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Site is complete. THANKS for ALL the help guys.


Ant

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After a billion annoying questions from me ;) and the generous help I have received from this site and it's members I have finally finished the site.

 

http://www.streamsofdreams.com/

 

I still have to fix some things in terms of validation.

I guess I should have done that on my first page before I duplicated it to make my others. Now I have to go and validate each page separately. Unless theres a way to do the whole site at once.

 

Anyway,theres still plenty of content to fill and correct etc but I have to wait to receive all the info from my friend. Although thats a tough one to accomplish.

 

I still need to learn how to set up a content management system etc and a whole bunch of other things. I never did learn how to create a photo page where I can upload new photos on the fly.

 

Is there anything anyone would like to comment on in terms of BIG things I may have done wrong with the site.

Is it easy to navigate? Should I have made links at the top of each page so you don't have to use the back button. i.e like on this site :

* KillerSites.com

* > Killersites Community

* > Web Design

* > Beginners Web Design

 

Did I handle the content well?

Is it clean and clear?

One thing it's lacking, besides FULL complete content(copy), is the ability to purchase things. I cant make that happen unless my friends shop is organized properly etc.. So for now every page says "call for info" etc. Which is poor but I cant help that.

 

 

 

Coming from a print design background, the closest thing I have done to something like this is a magazine layout with multiple pages etc where things need to meld together well and have a complete look etc. Otherwise it's a completely different animal to ads, logos etc. Its a real challenge to be able to accomplish all the design ideas in my mind when it takes forever to get things to do what I wanted them to do. I'm not satisfied with the design end of things but I'm just happy I was able to learn how to design a site.

 

One thing I noticed is Google still has old pages from the previous site. So when you do a search for streams of dreams fly shop it brings up old pages that lead to a dead end. Do I need to contact google and have them remove those results??

 

Thanks for the help as always,

 

Maybe in about 10 years I'll be able to help out someone else asking for help on these forums. ;)

Ant

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Ant, I'm a beginner, so I just wanted to pop in and say I love your design and you can tell, that you know what you are doing there. Web Design is partly about creating the design, you know, so I'm sure you could help beginners like me with the design end of things. Oh, and I'll let experts comment on your code though :) Oh and just curious, did you make a Photoshop mock-up before you started?

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I like your site. You did a great job on it. The only thing I can see tweaking a little is the menu text styling. I would keep the text bold on the normal state and roll over state. It jumpy when you mouse over it. You already have the background go from black to grey. I would leave that alone, and make all the text stay bold. Other than that, I like it.

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I think it looks pretty good. I won't point out the aspects I like, rather those that could be improved upon. With that, keep in mind, sometimes it's a pure subjective POV - but sometimes, it's just fact.

 

I find the headers a bit too large.

The Casa Blanca logo is very blurry, I can't even exactly read what year it was established.

All that white space under 'Thomas and Thomas fly rod blanks" does not look right - looks like something is missing.

In your footer, the orange on black(ish) is VERY hard to read, and it gets even worse once the hover turns it red.

 

Why not doctype strict? (and still validation errors)

 

<p> </p> - is never needed

 

In the code, I think you could have streamlined things a bit more - example: instead of an empty div to clear,

just add the clear to the footer division. You could probably get rid of all those empty divs. There's also no need to add the non-breaking space into the text. just one space after periods on computers is perfectly good.

 

WHY IS THIS LINE NOT BREAKING (the one I'm typing right here)??

 

Using non-descriptive id or class names, like "style1", will haunt you a week from now, when you can't remember what that means.

 

 

 

 

 

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Ant, I'm a beginner, so I just wanted to pop in and say I love your design and you can tell, that you know what you are doing there. Web Design is partly about creating the design, you know, so I'm sure you could help beginners like me with the design end of things. Oh, and I'll let experts comment on your code though :) Oh and just curious, did you make a Photoshop mock-up before you started?

 

 

LenaCa, thank you. I would be happy to help you any way I can.

 

I mocked up the home page of the site in illustrator. I could have used PS, but something like this seemed easier in illustrator since I wasn't doing any photo effects etc. Plus Illustrator is easier to place boxes, type etc.

 

The most challenging part of the site, besides all the code etc, was trying to figure out how to handle all the content and present it in a meaningful way. I asked myself what was the point of this site?. What did I want to accomplish? What are the most important elements of the business that were going to make up my navigation? etc etc.

 

Ant

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I like your site. You did a great job on it. The only thing I can see tweaking a little is the menu text styling. I would keep the text bold on the normal state and roll over state. It jumpy when you mouse over it. You already have the background go from black to grey. I would leave that alone, and make all the text stay bold. Other than that, I like it.

 

I was going to say the exact same thing.

 

I haven't been around often because I've been pretty busy, so I haven't seen this website take shape. But I have to say I like it. Great job! :clap:

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I like your site. You did a great job on it. The only thing I can see tweaking a little is the menu text styling. I would keep the text bold on the normal state and roll over state. It jumpy when you mouse over it. You already have the background go from black to grey. I would leave that alone, and make all the text stay bold. Other than that, I like it.

 

Thanks Sarina.

 

I noticed the jumping a little bit.

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I think it looks pretty good. I won't point out the aspects I like, rather those that could be improved upon. With that, keep in mind, sometimes it's a pure subjective POV - but sometimes, it's just fact.

 

I find the headers a bit too large.

The Casa Blanca logo is very blurry, I can't even exactly read what year it was established.

All that white space under 'Thomas and Thomas fly rod blanks" does not look right - looks like something is missing.

In your footer, the orange on black(ish) is VERY hard to read, and it gets even worse once the hover turns it red.

 

Why not doctype strict? (and still validation errors)

 

<p> </p> - is never needed

 

In the code, I think you could have streamlined things a bit more - example: instead of an empty div to clear,

just add the clear to the footer division. You could probably get rid of all those empty divs. There's also no need to add the non-breaking space into the text. just one space after periods on computers is perfectly good.

 

WHY IS THIS LINE NOT BREAKING (the one I'm typing right here)??

 

Using non-descriptive id or class names, like "style1", will haunt you a week from now, when you can't remember what that means.

 

 

Thanks for the critique Andrea. I can handle it, I spent a lot of time in fine art classes in college and critique hour could get pretty brutal. Your right, you cant please everyone.

 

The logo is from the site where the trip is taking place. I looked for a better quality one but couldn't find it. I'll look again.

 

The white space under the rod section is there because the content in the left column is not long enough to meet the amount of content in the right column. I don't see a way around that unless I force content in that area to always be equal to the right side. Which is not always possible.

 

Why not doctype strict? (and still validation errors) When I read up on the DTD I saw multiple different options available. I probably just chose that because it seemed popular and did not seem "scary" like the strict moniker implies. Make sense?

 

<p> </p> - is never needed. Probably laziness and I missed some that were buried in my code. Also it's so easy to hit return and get a nice space. ( again laziness and frustration towards spacing)

 

Maybe you can explain the non breaking space question better. For instance an example would help.

 

The style1 class creates itself in DW when you add style to text but don't then define the style or forget to do so. The style 1 is probably a one time style I used on some text that I didn't feel needed a renaming. Either way I totally understand what your saying. I tried to use the best names possible but sometimes it took 5 words to explain it. Like, photo_no_border_float_left.

I will watch out for that and be more aware of it.

 

Ant

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Can anyone comment on this question I had:

 

One thing I noticed is Google still has old pages from the previous site. So when you do a search for streams of dreams fly shop it brings up old pages that lead to a dead end. Do I need to contact google and have them remove those results??

 

 

Thanks

Ant

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Maybe you can explain the non breaking space question better. For instance an example would help.

I was referring to this part:

<p>We are hosting a trip with all of our new product lines for people to test and fish.  We will be targeting permit, tarpon,
snook, and bonefish. Casa Blanca lodge may be one of the most premiere fly fishing lodges in the world.  We have been fishing here for almost a 
decade now.  In the past we  have had trips  with up to 35 permit landed, the largest of which was 36lbs.  You will fly into Cancun then take a hopper
over to the Yucatan peninsula, where Casa Blanca Lodge is located.  We expect anywhere from 10 to 15 people.   The guides down there are fantastic ..... </p> 

There's a space and a the nbsp following the periods. No need for that, just one space is good. I'm guessing, so, that you just double-spaced like it used to be done, and DW added the nbsp on its own.

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I see what your talking about.

 

I guess you thought I was adding double spaces at the end of sentences like people used to be taught years ago.

 

What thats from is I copied and pasted my friends email to me for that description of the trip that I asked him to write up for me. So somehow DW picked up the formatting and I didn't even see it. Or maybe I pasted the email into textedit and then made it plain text and it somehow created double spaces that DW carried over.

 

I'll remove them. Thanks for noticing it.

 

Ant

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