Port32.com - your opinions welcomed with open arms.

[icarus]

*Icarus tap dances -- badly -- to get your attention*

*hooks cane over her arm*

Okay. Now that you're here.

Ever click on a website and wish that you could collar the designers and tell them, "no. Just... no" before they published the site? Dreamed that you could have prevented the agony of thousands, nay, millions of internet viewers?

Now you can.

www.port32.com is about to go live and part of the design team (i.e., my dad) is looking for people to describe their experience browsing the site.

As many people as possible. As soon as possible.

I can already say that since I'm running Win98 with a processor too slow for Flash? There's no way I'd spend ten seconds waiting for their flashy-graphics to load.

*rubs hands together* I've always wished I could do this... some designers must be stopped.



In other news: Last night I dreamed I had a sleek baby porpoise in my arms that kept nuzzling me with his bottlenose.

And the porpoise purred.



ETA: florahart just pointed out I forgot to mention -- just go ahead and post your reactions/experience right here in comments.

Comments

[florahart]

and how does one convey one's experience? via you?

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Comment right here. :D

Icarus

[shoemaster.livejournal.com]

Easy to browse, I liked the ability to see the little previews of the houses as the slideshow went on. Not really a fan of the music on the front page though.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Cool, thank you. I'm running Win98 with a slow processor, Flash and Javascript disabled (and the sound off). You should see what this site does on my system.

Icarus

[florahart]

OK. I don't hate it, but then, I have high-speed. Firefox version ...1.5.0.4, I think.

The circle image breaks for me when I open up many of the options that pull down--for instance, under the homes, all but the top one do it. the circle cuts off at the bottom of the bar it's mostly on, and then the bottom arc of it, which is attached to the image that's being opened? is like, a quarter of an inch low. Clearly not as intended.

The overview map is kind of a lot of pop-up and image and actual picture and loading and stuff for just a graphic to block out a big chunk.

It's utterly unintuitive to me that the subscription and question forms are on the construction and energy-efficiency pages rather than on the contact page. I mean, it's fine that they're there, but if I were looking for a place to ask questions, I'd probably look on the contact page.

The featured plan thing (that's in the bottom part of that page and brings up a pop-up) comes up with a box with instruction that are in, like, 5 point font. Can't even take a stab at what they say. And then I clicky the button on that, and I get a teeeeeeeeny floorplan with tabs that have an even SMALLER font! Gah! I mean, okay, on my monitor, which I admit is fuzzy but still, this pop-up comes up as like 7 by 9 inches or something, and the floorplan on it is ...1.5 by 2 inches? That doesn't make sense, so I gather is not as intended.

Hm.

Ohhhhhh. None of those things are a problem in IE 6. This is a browser compatibility issue. Well. Location of question form is still an issue, and I still think the overview map is a bit much, but the rest seems to work like it looks like is intended.

[florahart]

Oh yes, and the sound--there is no OFF option! *hates that as a general rule*

[kymbr.livejournal.com]

YES! Everything she said. I got the broken image on the home page and the teeny tiny floor plan as well.

My system is maxed out to the hilt, so the flash was no problem, but the sound has got to go. Or some kind of OFF switch.

Other than the nit picky details, very nice. Good color scheme, nice pictures of the residents. Made me want to visit!
Music wasn't THAT bad, but just the fact that it was playing. :)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I feel that way about sound and Flash players. Please let me turn it off, give me a choice.

This is asking me to download a flash player every page and that slows down my navigation quite a bit.

I'm getting that break across the logo, too, and I'm running IE6.something, but in Win98, which might make a difference.

Icarus

[moxie-brown.livejournal.com]

No music, noooooooo!

But I love it visually, very well done. Nice graphics. Don't like the fade-out/in of the house galleries, I just want to see the images! I hate that the main menu options aren't clickable. You have to use the drop-down menu to atually follow a link, bleh. The flash galleries in general are slow to load, I think now there are better javascript/AJAX/web 2.0 options than a flash slideshow.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

None of the maps work for me because I do not use Flash and I have Javascript disabled. I get a complete blank page.

I've filled one of the forms to see how they work. Like a charm.

Icarus

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I'll have to turn my sound on just so I can hear this ever-so-popular music. ;)

I think now there are better javascript/AJAX/web 2.0 options than a flash slideshow.

Oh that's cool, I didn't know that. Any way to get the think to stop asking me to download a flash player every page? Because with my slow system, no, it ain't happenin.'

Thank you for the feedback, this is helpful.

Icarus

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I've got to turn on my sound to enjoy the lovely music. :D

What browser are you using? Firefox? Because florahart discovered that the broken logo happened in Firefox but not IE6. But I'm getting the broken logo in IE, so I'm confused.

Icarus

[scarah2.livejournal.com]

Even on broadband it takes too long to load. And yes, music is gah-tastic.

They also might be interested in the results from:
http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/wso.php
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.port32.com%2F
http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/validator?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.port32.com%2F&usermedium=all

On the plus side, the general design and layout I find very pleasing. With a little optimization and a rethinking of using Flash or not, it could be very nice.

[swatkat24.livejournal.com]

I have a fast connection, so I had no problem loading it. It's visually pleasing, and quite easy to browse. But there's the logo on top that keeps breaking (I have IE 5. or is it 5.5?). And I think I prefer it without the background music.

[scarah2.livejournal.com]

Duh, I can't link to the speed analyzer results (the top link that I put). Instead go here http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/index.html and put in the url.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Oh, see, my judgment on loading time is bound to be skewed because I'm running a 42K dial-up. It takes three seconds just for the pull-down menus to appear.

That's cool about the general design, they'll be happy to hear that.

At the very least I want an option to turn off both the music and Flash.

Icarus

[scarah2.livejournal.com]

What the websiteoptimization.com is saying is that it will take 22 seconds to load on 56k, and 7 seconds to load on 128k. That's higher than optimal, but I have seen much worse.

The music is probably (I haven't checked) in the Flash. So a non-Flash option would take care of both.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Ah, that explains why I'm not getting the music.

You know, those web optimizers are great. I just ran my site through several. The graphics are too large and my SG-1 recs page is waaaaay too huge. I have to create something else to hold those recs.

Icarus

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Thank you, cool. A lot of people are getting that breaking logo -- including me. I haven't heard the background music, but I'm against putting music in as a rule. People's tastes in music vary.

Icarus

[dancing-moon.livejournal.com]

I run Firefox on Win XP, have a pretty new computer. Got real broadband, and I still think the loading time is a bit on the high side

I HATE the music. Also, house browsing is something I can see sensible adult people doing in a lull at work or during lunch... Loud, autostarting unstoppable music = not a happy boss

Got some error when I hovered above a link, but when I refreshed it went away. See screencap

My greatest problem with the site is that (since I assume it's there for selling houses?) I can not easily save or print only the images that I like. When my parents looked for hotels we often encountered that problem and it's annoying. It's a lot easier to print a couple of pics and sit in the sofa and discuss then to cluster around the comp

Can't read any instructions on "Let's see the plan" screencap and the plans themselves are completely tiny. This here? Is me going away somewhere else.

Good menu system, navigation is easy and understandable. Ah, this is for older people? Then they should be able to enlarge the text, and an alternative site which works with reading out loud equipment could be made.

Hmm. Overall, once it loads it looks like a nice site. Then you try using it and discover that arghlbg it's all Flash. If they want the images to move in a spiffy way, they should make only the slideshow Flash and use something else for the menu. It's not multi-browser compatible at all.

I can neither save images nor highlight and copy all text. It's good to be able to print things like that out, without getting the entire site every time.

And music = kill.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Great feedback. Good to know how people use the site in real life, you know? I'm passing along every syllable.

Icarus

[dancing-moon.livejournal.com]

^_^ I worked for a fandom website review place for a while. If nothing else, I learned all the ways one should not do a site.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Looks nice, easy to maneuver, the slideshow loads easily for me and the ability to stop the slideshows and look at the photos individually is easy to figure out. The music isn't even obnoxious and it only plays on the home page, but as others have said, the first thing that should load on that page is a big ol' "Music On/Off" switch. This is the sort of site people might browse at work, and you can't have music blaring while you do that.

A crucial thing: the home page of the website gives one NO CLUE as to where the heck this place is located! Bobcaygeon...Kawarthas...Lock 32...wtf? What state is it in, fergoshsakes? (In further browsing, I see it's in Ontario. Okay, then the home page should say "Bobcaygeon, Ontario.")

[aizjanika.livejournal.com]

I had to close it out right away because of the music. *g* I'm always playing my own music, so any site that has music playing is, well, I just close out that tab immediately, no matter what it is. *g* I didn't even wait for the whole site to load in. (I hope that's not too mean, but sites should not have music unless it's something you click on to play because you mean to play it.)

[siegeofangels.livejournal.com]

I hope you don't mind my replying; I'm wandering around friendsfriends.

First, I should say that I'm using Opera 7.0, with graphics turned OFF because I'm connected at 28.8kbps.

1. It would be really helpful if there was a non-image option. There are no textual links, so it's really hard for me to navigate (I can't tell what any of the menu options are, and if they're meant to be dropdown, they're dropping under the Flash screen). Most of the actual information on the site is in graphics rather than text, which is a problem.

2. Even with graphics turned on, the logo breaks where it crosses the menu.

3. The music is both nice in an NPR way, and very annoying because there's no way to turn it off. Also, it reminds me a little of Deliverance, which is probably not the effect they were going for.

4. The only page I can get to using the menu is HOME. (And CONTACT US, which takes 45 seconds to load and doesn't have any links.)

5. It takes about a minute for the flash to start playing (graphics off), and three minutes in, something's still loading. The music only takes about twenty or thirty seconds to load, so it starts playing first.

I have the feeling that if I could afford one of these homes, I'd have a better internet connection, but still, a text-only option would really help things.