Negative review from Jennifer Kyrnin

[michael180]

REF: http://moderntimes.com/palace

I don't know how many of you know who Jennifer Kyrnin is, she contributes of About.com. She recently reviewed my page noted above.

She said the page was too wide, the text was too small, it was difficult to navigate, and she could not determine what the page was about.

What to others out there think?

Thanks,

[srule_]

Page was too wide

- Agreed: if you minimize the screen to 800X600 you get a scroll bar. you actual content area is should be able to fit... try to fix that.

text was too small

-Agreed: It is small. People with good eyes can read it no problem but you got to remember nobody is perfect :-)

it was difficult to navigate

- Agreed: You do not have a navigation. I clickied on "biography" and then a different set of links popped up in the side bar.

could not determine what the page was about

- Disagree: You title does a 1/2 decent job of telling me what it is about and the 1st line of text in your main page does the other 1/2. There is room for improvment.. Instead of calling it "Palace - Classic Films" call it "Classic Filsm - For Fans of Hollywood’s Golden"

[michael180]

srule,

Thanks for your reply. I would think with monitors being the size they are today that 800x600 would be on the small side.

If I make the position "relative" the site tends to break up, thus the absolute positioning.

Regarding the navigation, the links take the viewer to additional pages, I'm not sure how I could make it simpler?

It's going to be a major re-design. . .

Thanks again,

[michael180]

Originally Posted by michael180

It's going to be a major re-design. . .

Thanks again,

PS. I'm not even sure hot to do that?

[Actinia]

I have just had a look and I find that your stripy background flickers annoyingly when I scroll.

John Rostron

[Mwnciau]

Originally Posted by michael180

Regarding the navigation, the links take the viewer to additional pages, I'm not sure how I could make it simpler?

Start by making links more visible, eg underlined or a different colour, you could also use a navigation bar somewhere for the more important links.

Originally Posted by michael180

If I make the position "relative" the site tends to break up, thus the absolute positioning.

Instead of using absolute pixels use a percentage instead, that will make it a little better atleast, and move the search bar in the top right so it doesn't extend the page.



Also make the stripes wider in the background, I find that it starts to hurt my eyes...

[rmedek]

Originally Posted by michael180

REF: http://moderntimes.com/palace

I don't know how many of you know who Jennifer Kyrnin is, she contributes of About.com. She recently reviewed my page noted above.

She said the page was too wide, the text was too small, it was difficult to navigate, and she could not determine what the page was about.

What to others out there think?

Thanks,

I remember an earlier version of your site you posted here that I liked more than this recent version.

But truthfully—I find it funny that anyone from About.com would be critiquing other people's websites. My God, that About collection of sites is about the most unwieldy, hard-to-read, stupidly plastered by advertising collection of sites out there. I hate About. Hate. Them. About.com is all that's wrong with the internet. If I had one wish, it would be to live in an About-less inte…

wha?

Oh, sorry, don't know what happened there, I blacked out for a sec.

[VIPStephan]

Originally Posted by Mwnciau

Start by making links more visible, eg underlined or a different colour […]

Exactly that’s what I thought as well. And I have a nice suggestion for you: a tone of orange would do the trick nicely as complementary colours are the most effective way of setting accents and the combination of grey and orange is one of the most widely acknowledged ones for this example.

Originally Posted by rmedek

[…] that About collection of sites is about the most unwieldy, hard-to-read, stupidly plastered by advertising collection of sites out there.

That might be true but do you know if and/or how much influence has Jennifer Kymin has on the code of that site? She’s probably just a small cog in this company and while she might be the best website critic out there she may not have to say a thing in the company, haha.

[rmedek]

Originally Posted by VIPStephan

That might be true but do you know if and/or how much influence has Jennifer Kymin has on the code of that site? She’s probably just a small cog in this company and while she might be the best website critic out there she may not have to say a thing in the company, haha.

Maybe, but that doesn't excuse her moral integrity (or lack thereof) for working there.

[felgall]

Originally Posted by rmedek

Maybe, but that doesn't excuse her moral integrity (or lack thereof) for working there.

or yours for working where-ever it is that you work.

Where-ever you work, you do things their way or you don't end up working there for very long. Since About is basically financed completely from the displayed advertising their pages are designed to maximize the income that they get from that advertising. Any other employer will be doing things a particular way in order to make money too so unless you are working for an employer whose goal is to become bankrupt.....

[felgall]

Originally Posted by michael180

I would think with monitors being the size they are today that 800x600 would be on the small side.

I haven't seen a handheld device yet that provides a screen wider than 400px for viewing the web on.

[Apostropartheid]

They must scale--images on my site like to come down to an ideal size on my PSP. I generally don't check on phone due to actually having to pay *-)

[rmedek]

Originally Posted by felgall

or yours for working where-ever it is that you work.

Where-ever you work, you do things their way or you don't end up working there for very long. Since About is basically financed completely from the displayed advertising their pages are designed to maximize the income that they get from that advertising. Any other employer will be doing things a particular way in order to make money too so unless you are working for an employer whose goal is to become bankrupt.....

Big grinning smiley = joke

Deep breaths, Stephen, deep breaths…

[felgall]

Sorry, forgot the big grinning smilie in my reply.

[Spookster]

I would agree that the page is too wide. Even at 1024x768 with FF maximized I get a side scroll bar.

I also agree about navigation being difficult without and sort of common navigation bar. Change the color of links at least.