February 16th, 2010 5:05 am by Vincent Flanders
Submitter’s comments: This site is guaranteed to give you a headache. The home page has a Javascript slideshow of different sized pictures that cause the footer to bounce up and down uncontrollably. You’ll notice the menu on the right has an orange border while the links are red. To top it off we have an awful bee cursor.
Vincent Flanders’ comments: I know how easy it is to screw up a Javascript slideshow. I screwed up the one on the home page (here’s what the adjustable slideshow looked like on my home page). Some bright person complained and I fixed it by setting the box height to a fixed value — 300px (here’s what the revised slideshow looked like). Today’s sucker bounces more than my box did because there is more size discrepancy in their pictures.
I’ve never bee fond of right-side navigation, but that’s a personal preference.
the bees knees
Posted in Daily Sucker, Usability, Web Design |
February 16th, 2010 4:04 am by Vincent Flanders
I ran into two articles about problems in using a CSS file for printing:
- Browser Performance Problem with CSS “print” Media Type (December 2009)
- 5c media=print stylesheets (February 2010)
It turns out that if you’re using a print stylesheet (shows up in the format <link href=”print.css” type=”text/css” rel=”stylesheet” media=”print” />), every other file has to wait to load until print.css finishes loading.
To get the full effect of the delay, I created a 583Kb print.css file — which may be the world’s largest print.css file — and placed it in the head of this HTML file. Notice how long the page takes to display (I’ve turned off caching and file compression.).
The following picture shows what happens (click graph for larger example):
The page took 7.42 seconds to load. Page Speed gave the page a score of 81. Yslow gave it a “B,” with a score of 84. These two tools are extremely important and should be in your arsenal.
Optimizing the page. I removed the CSS from the <HEAD> of the document and inserted the Javascript code from Article 1 just before the </BODY> statement.
<script>
window.onload = function() {
var cssNode = document.createElement(’link’);
cssNode.type = ‘text/css’;
cssNode.rel = ’stylesheet’;
cssNode.href = ‘print.css’;
cssNode.media = ‘print’;
document.getElementsByTagName(”head”)[0].appendChild(cssNode);
}
</script>
</body>
</html>
As you can see in the graph below, the document loads much faster (click on the graph for larger example). All files load in 5.97 seconds, but the whole page (everything but the print stylesheet) loads in 2.11 seconds — the visitor quickly sees the page and doesn’t care that the print stylesheet loads last because s/he may never want to print the page and if s/he wants to print the page, it won’t happen immediately.
Page Speed gave this version of the page a score of 85. Yslow gave it a “B,” with a score of 83. Page Speed liked the page 4 points more, but Yslow liked the page 1 point less.
Since nobody on Planet Earth is going to print a document immediately after it loads, it’s safe to use Javascript to load the print stylesheet. What if they don’t have Javascript enabled? See Article 1 for the answer.
Yes, it’s true that nobody is going to have a print stylesheet that’s this large (it’s composed mostly of comments) and the improvements aren’t as important as caching and compressing your site’s files, but it’s good to be aware of what causes roadblocks in displaying your web pages.
Posted in Not a Daily Sucker, Usability, Web Design |
February 16th, 2010 4:04 am by Vincent Flanders
Posted in Not a Daily Sucker, Usability, Web Design, You Should Read |
February 11th, 2010 6:06 am by Vincent Flanders
Submitter’s comments: Here’s one for your pages
Vincent Flanders’ comments: It’s sad because Coos Bay is one of the prettier sections of Oregon. Bandon, my favorite town in Oregon, is near Coos Bay, but the only picture this site has of the Bandon Beaches makes it look like a dump.
The main page is no charmer. It’s functional, but a lot of material isn’t there although placeholder text exists.
Coos County and Oregon History: Voices From Beaver Hill
Posted in Daily Sucker, Usability, Web Design |
February 9th, 2010 4:04 am by Vincent Flanders
Submitter’s comments: Check it out. I think it’s way too busy.
Vincent Flanders’ comments: Well, a lot of the problems are caused by the number and position of the ads. There is nothing wrong with ads, God love ‘em, but when there are so many and you can’t differentiate them from the rest of the page, you have a problem. Where’s the focal point of the page?
Pretty much everything on the site was created in Flash and that will be a problem for Firefox users with the NoScripts plugin or who have Javascript turned off. This is all you’ll see. It’s pretty scary and it makes the site pretty useless.
As this screenshot demonstrates, the site’s use of Flash, coupled with a lack of actual text, hurts this site in the area of Search Engine Optimization. There are only 43 words on the home page. I’ve got over 2,000 on mine.
Confusingly, the Pause button on the first Flash animation, doesn’t pause the video. It pauses the music, which is counterintuitive.
Sticks and Stones Outdoor Adventures Magazine
Posted in Daily Sucker, Web Design, Worst Web Sites |
February 9th, 2010 4:04 am by Vincent Flanders
Google’s Super Bowl ad was nice, but this “Google ad” is much, much better - http://bit.ly/cZI6Ds
Posted in Ping.fm |
February 8th, 2010 5:05 am by Vincent Flanders
Got Milk?
Submitter’s comments: Here you go:
Long Loading Page? Check.
Stupid Music? Check.
World’s Most Annoying Navigation? Check.
Flash Overdose? Triple Check.
This web site sucks!
Vincent Flanders’ comments: Check.
Another problem: the text is hard to read. Checkmate.
Got Milk?
Posted in Daily Sucker, Usability, Web Design |
February 4th, 2010 5:05 am by Vincent Flanders
Sidney D. Torres IV
Submitter’s comments: This web site for New Orleans businessman Sidney Torres, who is about to star in a new reality show on TLC, is really hideous. What’s really strange is he’s actively promoting it – his last few newsletters have linked it.
Vincent Flanders’ comments: Interestingly, there’s a unique problem when viewing the home page in Google Chrome. The page scrolls and there’s an extra huge white space. It seems like the page was eating up CPU cycles in IE 7, but then IE 7 on my machine is a piece of junk.
I guess Mr. Torres doesn’t want a home page, but a widget page. He’s put up a Myspace page, but not on Myspace. On the other hand, he is a trashman so the page may be perfect.
Sidney D. Torres IV
Posted in Daily Sucker, Web Design, Worst Web Sites |
February 4th, 2010 4:04 am by Vincent Flanders
Fall Creek Sutlery
Submitter’s comments: This makes my head hurt. And the navigation? Where am I? Maybe this web site was new-looking during the Civil War.
Vincent Flanders’ comments: It’s sad because I know there’s a market for these products. I realize we just had Groundhog Day, so why is the first thing I see on the site a “Merry Christmas” graphic? We have centered text, multicolored text, “Click Here” messages and a page that goes on forever. The only good thing about the site is that Norton thinks it’s safe.
Fall Creek Sutlery
Posted in Daily Sucker, Web Design, Worst Web Sites |
