Constructive Criticism Appreciated

[aaroncampbell]

I just put up a new site at http://GiftListUSA.com
Registration is required to really see the heart of it, but it IS free. The site is simply a place to keep track of Gift Ideas for friends, family, etc. The idea was my wife's, she wanted it for herself, but then other people kept asking me to set it up for them too, so I consolidated it into one site, and made it multi-user.

On top of any criticism, good suggestions are ALWAYS welcome. I'm already working on a way to send your list (or parts of it) to friends (probably send them an E-Mail, which will have a link in it. When the link is followed, they will get options to integrate the list that was sent with their own, or sign up for the first time, and use the list as a starting point).

 

[linker]

Right off the bat I am going to say that you will need some graphics. No need to go crazy, but people need visuals. Especially for a site like this... Try iStockPhoto, credits are very reasonable and there are tons of great graphics available...

I would also suggest changing the font color on the main headings: What is Gift List USA? etc... they seem to blend in a bit too much with the blue background...

I think this idea is great:

"probably send them an E-Mail, which will have a link in it. When the link is followed, they will get options to integrate the list that was sent with their own, or sign up for the first time, and use the list as a starting point"

but I might suggest trying to integrate this right into the site. What I mean is use a private message or a usercp sort of thing like most forums do. I think people may appreciate that, and you could maybe also give them the option of using email, too... That may be a lot to start with, but again, just a suggestion.

I really like your idea, I hope it goes well for you...

 

[aaroncampbell]

Not a bad idea...integrating it into the site. I had thought about that. My only contentions with it are:
1) The the user needs to know something such as the other user's username. Most people already have E-Mail addresses handy.
2) This way, it will allow people to send their lists to non-members, who can then sign up.

I may try some sort of hybrid between the PM, and E-Mail.

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[LeetPCUser]

Not bad, a little plain. I think your padding on top should be a little less too, like 10-15px. Overall looks decent. I haven't seen the content, but from what I see 7/10.

 

[aaroncampbell]

Good call on the top margin. I had it set to 40px from a previous design concept. I changed the top and bottom margins to 15px each.

 

[thomaslgates]

A pretty nice one. I will register now and jus check the heart of the site.!

 

[aaroncampbell]

Cool. Someone else that registered pointed out a problem with Yahoo accounts. If you have Yahoo mail, the Account Confirmation E-Mail will most likely end up in your Bulk Mail. I'm trying to track down the cause now.

 

[ChrisKL]

Source for the page is disabled, but got the details neithertheless.

If your goal is to gain traffic and more sign ups, it'll be better to get it off the blog style format (which the front page looks like). There's little appeal for the traffic as is.

Secondly, the div seems to have pushed down as what happens when there's no clear:all or clear:right or left tag (or using a display: inline tag). Plus it looks like a wrapper is needed to keep the divs aligned -- which could be the reason the sidebar div dropped.

For example:

<div id="wrapper">
<div id="container">
<div id="block1"></div>
<div id="main"></div>
<div id="block2"></div>
</div>
</div>

Thirdly, if the xhtml is this clean (and I see that you worked around the javascript issue to get it to validate), you may prefer using the xhtml 1.0 strict DTD. I don't see any presentation tags other than the H1/H2, so it should qualify (though it's best not to use JS at all <-- it has a potential to limit traffic).

BUT, running the page through HTML-Tidy shows 33 warnings and 3 errors. It seems using the workaround to include that JS block is causing it to burp. And accessibility (not talked much here, but with web dev very important) is wanting. Double check your code on other validators other than W3C too. I like HTML-Tidy as it's one of the strictest and heavy into accessibility features (to pass the ADA standards for government websites, for example).

It needs some more graphics (if anything the logo is best as a graphic), and some filler to fill in the whitespace <--- design tip: don't over or underfill whitespace.

CKL

 

[steadler]

GREAT idea, but i think you need to put a few graphics in there, hope this helps

 

[aaroncampbell]

What browser were you using when it did that? I tested it in FireFox 1.0.7 (Linux and Windows), IE, and Opera. It has some Browser string detection to try to force a different CSS file onto mobile devices (including the PALM Treo, which doesn't use the handheld media type ). If for some reason it thinks your browser is a mobile phone (I had this problem with older versions of safari for a while, but I thought I fixed it), it does NOT float the main content, and the right column. Instead, it places them top and bottom. If you could tell me what resolution you are running, your OS, and browser/browser version, I'd appreciate it.

As far as Javascript, index.php has only the google adsense snippet. The other JS is perfectly valid, and wrapped in CDATA tags. I suppose that on the gifts page I should probably combine the Google JS with the rest, or at least I should fix the adsense JS, by wrapping it in CDATA tags.

 

[ChrisKL]

This is what is showing up for the DTD and stylesheets (and I'm viewing the xhtml via a web editor, since I can't open the source file directly)...

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<title>Gift List USA</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/gift_list_usa.css" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/css/glu_mobile.css" media="handheld" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/glu_print.css" media="print" />

You'll need this html tag (also can include ltr variable too)...

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">

You're not including the CDATA tag for the stylesheet either, and in xhtml it can confuse a browser.

Import works best with IE.

Like this....

<style type="text/css">
<!--/*--><![CDATA[/*><!--*/
  <!--
    @import url(/css/ie.css);
/*]]>*/--></style>

This computer resolution is @ 1024x768.

The enclosed photo shows what I see.

This shows no CDATA type....

<script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx";
google_ad_width = 468;
google_ad_height = 60;
google_ad_format = "468x60_as";
google_ad_type = "text_image";
google_ad_channel ="";
google_color_border = "73A0C5";
google_color_bg = "FFFFFF";
google_color_link = "333333";
google_color_url = "0066CC";
google_color_text = "333333";
//-->

It shows a work around to get it pass a validator (that's how they're doing it). Script in xhtml needs a CDATA declaration or it won't be valid with XML <--- important for syndication [especially with external links]).

CKL

 

[infinitomagazine]

i dont like site name, ur siet is simple, also i saw similar site like ur, i think ur site could works, keep working

 

[Momo]

Looks really clean and simple, I like the colors that you used too. Only suggestion would be to come up with a logo and use a different font for the title of the site. You can also make it a graphic too, so it won't look aliased like it does now.

 

[Troubled1]

Could use some graphics, a logo and maybe a snappy name. Good idea though.

 

[a1whs.com]

Graphics needed as stated by other and also only one user pointed out that ur xhtml validation fails so either fix it or remove the link at the bottom as i see this while validating your site .
Failed validation, 41 errors

So fixing of site is needed.

 

[alanpaladka]

I think you should use a logo instead of just a formatted text. Put some more graphics. I don't like that login box in the right side of the page. It's too big when I see it in 1024x768.