www.mywifeisgoingtokillme.com: feedback please?

[RFH Reseller: davidbending]

Another week - another site. This one is actually really a front-end to www.celtic-style.com, but please let me know what you think.

www.mywifeisgoingtokillme.com reminds you about birthdays, anniversaries etc., and should you forget one allows you to place an order with a back-dated delivery note and excuse to save your skin.

_
D

[RFH Reseller: Sol]

Hi David,

I just voted 'bad' and wanted to explain a little.

Firstly I don't think the site is bad, but think it is nearer to bad than good. The two sites have the same layout with a variation on colour scheme, which is good since you are tying the two sites together, however, I personally feel that neither of the sites have had any real creativity put into them.

I do like the fact you have kept the design clean and simple, which also lends the site to be accessible to some extent. I also like the Javascript slideshow routine as opposed to the use of Flash. However, I think you could do better and make the site more enticing.

Sol.

[RFH Reseller: nick]

I have to say change the photoshop pattern in the header banner!
Good to see you trying for xhtml/css over tables, though one is still creeping in.
A lot of style info is still inline which is a negative point.
The javascript is completely screwing any chances of your page's XHTML validating unfortunately, don't know how bothered you are by this, I'd probably move the js into a seperate file anyway.
The actual design is a funny mix. It sort of looks modern with the page shadow and tabs, and it is nice, clear and simple but it lacks that wow factor. Some title attributes on links would be a nice addition.
I agree with sol that it's not actually bad, I'd say it's 'alright'.

I do think it's a great idea

[RFH Reseller: askjim]

No comment regarding the design / content of the site but top marks on trying to maximising the number of ways someone will order from you.

[RFH Reseller: davidbending]

Thanks for the comments. To be honest I'm not thrilled with the header. I think I'll just re-tint the Celtic Style one for the time being until I'm inspired.
I agree with the tables bit too. I'm using some of the ASP.Net controls and they always seem to render themselves as table with inline style. I'm not sure if I can change that but it's on my to-do list to find out.
Thank you for the constructive criticism which I will certainly take on board. Maybe I should have offered an "adequate" option on the poll!
In any case, if any of the reviewers cares to get in contact I'll send you an e-coupon by way of thanks if that's of any interest.

[RFH Reseller: Sol]

As you are using ASP.Net (guessing its v2) you should look into 'Control Adaptors' (http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archi...02/444850.aspx).

Control Adaptors allow you to change the way the controls render their HTML code and hence remove the <table> elements to obtain a cleaner CSS solution. I would, however, add that the use of tables is still acceptable, it's just that they should not really be used for page layout. A great example of when to use a table is when presenting data in a grid (ie. a list of customers showing several fields).

You should also look at the MasterPages and Themes functionality that is available to you. Given the simplicity of your site I would suggest it is possible to have multiple themes that will allow you to let a user decide on the theme they wish to use. You can tie this back to a personalization option that is stored in a Users Profile using the built-in Membership and Profile API's.

Using themes will allow you to remove a lot of the inline CSS markup. I'd go about this by creating a new theme and a Skin file which would hold all the inline styles. You then go through the Skin file and replace the inline styles with CSS classes and move the inline style code into a CSS file. As the CSS file will sit in the Theme folder you don't have any extra work to get it to load since ASP.Net will reference each CSS file in the Theme folder automatically on every page (you can trick the order in which these are added by prefix with a numeral).

Hope these tips help.

Sol.

[RFH Reseller: davidbending]

Thanks for the link, the control adaptor stuff looks interesting.

IT seems even if you do use master pages, Visual Studio will "helpfully" insert lots of inline style for you that you then need to find and remove.

[RFH Reseller: Sol]

IT seems even if you do use master pages, Visual Studio will "helpfully" insert lots of inline style for you that you then need to find and remove.

Yes, Visual Studio in design-mode will still insert lots of inline style, however, it's quite simple to cut and paste that into a skin file and then use a skin name. Personally I spend a lot more time in 'Code View' especially as most of the projects I have been working on tend to load controls dynamically.

Anyway, I found a really good link for ASP.Net developers looking to use Web Standards:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...pnetusstan.asp

Sol.

[RFH Reseller: davidbending]

Thanks once again for an interesting link.

Have a great weekend.

_
David

[RFH Customer: Jon Freeman]

This one is actually really a front-end to www.celtic-style.com, but please let me know what you think.

www.mywifeisgoingtokillme.com

Both of these sites seem to cause me problems using my current "first choice browser" (Firefox 1.5.0.8 on Linux). Not only is scrolling on those pages slow and jerky but other browser windows do not behave properly with one of your sites open.

I've also tried Opera 9.02. That's OK but under my "normal browsing", I would have just left.