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"Programmer Meet Designer" - Is it usable?

Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 9:48 am
by kasrak
Hi everyone, I'm new 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

So...whadya think? =)

Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 10:12 am
by pickle
- 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.

Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 10:14 am
by jamiel
And can Designers ask for Programmers?

Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 10:18 am
by kasrak
Thanks pickle for the feeback. I'll be implementing your suggestions in a few minutes. :D 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. :D

Thanks for the replies!

Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 10:25 am
by pickle
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.

Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 10:27 am
by kasrak
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!

Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 10:28 am
by pickle
Nope, XHTML has it's DTD defined.

Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 10:46 am
by kasrak
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).

Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 10:54 am
by pickle
That's always tough to do. I think pretty much all you can do is cut & paste the source code.

Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 11:03 am
by RobertGonzalez
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.

Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 11:32 am
by kasrak
I agree, it could use more color. However I don't know what color would go well with this green. Any suggestions?

Oh, and I made the FAQ questions bold and big. I'll be validating the logged in pages for the next little while.

Thanks everyone for the feedback.

Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 11:35 am
by RobertGonzalez
Warm colors work well with neutral greens. Try a splash of muted brown or muted dark reds along with the green you are using.

This is a pretty neat color picker/reference. You may be able to pull some web safe colors from their layout.

Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 10:19 am
by kasrak
I'm not that good at designing. So I created a listing for anyone who wishes to redesign the site (it's here: http://programmermeetdesigner.com/listing/view/16)

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.

What do you guys think?

Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 12:04 pm
by Roja
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).

Neat site. Now you just need more users/content. :)

Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 12:28 pm
by kasrak
Thanks Roja! You saved me a ton of time =) I had the toolbar installed, I didn't know about that feature though.

Huzzah! All the pages are valid now.