Productions Company Website

[haydndup]

[a href=\"http://www.avlacademy.co.za/productions\" target=\"_blank\"]AVL Productions[/a]

Ok, this is for a company that does the audio, video, lights and staging for many productions in south africa. The left colomn's content is not finalized at the moment, so pls ignore it for the time being. I am aware of one or two minor compatibilty bugs, namely the nav bar positioning in ff and opera, and the contact form page..

Also i'm not sure if the email validity check on the contact page is good enough?

i'm using

[code]eregi("^[_\.0-9a-z-]+@([0-9a-z][0-9a-z-]+\.)+[a-z]{2,6}$",$email)[/code]

Thanks in advance

[ober]

1) What resolution are you designing for and is it fixed? Resizing my browser window didn't affect the website at all, which is normally fine, but it appears you have it set for a 1280x1024 resolution... that's high for the majority of your users.

2) The scrolling banner image is both annoying and unecessary. You could achieve the same results with a static image.

3) You might have wanted to finish up the menus before posting it here, as it's hard to tell what the final product is going to look like on the left.

4) The black titles that show up inside your little blue gradient boxes are hard to read.... black text on dark blue? Are you serious?

That was just a quick look... let us know when you have more done.

[homchz]

Have to agree with Ober on many points.

The scrolling is hard to look at. Though I do kind of like the way the words in the logo scroll.

The gradient menus are to harsh of a change and the text is very hard to read.

In larger resoultions you have a lot of dead space where it looks like something should be. I am hoping you are planning on a right column to match the left. or making the footer and nav a bit shorter, to match the news boxes.

The only things I would see as professional on this site is the logo, everything after that seems amaturish to me. Not really the image a business wants to display.

[moberemk]

I'll agree with the previous two posters-they basically hit everything I see wrong with it, excepting the use of tables. It is valid XHTML though, so there's a point in your favour.

[haydndup]

[!--quoteo--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]1) What resolution are you designing for and is it fixed? Resizing my browser window didn't affect the website at all, which is normally fine, but it appears you have it set for a 1280x1024 resolution... that's high for the majority of your users.
[/quote]

The website is optimized for 1024x768, although it is not fixed width per se.

[!--quoteo--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]2) The scrolling banner image is both annoying and unecessary. You could achieve the same results with a static image.[/quote]

Unfortunately, that is a client's request. I have tried to persuade them otherwise saying that the scroller is pretty bandwidth intensive, but they were adamant they wanted it.

[!--quoteo--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]4) The black titles that show up inside your little blue gradient boxes are hard to read.... black text on dark blue? Are you serious?
[/quote]

I have changed the text's color from black to white. Pls let me know if it is an improvement, or if i should change the gradient thing.

[steviewdr]

That scrolling is WRONG - Put a nice Slow FADE between images in your header if it must be that way.
No other websites have that annoying scoller.
Even if you SLOWED it down - A LOT, maybe - but its just bad atm.

It needs more content to fully evalute it.
The layout is ok. Im not sure you need that gradient for the News items - its overkill IMO.

Rgds,
steve

[moberemk]

What part of "The client demanded it" did you not here? You can't get rid of it if the client wants it.
Also, the only resolution where I don't get any sort of scrollbars is at 1280x1024. I'd suggest that you maybe make that a fluid-width site.

[haydndup]

[!--quoteo--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]I'll agree with the previous two posters-they basically hit everything I see wrong with it, excepting the use of tables. [/quote]

My previous draft of the site used css-positioned divs, but IE in particular was having problems, so i decided to use tables and change it when IE becomes more... user friendly - hmm, not sure if thats the right word...

[!--quoteo--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]Also, the only resolution where I don't get any sort of scrollbars is at 1280x1024. I'd suggest that you maybe make that a fluid-width site.[/quote]

Currently, the site is fluid width. The page expands to 100%.

[!--quoteo--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]That scrolling is WRONG - Put a nice Slow FADE between images in your header if it must be that way.[/quote]

As moberemk said, the client wants it. I have tried to persuade them otherwise.

To get back to one of my original questions, is the email validation on the contact page sufficient?

[steviewdr]

OK - the client doesnt visit many websites, or maybe they do and they like been distracted by banners - OK, well:
[!--quoteo--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]Even if you SLOWED it down [/quote]

There are lots of other things you could do/have done also.
The colours, it could be lightened up a bit - have some opacity. Have it like a FILM roll - (negative film) etc. TONS of ideas to make it more pleasing to the eye - instead of a lot of photos stuck together in a line sweeping from right to left.

-steve

[haydndup]

[!--quoteo--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]Have it like a FILM roll [/quote]
Nice idea, I were considering putting it in a sort off olden day like movie film border.. Like with the holes on the top and below. Was considering something like this:

[a href=\"http://img71.imageshack.us/img71/4145/appleif1he.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"][img src=\"http://img71.imageshack.us/img71/4145/appleif1he.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"IPB Image\" /][/a]

Ideas, suggestions? In particular, does anyone know offhand if it is possible to use php to add the black and white border on the top and bottom? That would save a lot of time in the long run...

[!--quoteo--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]have some opacity[/quote]
Will play around with that, thanks

[moberemk]

I suppose you could make the black-and-white border a CSS background. Not PHP, but it could work.

[haydndup]

No, i mean, is there a way to join 2 images together on top of each other? so i will have the background set to an empty 'shell' (the above picture without the apple logo). and then get php to add the picture in (the apple). That way they will be combined to form 1 image, which the javascript slider could move around.

[jcombs_31]

I agree that the scrollilng looks horrible. The only thing I really can say I like is the logo, the rest doesn't flow very well. What do you plan to do with the left column? The menu can use something to spice it up. The clients page looks terrible, a verticle line of text that is centered. You have way to much white space throughout the site.

[haydndup]

[!--quoteo--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]What do you plan to do with the left column?[/quote]
That hasn't been finalised yet. It will either be something page specific, or it will have a short bit of info about the services. I might also put their affiliate, ASE's logo and some info there.

[!--quoteo--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]The menu can use something to spice it up[/quote]
They menu was rollover buttons at one stage, but i removed them and switched to css-based navigation. If any one has any suggestion regarding the navigation, i welcome them :D

[!--quoteo--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]The clients page looks terrible, a verticle line of text that is centered[/quote]
I agree. That page especially is too empty. I was considering adding the client list to the about page instead?

[jcombs_31]

[code]ABSA<br />Audi<br />Auto &amp; General<br />Babcock Mining<br />CANSA<br />Captain Morgan / Spiced Gold<br />Cell C<br />DHL<br />Engen<br />Halfway Toyota<br />KFC<br />MegaPro Marketing<br />Microsoft<br />Miss South Africa<br />Nedbank<br />Pfizer<br />Primedia<br />Progress Software<br />Ralph Lauren<br />SA Rugby<br />Sentech<br />Standard Bank<br />Telkom<br />The South African Jewish Federation<br />The South African Paralympics Team<br />Volvo<br /></div>

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</tr>
[/code]

WOW, that is terrible markup. First off, if you have a list of things, you should use a list tag.

I don't have an answer on what to do about this page, maybe add some images, something to break up the page into smaller columns so the list isn't empty.

[haydndup]

Unfortunately, that is to fix an IE bug. ive posted screenshots of IE vs Opera to demonstrate. If anyone is aware of any fixes for the bug, i would greatly appreciate it. IE is ignoring my css {width:150px;}
[a href=\"http://img361.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ie7andopera2un.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"][img src=\"http://img361.imageshack.us/img361/4850/ie7andopera2un.th.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"IPB Image\" /][/a]
on the left is IE7, Opera on the right. As you can see IE screws up...