[Bibbit]

I am redesigning my website, and thought I would consult you guys. My main issue is to find out if the colors I have chosen work for everyone, as in, are they disgusting? I like the combination, but I'm weird. Any other comments are also welcomed.

I am in the process of eliminitating tables and using only CSS. I use IE and I have not checked this on other browsers, so please let me know of any problems.

There is one problem I have been dealing with. Please let me know if anyone has a problem with IE only letting you see what shows up at the very top of your browser, cutting off the end of the doc. I think this problem is resolved, but I'm worrying about it.

Thanks for any input. Here is the link:

Gossamer Test Episode
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Alice
Co-Producer, Gossamer: An Online Serial

[ViiSolidus]

A little simple looking but its a start None of the links r working so I guess u ony wanted 2 show da title page . Colours work fine, so far so good!

[B0b]

nice clean site

i have IE, Opera and NS installed to check sites..

[Gort]

Hey ho

You're footer area is missing, and I am using the very latest version of IE (6.0)

Overall you have a very good, grid structured layout; it's simple but very effective in displaying the content and making it visually accessible; don't change it - what you're doing is right! One of the biggest problems with web design today is that designers tend to "over-design"; the end result is nothing more than a detriment to the accessibility of their content. Design for your audience and not for yourself; take in account the lowest common denominator of users when designing. Believe it or not but less is often better when designing web sites.

Righthand Navsets
The normal conventions call for either lefthand or horizontal - not righthand, but righthand navsets are ok ONLY if you make them stand out. Now it didn't take long for me to find yours, but I did have to look for it - even if it was a few seconds. Consider some warms vs cools in accentuating your navigation; remember that navigation is paramount to making your content accessible - users are going to have to get it right away. I don't think yours stands out enough - especially when composited on top of the woman's face - don't do that! Get off her face - never composite on the face; you can but make sure you give the face breathing room - stay off the eyes, eyebrows, cheeks, mouth and chin; you're visually violating the personal nature of the face.

Tables vs CSS
If you're considering using layers instead of tables, then I don't think that's a good idea; layers will cause problems across browsers and platforms, and they also require more lines of source and therefore more load times for the client machine. Tables are solid and have been around a long time; they're guaranteed to work everywhere and are the strongest representation of grid systems in graphic design for the web.

On the other hand I strongly suggest the use of CSS for typeface control; use a "filename.css" external document linked into each web page; when it comes time to make a change you only have to do it one time; the changes are then done globally for every page that links to your external css document.

Overall I think you're moving in a very positive and constructive fashion.

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- Tom Carter

"You can't stop the waves but you can learn to surf" - Jack Kornfield

[Bibbit]

Thanks for the replies, everyone.

I know the site is simple, but that's what I was going for. I wanted graphics, but have to limit them to make sure download time is short. The page is about a story, so it doesn't have to be flashy.

Bob, thanks for checking my site cross browser. I've been too lazy to download Netscape since I got a new computer.

And Tom, I generally agree with you. I think I will keep the right hand nav area, but I will try to clean up the pic. I had trouble getting it right because I can't get the background no repeat function to work, but I'll keep working on it. I wanted it on the right because for a long time, 2 plus years, I always kept it on the left. I've had a top menu for about a year, and I don't like it much. So now I'm trying right. Hopefully it will be okay.

As for tables, I've used them in the past, and may slip one in if needed, but I'm liking CSS. And my design is really simple enough, I may not need another table. I'll try not to abandon them completely. The reason why I wanted to learn CSS, though, was because the multitude of nested tables were getting confusing and hard to keep track of.

Again, thanks. I will use all your comments to make a few adjustments. Now I have a few hundred pages to redesign, and I'm set.
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Alice
Co-Producer, Gossamer: An Online Serial