New Website Feedback

I just launched my new website a few days ago. Tell me what you think. Functionality, informative, missing elements?

Thank You,
Rikahs Design

Take a look at the attached screenshot. You'll notice the big chunk of white? This is because i run at a high resolution (1400x1050).

To fix this, in your CSS (in the mainBar class), specify the background-color. Something like..



Apart from that, it looks like a very professional design, fairly easy to navigate.

I'm curious as to why you are using images for the navigation on the top right though. The same thing could be accomplished with text, and a little CSS to provide the rollover effects. (and you may wish to change the rollover colour too, it doesn't really suit the design)..

Chris

I agree with everything Chris said One addition to that, though, is that the "PRIVACY POLICY" link appears on two lines. It would look better if it were on one line. Other than the mentioned fixes, it looks great!

Further more, after talking to Mr. Light () on MSN we noticed something was up with your 'Contact' page.

[edit]This also happens on other pages as well, sometimes you dont even get a scrollbar when there should be one.

Attached is a screenshot of how it appears in my browser, but in Matt's browser, he cannot see the 'down' arrow. Well, now after refreshing it he says he see's the scroll bar like me, then after refreshing again, there was no scroll bar.

Also, just noticed as I dug down deep, that you have the same problem with the background on all of your other pages (each will require an individual fix though because they all contain different colours/images).

Chris

We both user Firefox for reference. Here are some more screenshots...

Man, that is a great web site. Just one thing that I would love to see on there is in the contact form. If you could add a colour to the background on the text fields that keeps with the colour scheme of he site. Like a light bule background or something with a blue shadow. This is just what I think.

Also, if you could add a better form validation, like with javascript rather then just using the dreamweaver validation, which is still good, but it would be great if you could use javascript. Once again, this is just what I think.

Otherwise this is a very well designed site.

Well Done!

I check the entrance with 3 dif browsers and the bottom menu looked 3 different ways. That is not good.

As mentioned FireFox wraps 'Private policy'
Opera adds extra padding [stretches] 'TERMS OF USE PRIVACY POLICY'.
IE stretches them equally.

http://www.rikahs.com/subtmp.php?p=serv
Opera wraps 'CONTACT US' but Firefox wraps 'PRIVACY POLICY'.

All above have to be eliminated. As a rule, any designer should check the layout with as many browsers as possible.

There are occasion that due to bugs or program structure, some layouts can not be implemented universally.
Some people take refuge in JavaScript and browser detection.
I am against that. I would think of a new way to implement same or similar design which would display similarly in all browsers.

Without checking the HTML and CSS thoroughly, it is not possible to say where the problem is.

However, I would have had that some of [well almost all of] the formatting attributes in the HTML should have been in the CSS. Some of the script moveovers are merely taking space and do not give any real benefit.
There are other ways to implement the vertical divider without using the img tag.

Duplicating the menu at the bottom of the page is only applicable in cases of long pages where the designer provides the faculty by eliminating the need to scroll back to the top of the page. In your case, there is no need for the duplication.
Top menus looks good but I would also consider using text instead of images to reduce the bandwidth, server load and thus speed up the page display. Similar effect can be achieved with CSS.

I would also consider moving the top menu and the top-left logo inside the top image. That would enhance the look of the site and stream line the design.

http://www.rikahs.com/subtmp.php?p=comp
The white text [the next level of web design] is not readable. Additionally it could have/should have been simple text instead of image.


http://www.rikahs.com/subtmp.php?p=port
This page has problem with FireFox and it is chopped. Opera displays it OK. In any case, it is rather long. You may want to read my unacknowledged comments in Please review our new design, especially the second page regarding the header/content/footer.
Boxes may also work side by side in pairs. It would require some alterations.
I get horizontal scrolling with IE. Horizontal scrolling is only allowed for an image on its own, not part of a web page. Any other horizontal scrolling should be avoided at all costs.


http://www.rikahs.com/subtmp.php?p=faqs
It is my personal opinion that there should be more space between a sub-header and the previous text block than the sub-header and the text block it refers to.

Demo:
-------------------------
text block text block text block text block text block text block
text blocktext blocktext blocktext blocktext block.



Sub-Header

text block text block text block text block text block text block
text blocktext blocktext blocktext blocktext block.
-------------------------

In your case, it feels that sub-headers are sticking to the text block above it and not belonging to the text block after it.
The scroll is also broken in Firefox and the page is chopped.

http://www.rikahs.com/subtmp.php?p=term
Since you are not using LISTS in the HTML, you may still consider indentation which would make the terms look more professional and legal, in addition to making it easier to read.
The scroll is also broken in Firefox and the page is chopped.

http://www.rikahs.com/subtmp.php?p=priv
Since the emboldened text of "Please note that by visiting ..." is important, it should have been displayed in its own paragraph and looks out of place as part of the a text block.


Your pages do not resize and result in horizontal scrolling in IE.

In Opera the result in unexpected effect of chopped page with no scroll bar.
Firefox behaves the same.
Above is a symptom of problem in HTML and CSS.

I am sorry if that is not what you expected to hear but I did not have the time to sugar-coat things.

Good luck

I'm getting a horizontal scrollbar on the following pages: portfolio, contact and faq. I was viewing the site in 1024x768 resolution.

I was able to get the extra long scroll bar to show up again (I'm unsure how, but it appeared).

Thank you all. You have been most helpful. I will start implementing some of the recommended changes later this evening and this week. You all were very thorough and I really appreciate the fine examination of my code, layout, and the screen shots which really help me to realize what I didn't before. How could I have missed that horizontal scroll bar?

Well keep up the excellent work and please give me more feedback if you have it. Thank you.

Rikahs