LIF2 draft complete!

OK! So all of the pages have now been built and can be viewed at www.thejct.net/lif2.html

I've sent the client an email asking for a review of the work and I'm drawing a line in the sand on Monday re content changes.

The good news is I sorted out the nav bar links re the Fitts Hicks law recommendation. I tried to display: block the links but I wasn't getting a bigger hit area. I couldn't for the life of me work out why until I looked at the layout in firebug and realised that the link area had a height of zero, with zero padding. Which meant zero hit area. derr. So I shifted the padding from the list element to the link and *presto* problem solved.

I also had a bit of a problem reintroducing the PHP form on the contact page. It's the exact same code I used in the prototype, and it seemed to mostly work i.e. it forwarded on the email address when entered and rejected it if the pattern match failed, but kept giving me an error message on loading the page. For some reason it just started stumbling and couldn't identify the variable 'email' (which should have been blank on page load and therefore the form didn't require action or the need to display a message). So I stuck an isset check at the start of the form code and all sorted! (I know I make that sound easy, but it gave me a bloody headache...)

I've already done a W3C check (and passed the strict xhtml test!) but there are still a couple of things that need to be refined, and I'll have to retest once I'm knocked those off.

One thing I need to sort out are the buttons. I have created buttons for the facebook and blog links, but I need different states (on hover/click). I've cross browser tested in IE7&8 and Chrome (PC), as well as the latest Firefox and Safari (Mac). It looks awesome in all except IE7, so I still need to go back and sort that out (I think I'm going to try out putting in hacks like I found in that article last week instead of building a new style sheet - see how well that works).

Something else I need to do (other that find a couple of better quality pictures) is perform a QA check on the whole site and test every link, if nothing else. I had another derr moment last night when I realised I hadn't linked the 'sign up!' button on any of the pages. The quick solution sent the style haywire, so I'll have to revisit that. I did want to change the button anyway, I might have to go back to that CSS button article list and see if something there will help...or try making the whole div a link...

960 grid system - CSS best determined practice

I wish I'd come across this Web designer depot article when I first tried to implement the 960 grid system code: Fight Div-itis and Class-itis With the 960 Grid System. It gives you a break down re how to actually use the generated code with clear diagrams explaining how it translates to your webpage. So simple! Now I get why it's been picked up so widely! I've been sticking to the grid sizing with LIF2, building my own code. Next time, I'm going to give this a spin again...

One good thing was they recommended applying classes to parents, not children, which I've been trying to do since learning from N. Design Studio's code. It keeps it neater and easier to reference back to as well...

Buttons and progress

So I finished off the major bits on 4/5 of the main pages last night (you can see these drafts at www.thejct.net/lif2.html). I added on my to-do list a note to sort out the 'sign up!' button on all of the pages. I just don't like it, the shape or position. Anyway, I just happened to come across this Speckyboy article today with a list of CSS button styling tutorials and techniques - I think I might look for a solution in there...

In the mean time, onto to building the contact page. I'm going to reinstall the php form at the client's request, which I had on the prototype site. Speaking of prototype site, I might have to move all the files over to thejct.net - the free hosting I was using keeps throwing up random ads these days... *sigh* I think I've got a few random bits all over the place, I'm going to have to consolidate everything so the links stay alive in my portfolio...

Contrast (speaking of colours)

So, the LIF2 build is coming along swimmingly - I've completed the major parts of 4 of the 5 main pages, just a few tweaks need to be ironed out.

One of those tweaks is I want to make all the links the same colour, and make that colour different to the text on the rest of the site, for accessibility/usability reasons. Interesting that I came across this article today on A List Apart 'Contrast is King' .

It reminded me how necessary appropriate contrast is when considering accessibility/usability and I felt like smacking myself over the wrist for having forgotten it. The article lists a couple of sites with useful tools, like Graybit, which converts your site to shades of gray (thejct.net comes up fine. LIF2 is OK, except for the 'sign up' button). Check my colours looks for contrast ratios between elements on a site. LIF2 didn't fare well at all with 61 errors....

My favourite tool from the site is the Colour Scheme designer (I'm really getting into these at the moment). The best thing about this one compared to the others I've come across so far is you can see what the chosen palette will look like based on your choice/extent of colour blindness, which is quite cool (i.e. contrast is obviously taken into account). I can't use the most up to date version on my work PC (IE6), but rather than just tell me I can't use it and how crap I am for having an old browser, it lets me use an older version, which still works pretty well (yay for degrading not abusing re older browsers).

I think I'll be reviewing the LIF2 colours (again) using this site - and probably choosing a consistent link colour based on it.

Usability, Hicks & Fitts laws and web links

http://www.vanseodesign.com/web-design/fitts-law-hicks-law/

A couple of take aways:

• display: block the link in a button to increase the clickable area
• make the text next to a radio button clickable as well by adding an id to the input and a label to the text. You should be doing this for accessibility reasons anyway
• reduce visual clutter and click options

CSS and opacity

http://www.impressivewebs.com/css-opacity-reference/

A good guide to how to achieve it.

Important note at the end, to be aware that you won't be complying with with current W3C standards if you use CSS opacity. So might be sticking to the background image on repeat for now...

LIF2 draft uploaded

So, I uploaded the first draft of the LIF home page last night at www.thejct.net/lif2.html

I built it using the 960 grid system, with the 12 column split. After reading Neilsen's article yesterday (see Tot's Jots), as well as listening to my instincts, I decided to shift to the 16 column version and shrink the picture on the RHS (as it turns out, I've shrunk it so it would actually still suit the 12 column split). I did this also because as I was about to start coding the other pages, I realised I was going to have to work with a hell of a lot of text and wanted the RHS column size to be consistent throughout the site (plus the images aren't amazing so I'd rather have the focus brought back to the text).

So far, it's looking much better. I'm definitely preferring the new version. I'll make a final call re the column split number once I plug in the content on the 'Personal Training' page and see how it all best fits...