Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

Yes, truly it does.

10 (52.6%)

No, it does not.

4 (21.1%)

I am blind.

5 (26.3%)

Total Members Voted: 16

Voting closed: June 29, 2005, 02:55:07 pm

[bdeth dot com]

PNG's are here!

and they're spectacular

[jough]

http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/mysterymeatnavigation.html

[bdeth dot com]

Are you trying to keep me on the defensive?

I do appreciate all of the good advice, however. I'm still trying to hunt down and write up some browser detection code.

[jough]

I do appreciate all of the good advice, however. I'm still trying to hunt down and write up some browser detection code.

Dude, why not just make your site work right with both IE and Firefox?  It can be done.

Also, are you generating that CSS on the fly?  Why do you have all styles in attributes instead of putting your styles into a single stylesheet file and letting people download it once instead of every time they load your page?

We're all about education here.  No need to be defensive.  In the future you should say something like "I don't really want any criticism I just want you all to tell me how wonderful I am" in threads you post asking people what they think of your web site.

[Ben-San]

To what do you all think that the ceiling fan and couch should link? I had no intentions.

Here is the basic problem with the ceiling fan and the chaise longue.

Your method of web site design creates a "virtual space". This virtual space is a desolate and empty room, with content to be achieved by clicking on objects. Each object is a metaphor for a link. The box of stuff will take you to your collection of stuff. The picture of a face will take you to information about a person. The picture of a telephone will take you to a means of communication.

The only objects that belong in this navigational virtual space are those which are metaphors for links. Imagine if, for instance, when you opened up a window in your windowed operating system of choice, in addition to the icons which are metaphors for your directories, your programs, and your files, there were also random icons of approximately the same size and style which would have absolutely no meaning or effect when clicked on. Also, there would be no labels on any of these icons, so you wouldn't know which ones are meaningless decoys until you clicked on them and nothing happened.

Why does your operating system do this? The only answer is that it is badly designed, or designed with hate. It is nice to have a beautiful sense of desolation in your virtual space, but having established a system whereby objects are metaphors for links, having in the same space objects which are not metaphors for links only creates decoys that frustrate and confuse your users. Also, if the objects are bad metaphors, they will likewise create frustration. At the least, you should be able to think "All right, I want to (xxx); this is the object that looks most like a metaphor for (xxx)ing." and then click on that object and go off to (xxx).

This is pretty rambling, so what it comes down to is: do not ask what the ceiling fan should do. The ceiling fan should not exist unless there is a thing you want your website to do for which the most apt metaphor in your desolate space is a ceiling fan. I have no idea what such a thing would be.

This all assumes, of course, that you want to stick with this method of opaque navigation, but I do not think you are likely to be dissuaded from it.

[Pedro Picasso]

Now, I may have been under the wrong impression here, but I thought this place was about _education_.

Two questions:

1) Is this website and thread some sort of obscure social experiment?
2) Are you old enough to buy cigarettes or pornography in the United States?
3) How many questions did I say?

_____________
Investigative.

[acoxcae]

I thought I should chime in at this point and say, "I love this thread."  The man asks for website feedback, and gets honest, helpful, only snarky at times website feedback.

As soon as I've got content on mine, I may have to do the same.

As for my actual website review, echo what everyone else has said, mostly.  I spent a lot of time making sure mine is compatible with IE and Firefox (and Opera, and Konqueror...) because I'd rather it was functional/beautiful for 100% of the population rather than just for the Firefox crowd.  Now, I'm a member of the Firefox crowd, and firmly think everyone should be, but facts is facts, and they're not.  So, compatibility is key.

Unlike everyone else, I have no major problem with the ceiling fan.  Since I couldn't think of a destination that would be conjured by the image of a ceiling fan, I didn't click on it, and I didn't miss anything.  But, some sort of textual labeling might be a good idea, if only for accessibility reasons.  I like to think about the blind/lynx users that might be visiting my website.

Lastly - Jough is spot-on about the CSS.  What gives?  It basically defeats the purpose of CSS to go embedding it in the HTML like that - that should be reserved for specific items which for some reason or another need to override their given attributes.

Other than that, I do really like the aesthetics, it's just light on content.

Wake me when you've got version 2.0 up.

acoxcae

[AugustWest]

Now, I may have been under the wrong impression here, but I thought this place was about _education_.

Two questions:

1) Is this website and thread some sort of obscure social experiment?

Are you referring to TOUAMB or to bdeth's? site?  'Cause if you're asking that question about this board, all I can say is, duh.

2) Are you old enough to buy cigarettes or pornography in the United States?

Who buys porn anymore?  Welcome to 1996.

3) How many questions did I say?

Hi Opal!

[arkabee]

the couch would make a splendid link to a message board, metaphor intact depending.

please don't waste your efforts inventing browser AUTOMAGICAL detection crap, it would make kevbob cry.

[arkabee]

http://www.bdeth.com/contact_me.html

it is a motiff?  yes, i just looked it up, it is a motif (one "ef").

i appreciate "link!" next to your email link.  you are good at making pretty things.

from the wallpaper page:
" Finally, click the computer screen to download the desktop."

if you are going to actually make "instructions", and go through the motions of assuming that someone would need "instructions" to download a picture, then plase make actual instructions rather than "instructions".

i use a test when i'm particularly frustrated with a customer not understandning what is so obviously fuck*ng obvious. i call it the "my mom test":

would my mom understand?

if the answer is no, then the customer is not the stupid asshole, i am.  because my mom is no stupid asshole and i'll kick your ass for even thinking it let alone saying it.

bdteh, i recommend you have a moment of zen with http://www.bdeth.com/desktops.html and pretend you are not you but that you are someone else COMPLETELY.

because i have  a sneaking suspicion that when you made that page you THOUGHT you were THINKING like you were someone else, but you weren't really pretending you just thought you were.


what i'm trying to say is that you wrote down instructions for something "easy", and the instruction amount to telling them that they are stupid for needing the instructions, because if they knew how to download the picture they wouldn't click instructions.

and i'm not being more a prick than normal, i'm edumacating.

also, it's possible that you have your browser setup that when you click on the desktop it prompts to save as...

my browser just opens the gif into another window.

which, again, if the user understood that it did just download, into cache, and could find their cache, then they wouldn't likely need instructions.

[AugustWest]

because i have a sneaking suspicion that when you made that page you THOUGHT you were THINKING like you were someone else, but you weren't really pretending you just thought you were.

That's what you think.

Or at least it's what I thought you think.

My head hurts.

I don't know

THIRD BASE!

[bdeth dot com]

I'm back from vacation in Costa Rica. I decided not to even think about computers for a week so I'm still catching up on everything. Thank you, everyone for all of your comments and taking the time to look at my site and give feeback. Criticism is what I wanted. Really, Jough.

Now, just a quick summary and conclusion to this thread:

1) I am a novice web designer.
2) The page is under sporadic construction.
3) The "metaphoric links" are optional.
4) There is also an obvious nav bar.
5) The IE reference is for Mac users and will probably be changed along with the spash page.
6) Right-click the deskop once the image has loaded. (I thought that was a given in 2005)
7) I am a novice web designer and didn't fully understand the CSS thing. How do I fix that?

Thanks again everyone.

[bdeth dot com]

Also I forgot to reiterate:

8)Desolate minimalism is where it is at.

[Ben-San]

5) The IE reference is for Mac users and will probably be changed along with the spash page.
6) Right-click the deskop once the image has loaded. (I thought that was a given in 2005)

I do not understand in what way the IE reference is for Mac users. I am a Mac user and have been for years and I have never used IE on a Mac. Is "Mac users" code for something here that does not mean people who use Apple Macintoshes?

Also, it is probably related but I have no damn idea what number 6 there is even supposed to mean.

[V-Adore]

Also I forgot to reiterate:

8)Desolate minimalism is where it is at.

Desolate minimalism is all well and good, but a lot of the time this minimalism just feels like you don't know how to use your space. For example, the stuff page still bugs me because the space use is weird and kind of wasteful. You have a huge chunk of just blank space on the page, but your pictures appear in this teeny window... and, when clicked on, open up a pop-up window that's not much bigger. Why not dedicate the giant chunk of wasted space in the upper right to a bigger "viewing area" for pictures that would eliminate the pop-up and give your stuff more room? Telling me to hugeify my window on your splash page and then wasting that space is just kind of insulting.

Also: yes, it is good that you have a navbar. It is bad that the navbar is tiny, in the lower right-hand corner, and much less prominent than the Metaphorical Ceiling Fan of Sadness.