Help Test My Uni Project!

[NikolaiDante]

Hi Dudes,

I need some help testing my 2nd year Uni project in Advanced Web Design.

I've built an online DVD catalogue that allows you to keep a record of all the DVDs in your collection, sort & search using your own categories and even (eventually) report a list with an approx value (useful for insurance).

I've moved the site into Beta test and you are all invited to come and use and abuse the site. But I do need your feedback which you can send through the contact area on the site.

I'd be really grateful if you could help on this! Please follow the link below.

Link: http://www.katanadesign.eu/" target="_blank">Barny's DVD Project

[Banners]

The database of DVDs seems extensive.

However, I added four DVDs to my account but now can't see them in the My Collection tab I'm afraid.

M@

[NikolaiDante]

The DVD information is done by accessing Amazon's ECS database!

To see you collection, click on the My Collection Tab, then select 'Search Collection' on the left. To see all leave all search parameters empty and click on the "Submit Search".

If this is not immeditately clear to a user, then let me know and I will add some helpful text on the screen.

[Banners]

Hey,

Nope - it's not immediately clear. But rather than instruction, I just think that an instant view of all my DVDs when I hit "My Collection" would be better. You could then allow users to order the view by title, year, rating, Director, genre etc..

I've no doubting the technical chops which seem to work very well, but the usability could do with a brush up imho. Make things easy for your users...

M@

[NikolaiDante]

Sure thing guy, it is always difficult to assess the interface for useability when you know how it is supposed to work! That's why I threw it open.

You points are acknowledged and will be acted upon.

[Funt Solo]

I haven't wasted time with what's right, so this may appear overly negative.  Also, I've concentrated on the code, rather than the user experience:

When I passed your site through the w3c validation service I got 4 errors.  (I find the quickest way to do this these days is to use the https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/60/">Firefox Web Developer Toolbar.)  The errors themselves seem fairly straightforward, so I won't go into them.  

Running the CSS through validation, it can't find the sheet called layout.css (it says).  I am curious, looking at your code, as to why you've linked to default.css using the link element in the head, and also linked to layout.css, but using the embedded style element and @import.  Why not be consistent?

Also, your title element and both the meta elements in the head of your home page (I haven't checked the others) are blank.  On purpose?

Blank alt attributes on your images isn't helping out the visually impaired.  It takes a few seconds to type in a value there.

box2, box4 etc. are poorly descriptive.  Give them a name that also provides meaning.  I think the term is meta-structural.  (Oh, and you've used box4 twice, which is a no-no for an id attribute.)

Loads of stuff in the table element at the bottom of the page could be done with CSS equivalents, thus cleaning up your xhtml.  I'd remove border, width, all the aligns.  Even the highlight class could be replaced with a colgroup and attached CSS styling.

It's <br />, not <br/>.  That single space before the / is important.  (Something to do with older browsers.)

The indentation is a mess, although I don't know what the php source file looks like, so perhaps that's partly to blame.

Strikes me that you might be suffering slightly from div-itis, but then at least it's not a table-based layout.  A couple of inline styles have snuck into the code near the end - considering how well you've done prior to that to separate structure from presentation, you could ship those off to the css file.

I didn't check your other pages.

---

Oh - just noticed - when you click the main menu link tabs (in Firefox 2.0), a thin white line appears linking the top of the page with the big main square thing.  On the contact link, two such lines appear.  I'm guessing this isn't supposed to happen.

[NikolaiDante]

Okay my thanks go to funt for taking the time to make this post, so I will take the time to answer each of his questions. First though let me explain that this is NOT the final submisssion of the site! I want to get all the major bugs ironed out of the code before I do the polishing!

Secondly, the main thrust of the module is to use advanced design techniques to build the site. Whilst it is important to have a nicely laid out site this wasn't my main concern. Since I have had a lot of time constraints I purchased the template from a site and reconfigured it to my needs, hence the reason for a couple of quirks in the HTML. This might sound cheating but it has been documented and also I use Smarty templating, so it was also an exercise in showing how to reconfigure someone else's templates.

1. >>When I passed your site through the w3c validation service I got 4 errors. (I find the quickest way to do this these days is to use the Firefox Web Developer Toolbar.) The errors themselves seem fairly straightforward, so I won't go into them.>Running the CSS through validation, it can't find the sheet called layout.css (it says). I am curious, looking at your code, as to why you've linked to default.css using the link element in the head, and also linked to layout.css, but using the embedded style element and @import. Why not be consistent? >Also, your title element and both the meta elements in the head of your home page (I haven't checked the others) are blank. On purpose?>Blank alt attributes on your images isn't helping out the visually impaired. It takes a few seconds to type in a value there.>box2, box4 etc. are poorly descriptive. Give them a name that also provides meaning. I think the term is meta-structural. (Oh, and you've used box4 twice, which is a no-no for an id attribute.)>Loads of stuff in the table element at the bottom of the page could be done with CSS equivalents, thus cleaning up your xhtml. I'd remove border, width, all the aligns. Even the highlight class could be replaced with a colgroup and attached CSS styling.>It's , not . That single space before the / is important. (Something to do with older browsers.)>The indentation is a mess, although I don't know what the php source file looks like, so perhaps that's partly to blame. >Strikes me that you might be suffering slightly from div-itis, but then at least it's not a table-based layout. A couple of inline styles have snuck into the code near the end - considering how well you've done prior to that to separate structure from presentation, you could ship those off to the css file.

[NikolaiDante]

Sorry about the formatting on the last post but it was well spaced when I typed it!!

Wake can you fix it? Cheers

[Tiplodocus]

Great idea for a site.

Had a few problems though putting in my very first entry.

I typed LORD OF THE RINGS and it dutifully listed a whole host of films and box sets.  I'd have thought myself that the next logical step would be to tick box the films (all six - original theatrical and extened cuts) but you wanted me to click on each one individually?

I did RETURN OF THE KING and then hit BACK to take me back to the big list but it said page had expired.  I think I did another BACK (or was it forward) and the RETURN OF THE KING page came up again but the formatting was well wonky (and the cast list seems totally bizarre - from another film entirely. (actually no - I've just figured out it's the cast from the BAKSHI animated version).

The RETURN TO SEARCH button appears not to work at all - you just come back to the same page.

I think having tick boxes or raido buttons is the most important feature. Imagine trying to list all ten STAR TREK films? Or if you  are a TOM HANKS fan and want to catalogue a dozen of his films? I wouldn't want to have to click TWICE to add each one.

Could you introduce a GENRE search? Imagine a list of WORLD WAR II films that you could just tick off to add to your collection. Or spaghetti westerns? Or traditional westerns?  or Geek films?

Agree that I'd like to see a list of my DVDs pop up as soon as I go to MY COLLECTION as well.

But it's a great idea (can you do one for Nintendo games?) and I'll be back to keep adding.

 

[Tiplodocus]

Oh, there is a GENRE search. But 200 pages of westerns.  Let me rethink this...

[Tiplodocus]

ADULT is even better 1675 pages - topped by HELEN MIRREN as THE QUEEN.


I couldn't find a LOG OUT/SIGN OUT tab button anywhere.

Personal taste, I know, but I don't actually like the stylings of the site? What sort oif image are you trying to project? It doesn't say HIGH TECH SECURITY to me.