Critique my website

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ChrisIsBored

Diamond Member
Nov 30, 2000
3,400
1
71
Get rid of the subdomains... it's loading new images every page and that's slowing down the experience.

Also your test page has errors...
 

Barnaby W. Füi

Elite Member
Aug 14, 2001
12,343
0
0
Originally posted by: sandmanwake
What's wrong with Frontpage? I've tried dreamweaver and it's just too complicated to use for me.

I care not about the user interface, I care about the absolute garbage markup and "code" it creates.
 

dquan97

Lifer
Jul 9, 2002
12,010
3
0
I don't think the subdomains are the problem. I deleted the subdomains and the same lag occurs.
 

GtPrOjEcTX

Lifer
Jul 3, 2001
10,784
6
81
what are the files sizes of those pictures...I tried to save as to figure it out but only save option is bitmap for some reason.

also getting an error message on line 43 whatever that may be.
 

Barnaby W. Füi

Elite Member
Aug 14, 2001
12,343
0
0
The lag occurs because the browser has to load the image *right that instant* when you hover over it, and it simply can't do it that fast, it takes time to transfer. Make something that preloads the images with height and width of 0 and stick them in a corner or whatever. It's messy but then again so is javascript.

The subdomains make no sense, generally you make a subdomain for a totally different site, and use subdirectories to organize content on one site. Your pages all essentially link to totally different sites, it's just now how websites should be done.
 

GtPrOjEcTX

Lifer
Jul 3, 2001
10,784
6
81
nah, javascripts a lot less messy than what you are suggesting about the images IMO.

take that out of the body, investigate the image sizes...
 

dquan97

Lifer
Jul 9, 2002
12,010
3
0
Originally posted by: GtPrOjEcTX
what are the files sizes of those pictures...I tried to save as to figure it out but only save option is bitmap for some reason.

also getting an error message on line 43 whatever that may be.

they are 10KB each. If anyone wants to try to upload the site to their webhost to test the rollovers, I can zip the entire site and host it.
 

ChrisIsBored

Diamond Member
Nov 30, 2000
3,400
1
71
Subdirectories are part of your problem.

Let me guess.. you have 5 seperate folders...

Home - Pictures - Schedules - Links - Contact

Now in each of those folders you have your Image directory. Each page a user visits is loading images from a new Image folder. We're downloading the images 5 times to see the whole site.

You need to either get rid of the subdirectories, or link to a single image folder. That will help some as far as load times go.

Now for preloading... add this inside your head
<SCRIPT language=JavaScript>
<!--
function MM_preloadImages() { //v3.0
var d=document; if(d.images){ if(!d.MM_p) d.MM_p=new Array();
var i,j=d.MM_p.length,a=MM_preloadImages.arguments; for(i=0; i<a.length; i++)
if (a.indexOf("#")!=0){ d.MM_p[j]=new Image; d.MM_p[j++].src=a;}}
}
//-->
</SCRIPT>


Then in your body add the following
onload="MM_preloadImages('images/top_img1.gif','images/top_img2.gif','images/top_img3.gif')"
 

dquan97

Lifer
Jul 9, 2002
12,010
3
0
Originally posted by: GtPrOjEcTX
nah, javascripts a lot less messy than what you are suggesting about the images IMO.

take that out of the body, investigate the image sizes...

same results: Here
 

dquan97

Lifer
Jul 9, 2002
12,010
3
0
Originally posted by: ChrisIsBored
Subdirectories are part of your problem.

Let me guess.. you have 5 seperate folders...

Home - Pictures - Schedules - Links - Contact

Now in each of those folders you have your Image directory. Each page a user visits is loading images from a new Image folder. We're downloading the images 5 times to see the whole site.

You need to either get rid of the subdirectories, or link to a single image folder. That will help some as far as load times go.

Each time a user visits the index.html page, the images for the nav bar is pulled from a single images directory on the main folder. When a user goes to the accompanying sites, then the nav bar images are pulled from the images directory in the subdomain.

I'll post the downloadable zip file of my site here
 

ChrisIsBored

Diamond Member
Nov 30, 2000
3,400
1
71
Originally posted by: dquan97


Each time a user visits the index.html page, the images for the nav bar is pulled from a single images directory on the main folder. When a user goes to the accompanying sites, then the nav bar images are pulled from the images directory in the subdomain.

I'll post the downloadable zip file of my site here

You shouldn't do it that way.

They're not seperate sites... they're supposed to be seperate pages. In those pages... if you're convinced on using the subdirectories... why don't you just link your images either like this:

../images/image_file.gif

or give it the direct URL like this:

www.davidquan.com/images/image_file.gif

It makes absolutely no sense to have the same images in different subdirectories unless you plan on them looking differently... otherwise it just uses more of your bandwidth, and takes longer for users to view your site.
 

AmdInside

Golden Member
Jan 22, 2002
1,355
0
76
Is it me or is the site very slow?

I have pretty cool actions (Photoshop) for frames if you want to post pictures. I can email it to you. I used DreamweaverMX to do my website:

My Website

What company is hositng your site?
 

ed21x

Diamond Member
Oct 12, 2001
5,411
8
81
Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey
Originally posted by: Deslocke
Also you might consider using frames.

For the LOVE OF GOD, NO!

Anyways, change the navigation bar button text to be more readable, and preload the navigation bar hover images (so it doesnt delay when you hover over them), other than that it looks very nice.

Actually I'll add another vote for the frames, this way you don't have to reload the top navigation bar all the time, and will really speed up the overall site.

here's a sad example
 

yoda291

Diamond Member
Aug 11, 2001
5,079
0
0
my 2 cents,

On the design side,
-Your whitespace isn't being used to it's full potential, everything is crowded into the upper left corner, even at a 800x600. Spread it out or even centering the content a bit would help I think.
-Your font is a tad on the small side, especially considering it sits amidst a sea of black.
-Your navigation is slow and load times are disproportionately high. Also, the rollover images don't always load up, I get red x's half the time

On the technical side,
-Recommend flash(if you have it) for the navigation instead of Javascript. It's not so complex that loading in the flash player will kill render time.
-Do you really need "background=images/bg.gif"? Also, I can tell your background is white because it only seems to draw the background up to the content, then stops using opera.
-kill the subdomains, most hosts will set up subdomains as subfolders anyways.

On the personal side:
-consider appending a '/' to directory links, it used to be used to reduce stress a tad on servers but it's kinda old fashioned (read: unnecessary), but I find html is easier to read with it there.
-please don't use frontpage.


 

dquan97

Lifer
Jul 9, 2002
12,010
3
0
Thanks for the suggestions, all! I'll take up ChrisIsBored's suggestion and put all the images on the main directory, since I want to keep the subdomains (and the <><)

Any of you guys have personal sites that you are proud of and that I can visit?
 

MeanMeosh

Diamond Member
Apr 18, 2001
3,805
1
0
Originally posted by: dquan97
ok, I tried everything to get the rollovers to work properly. See my test site. It still lags...

I have Dixiesys as my webhost.

may i suggest loading those images when the webpage loads for the firstime? cant remember the exact tags, but i've used it before... this way, there's not even the slightest lag time for onmouseovers
 

Use two types of fonts - SansSerif for Headings, Serif for Body text.

My $0.02 worth

BingO

 

dquan97

Lifer
Jul 9, 2002
12,010
3
0
Originally posted by: MeanMeosh
Originally posted by: dquan97
ok, I tried everything to get the rollovers to work properly. See my test site. It still lags...

I have Dixiesys as my webhost.

may i suggest loading those images when the webpage loads for the firstime? cant remember the exact tags, but i've used it before... this way, there's not even the slightest lag time for onmouseovers

I've used three different way to preload the images, but they all had the same lag effect. Could the image size of 5KB be the reason? ( I dont think so)