A small favor to ask

[kjohnson]

I finally got to sit down and work on my website a bit. I would like the opinions of whoever decides to take a look at it in regards to the layout, the general look and any other suggestions you may have. It is mainly to see if everything works across multiple platforms and browsers and this is the easiest way to test. http://www.kevinisageek.com

Things that I do know already:

• IE6 on XP (and likely other OS) doesn't seem to support image transparency, therefor the banner background comes up as white
• Banner looks to be off to the left further than it should. That is becasue I haven't finished the banner yet.

If you notice anything or want to suggest any changes, you can post them here or PM me. Make sure to let me know what OS/browser combo you are using. I know everyone has different tastes, but I want to have the layout and general look to be appealing. It will likely have a very small audience, but that isn't what matters.

Oh yes, It isn't finished yet. I hate writing and therefore the content seem abrupt. I do plan on adding more eventually.

TIA,

[trbig]

I have IE7 with Win XP, and all I get is a black page with some red letters. All the links to the left seem to work though.

Tod

[kjohnson]

Black page with red text sounds right. Banner image at the top is only text right now. I need to finish it up, but I'm not sure what I want to put in it.

[Larrym]

Google Chrome showed same thing as Tod's posting: black page, red lettering, etc.

There's some official "Geek" tests out there and IIRC I scored as a "hyper-Geek" or something like that. Look and you'll find them.

[XJOK2PLAY]

Using Win 98 SE,

white banner, black background, red lettering.

Lettering is kinda small, hard for us old guys w/ bifocals to read...

[trbig]

hard for us old guys w/ bifocals to read...

*Applause..* You have now made the graduation to TRI-focals...


Tod

[kjohnson]

Using Win 98 SE,

white banner, black background, red lettering.

Lettering is kinda small, hard for us old guys w/ bifocals to read...

Ctrl and the + key or the scroll wheel on the mouse should help in most browsers with that

I jest, I jest. It is fairly simple to change the font size site wide, I'll look into doing that.

[fredintoon]

Hi Kevin,
WindowsXP/Mozilla firefox.
Black screen with tiny red script. No banner. Gotta zoomthingie on my keyboard to make the writing bigger but I shouldn't have to f**k around like that.
The site navigates OK.

[MaximPhil]

Hi Kevin,
SAFARI on A MAC. Red letters on Black like everyone else.
a few small pictures
Phil

[XJOK2PLAY]

*Applause..* You have now made the graduation to TRI-focals...


Tod

It's just so frustrating.... I don't know what people are thinking when they write or type things lately... the print just keeps getting smaller!!!!

[kjohnson]

Ok, font size is bigger across the board. Anyone want it bigger still?

And if ya click on the little pictures, the should become bigger.

[Rasputin]

Yup the pics do the thing they are sposed to. i would prefer bigger font myself, but I am old ya know

[trbig]

LMAO...


"CAN YOU MAKE THE FONT BIGGER PLEASE?"

You could set the site up for strictly the geriatric?? lol..

I jest.. yet it's me in a couple years that will be made fun of. I can tell my eyes are going a little each year.


Tod

[Bigfoot]

IE8 on Vista. Looks fine.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey there Kevin,

I'm an old"er" fart as well, not as old as Fredintoon though!

I'm also a little bit of a geek as well. I'm also a certified ophthalmic technician with over 25 year experience, so I know a little bit about eyes and vision.

The stats, IE7 on XP SP3, on laptop 14" screen at 1024 x 768 res. I have an old 21" CRT on my desktop but it's also set to 1024x768. The top banner text scrolls off beyond my screen and induces a little side scrolling to see it. In the old internet days and early computers, the standard res screens were 640 x 480. Several years ago it went to 800 x 600, and then recently 1024 x 768. The new HD standard is 1920 x 1080. I've got my browser set to show MEDIUM sized fonts. So far with most web pages I view I don't have to sidescroll to see the whole page, but a few pages do require that.

Your red font on black background provides a modest amount of contrast, but the red is rather dark, and so it does make it a bit more difficult to see compared to a brighter color against the darker background.....or using a darker color on a lighter background....similar to a regular printed page.

Also, using some tables, or graphics to better isolate or enhance the separate sections of the page, like the menu on the left, etc., can help folks to direct their attention towards those features to make navigation around the page more intuitive.

As you've seen from the comments here, different OS's, different browsers, and no telling what variety of types of monitors are being used, some folks may still have their little 14" desktop CRT monitors, whereas others may have monstrous 25" HD flat panels. Some folks don't know how to adjust or set their monitors to different pixel resolution settings, so they may have them set too low or too high which causes the fonts to appear quite small independent of what they have their browser VIEW FONT size settings to!

Humans and men specifically are visually stimulated animals, but it's a fine line between variety in the format and one that's too BUSY! Good Luck, hope this helps in your future designing process.
T.C.