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.
I wanted to know what you guys thing about the design, the usability, and just the idea of a new website I launched yesterday. The url is http://programmermeetdesigner.com
- On the front page, if you're going to have the whole listing highlight, I'd make it all clickable as well.
- Get rid of the ads on the individual listing page, or at least make them look different than the legitimate information.
- Was "Programmer looking for a Designer for a few jobs" supposed to be in a bunch of different font sizes - IMO that's annoying.
- I'd consider putting a bit of a synopsis right on the first page. Give the listings less room on the front page.
- "welcome!" and "latest listings" should be the same size.
- Could use some more colour
- HTML almost validates - only a couple easy errors. I'd recommend going to XHTML 1.0 Transitional rather than HTML 4.01
- CSS almost validates - change your 'cursor' property from 'hand' to 'pointer'.
- A very simple layout - that's a good thing.
Real programmers don't comment their code. If it was hard to write, it should be hard to understand.
Thanks pickle for the feeback. I'll be implementing your suggestions in a few minutes. Although I have one question: Why should I go with XHTML, what are the advantages/disadvantages? (I'm not really farmiliar with XHTML).
And yes, designers can ask for programmers, jamiel.
XHTML is just the next generation of HTML. It's 100% backwards compatible, so there's no need to worry about that. XHTML is much more strictly structured than HTML. For example, in HTML you can have <IMG...> tags or <img ...> tags. XHTML requires <img ...> tags & requires the 'alt' attribute be declared as well. XHTML is more geared towards using CSS as well.
If you want to go to XHTML, the biggest step is to convert all your tags to lowercase. Then, change your doctype & start removing errors.
Real programmers don't comment their code. If it was hard to write, it should be hard to understand.
Oh, I see. Well, all my tags are already in lower case, so I guess I'll go on to step 2: convert and remove errors. =)
Also another question, is XHTML like XML where you can create your own tags or do you still have to use the tags that the W3C defined?
Edit: Front page is now XHTML Transitional valid! Woohoo!
Last edited by kasrak on Mon Jul 24, 2006 10:33 am, edited 1 time in total.
Ok, all the pages are valid XHTML when you're not logged in =). Is there a way for me to test the pages when a user is logged in? (The code uses sessions to keep the user logged in).
Nice layout. Very clean looking. A few suggestions...
1. Add a little more color. The light background with the one shade of muted green makes it a little dim. Not that dim by itself is bad, you just might make users a little more comfortable with a splash os variation, even if it is a few other shades of green.
2. On your FAQs page, the heading text on the left nav is bigger than the heading text in the main body. To me, it seems inconsistent. This is just a matter of pure opinion however.
3. Also on FAQs, you may want to consider making the questions bold instead of a size bigger. It might make the question stand out better.
Otherwise it is an all around easy site to navigate and understand. As long as the CSS and markup validate, I'd say you were on to something.
PS Comment # 3 seems to only apply in FF. IE renders the <h3> tag as bigger AND bolder. Opera 9 is killing me at work so I won't be able to evaluate the site on Opera until tonight.
Design aside, I implemented a price filter. Also some people have suggested creating a "Friends" list and categories. I think the "Friends" idea is good and I'll be implementing it, but the categories I'm not so sure about as they might cause extra confusion.
kasrak wrote:Ok, all the pages are valid XHTML when you're not logged in =). Is there a way for me to test the pages when a user is logged in? (The code uses sessions to keep the user logged in).
Yes. If you use Firefox, get the Web Developer plugin. Then you can do Tools->Validate Local HTML (or css). It takes your HTML source, and submits it as a post for you to the validator. Its amazingly helpful for things like that.
I'll echo the responses about wanting a touch more color/variety (and I think the dark red idea would be ideal), but I generally like the layout and the typesetting.
You still have a couple minor validation issues, but they are truly trivial, and won't likely cause problems for real browsers (although you might as well fix them anyway).