Thread: Technical and/or esthetic comments?

Hi,
Re-designed my website, but I hear there are problems, mainly with the font (wraparound?)...I can't see any problems on my computer, so I'm working in the dark to fix it.
However, I did change my JIfusion font into image, so maybe that fixed that problem.
Also had some digital pix-y photos, but I think I fixed them?
So, feedback, please?
thank you!

http://maravillamountain.com

Your style is fantastic and the colors and pictures accent everything very nicely. I don't think I'd change a thing in that area.

Technical problems:
1- Your pictures are way too big. It takes too long to download all of them and I have broadband. I suggest that you use the pixresizer. Have a look here and there are two links to picture resizers along with other info. http://netisopen.com/computer/PICT001/PT001.html

2- Some of the images are pixelated. Replace of fix those.

3- Your main page. It has overlaping of pictures and text. Click here to have a look at a snap shot of your home page.

4- I would suggest making your email address a picture with no link. That way you will not open your self (more) to spammers.

5- Make sure to have each page a set width and center the page. Some of your pages have a sideways scroll and isn't necessary.

Its late and that is all I can think of now.

Cheers and good luck- very nice job.

Andy

Hi, ditto with Andy. need to get the KB's down in some area's as the pages are quite slow loading.

Your header looks a mess on my pc. Im using IE. There are two separate fonts that I can see, one of which wraps down below the menu bar.

I agree with what's alredy been said, your header on the home page and the general pageare huge and overlapping. Those .png pics that are pixelated really take away fom the beauty. Just continue tweaking and you'll get there!!

When can I come??? Your place looks amazing! I agree with the others on the pix - slow to load. But your site did for me what it is supposed to do which is make me want to come for a visit! So great job!

Great luck with it!
Rebecca

HI GUYS,
Thanks for the positive comments!
I've been working on it and I think I have all the Font overlapping and maybe most of the pixelating worked out. Maybe someone could re-check.
Here's a question, though, or maybe two...
I did use pixresizer and sometimes still have problems. Also re: pictures which are jpgs turning into pngs when published and seem to have more kbs as a result. So, sizing is an ongoing problem. and re: that, can the navigation buttons be reduced in kbs? I see an option with sitereportcard.com, but I don't know as it makes sense, since it takes each button on an individual basis.
Maybe I'm asking too much for this forum?
AND....good idea about changing the email text!
Thank you all!
any more clues will be welcome!

Looks alot better!! I 'm ready to come,if I could get my boss to OK it. LOL

Thanks again!
Maybe Blue Voda will sponser a trip for everyone!
But really, come on down...the weather's fine!

Hi, your thumbnail images are png because BV converts to this format for the smaller images. But it leaves the lager image as a jpg. If you want a fast page? the only way is to do this manually with 2-3kb thumbnails linking to a popup. But this takes some extra time. The other alternative if your are thinking of more images? is popping something like jalbum on your site, which is very easy to use, customizable, & fast loading. (And its free).
This one is just an album placed in an iframe on a BV page.
On the menu buttons part. These will somtimes seem slow loading depending on when they where placed on the page. Most images show up on the page in revers order. So if you placed a lot of images on the page after your menu was placed on the page. The menu images will be the last to load.

Hi Chris

I downloaded jalbum which seems great - if it's a faster way to go, maybe I can convert most of the pictures on my website to that format.
and I will look into the manual method of doing thumbnails to popups.
I really want a faster download.
also, re: the navigation buttons, the thing is, that when I run my site through sitereportcard, they seem to show up as about 2.5 kbs ea. I thought maybe there was a way of reducing them. I end up having alot of small images of 2-3kbs ea. and wanted to streamline. I don't really understand, for example, why some images are -1 (minuses) and others are many kbs.

anyway, any more insights and I will greedily latch onto them!
AND YOUR PHOTOS ARE STUNNING!
thanks
margo

LOL! My images are stolen from MS & others. On the buttons side of things, 1 or 2 kb is a great size & wouldn't worry about them. As i was saying, its down to the order they were placed on the page. So the page maybe loading other images 1st & giving the impression that the buttons are slow, & its not. Its the other images taking there time & holding up the buttons.
But have a play with JAlbum as it produces good quality low kb images.