DIDS.COM v5.0 Critique -

They have: 5,633 posts

Joined: Jan 1970

Hello All,

The DIDS.COM v5.0 is finally on the home-run stretch! We are looking for your very critical input so that the site is perfect. Although the site is LIVE, you may be taken to old portions of the site until everything has been accomplished but, for the most part, the site is finished! You can get to the site by visiting http://www.dids.com/

All of your input will be highly considered and appreciated!

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Chad Simper
Dynamic Internet Solutions
[ www.dids.com ]
E-Mail [ [email protected] ]
ICQ [31723855 ]

They have: 2,390 posts

Joined: Nov 1998

Chad,
I'm not the first, and I bet I won't be the last to say what I fantanstic looking site you have - well done!
I can't actually think of anything negative to say
- use a darker green colour for the mouseover link
...sorry that's it!
JP

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The Webmaster Promotion and Resource Site
www.what-next.com
The NEXT step in Designing and Promoting your Website

They have: 5,633 posts

Joined: Jan 1970

JP,

Thanks for the comments! They are always appreciated and although we love to hear them, we also love to hear if there are problems or things you just don't like! I changed the onMouseOver green to about 10 shades darker of the same green. Let me know if that is better.

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Chad Simper
Dynamic Internet Solutions
[ www.dids.com ]
E-Mail [ [email protected] ]
ICQ [31723855 ]

They have: 327 posts

Joined: Mar 1999

Hi Chad,
I really like your unique color combination and the way you've highlighted your tables "design page". I think it would be nice to use that effect on your "hosting page" as well. The paragraphs on that page are very wide (perfect for printing but harder to read on a monitor).

I think a professional logo is needed:

"Our design staff will use their full potential of creativity to make
your Web Site stand out among the rest"

Your site looks great but lacks that one identifying element to make it stand out among the rest. I would put your staff to work on one nice sharp logo for your site .

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Carolyn Jones

They have: 5,633 posts

Joined: Jan 1970

Carolyn,

Thanks for the help. We plan to use the same overall table design with all of the pages that require a "sub-topic." As for the logo, we are working on a corporate logo even as we speak which will be implemented in DIDS.COM v6.0 which will be launched later this year. If you or anyone else has any ideas for a logo, please send them our way. Again, thanks for the review.

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Chad Simper
Dynamic Internet Solutions
[ www.dids.com ]
E-Mail [ [email protected] ]
ICQ [31723855 ]

They have: 2,390 posts

Joined: Nov 1998

sorry to put a dampener on things but I do not like the table effect used in the design section, perhaps if you removed the border attributes?
Anyway it is only my opinion

PS: the mouseover green colour is better.
JP

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The Webmaster Promotion and Resource Site
www.what-next.com
The NEXT step in Designing and Promoting your Website

They have: 359 posts

Joined: Mar 1999

Got one little observation. The hover links don't work in NS 4.5. Had to go to IE to see what you all were talking about. Other than that, site looks great.

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Dan
[email protected]
ICQ # 373465

Dan
Recycle Video Games Network

Stupidity killed the cat, curiosity was framed!

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Joined: Dec 1998

Chad,

I think the whole site needs to be centered on the page.

Does anyone know what broswers do support the mouseover affect and which ones don't.

Thanks
Curtis

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They have: 46 posts

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Netscape and IE both support the mouseovers with images, but Chad is doing it with just text, which is only supported by IE.

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Brian Farkas
===============
Web Hosting - Design - Programming
http://www.infostardesign.com

Free webmaster tips, tricks, web host reviews, and more!
http://www.etips.net
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Chad,
Why don't you use CSS for the mouseovers?
JP

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The Webmaster Promotion and Resource Site
www.what-next.com
The NEXT step in Designing and Promoting your Website

They have: 5,633 posts

Joined: Jan 1970

Curtis,
Most of our feedback thus far has made the suggestion to center the page so I am going to go do it here shortly. Thanks for the input.

JP,
I am not sure what you mean? We do use CSS to create the onMouseOver affects.

CDS,
To my knowledge, none of the Netscape versions support the CSS properties that are used to create our onMouseOver links. I have heard that they will be supported in Netscape v5.0 but I am not sure (I would hope they do). I am not sure on IE versions but I think both v4.x and v5.x support these properties.

Thanks to all of your for the feedback!

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Chad Simper
Dynamic Internet Solutions
[ www.dids.com ]
E-Mail [ [email protected] ]
ICQ [31723855 ]

They have: 359 posts

Joined: Mar 1999

Chad,

Not really a big deal. If I wouldn't of seen the posts, never would of known the difference. Of course if you happened to create some graphics and use a rollover script,...

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Dan
[email protected]
ICQ # 373465

Dan
Recycle Video Games Network

Stupidity killed the cat, curiosity was framed!

They have: 5,633 posts

Joined: Jan 1970

Brooke,

Thanks for the input! I have considered taking the What's New off of the main page and giving it it's own page, for several different reasons, including the length reason. I think what I will do is take off the giveaway section and give it it's own page and shorten the What's New to only one or two items, with a link to other recent news items. I have added that to my list of modifications to be done once the entire site has been overhauled with the new design. Thank you all again for the input! It is greatly appreciated and I would love to hear more if there is any!

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Chad Simper
Dynamic Internet Solutions
[ www.dids.com ]
E-Mail [ [email protected] ]
ICQ [31723855 ]

They have: 5,633 posts

Joined: Jan 1970

CDS,
DIDS.COM v6.0 will be much more graphics driven. It won't be around for a couple of months, but we have major plans to implement some graphics. Thanks to all who posted and I would love to here more feedback!

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Chad Simper
Dynamic Internet Solutions
[ www.dids.com ]
E-Mail [ [email protected] ]
ICQ [31723855 ]

Brooke's picture

She has: 681 posts

Joined: Feb 1999

Hi Chad,

I keep reading what everyone is saying about your site and I agree with everything! Very sharp looking and not a lot I can say. But I have noticed that you are eager to hear more. So I REALLY looked at it and found one thing that could use a second look...

The home page. I like it when home pages are not too overwhelming with information. It seems a lot to read when someone first enters your site. Maybe the what' new could be on a different page - even the hosting features get a little lengthy.

That's all I have - I hope it helps!

Brooke

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Providing quality websites and consulting for small businesses and individuals.
www.cataluna.com

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Well, I made this post for two reasons.

1) I am still looking for more opinions if there are any left Smiling ... Those of you that are new, feel free to go hard on me and give it to me straight Smiling

2) I finally got around to updating the main page... I was very interested in hearing what Brooke has to say about it Smiling ... I shortened it down as per her suggestion... Any comments, suggestions, or opinions are welcome!

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Chad Simper [ [email protected] ]
Dynamic Internet Solutions [ http://www.dids.com/ ]

Roo's picture

She has: 840 posts

Joined: Apr 1999

Overall design I think is good. But something Funky happened when I went to your page, I appeared to load but the screen stayed white for a few seconds then the whole page finally came in. I'm using Netscape Composer 4.5. I don't get any mouseovers but I get an effect on the page that I've clicked into the button intents, Is that what it's suppoesed to do rather than chose an image chage when I roll my mouse over the original link before clicking? I'm not real fond of the green color but I'm not real crazy about green anyway:0 so that may just be a persoanl thing. I saw a question regarding mouseovers, veersions 2X and 3X of netscape does'nt support javascript. I don't know about the earlier versions of IE as I never kept any of them for very long!
Roo

Roo

They have: 5,633 posts

Joined: Jan 1970

About 90% of our site visitors use IE 4.0 or higher which the site was designed for... We then make adjustments to it for Netscape users and lower browser versions. There is no mouseover effects, rather there is some CSS properties that just change the color of the text when the mouse rolls over the text... Netscape does not support this. Thank you for the input!

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