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View Full Version : My New Website--Feedback Appreciated



jasonklass
02-07-2006, 18:12
Hi everyone. I finally finished my first website! Originally, I wanted to make a more comprehensive site covering a range of topics on gear but my space was limited to 50 megs and I really don't know anything about making websites. So this first one was kind of a learning process for me. I plan on making more topic-specific sites like this one in the near future rather than one big comprehensive site (basically because I can do it for free). Please take a minute to check it out and let me know what you think. Any comments, insights, or criticism would be greatly appreciated! IMPORTANT: please make sure your browser window is maximized otherwise everything will shift over to the left.
Here's the site: http://www.freewebs.com/jasonklass/index.htm
Cheers,
Jason

calearn
02-07-2006, 18:34
Nice Job on overall layout!

My comment is I find the off-white small thin text on a black background impossible for me to read and I need to copy the text into a word processing program before I'm able to read it. You also might want to add something like hspace=4 to the image tags to give the text some seperation from the images.

jasonklass
02-07-2006, 19:05
Yeah, I've gotten that comment from others. I'm going to see if I can change the color scheme to make it easier to read. On my monitor, it's fine but maybe my contrast or brightness is set differently than others. For the spacing, I can't figure out how to get the text away from the pictures. "hspace=4 to the image tags " might as well be Greek to me. Remember, I have no idea what I'm doing! What about justifying all the pictures to the right? Do you think this would be better?

Rain Man
02-07-2006, 23:27
All I got was a mortgage quote offer.

Rain Man

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Just Jeff
02-08-2006, 00:27
You gotta click "skip this ad" in the upper right corner.

Tha Wookie
02-08-2006, 01:10
Great photo of the windscreen! Beautiful lines!

I was a bit confused about the overll purpose of the site. Are you selling windscreens?

If you are going to spend the time in doing the site, I would can the splash page with the ad. That part really sucks. There are other services that will give you some space.

Hosting is pretty cheap.

betic4lyf
02-08-2006, 01:11
good site, the pictures are a cut above. if you have anything else to talk about or anything, you seem to be very good at making them.


go team grammar

jasonklass
02-08-2006, 13:40
Great photo of the windscreen! Beautiful lines!

I was a bit confused about the overll purpose of the site. Are you selling windscreens?

If you are going to spend the time in doing the site, I would can the splash page with the ad. That part really sucks. There are other services that will give you some space.

Hosting is pretty cheap.

I'm not selling them. The purpose is only to show how to make a better method of attachment than the old paper clip style. It's so easy to make I don't think anyone would pay for it. As for the ad, there's not much I can do about that. I'm not going to shell out money for an ad-free space. Like I said, this project was a first step to bigger and better things. I just wanted to get some experience. Thanks for you comments.

Sly
02-08-2006, 14:57
Great looking site, sharp photos. No ads or pop-ups being blocked.

Smile
02-08-2006, 15:03
Sweet, very nice site, great concept - perhaps you might want to market these. I bet you have a fun gear closet to peek into!

jasonklass
02-08-2006, 17:08
Don't remind me! I'm in the process of downsizing and putting a lot of my gear on eBay. Man, I need a cheaper hobby. I thought flyfishing was expensive!

Roland
02-08-2006, 17:17
Jason,

Very nice job on your website. I don't know if you've made adjustments to your text already, but I had no trouble viewing it on my computer. As others have mentioned, your photos are exceptional. Your slider idea is very clever too.

attroll
02-09-2006, 01:47
I am no expert but another bit of advice I would suggest is to put a transparent border around your images so that the test does not butt right up against them.

MedicineMan
02-09-2006, 05:57
and i think you should sell them,,,though I use a couple of knitting needles sewn periodically---spaced 3 inches apart total of 4---in a piece of Nomex....great variability but not good on solid rock like yours.

Rain Man
02-09-2006, 12:26
I am no expert but another bit of advice I would suggest is to put a transparent border around your images so that the test does not butt right up against them.

Adding a "vspace=10" and a "hspace=10" to the [IMG SRC] HTML codes would give the needed top and side blank space cushion.

And like others said, by all means get rid of the grey-on-black font color. That and dark-blue-on-black are two I've never understood any webmaster ever choosing. It baffles me why one would be promoting a crisp, well-designed wind screen on a web page that itself isn't crisp and well-designed. If the judgment and attention to detail (or lack thereof) carry over from the web page to the wind screen, I'd be hesitant to try it. Apologies to the creator, but that's just the way my mind works. My other excuse is he asked for constructive criticism and critique.

Having said all that, the photos are exceptional! Best to you as you listen to and accept and act on requested input to improve your site!

Rain:sunMan

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Rain Man
02-09-2006, 12:42
Having said all that, the photos are exceptional! ...

OUCH!!! Just figured out that the photo files are about TEN TIMES or more of the sizes they should/need to be. They are about 500k and should only be about 50k. No wonder they are exceptional to look at (but take forever to download). For the fraction of the world on broadband, that's not as much of a problem, but for the vast numbers on dial up, that's a concern. So you'll need to decide if you want your site to be for most everbody or only a select group. Statistics prove that users judge and close slow sites within seconds, so time is more important (for many) that "pretty" is. Just FYI.

Rain:sunMan

.

neo
02-09-2006, 12:52
Hi everyone. I finally finished my first website! Originally, I wanted to make a more comprehensive site covering a range of topics on gear but my space was limited to 50 megs and I really don't know anything about making websites. So this first one was kind of a learning process for me. I plan on making more topic-specific sites like this one in the near future rather than one big comprehensive site (basically because I can do it for free). Please take a minute to check it out and let me know what you think. Any comments, insights, or criticism would be greatly appreciated! IMPORTANT: please make sure your browser window is maximized otherwise everything will shift over to the left.
Here's the site: http://www.freewebs.com/jasonklass/index.htm
Cheers,
Jason

excellent job,really cool stove also:cool: neo

jasonklass
02-09-2006, 20:56
OUCH!!! Just figured out that the photo files are about TEN TIMES or more of the sizes they should/need to be. They are about 500k and should only be about 50k. No wonder they are exceptional to look at (but take forever to download). For the fraction of the world on broadband, that's not as much of a problem, but for the vast numbers on dial up, that's a concern. So you'll need to decide if you want your site to be for most everbody or only a select group. Statistics prove that users judge and close slow sites within seconds, so time is more important (for many) that "pretty" is. Just FYI.

Rain:sunMan

.
Thanks for the advize Rainman. I'm going to be cleaning it up this weekend. First I want to get all my information on there, then I'll worry about the aesthetics. On my monitor the text is fine for reading. What I'm finding is that it's about 50/50 for people who have trouble or no trouble. I'll change it to something that's more universally easy to read. I'm also considering making the pictures smaller so that people with dialup don't want to put their fist through their computer screen!

Tha Wookie
02-09-2006, 21:27
Thanks for the advize Rainman. I'm going to be cleaning it up this weekend. First I want to get all my information on there, then I'll worry about the aesthetics. On my monitor the text is fine for reading. What I'm finding is that it's about 50/50 for people who have trouble or no trouble. I'll change it to something that's more universally easy to read. I'm also considering making the pictures smaller so that people with dialup don't want to put their fist through their computer screen!

Set them at 72 dpi.

jasonklass
02-10-2006, 20:40
Thanks guys. I made some of the photos smaller. The problem is that everything looks and works fine on MY computer. But when I look at the site with someone else's monitor, it looks totally different. Everything gets shifter around, the pictures take forever to load, etc.

calearn
02-11-2006, 02:05
Welcome to the Internet world :). It can depend on connection speed, which browser is being used, the monitor being used, what the screen resolution is set at in the control panel, how many colors are set to display on the screen, how big the user has the window opened, settings the user has in their browser, etc, etc. Every machine that views your pages can be different. As you design more and more pages, you create a library in your mind of what works and what doesn't work for most user's machines.

For the pictures, you really should resize the actual images and not just the display size. To do this, you get a program like Picasa (free from Google - but I'm sure there are easier programs) and then export or resize the actual image, so it is the display size you want when you open it in any program, such as a paint program. Your pictures are currently 800 pixels by 600 pixels. They are then being reduced AFTER they are downloaded to our machines to around 302 pixels by 194 pixels. By resizing the pictures before they are placed on your site, you will only use 1/8th of the storage space and people who view your site will download the pictures 8 times faster.

For spacing around the pictures, you will pick that up as you gain experience. You might not have the option to do this in the software you are using but once you start learning more about HTML it will become second nature to manipulate the code after your program generates it to make your own tweaks. You may want to consider buying a used book on basic html or barrowing one from a library that will explain all the HTML tags and options that are available in them and on the style sheets that can set basic rules for a set of tags.

Good luck and keep it up. Your artistic talents are really good!

jasonklass
02-11-2006, 10:59
Hey Thanks for all of the advice! I already have Picasa so I could start resizing images. I'm not going to go back and redo all of the ones on this site. But I will definitely do it for my next project. Wuestion: if I resize them to 302 pixels by 194 pixels is the quality still ok? I think I will get a book because I'd like to learn more about HTML.

Rain Man
02-11-2006, 11:19
Hey Thanks for all of the advice! I already have Picasa so I could start resizing images. I'm not going to go back and redo all of the ones on this site. ... I think I will get a book because I'd like to learn more about HTML.

Jason, you might want to resize your current pics, because "experimenting" is a great way to learn what HTML code does and does not do. I do recommend getting an HTML reference manual (that's what I did. you can get them from the library if you don't want to buy one). As you tweak your existing site, you'll learn more and more, so think about that benefit.

And definitely learn about editing photos and graphics. That can speed up downloads and do so much for creating an appealing layout and appearance of a site. It's not that difficult.

You're off to a great start!!! Now it just takes time and dedication.

Rain:sunMan

.

calearn
02-11-2006, 15:19
The quality of the images on your page will not change as long as the new size of the image you upload to your site is the same or larger than the size of the image you display on your page and you reduce the original image proportionally and at the same quality (which most programs do automatically).

dje97001
02-11-2006, 15:31
I think that site looks great! But as for learning HTML, if you are really interested in getting started with web design. I'd recommend downloading a 30 Day Trial of Macromedia's (now Adobe) Dreamweaver. Buy it afterward if you like it. WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) editors are so sophisticated now there is really no point in starting with HTML--it helps to understand the language for tweaking and/or more complicated things, but with Dreamweaver you can get up and running quickly. Just my 2 cents.
Enjoy!

walkin' wally
02-11-2006, 15:59
Hi Jason,

I was wondering what a Whitney Punch is, and where I could get one. Do you use it with a hammer or does it look like a paper punch?

Thanks,

Walkin Wally

jasonklass
02-11-2006, 16:48
Hi Jason,

I was wondering what a Whitney Punch is, and where I could get one. Do you use it with a hammer or does it look like a paper punch?

Thanks,

Walkin Wally

It's a metal punch. There's a picture of one and a link on where to buy them on my site: http://www.freewebs.com/jasonklass/construction.htm . Check it out. You can buy them at harborfrieght.com. Mine is actually a cheap Chinese knock-off of one, The real Whitneys are expensive. Mine was about 20 bucks and worth every penny.

Wolfpaw
02-12-2006, 02:57
cool site maybe add some hot trail girls wearing only gaitors and boots? I bet you could hit five thousand on yer counterby tomorrow. peace paw

jasonklass
02-12-2006, 10:40
cool site maybe add some hot trail girls wearing only gaitors and boots? I bet you could hit five thousand on yer counterby tomorrow. peace paw

Hmmm....That's a brilliant marketing strategy. Do you know where I could meet some?

Skyline
02-12-2006, 11:28
FWIW, I thankfully did not have to view an ad when I clicked on your link, and even more thankfully I was not bombarded with attempts to market stuff via pop-ups. For a first attempt, this is a good site--very thorough as a demo project. You will pick up what you don't know by doing it more. I second those comments about the text legibility. I'd go with a light background color or even white, with dark text--preferably a rich black mixed with a contrasting but easy to read color for headings and emphasis.

The photos downloaded quickly enough. I am using satellite "broadband," which is all I can get in the rural area where I live. It's a step-up from dial-up, but only a baby step compared to DSL or cable.

walkin' wally
02-12-2006, 19:41
Thanks Jason,

I guess I should have looked around further on your site. I think I will get one of those.

jasonklass
02-12-2006, 22:28
They're definitely worth it if you plan to make things like stoves and windscreens.