devlindesign.co.uk

Wow, what a tough crowd!

Here's what I see from a visitor's standpoint, not a designer:
1. Visitor's should not have to download a flash plugin to view your site. Most businesses/people these days are very wary about downloading anything onto a business computer because of all of the virus' and worms floating around.
2. The copyright font size on the home page is smaller than other pages - s/b same size on all pages.
3. Clicked on Services link, then on Web Design. Took me to Portfolio>Web Design. I expected to go to Services>Web Design. The Services link is now disabled.
4. On the Portfolio page, the word different is misspelled.
5. Mystery solved on the number of sites in the Portfolio. There is 1 and there is 3. If you click on Services>Web Design, the Site path displays Portfolio>Web Design and only 1 website is listed. However if you click on Portfolio>Web Design, there are 3 websites listed. Hope this stops the arguing.
6. Suggestion: Under Services>Graphic Design, why not make each of the graphic design items in your list (in the center of the screen) a link and eliminate the submenu in the botton left corner? Most visitors to the site are already looking at the new text (center page) displaying the list of services, why make their eyes roam to another section of the page to find the link of the service they are interested in?

Time ran out and didn't get any further. If you would like for me to finish reviewing your site and providing you with additional comments, just leave a posting.

^Flash plug in is installed on over 98% of computers and the site can still be viewed and used on computers without it.

Copyright text is smaller on home page cos i was experimenting yday.

Yes and you are right about there being only 1 site at the services>web design and 3 at the portfolio section.


With regards to the links at the graphic design section. Putting them in the middle would make them more obvious. However from what ive been told this confuses the navigation as it isnt consistent with the rest of the site. I could have links on the left and in middle but ive also been told not to use 2 links to the same page. So i dont know.


As for my hate crowd, dont know why anybody thinks im showing off by stating i have a degree. Im merely trying to give people a clearer picture of my position by stating that im qualified but inexperienced.

I know ive got more to learn regarding accessibility. But ive passed the exams on it and got the qualifications in it hence the reason my site says:

"Our designers are fully educated on all of the latest standards in web design concerning accessibilty and disabled users, to make sure that your website is optimised for everyone to use."

Im not gonna say im educated in it but sh#t at implementing it or im not gonna get any clients.

And trust me i am listening to what people are saying here and taking note of it.

Visual wise, this site is quite nice, abit more colour would have perhaps looked good... however claims of being accessible are false, text size doesnt increase, and you've been a lil heavy with the use of tables, especially since your using css...

Try getting your HTML certified, try getting your CSS certified, and if your really wanna say your pro and you do the best sites for accessibility, allow your text size to increase, loose the flash, and get AAA certified!

However HTML & CSS Would be an idea, its only hard if you dont know what your doing, and seens you've got extensive areas of your CSS with CAPS ALL OVER IT, looking like you downloaded the css and edited it youself!

Removed. You need to watch your words. - herkalees

and one thing i like.. "But ill let you in on a secret. Im 23, Honours Degree qualified in Applied Graphics with Multimedia Technology. However, discovered that since leaving uni design jobs arent coming easy."

Let me tell you in most industries qualification mean S**T, in IT, they mean SWEET FA, an industry that moves in leap and bounds month after month, well... your qualification is meaningless!

Oh and i knew a MSCE when i was 17, i worked with one, and let me tell you a secret, he couldnt dual boot win2k with 98se, or knew that ALT+2xCLICK on Mycomputer brought up system properties, or even knew that right clickin on my computer and clickin on properties brought up system properties... and hes Microsoft Certified... the problem is you hardly get ANY hands on experience, and the XP you get... is nothing compared to someone doing it for years.

PLZ i dont want anyone to start spamming their qualifications thinking their 1337.

When it boils down to it, show us.. and he has.....

enough said methinks

I agree with your comment on flash however, if you want to be "accessible" i would give you the advice of a HTML, CSS and A+ Certified front page with the option of a accessible site, and the option of a feature/media rich, broadband site.

However it is upto you, i will point out to ppl, that if the HTML code is done correctly, you are prompted to install flash, however this wont work on wireless devices and some PDA's so.. alternate text for it?

Id rate this site:
4/5 for looks value
1/5 for accessibility/code

If tables are outdated n stuff, do you think i should re-design the site in layers?

And how do i test the accessibility of my site, in dremweaver?

I thought the way the i had the text it could be increased or decreased.

I hate web design, everyone seems to tell me conflicting views, especially my uni lectures.

Back to the drawing board i guess.

Also can anyone posts some links to some sites that are designed almost perfect in terms of meeting design requirements and accessibility guidelines etc, so i can see what i should be aiming for.

Thanks in advance.

"uni lectures"

aaah the base of all failed IT people, the worse being School IT Teachers (and school teachers in general), 2nd worse being College Lectures (cos they require nothing but a qualification in teaching which is easily attained)

Id ask your teacher to make you a site, nothing fancy, and then post it on here, id be interested to see what a person teaching this as a job could produce.. and if it was upto standards (do not tell him its to be to standard as he should do to standard).

Conflicting stories perhaps, its people points of view;

And how do i test the accessibility: dont know what you mean, however:
for CSS Validation see here: http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/
for HTML Validation here: http://validator.w3.org/

As there is no real auto validation for A+ Accessibility visit here: http://www.w3.org/WAI/

I hope this helps


"I hate web design, everyone seems to tell me conflicting views, especially my uni lectures." -People here will probs know more about website design, creation, compatability than any lecture* (prepares to be told otherwise)

Thanks mate.

If you can make a [AAA] site then you will get a /cheer from me, its very hard, [AA] is hard, [A] is a challenge-ish! *i refer to this in the way of making a also pretty site*

Im pretty sure Minute44 will post some links, im not on the lappy so i have none handy!

Roughly aslong as your [html] and [CSS] Validated you should be ok, you only need A+ Validation if your out to get cred/customer requirement.

and im glad to see you've proven others wrong and returned, the best way to learn FTW is getting slagged off and your work abused, i find it far more helpful than comments like "looks good dude, needs some work though"

This is hardly the point when you consider this accessibility factor:-
When EMBED Elements are used, the NOEMBED element is required in the document.

• Failure - EMBED Element(s) are found in document and the NOEMBED element is not.

I am very glad you said that. You will not learn web design and development in any school or college. The reason for this is that curriculae are formulated over time and quite simply they cannot keep up with standards. You have already taken the most positive step you can in furthering your knowledge.... and that is by surrounding yourself with people more experienced than you.

Let me say that this is yet another stupid error of the establishment that is the education system because again, they have taught you very little from the accessibility book of life.

There are many tools around you can check to automate most of the accessibility checks, I would use them to their fullest capacity.
As a side note, I would personally remove all mentions of accessibility compliance from your site, given that your very own site is most probabally in direct violation of the British Disability Discrimination Act. This website in it's current state is likely to be unlawful (if we take the law at it's letter) in Britain and has been since the 1st October 2004 (if it was online then)

.... exactly. My advice, remove it.... learn accessibility and put it back without fear of recrimination.

You will learn lots here, and I will not tolerate a hate croud so I'll ask everyone to just calm down a little here.... however, on that point you really didnt do yourself any favours earlier in this thread...

If you can take on board people's comments and bear in mind that half the time they are just opinions, and other times they are based on hard experience.

Now that you are surrounded by professionals from every sector of the industry, I'm sure you will excel and learn lots here.....

Welcome to the forums...... and the fast lane.

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/agree

why are IT Folks insomniacs?

Have you got a degree?
He may not want to take your advice because he knows best.

now now cmon give the guy a chance, he made a mistake, we all know that, we all do them... he's human not like that damn HTML Validator

Quick question regarding alt tags.

If i put an image of a say a blue gradient in my site which is just for decorative purposes. Do i still need to give it an alt tag stating that it is a blue gradient ?

I was under the impression that the alt tag was only used if the image was of something meaningful like e.g a boat.

Should i use the alt tag for absolutely everything that is an image regardless of what it is?


Also can anyone translate this into something i might understand, seems to be a common error msg from the w3c test:

"Error Line 40 column 76: there is no attribute "BORDERCOLOR". ...lpadding="0" cellspacing="0" bordercolor="#FFFFFF"> You have used the attribute named above in your document, but the document type you are using does not support that attribute for this element. This error is often caused by incorrect use of the "Strict" document type with a document that uses frames (e.g. you must use the "Transitional" document type to get the "target" attribute), or by using vendor proprietary extensions such as "marginheight" (this is usually fixed by using CSS to achieve the desired effect instead).
This error may also result if the element itself is not supported in the document type you are using, as an undefined element will have no supported attributes; in this case, see the element-undefined error message for further information.
How to fix: check the spelling and case of the element and attribute, (Remember XHTML is all lower-case) and/or check that they are both allowed in the chosen document type, and/or use CSS instead of this attribute."



http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=ht...line&verbose=1


Also anyone know what i have done wrong here that the video clip doesnt play: http://www.devlindesign.co.uk/PortVideo.htm

Thanks again.

The validator will demand that you put an alt tag for every image used in the markup.

If the blue gradient is for decorative purposes it should be defined in the CSS and not in your markup. Remember: Keep content and styling totally apart.

I should point out that alt="" is valid so use it if the image isn't important to content.

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<bangs head off desk>
Sorry to ask but how do i define it in the CSS? Im using dremaweaver.

Maybe i should jus change to being a graphic design company, sigh.

Dont give up mate, persist and the rewards will be yours. Ask minute44 i never used to use CSS, and i laughed at the idea of using W3.org to validate my code, I was a table and <font> spammer.. Now 2weeks on, ive gone far far better...

I really do like that eye pic on your site tho! did you do the original art work for it?


BTW what version of DW are you using? DW8 is the version i can work with CSS and DW at the same time as MX is pretty bad i think for handling CSS.

If your using 8 and you move a layer etc DW will automatically open the CSS file linked to that edit and change it, all you need to do is save it after. I think minute44 posted a link to some CSS Software which would be better suited as i use either Notepad, Topstyle or DW to edit my CSS (mainly notepad though).

OK, Having learned a lot regarding your skill level from this thread I'm going to make some reccomendations.

As you get better at semantic markup and CSS you'll more than likely decide to scrap this site and start over with the new skills you have learned. With this in mind I suggest you retire this site to a dark corner somewhere and hone your coding skills.

• Take a step back and look at what are considered to be very good websites in terms of their code. You will see that when all is said and done the code is very basic and there is NO style information in there anywhere.
  www.csszengarden.com is a brilliant example of this. Some of the stuff on there is very specifica and you may never need to use some of the techniques that they do but it can be very useful to get a grasp of what CSS design is all about.
• Look at some tutorials and get the absolute basics 100% down.
  http://www.w3schools.com/xhtml/default.asp
  http://www.elated.com/tutorials/authoring/css/
  These are just a couple. There are plenty more out there.
• Then download SimpleCSS form HostM.
  http://www.hostm.com/css/
  this little tool helped me out no end when I first started out with CSS design and I still use it today.
• Create a very basic XHTML page like this:
  

  Code: Select all

  <body>
      <div id="container">
          <div id="header">
              <div id="navcontainer">
                  <ul id="navlist">
                      <li>Home</li>
                      <li>About Us</li>
                      <li>Portfolio</li>
                      <li>Contact us</li>
                      <li>Info</li>
                  </ul>
              </div>      
          </div>        
          <div id="content">
          </div>        
          <div id="footer">
          </div>
      </div>
  </body>

  Then Play around using SimpleCSS and see what effect different things make to the page.
• You'll soon grasp the concept and there will be no stopping you.

Enjoy

minute44 get back on msn plz