page to look nice under Firefox and IE, then I tried Opera and kablooie! Got Opera fixed and Firefox broke. Finally got all three to work and started on some JavaScript stuff. Works fine (finally) on Firefox and Opera, but IE is getting an auth error.Nothing's standard. Kind of like if you were getting bolts and nuts from two (or three or four) different sources, and none of them matched. I scour the web for a way to do something and then find out it's only good for browser A, and not B. Finally had to give up on IE re the JavaScript stuff -- just leave that feature dead there.
As I stood before the gates I realized that I never want to be as certain about anything as were the people who built this place. --Rabbi Sheila Peltz, on her visit to Auschwitz
Life is compromize.
That's what I like about using other peoples code. The better developed stuff is already tested in all major browsers (or so they claim). I actually never know how something displays in anything other than the current versions of FF, IE and Chrome - the only browsers I have install. Until, that is, somebody comes along and points out what they see (or don't see) in some other browser.
Isn't there a website that shows website from the perspective of various browsers? I think I've seen it before but don't remember. ~ Ted W ~
Cheap Tools! - MyToolbox.netSee my work at TedsCarpentry.com
Never heard of such a website, and I'm not sure how you'd pull it off. Plus, if I had it I wouldn't make it free.
As I stood before the gates I realized that I never want to be as certain about anything as were the people who built this place. --Rabbi Sheila Peltz, on her visit to Auschwitz
http://browsershots.org/
And they do it for free ;)~ Ted W ~
Cheap Tools! - MyToolbox.netSee my work at TedsCarpentry.com
You know, it's kind of interesting: All the sites with various HTML references and other web design aids are all selling web design services. One would normally assume that someone referring to such a site doesn't need such services, but I'm guessing that lots of folks just throw up their hands and say "I give up, let's hire it done!"A site that shows your website flaws on 20 different browsers would be an ideal place to convince people they're over their head.
As I stood before the gates I realized that I never want to be as certain about anything as were the people who built this place. --Rabbi Sheila Peltz, on her visit to Auschwitz
...guessing that lots of folks just throw up their hands and say "I give up, let's hire it done!"
Kind of like the home improvement business, <g>~ Ted W ~
Cheap Tools! - MyToolbox.netSee my work at TedsCarpentry.com
Yeah, except no one was ever electrocuted by HTML.
As I stood before the gates I realized that I never want to be as certain about anything as were the people who built this place. --Rabbi Sheila Peltz, on her visit to Auschwitz
But I'll repeat my earlier statement that HTML sux. They should throw the whole thing out and start over fresh.
As I stood before the gates I realized that I never want to be as certain about anything as were the people who built this place. --Rabbi Sheila Peltz, on her visit to Auschwitz