icarus | Website design review

Website design review

Quick question:

I've heard back from some people that they have trouble reading my website.

Do you?

If so -

1) is the print too small (11 pt in windows, 10 pt in navigation)?
2) is the blue and black theme too dark?
3) are there broken links?
4) do you want me to list fics by pairing?
5) ...other problems?

Thank you. The website's there for you, so however stylish it is -- if it's not readable, then I need to fix it.

ETA: So far it's pretty universal that -
a) the strikethrough needs to be removed
b) the links need to be a different, brighter colour
c) there needs to be a larger margin on the individual story pages
d) list fics by pairing instead of by rating
e) do not use heading < h 1 > style as it does not work in some browsers
f) bump point size up one notch (11 pt & 12 pt)
g) ... I'm not sure how to fix the navigation/pix overlap found in some browsers. Hmm.

ETA2: I've updated some of my pages with larger fonts, yellow instead of the cross-out mouse over, removed the < h 1 > tag in places. Haven't fixed the margin, and a new issue has arisen: some find the frame in the middle of the page difficult and too-small. Correcting that... would involve a none-too-pretty (in terms of the work involved) change to the picture framing it.

Please keep the critiques coming, again, this came from a few private, hand-over-the-mouth mumbles from friends.

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It's beautiful, but the link font is a tad dark. Had no problem with font size whatsoever. I love the site, on the whole. Just lovely.

*nods*

Okay. I'll fix that link colour.

icarus

I've gotten used to the Blue/Black scheme- it's your website, your call on style, after all.
In tangent with the font size, I was wondering if the middle navigation window could be a bit bigger. Then the font size could grow a bit? I like what you're doing, putting the navigation links on the side, and showing the content in the inner window.

best,

FS

Actually, the site was a gift from Sam, so I can take no credit for anything but the story pages. So I don't know how to make the middle window smaller, but i can make the font larger.

Icarus

I find the link color a little hard to read on the background... maybe a lighter color blue would work better, or a different color entirely.

And also (this may be just a Mozilla problem, I don't know) when you click the 'by pairing', 'by type', or other categories like that the explanation overlaps the stories. (For example, on the 'pairings' page, the text that says "Listing by pairing... hmmm." overlaps 'Harry/Ron' and the first link.)

I like the color scheme and the navagation on the whole, though.

*nods*

Two votes for the a brighter link colour. Yeah, I'm a littler older and I have trouble with it, too.

Hmm. I think I have not use the < h 1 > style for the heading then. It seems that isn't read correctly by Mozilla. There's one other person with the same problem in Mozilla.

Good that you like it. I'll pass that along to Sam.

Icarus

A quick note: On the front page in the frame when you enter the site, the link to the Percy fest is missing the http:// at the beginning of the link URL.

^_^

Whoops. Thank you.

Icarus

1) is the print too small (11 pt in windows, 10 pt in navigation)?

That's a little small for me, but not so tiny that I'd hit the back button. (But then, I have bad eyes, to someone with good ones it might be fine!)

2) is the blue and black theme too dark?

I don't think so. It's pretty and I can read it (even with my work computer stuck on some too-dark setting).

3) are there broken links?

None that I found!

4) do you want me to list fics by pairing?

I'm fine with any way of listing them. :)

I think I'm going to bump the fonts up one font size.

Icarus

Great, thanks!

Since you asked :-)

- The darker blue text on black is almost impossible for me to read. The lighter color on the mouseovers would help a bit, if the strikeout effect didn't add to the confusion.
- The fancy blue border around the middle part also obscures some of the menu text.
- The menu text is small - I don't generally mind adjusting that on the browser side - I had to zoom 150%. And the blue border still obscures some of the menu text.
- In the "By Pairing" and "By Type" lists, some text writes on top of other text near the top of that frame.
- The fics themselves are great, easy to read. Darker text on a light background is ideal (for me) for fic reading, and it's a good size. Though there is abolutely no margin - the text is crunched right up against the sides of the window, it's particularly bothersome to have no margin on the left side.

I'm viewing this with Windows, Mozilla, 1024x768. I have no idea if I'm an average reader - I would always rather use a plain, even dull, fic site, since I'm there to read. I know looks matter much more to some other people.

Thank you. Sam did the design for me, and I gave her carte blanche, the only part I did was the very simple story layout. It's lovely but I have to admit, I struggle with the small print (er, 36 and near-sighted...) and the darker fonts.

Two people with Mozilla have mentioned the problem with the overlap. I think the < h 1 > heading tag just doesn't work right in Mozilla.

I really do have to put more of a margin into those fics.

Icarus

print size is fine

black and blue is pretty hard, but then I'm not a big fan of black backgrounds in general.

black and blue is pretty hard

The dark blue links on top of the black, or all of the print?

Icarus

all of it.

I have terrible problems with the blue on black, regrettably.
(Then again, I'm one of those folks who tends to do black on white, and not do pics of any sort. Peril of looking at the web for function, rather than pretty ;-) )

While I'm whining on, I can't stand inline frames, either.

...but on good notes, thank you for making the navigation outside the frame, since then I can read it nicely in my text browser, and it makes it so much easier to snarf with some of my scripts.

All of that said, it's your website, so do what you like! I'm just a neanderthal ;-)

*nods* Okay, no dark blue on black.

Hey, like Frank Lloyd Wright says, "Form follows function."

Icarus

I find those tiny frames set in a page incredibly frustrating and usually hit the back button in no time :( So restrictive. I definitely wouldn't be able to read fics in that, so I was relieved they went to outside links. I haven't read enough by half of your stuff, so will be sneaking on there at work tomorrow for a read *g*

Other than that, the strikethroughs are the only thing that make it hard to read for me.

:D Read away!

I'll get rid of the strike-throughs, quite a few didn't like that.

Icarus

Unfortunately, even with my reading glasses (the post forty eye syndrome LOL!) I have a hard time with dark colors. So blue and black make it particularly difficult for me. I wouldn't mind the print being enlarged a bit more too. It's hell getting older. :-D

A friend of mind did this for me, and at 36, yeah, I have a bit of trouble with "fine print" and the dark colour.

Icarus

It's a very pretty webpage. I prefer very basic things for myself, but you have the best of both worlds: the funky main page, and the very easy to read story pages. I especially like that on your main story pages the background seems to be a solid block of colour. The SSFQF, for example, has a little repeating background thing that makes me see stars after a while.

Your link text (the dark blue) is a little hard on the eyes, but it seems pretty fine to me.

The graphics are very funky. Nice work. :)

Oh, I didn't design it. There were two people who wanted to do the Percy fest, so I asked the one who came along 2nd to do my site. I gave her carte blanche since this was a gift and I had little time at that point to make any design decisions. I only designed the fic-pages.

icarus

Ahh, all good. It's still cool, wherever you got it. :)

Oh, it comes back to me now.

I use Netscape for a browser, and I've had problems with some of your links not working in the past. Now I have to hit the link just in the right place. The type overlaps in the left-hand menu pretty badly as well.

And whine, whine, I'm old and have a hard time with dark contrasts. And small type. But the writing ability of the web site owner - well, I have no complaints there, whatsoever!

But the writing ability of the web site owner - well, I have no complaints there, whatsoever!

*grins* Thank you!

*nods vigorously* Yeah, I'm a bit older and I have to, er, squint at my own site. A friend of mine did it for me and so, not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but, if I wasn't the only one....

Icarus

1) yes
2) yes
3) haven't noticed so far but I have gone through only a few fics
4) yes

*salutes*

Okay, will take care of it. It might take a while to resort by pairing.

Icarus

Contribution from someone who needs reading glasses to avoid eye strain induced headaches.

1) A little bit. I think even 11pt./12 pt. would help.
2) Only on those darkest blue links. The overall look is gorgeous and readable.
3) Not that I found.
4) I would read any pairing you wrote. But when I go to the website of an author that's new to me, I prefer easy access to the pairings I like best. For example, I read all your Draco/Ron first and liked it so much I ventured into everything else.
5) In the window the header overlaps.

Hope it helps.

*nods* Okay, I'll get to work on it. The list by pairing might take a while, but we can make the rest of it more readable pretty quickly. Thank you!

Icarus

I love your site, it is beautiful. I have no trouble reading, but listing fics by pairings sounds like a good idea.

Thank you, I'll pass that along to Sam (the illustrious designer). It'll take a while to resort them by pairing. *nods*

Icarus

Before reading your stories, I would carefully set my browser options so both frames and stylesheets are disabled. Main problems :-

Tiny blue text on black background can work as a site colour scheme, but only on sites where the text is irrelevant.
Move your mouse over the links and the cursor changes to a double-headed arrow (as is used to resize windows). First impression - WTF? And sometimes links go yellow on mouseover and sometimes they get crossed out. Second impression - WTF?
Most of the site links open in a little itty-bitty frame in the middle of the page.
If I select "1024 x 768" the little-bitty frame now appears in the middle of the page instead of the left hand side. I'm not sure that's an advantage. And the frame makes it difficult to read the text, difficult to bookmark, difficult to print. Really horrible. I have a large monitor and I want to use it; I don't want to be restricted to a box which is 400 pixels square.

*nods*

My usual criteria is simplicity, large fonts, with minmal graphics and doo-dads. But this site was a gift to me, so who am I to complain?

But now I'm trying to correct it so it works for everyone.

The links originally crossed out, and people didn't like that. So I changed it to yellow last night on some of my pages to test that option.

The double-headed arrow I tried to get rid of last night -- no one mentioned it, but it doesn't work for me as it's difficult to aim. I'm not at the technical level of the designer of this site, so I'm not sure how to change it.

The stories do not pop up in the tiny frame, so they can be booked-marked and printed individually. So I don't think that part's a problem. If you pop open a story link, you'll see what I mean. The frame does feel too small and crowded. As for bookmarking say, the updates page, I really don't want people to do that in case I ever radically change the site.

Thank you. I've been getting the impression that people are frustrated with the design of the site, and I'm grateful that you let me know. I think I need to take it back to the designer and back to the drawing board completely. Because the fancy picture frame and tiny box is a fundamental design issue that makes the story descriptions difficult to read and inaccessible.

I may take this down and put up a blank no-graphics site in the interim.

Icarus

The double-headed arrow I tried to get rid of last night -- no one mentioned it, but it doesn't work for me as it's difficult to aim. I'm not at the technical level of the designer of this site, so I'm not sure how to change it.

Boring techie html-ly stuff - someone's tried to comment out the styles at the top of the page with
This doesn't work with styles, you have to use /* ... */ instead.
E.g.

/*
body, p, td {font-face: times new roman; font-size: 10pt; color: skyblue}
.....
*/

And the double-headed arrow is caused by cursor: nw-resize

If you'd like any help give me a shout. CSS/HTML I can do.

I'm on a Mac using Safari as a browser. It's okay for me except for a few of the links have some odd overlapping. Also the link to the Percy Fest doesn't seem to work. The blue and black doesn't really work for my 36 year old eyes...especially at work so this is a "home only" site for me.

Here's a few screenshots of those that didn't work so well for me.
http://www.geocities.com/tplemel/icarus_bytype.pdf
http://www.geocities.com/tplemel/icarus_essays.pdf
http://www.geocities.com/tplemel/icarus_linkspage.pdf

If those links don't work for you, let me know.

Of course, the content rocks as always!

It's that < h 1 > tag again, in all of those instances. I'll have to get rid of it, as it doesn't seem to be read correctly by a lot of browsers.

Icarus

I was just at the site, and somehow in Netscape the side margins in 800x600 format have both ended up on the same side, overlapping one another (Screencap (http://www.geocities.com/dei_chan/netscape.html), if you want one). It's fine in 1024x768. At first I thought that it was just because I was viewing it with my resolution at 1024x768 (when asked to chose my size I tend to forget that I switched away from 800x600 awhile back) so I switched back to 800x600 just to make sure, but it was still crammed together.

Oh for Pete's sakes. *shakes head* I'm learning that the fancier the site, the more likely it is to turn bizarre when you view it in a different browser.

*looks at site in frustration*

I think I'm going to escape and work on the next part of Beg Me For It. *runs madly into the street*

Icarus

Call me an idiot but, I took me a while to figure out how to access it, when I saw the numbers in there I thought is was like a background option for the picture. Yeah you can laugh out loud. I figure it out.
Just adding my 2 cents.

You know. That is exactly what would happen to me! Thank you. I'll see if I can make it clear.

Icarus

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