My New Site

It doesn't matter if you do all the error checking in the world, or if you have the most beautiful graphics, if your site or application design isn't usable, it's not going to do well. Get input and advice on usability and user interface issues here.

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ed209
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My New Site

Post by ed209 »

Hello everyone,

so after many months of hard graft I have finally finished and launched the Beta version of my site http://www.artistsonline.org.uk . It's been a steep learning curve, using a framework for the first time, but now that I have I will never look back. The framework I used was Seagull ( http://seagullproject.org/ ) and it has made the job so much easier.

I just thought I shout it out from the roof tops... comments welcome :lol:
Grim...
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Post by Grim... »

On the about page (and any others, I suspect), the encoding is not correct, so all the apostrophe's show as question marks.
In Firefox.

On the plus side, it sure is pretty.

[edit]and IE.
Also, there is a js error on line 1022 of prototype.js
Last edited by Grim... on Wed Jun 28, 2006 9:43 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Chris Corbyn
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Post by Chris Corbyn »

Glad you got it finished 8)
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Post by Jixxor »

Very nice indeed, smooth layout and easy navigation.

One thing about the navigation is that it tends to open up all the drop-down menus if you browse off of one. Example: If I open the sub-menu for "About Artists Online" while the other sub-menus below it are close and browse to the link "For Artist" the page will load with all sub-menus "opened". Not sure if you want to worry about this or not, just thought I'd mention it. :D
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ed209
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Post by ed209 »

thanks for the feedback,

re: menu, it's supposed to work like that, and here's my reasoning for it - what do you think?

Eventually, there will be loads of links but instead of just listing them down the side all ready to go they are divided into sections. Once you open a section it stays open for your entire visit (unless you close it) to save opening and closing them. I figured it would be more annoying to have to keep openning sections rather?

js errors, there are quite a few but I hope they are because I roughly chopped out the drag/drop lightbox-come-shopping basket before going live!


:D
Jixxor
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Post by Jixxor »

Personally, I enjoy having the ability to open and close the tabs that provide the links, especially when there is a large link content. As it is right now, even if I close the tab and continue my browsing, every time the page loads all the tabs are re-opened, regardless of what I've closed.

Sorry if I wasn't specific in my original reply. :P
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Luke
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Post by Luke »

Excellent. I found it VERY easy to get around. Great work!
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RobertGonzalez
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Post by RobertGonzalez »

Very clean looking site. I like the use of color throughout. The font size is just right and everything seems to fit. It seemed like it was taking a while to load when viewing it in Opera, but everything worked. Good job.
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jayshields
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Post by jayshields »

Great website! Edit - I've just had a second look at it, and I'll go as far as saying it's actually one of the best websites I've seen in a good while. I especially like the way pictures are viewed.

If I'm nit-picking, the only thing that niggles at me is when you click through the account types the little pointy circle with the price in it is a different size on the free one and the £4.99 one, maybe they could be *exactly* the same size - that's how close your website is to perfection; I can't find anything but that!

On a side note, I don't understand that Seagull thing, does it just make all the website for you? I thought it was just some sort of engine for the back-end but theres screenshots of a management type interface that looks like it does everything.

Did you design/code the website, etc? What did the framework do for you?
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Chris Corbyn
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Post by Chris Corbyn »

jayshields wrote:Great website!

On a side note, I don't understand that Seagull thing, does it just make all the website for you? I thought it was just some sort of engine for the back-end but theres screenshots of a management type interface that looks like it does everything.

Did you design/code the website, etc? What did the framework do for you?
Seagull looks like an "application manager" as opposed to a standard framework. The subtle difference being that it provides templates and user account setup/logging, permissions module creation etc out of the box (backed by a database). Applications run on another layer inside of the manager. I could be wrong, I've never used it but it does look cool.
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ed209
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Post by ed209 »

wow - thanks for the compliments! It means a lot more to be judged by your peers.

I designed the site myself (i.e. html and css). I used a few libraries for effects like protoype http://prototype.conio.net/, scriptaculous http://script.aculo.us/ and lightbox http://www.huddletogether.com/projects/lightbox/.

Regarding the 'Framework' I used Seagull http://seagullproject.org/ which I chose because it had such good reviews. Because I'm not a hardcore programmer there was a bit of a learning curve but now I know my way round making new features is really easy.

I'm probably not the best person to describe what it is. As for what it did for me, a lot of functionality already comes with the default download and there is an admin control panel ( which I think is the screen shots you saw). User management is taken care of, sign up, editing and managing users is made really easy.

Adding new functionality is really easy too. You create a new module to handle the functionality you're after, add a few html templates and it plugs straight into the site. I could write an essay on what I know about it (which is probably about 10% of what it can actually do) but you're probably best trying it out for yourself, it's worth a go as once you know your way round, application development is a cinch!
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Chris Corbyn
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Post by Chris Corbyn »

Yep Seagull certainly sounds like an application manager by the way you describe the "control panel" and users taken care of etc. We use one at work but we're actually the ones developing it as a sort of bi-product of the main application. You can loads in multiple applications using the same manager and switch between them if your userid is a member of more than one of the apps. Modules are created on three parts but first there's an entry in the DB for it and it's permissions. The parts consist of a page controller, a model and a view component/template. The application manager provides the framework for the DB, sesison management, report creation etc etc etc... They come in damn useful for rapid modular development.
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jayshields
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Post by jayshields »

Those 3 things you linked to look ace! Gotta look into using them myself...

Cheers.
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christian_phpbeginner
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Excellent Design !!

Post by christian_phpbeginner »

Hi, your site is very creative ! Although from the usability perspective would say that the navigation make the user a bit work by having to click on one of them first just to browse on sub pages...but however your site makes me want to stay there as long as I can...it creates a comfortable feeling, and not to make me rush on browsing the contents. So I guess, the nuances there suits the navigation, and infact it made me curious, what would come up when I click one of the navigation buttons.

Indeed, your site refreshes my eyes, and I owe you a thanks.

Chris
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