Feedback from the showcase

Here are my comments/feedback transcribed from the showcase:

"very informative. The 'crossing off' feature for visited sites is nice. This would be a great research tool"

"very interesting. I wondered a little bit about the purpose of it, but for what it is, or anyone who was interested in spiralism, this site is very helpful"

"I liked the way after you visited each link, it crossed out the link, so you don't look at it again."

Desk crit 5: Lauren

Hi Robin,
I enjoyed looking at your project, especially your
photographs and galleries. I like the fact that you brand your
photos, and how you've explored options for changing the style
sheet on the fly. I wanted to start learning CSS this semester
and found that it over-taxed my brain -- it is just a very
different way of thinking! So, I cannot begin to know how
you managed to do it! I like how your flash piece integrates
with the the look and feel of the site, and would maybe like
to have one fewer color block element in the blue theme --
maybe the violet on the left side which is very close in value
to the blue that is used for the link blocks. I like the
colors and the background image in the blue theme, but the green
theme colors seemed to be placed or used in a way that better
conveys structure and hierarchy. If that makes any sense.

I also agree with some of the other comments you have received
that it would be nice to have the opening flash piece freeze
on the title a little longer before going into the gallery.

Thanks for sharing your site -- I would really appreciate any
suggestions you could offer on my 6190 project.
Thanks!
Lauren

Desk Crit 4: Emily P.

Cool stuff, I'm impressed! This is an excellent example
of how to make a table-free website. (Thinking about peeking
behind the scenes to learn more about that!) I like your colors,
photo series, and layout. You've also included wonderful project
and spiral resources.

Here are some quick comments for you:
Opening page flash: When the spiral swirls down
and the title appears, could you let the title stay
there for a bit longer? Maybe a few more beats, so
there's enough time to read it.

The navigation looks very professional. Again,
wonderful use of color! It would read better
if you could separate the spiral project work
from the support stuff. The "*links behind" bit was
lost on me, I tried to click it for more links. Maybe move
project resources and the * items to the very
bottom, separate them from the rest with a larger break,
and take out the * explanation. The other part of this
is the a:hover view, this would be
better if the treatment were consistent
(swapping the background color,
underlining, whatever you go with). I'm partial to the
blue navigation, it seems much more put together
than the other (although, I like having the
options between styles).

The mini photo gallery jumps from the
other layout, (with the red borders and spiral bkgd)
and does not accept the green style. It would be good
if this matched the other project pages.

Now that you've learned about CSS -- have you played
around with making your own templates for Blogger?
A challenge: make your blogger pages match the
look-and-feel of your project pages.

Oh, I just looked at your code -- I'm so excited to
see the unordered list driving your navigation!
I saw A List Apart in your resources, have you
looked at Listamatic? http://css.maxdesign.com.au/index.htm

Response to Ericka's critique

I did find a broken code string on the mini photo gallery, which I've fixed :) and I moved the 'home' link to the top of the menu. As for the additional image in the second css, 'green version' I added that so that people could see what CSS can do. :)

I'll check out the flash....

Desk Crit 3: From Ericka

this is a really cool way to show your artwork, and i can tell
that you learned a lot doing this project. i definitely like
the photo slide show of your artwork with the captions;
however, once you go to slide 14 then click next it goes to
slide 2 instead of slide 1. you probably should double check
that. in the mini art gallery, the links on the left have
extra spaces between them. i'm not sure if you are aware of
this or not. also, i think it is kind of weird that the first
link in the left column is not your home page. this could just
be personal preference, but i'm not sure if i like the spiral
graphic behind the links. it kind of looks weird to me since
it doesn't go down far like the spirals on the right. finally,
when you change to green i really like the sprials to the left
of the links, but they aren't there when the theme is blue.

keep in mind these are suggestions and observations. good luck
with everything.

Desk Crit 2: Jennifer

I really like the use of color and the overall layout of your site. It is visually appealing. When your homepage first opens, I thought that the spiralism title came in a little bit delayed. If it came in sooner, it might be more beneficial for first time visitors. Also, I thought that you could have the slideshow automatically start instead of the user having to initiate the start. The last recommendation would be to have the "links outside spiralism" pages open in a new window automatically.

--from Jennifer

Desk Crit 1 Received from JP Murrell

Comments:
At 2:42 PM, JP Murrell said...

Hey Robin!

I love your artwork. One of the few things i would add is make the Spiralism Image at the top of the screen a "button" that returns your to the first page. I might even do a little bit more of an intro page that would explain the whole project. Other than that is looks great! The design is really cool.

-JP Murrell