Feedback Needed Please On My Website

I need helpful feedback on what I can do to improve my site. I've fixed most of the layout issues I've had before so there is no more horrible horizontal scrolling when viewed in 1024 x 786 resolution and it also works in Internet Explorer 7 surprise surprise. The only section I've manage to complete is the application section where users who wish to join the Linkshell will have to sign up providing details of themselves and their online game details.

The final part where their information is saved to a database for voting by members and for them to review the outcome will be done later. I've done this before on a previous version so it should take long to do but I'm going to take some time off and really think about the best way to go about doing it. Researching my options with json and php functions. I still do not know enough about them to really want to carry on pushing forward. I've also considered a framework but my learning curve on them is pretty slow so I'm putting that off for now.

Sorry if the instructions for each section of the application is not enough but hopefully you get what details are required. The application process should only take a few minutes from start to finish.

At the time of this posting the link should be working

http://sonesay.trap17.com/application.php

thanks for your time

edit:
Forgot to say thanks to Truefusion for his help on tabs script and many others.
I changed to smaller version of ext framework 500k lol still large i know. total size on first initially load is 1.22MB

This post has been edited by sonesay: Feb 12 2008, 09:22 AM

The website looks great! Seriosuly, the layout and everything looks amazing! As a real newbie I can offer any improvements, coz it looks excellent to me. LOLOL. But I thought I should post and say so.

Good Job

♥Evo

Thanks for your nice comments. Its great to hear when others like your work /gloat. This is all a learning process for me as I've come to learn after redoing it from scratch several times because of going about it the wrong way. Anyway I wont ramble on too long I would say I'm barely 10% through with the site, too much stuff I'm planning to add.

I noticed your also having issues starting out with your shouts on the shoutbox. If you have questions I think the best way to go about it is to make a post as you would get more response since the shoutbox is not permanent.

Good luck to you.
sone.

hmm, sonesay, i must say: this is a very nice design!

i do have a couple of remarks, however. firstly, the page itself takes too long to load??? i don't know whether it is due to your coding or the server your site is on, however i am pretty sure all trap17 accounts are hosted on the same server, and mine wasn't so slow.

a thing which i think needs a bit of improvement is the 'ffxi linkshell' header at the top. it is quite hard to read - both the colours and the font kinda hurt my eyes.

the 'designed by' and 'valid xhtml' at the footer of the page are a bit too small in terms of font size - i cant read them at all.

also, truthfully, the white text on every single texture you have on the page hurts my eyes at first, takes a bit of time adjusting to. maybe the contrast between the background and the text could be eased just a bit?

apart from that, very well done.

hmm... Very nice site, god layout, design, and the contrast is very good.

I like it how you put in a DOCTYPE, and no validation errors.

So, Very good site. Just one problem, the pictures and some text are 'squashed together' indicating that you almost purely built this site on a very high resolution. The pictures are also a bit squashed, considering that most people have 1024x800, or 1280x1024 resolutions, you might want to 'optimize for web' or if your site is targeted at hardcore gamers and computer enthusiasts whose resolutions are almost guaranteed to be over 1920x1200. But considering that most people's resolutions are 1280x1024 I would optimize it for that resolution.

Wonderful site!

Thanks for you feedback, Yeah the website is slow in loading due to the total size of the front page 1.24-4 MB I think since I last checked. I'm using the Ext Javascript framework for my Ajax calls since its pretty simple IMO to do my Ajax calls with it. The code needed to write is considerably smaller. The downside to this framework is the file is 904k lol yeah I know its bulky. there is a cut down version that I should of switched to thats 500k in size.

Aside from loading problem the other suggestions and comments I will consider as the final look will change for sure. Theres like too much things in it that I may have over looked in trying to get it done as soon as possible. I'm more concerned at this point on how my users will like the function of the website in particular the application process.

The contrast being a bit too extreme between background and white text I'm starting to see where your coming from, maybe I will try tone it down on my next rework. The fonts on the footer you say is abit too hard to read, can I ask what resolution and browser you are using as I've designed it for 1042 x 786 and it looks ok to me on firefox and internet explorer 7.

thanks again for your feedback
sone.

well, i am currently on my laptop, which has a 1042 x 786 resolution. i am using firefox 2.1.1.2, and my font size is set to normal.

i am glad you will take my comments into consideration, and good luck with your site!

Thank you for your feedback, About the width of the site I think thats what your trying to say I had originally designed it on my laptop which has a wide screen and fairly high resolution. I think 1300 x 900 or to that ratio I cant remember exactly. It turned out OK but then later on I had to redo the width because I changed my mind and wanted no horizontal scrolling on a 1024x786 resolution. That my target resolution.

I did the first resize down to 1000px wide but still had scrolling so I went down to 980px then 960 now I think. It was very tedious and annoying work in photoshop not to mention redo the html and css for it. I found out on the final version how ever (960is px) that it was well withing the space available in 1024 but still had scrolling and I thought this isn't right so I looked closely in firefox and dom inspecter and saw I had margins paddings causing the width and horizontal scrolling. I fixed it up and it fits well in 1024 well actually theres 10-20 px on each side I could expand too but I dont know if I want to at this stage ; ;. Its more tedious work that I know should be done but will leave till I'm bored and have nothing else to do. I know wasted space is bad and it does annoy me.

Overall I would say it is a good design. There are a couple of coding quirks to iron out, but I wouldn't change your overall design idea. The grey background to the banner at the top doesn't quite reach the right hand edge of the page, which looks just a little bit odd. I'm sure some minor change to the CSS would fix that. The date of birth field also isn't quite wide enough for an actual date of birth. Again, a tiny HTML or CSS change should fix that. The CAPTCHA is the only thing that might require some time to fix. Occasionally the letters are just too difficult to read clearly; the font is too thin and 'merges' into the background for certain characters, such as 3.

On the page where you select expansions, the checkboxes are the same colour as the background. If I uncheck one, then I can't see where it is again Possibly change the colour of the checkboxes or the background they are on.

On the character details page, the "Add" button doesn't work, so I can't progress any further than that. I'm not sure whether it's a bug or that you haven't finished yet.

Attached below is how I see the page, to give you a better idea of what I mean.

 snapshot51.png ( 384.57K ) Number of downloads: 9


Like I say, the overall design is excellent, it is just bug fixing.

Hmm i like it! It's obvious that alot of work has gone into that are your going to be adding some ads?
Err I just went through the navigation bar and nothing happens i get a 404 error! haha I bet i haven't read something.
But still when all said and done... Well done and good luck with it to!
karlos