Critique of a large Art site welcomed ! (Full Version)

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artunframed -> Critique of a large Art site welcomed ! (7/11/2002 17:03:28)

Hi,

Would really appreciate a critique of the site www.artunframed.com

It' s almost 1gb in size with over a 1000 pages but obviously, just a critique of the home page would be wonderful ! If you' d like to delve deeper, that' s fine, too of course !

It' s a commercial Art site but perhaps naively, the site is also built as a resource for art students.

With such a large site, it should have sub webs but doesn' t. Can this be changed without altering the navigation system ?

eg How can information be added to a painting once the thumbnail is clicked ? Seems FP doesn' t allow any editing but I may be wrong !

Not sure too, if the java menu in the shared top border works correctly on all browsers.

Anyway, be grateful for any suggestions, comments etc.

Thanks,

David



Eli -> RE: Critique of a large Art site welcomed ! (7/11/2002 19:09:17)

Java menu worked ok in IE5.5 although it caused IE to become unstable and crash - NOT A GOOD SIGN. Also, if you hadn' t told me it was there I would have never of known.

Its a clean site - from what I could see between crashes - I think the title could be a bit bigger and perhaps it is need of a statement saying what you do (on the first page)?



artunframed -> RE: Critique of a large Art site welcomed ! (7/11/2002 19:17:45)

Thanks so much for the quick reply !

Any idea why it crashed as it works fine for me and hasn' t been mentioned before by anyone. Looks though, like I may have to remove it. Is mine the only site thats caused such problems ? Are you on win xp ?

We do try and say what we do but its a delicate balance between an art resource and a commercial site. You' re probably right though : we should shout it more !

Thanks again !

David



garry -> RE: Critique of a large Art site welcomed ! (7/11/2002 19:53:51)

Hi David

My eyes are getting old at 37 and for some reason your background plays a bit of havoc with the text (especially the thin openning lines in italic?)
The headings look jagged and detract from the site

In fact that similar background has always made things harder for me, so maybe others it will be OK for. Maybe if the background tile was made a tad lighter again?

Your header didn' t hit me as header, maybe a bit of distinction is required?

Good use of flash for your image swaps.

1gb hmmmm, I' ll wait until I get T1 connection.

Cheers from the Outback



artunframed -> RE: Critique of a large Art site welcomed ! (7/11/2002 20:01:04)

Thanks, Garry,

The background is a theme in FP so can' t really do much with it, I' m afraid. Think you' re right about the italics though.

I was going for subtlety but the heading does need to be bolder.

I' ll change that and maybe, the drop down menu too !

Thanks for checking out the site.

Greetings from the sunshine state of Lancashire, UK :)

David



Charles W Davis -> RE: Critique of a large Art site welcomed ! (7/11/2002 20:11:40)

David,

Big site!

On a W2K Pro system, the site appeared to work well in IE 6, NN 6.2 and Opera 6.03.

After reading your question to Micah about Win XP, I also opened the site in all three browsers with no problem.

Enough of the mechanicals.

After having looked at many pages, I can realize why they are long. However, I have two suggestions; 1) place a couple of links to the top of the page at strategic locations, 2) at the bottom of each page links that would take one to a minimum of ' back' , ' home' and ' next' . This would make it much easier on your prospective customer.

I also liked the way in which you presented the images without giving away the shop. Good technique.

On page: http://www.artunframed.com/art_reproductions_2.htm the links near the top of the page are not located at the left border as in other pages.








john40004 -> RE: Critique of a large Art site welcomed ! (7/11/2002 20:25:19)

Hi artunframed,

Based on Micah' s comments, I was initially concerned as to looking at your site. Being " The Forums" however, I did.

Looked at your site with IE 6.0, resolution at 800 X 600 and 28.8 on 56K.

The main page took one minute, 30 seconds to load. The Macromedia Flash Player 5 was the problem. Once loaded, the images were impressive, but my new (seven month-old computer) struggled to load it. Perhaps due to my connection speed.

I did not look further. Not a comment on your site, simply one as to my time to do so.

John



artunframed -> RE: Critique of a large Art site welcomed ! (7/11/2002 20:26:32)

Thanks Charles,

Reassuring to know you had no problems but still if it crashed once, I think I' ll have to lose the java menu (though it took weeks to perfect)

In fact, whenever I make changes, I usually have to revert back to the simple tried and trusted :)

Difficult though to put links at the bottom as there are over 1000 pages. Can you put the themed navigation in the bottom border too ? I' ve forgotten that. Also, is there any control in editing the post thumbnail page in FP ?

Really appreciate your help and the others too, who' ve taken the time to visit.

David




artunframed -> RE: Critique of a large Art site welcomed ! (7/11/2002 20:44:06)

Hi John,

Thanks for taking the risk !

I' m on a 56k modem too so surprised it took so long. Always thought the US got better than 28 so you' ve taught me something ! I get around 45 in the uk. Looks like I' ll have to remove the flash, too !

Is 28.8 common ? Daft question really cos I know you' ve got to reach all.

Thanks again,

David




artunframed -> RE: Critique of a large Art site welcomed ! (7/11/2002 20:46:49)

Hi John,

Forgot to ask, did you have to download flash to view the site ? Was that why it was so slow ?

Can you tell, I don' t really want to ditch the flash :)

David



artunframed -> RE: Critique of a large Art site welcomed ! (7/11/2002 21:02:10)

Just thought I' d summarize : lose the java and flash & change the heading.

All good advice and as its now 2 am, it will have to be done tomorrow, Thursday 11th July.

Thanks to you all for responding so quickly, too ! Hopefully, I' ll be able to reciprocate somehow.

Ta,

David



john40004 -> RE: Critique of a large Art site welcomed ! (7/11/2002 22:02:33)

Hi artunframed,
No, Macromedia Flash Player 5 loaded on my new system.

Please keep in mind I live in the rural area of the state of Kentucky in the U.S. (nearest town, population 7.900) is almost seven miles away. I have to go through numerous telephone switches and lines for a connection.

John



artunframed -> RE: Critique of a large Art site welcomed ! (7/11/2002 22:14:24)

Hi John,

Sounds wonderful ! I' d probably throw the computer away and watch the horses, instead. We did do a portrait of Secretariat for one client, a while back.

I' m sure there' s many with connections at 28.8, too. I do appreciate you helping me understand that. In the UK too, rural areas have a slower time, even though its a small area by US standards

Thanks for getting back.

David



Charles W Davis -> RE: Critique of a large Art site welcomed ! (7/12/2002 0:12:05)

David,

quote:

Difficult though to put links at the bottom as there are over 1000 pages. Can you put the themed navigation in the bottom border too ?


You may place shared borders on all pages in one operation. On any page right click on the page, choose shared borders and check the All pages option. Make sure you check the top and bottom borders. In the new shared border at the bottom, click in the border, then choose Navigation Bar... from the Insert menu. I usually choose " back" , " home" , " up" , and " next" .

I would put folks on notice that all of your work is copyrighted in the new shared border. In the United States it' s not required, but your site is availble around the world and would make it easier to prosecute those that think that they can use anything found on the Internet.

I came back to add this: I always make a page that resides on the site on my computer that contains nothing but the contents of the bottom border and is not included in the navigation structure. The contents have a habit of disappearing because of my not paying attention to the " All Pages" and " Current Page" options on the shared border when creating a new page.



artunframed -> RE: Critique of a large Art site welcomed ! (7/12/2002 10:40:17)

Thanks Charles !

I' ve added the navigation & deleted the flash and java so ie won' t crash.

Trouble is, the home page at www.artunframed.com is out of position in netscape. ( a familiar story)

I' m still working to correct the problem but no idea why its wrong. The table is 100% width with the height box unticked.

Any other critiques welcome as always !

David





Eli -> RE: Critique of a large Art site welcomed ! (7/12/2002 11:28:11)

just to let you know - i' ve checked again, after the deletion of the java menu and there was no crash this time. (I rebooted my machine early this morning just to check it wasn' t my machine playing around and it did crash) - looks ok now - nice one!



artunframed -> RE: Critique of a large Art site welcomed ! (7/12/2002 11:31:58)

Thanks, Micah !

Are you saying though, it wasn' t my java script ? Sorry by the way, if it was but as I said before, it was a new problem !

David



Charles W Davis -> RE: Critique of a large Art site welcomed ! (7/12/2002 21:07:41)

David,

Much easier to navigate! Good show!



artunframed -> RE: Critique of a large Art site welcomed ! (7/13/2002 6:06:21)

Thanks Charles,

Just to say too, I managed to correct the problem in Netscape. It is so unforgiving !

David



Eli -> RE: Critique of a large Art site welcomed ! (7/13/2002 10:28:07)

I was saying that when you had the java menu, it crashed IE - when you took it off, it didn' t. You be the judge [;)]



artunframed -> RE: Critique of a large Art site welcomed ! (7/13/2002 20:24:51)

Thanks for the clarification, Micah ! My apologies once again.

I should learn, whenever I implement java & flash, I' m returned back to a simpler dedesign. Your experience has reinforced the lesson.

Thanks,

David



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