Comments on a site - general setup 4

[MakeItSo]

Hi friends,

I need some help on a site, I've set up.
Thus far, there is no need to qualify the content - that will be sort of self-regulatory in the future. ;-)
I would really be glad, if you could tell me whether
a) the site gets displayed correctly for you
b) the general optics are acceptable
c) you get the same weird behavior like language settings skipping unwantedly...

The site address is

http://www.pisa-attack.de

Great thanks to all advisors in advance!

Cheerio,
Andy

[blue]An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind. - "Mahatma" Mohandas K. Gandhi[/blue]

 

[FesterSXS]

I would change the animated gifs you have for Links, Guest Book and Contact. A lot of people find them very annoying/tacky.

The quality of the US flag is very poor. Shouldn't it be a Union Jack anyway? or maybe I'm just biased as I'm English



Tony
[red]_________________________________________________________________[/red]
Webmaster -

http://www.SpiraxSarco.com/

 

[BabyJeffy]

I also think that the animated gifs for contact, guestbook and links are annoying (and make the site look tacky).

I would adjust the flag to use the Union Jack instead of the US Flag (you are referring to the language - English... and the US Flag does not represent the English language).

Why not make the labels for each section clickable as well? At present you can only click the images for each section. The same thing happens with the "left navigation" within a section... make the text clickable as well as the image.

At the bottom of one of the pages (showarticle.asp?nazca.x=31&nazca.y=28) I clicked the "articles page" link and got a "page not found" error.

Clicking the "Guestbook" link did nothing for me.

I tested in Safari 1.3 with MacOSX 10.3.9 and generally found everything to work consistently. Certainly nothing appeared to be "totally out of place".

All the best with your site.

Jeff

PS: How are you doing the multi-language support? Do you hold a page of messages server-side? Do you use a data-source? I've put together several different multi-language solutions in the past (in Javascript, using ASP and using JSP/Servelets).

 

[MakeItSo]

Thanks for the response guys!

I have at once fixed this faux-pas with the US flag.
I changed to a UK-flag - and uploaded some official flag gifs.
You are right - they looked poor...

I have also stilled the anigifs. Thanks for these tips.

Concerning the dead link: that must be a residue from my old version - when I still used physical HTMLs... I guess I know where to find it - will fix that later. Thanks.

Concerning the clickable labels: good idea.

Multi-lang support:
Practically all HTML content is stored in an Access database.
I set session cookies for currently active
- topic area
- article and
- language

I have set up my db tables thus, that I can pull the respective page in the respective language by a simple select statement using the session vars as criteria.

The "pages" in the db all start directly with the formatted text, they contain no head or body tags. These are all in the ASPs.
I have currently three ASPs to display the contents:
1 as the home
1 to display articles for the chosen topic area
1 to display poems - due to the different chosing possibilities there.


Kind of cost me some nerves to get it running with firefox. The guestbook might have not worked for you, if you have disabled popups, since it is opened with a javascript "window.open" command.
;-)

I'll be back...

[blue]An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind. - "Mahatma" Mohandas K. Gandhi[/blue]

 

[kaht]

I don't see why the US flag was a bad idea. After all, we are the ones that spell color and favor correctly!

-kaht

...looks like you don't have a job, so why don't you get out there and feed Tina.

 

[trollacious]

I guess you just need to humo[red]u[/red]r the English on this one. #

Lee

 

[MakeItSo]

It's all just to keep 'em calm, kaht.

I am so used to American spelling, I couldn't get myself to adapt British humour anyway....


[blue]An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind. - "Mahatma" Mohandas K. Gandhi[/blue]

 

[ChrisHunt]

I think it looks much too "busy". If you're getting visitors to select the language they want to read at the start, why hammer them with big headings in three languages on every page? Why put your "Disclaimer" in all three languages?

I think you should make the page heading read simply "Welcome to PISA-Attack" in the currently selected language, with unobtrusive links to the other two language versions of the current page. The fact that you've made the site in three languages is laudable, important to you, and clearly took a lot of work. However most visitors won't care - once they've picked the language they want.

By the way, you ought to mark up your pages to indicate the language in use. Your <html> tag should look like this on german pages:

<html lang="de">

with [tt]lang="fr"[/tt] on French ones, and (technically) [tt]lang="en"[/tt] on English ones. You can read more about using the [tt]lang[/tt] attribute at

http://www.w3.org/International/tutorials/tutorial-lang/

-- Chris Hunt
Webmaster & Tragedian
Extra Connections Ltd

 

[MakeItSo]

Good points, Chris, thanks!

Editing the header graphic and the disclaimer to one language only tidied up the page quite a bit.
I have also euqalized the flags in size and moved them to the navigation pane - this calmed the site down another bit.

I knew I could ask you guys and get some good advice.
Always good to know who to ask...

Cheers!
Andy

[blue]An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind. - "Mahatma" Mohandas K. Gandhi[/blue]

 

[spewn]

I don't see why the US flag was a bad idea. After all, we are the ones that spell color and favor correctly!

lol...they also use "lised" instead of "lized"...i heard it's because 'Z' doesn't exist...they only have 20 fingers and toes...

anyway "british humor" is an oxymoron. after all, wasn't it the Brits who gave the world Benny Hill?

- g

 

[BillyRayPreachersSon]

British humour is only an oxymoron if you don't understand it, surely? Are you saying you don't understand it?

Dan


[tt]D'ya think I got where I am today because I dress like Peter Pan here?[/tt]

 

[TruthInSatire]

Benny Hill... monty python... sure beats "Hee-Haw" and i live in the states.

I agree with the Union Jack. If for no other reason other than the US is so worried about offending somebody's mother they wont declare an official language. So technically the US flag CANNOT represent ANY language.

I was looking at the source...

what is

<form method=POST action="[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.andygalambos.com/forum/default.asp">[/URL]
<table border=0>
<tr><td align=left><input type=image src=images/forum1.gif alt=forum name=forum id=forum><br><label for=forum>Forum</label></td>
  <div align=center><td><image src=images/kopf_en.gif></td></div></tr>
</table></form>

doing between your head tags?!?!
I'm afraid of going any further.

I realize some of your pages are still only in german, however your "guestbook" link goes to german also.

The images for "links" "email" and "guestbook" are out of place and would be better as text only than the images you currently use.

Since your menu is b/w may I suggest your flag images be b/w also. maybe then colorizes (no "u" in color) when you mouseover to keep with the b/w color scheme.

"Welcome to Pisa-Attack" seems off center. Closer to the right image.



Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage, and those who manage what they do not understand. - Putt's Law

 

[ChrisHunt]

Flags are a combination of shapes and colours. Both elements are important. A black and white Union Jack (or US flag) would be OK, but the vertical and horizontal stripes of the French and German flags would be difficult to distinguish from those of various other nations. For example: French, Italian and Irish flags will look very similar in black & white.

You might consider desaturating the colours somewhat, so they look old and faded, but you can't go right over to B&W.


-- Chris Hunt
Webmaster & Tragedian
Extra Connections Ltd

 

[TruthInSatire]

Good point Chris. bad suggestion on my part. I probably would have changed my mind after seeing it.

Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage, and those who manage what they do not understand. - Putt's Law

 

[MakeItSo]

Hello SimulatedFun.

1. Thanks for that hint with the misplaced [ignore]</head>[/ignore] Tag!
I have just recently added the pic and the link and have not recognized that I had put it in the wrong place...

2. The guestbook issue... yes, I didn't like the looks of my self-made one, so I switched to a free GB. That of course kills the multi-lingual idea... I should undo this.

3. What do you mean with "the links fro email and GB are out of place"?

4. Actually I never intended a BW/color scheme. It just came with the idea of using icons of famous people for the respective subjects. I think, I could rather have a try with pop-arting the icons?
I'll check out a few variations including BW.

5. The "Welcome" alignment: that is because it is part of the right image. I'll split the two, so I can center the welcome message. Thanks for that!

6. I realize some of your pages are still only in german
Yepp. I wish, I had more time...

Thanks SF. Good points!


Andy

[blue]An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind. - "Mahatma" Mohandas K. Gandhi[/blue]

 

[TruthInSatire]

1 the language selection in the splash page makes me think it's a site about billards. when the site opens after you select a language it has nothing to do with the game. the color scheme even changes.

2 phrases like

Optimised for: IE @ resolution 1024 * 768

are bad for you. remember, you're the one that has to cater to the user, it isn't their job to change for your website.

Counters are imho not for the public to see. maybe a hidden page you can go to and view the number in private.

also imho <marque> is a huge "this is an amature website" flag. But that's just me, others in the forum may not think so. I think it lools unprofessional myself.

your "forum" link is disjointed from the rest of your nav. why?

3. What do you mean with "the links fro email and GB are out of place"?

I mean most of your thumbnails for the nav are a b/w sketch of someone or something... the links mentioned are obviously clipart and just don't look natural next to the scheme of your nav.



Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage, and those who manage what they do not understand. - Putt's Law

 

[spewn]

always remember when designing pages...

there are three types of people in the world; those that can count, and those that can't.

- g