Electronic Music 411 - new website. please test/comment!

07/19/06 + oerfil

Sorry but I have to tell you that your website is a monster. First of, pop-ups that big makes noone happy, The text layout looks like someone hit the random button.

You also have no doctype in your html file making it a guessing game for every browser.

Alltough I am impresed how you made a text/image site lag on a fairly decent desktop computer, don't have all the content on one page, it takes a while to load.

Recent blogs: Ms-20 for me!, First ReRelease KMPLX001, harddrive gone

edited: Jul 19 2006 + Zanf

first thing instanly I dont like is that you have a popup window. Why not have it that it goes from the splash into the other page. [soem might say about having a splash page at all].

iframe box with the news in is a bit small and gives no indication to the reams of information below it - ooh..just saw the menu - nice touch.

does the popup window need to be so wide? all the info has this massive margin on the left and is aligned right - is this necessary?

sort out your email as a clickable link using hiveware enkoder: link

there are a few good extensions for FF for checking DOC TYPE validation. Some will even adjust the code so it is valid:
link <= checky, does all [html,css,xml, etc]
link <= html validation
link <= css validator

Recent blogs: STFU Marseille live sets, Taking Liberties, Albert Hofmann

07/19/06 + astroboy

thanks guys!

i made the popup because i wanted the page to be loaded in a special size (1100x900 or something).
i agree that it is too wide. it was not that wide before, but then some people with a smaller screen resolution also had to scroll horizintally.

i decided to put all content to one page to give it a little different approach.
that's just my stupid arty farty attitude. i just can't help it....

i don't see what you mean with "the text layout looks like someone hit the random button"?!

all in all i must add that i not only want to spread pure infos, but also want the site to be a little piece of art.
just see my other website link. you will hate it

i will try to minimize the mentioned issues.

ah, and thanks for the links.

Recent blogs: New Album Teaser Video, Yellow Drum Machine, freaky drummer

07/19/06 + bsr

i like the style. nice on the eyes and relaxing. no likey the popup though.

07/19/06 + Zanf

I like that the info is all on one page but it is one mighty big page! You will also have to consider loading times as not everyone has broadband.

I can see what oerfil is saying about the layout - it does seem a litle messy - nice design concept but a little too rough - some images have borders, some dont. Seems like a lack of uniformity/consistancy between the first few sections and the last [with the borders especially]. Maybe put the small dotted border around each section to delineate them from each other

Recent blogs: STFU Marseille live sets, Taking Liberties, Albert Hofmann

07/19/06 + astroboy

ok, i will probably include a preloader or something...

yes, it is absolutely messy. but i wanted to keep a little chatoic touch. i didn't want it to turn out too slick. i wanted it to have some edge, something that breaks the clean style. that's also how i make my music... so i think it's ok.
but i can absolutely see your point!

and i'm very happy that you all spend some of your precious time for me and my website!

Recent blogs: New Album Teaser Video, Yellow Drum Machine, freaky drummer

edited: Jul 19 2006 + oerfil

astroboy said: "
i made the popup because i wanted the page to be loaded in a special size (1100x900 or something).

...

i don't see what you mean with "the text layout looks like someone hit the random button"?!

"

You can't probably see the errors I'm seeing (maybe it's an arty farty feature) since you've made the site a perfect fit for your screen/os/dekstop not considering the fact that everyone dosen't have the same setup you have got.
This site could be done so that everyone could enjoy it. By stop using fixed pixel values and start doing a more dynamic layout you would make it readable for everyone.

Recent blogs: Ms-20 for me!, First ReRelease KMPLX001, harddrive gone

07/19/06 + astroboy

oerfil said: " (maybe it's an arty farty feature) "

what would you suggest? use percentage values for the font sizes instead of pixel values?

Recent blogs: New Album Teaser Video, Yellow Drum Machine, freaky drummer

edited: Jul 19 2006 + cbit

using a base keyword font size, eg 'font-size:small'(attached to the body element for instance) which is then modified by a relative 'em' value font-size, eg 'font-size:0.8em' (attached to a 'wrapper' div for instance) is a convenient way to go if you're thinking about accessability and efficient css writing.

Recent blogs: Mormo: fly-on-the-wall view of track in progress, mormo studio pic, DIY monome blog

07/19/06 + astroboy

ah, ok, thanks a lot. i will try that.

Recent blogs: New Album Teaser Video, Yellow Drum Machine, freaky drummer

07/19/06 + celibacyclub

i agree with everyone about the popup. and it seems things are aligned to the left, with some white space on the right. this doesnt make sense to me. it should be croped to fit the content or have some of that white space on the other side.

those piano key things for the navigation, thats great.

Recent blogs: quixit in irc soon, //\\\X|t 66, last day for mixit

07/19/06 + fakeBlooper

aside from what has already been said... your copy seems to switch from 3rd to 1st person. "he" then "me"... pick one and stay consistent. 3rd person seems to be more professional, but 1st is a little more personal... just depends on what you're going for. great concept and i like the piano navigation thing too. it would be cool if you could tune your buttons to a scale and record your "performance" and play it back. the text could use some cell-padding on the left side and in firefox it looks like some of your image slices are out of line a bit. great concept site and since you're an artist you could just say f# off... i meant to do that!

Recent blogs: omnichord madness, student loans, inner city life as a musical

07/19/06 + bleen

on the "pics" page, when you select a photo to look at, you should include a "back to photos" link on the large photo pages - if not, it almost appears that another popup page was created with the full-size photo and people may close that leading them out of your site and back to the splash page.

Recent blogs: Lessons in "beat mixing", MacPro is coming..., Bent Tesla coil instruments!

edited: Jul 19 2006 + astroboy

bleen said: "on the "pics" page, when you select a photo to look at, you should include a "back to photos" link on the large photo pages - if not, it almost appears that another popup page was created with the full-size photo and people may close that leading them out of your site and back to the splash page."

argh!
the picture system was supposted to look like the one here on em411.com. i.e. screen-centered layer with the pic.
i have no clue why it stopped working...
damn.
panic!

edit:
it works again.
this seems stupidly random.
i hope this won't appear on a regular basis...

Recent blogs: New Album Teaser Video, Yellow Drum Machine, freaky drummer

07/19/06 + astroboy

@fakeBlooper:
thanks. i really have to stay in 1st person. i want people to love me

Recent blogs: New Album Teaser Video, Yellow Drum Machine, freaky drummer