DreamingWell

Ok, since you probably don't know me (not a regular here), I'm wildag (owner of dreamingwell.com ). I am a DHTML (DOM), Java, HTML, CSS, and graphics nut . Anywho, what I need is some 'external' testing... my new DHTML engine (affectionatly named 'valcore') is in the works, probably about 3/4 done. I would like some o ya'll to go take a gander. future.dreamingwell.com . And post here the problems you encountered with the page (note: you using netscape is not my problem... j/k.... it will be fixed). Oh yes, critisisms (good and bad) are welcome.

Forgot, if you can't see the scroll bars on the 'mainWindow' when the page first loads, hit refresh. Little bug, I have no clue where it came from.

Well the site is attractive, and I like the vectored diamonds in the background. It did take a really long time to load. Not download time so much as initializing all of the code you have in there. It probably took 30 seconds to initialize. If this hadn't been posted here as a critique, and I had come across the site by chance, I would have left before the page even finished loading in the browser. Everything seemed really choppy and laggy. Even on a nice PIII computer. I like the opacity slider to customize the transparency though. I also like the text you have in the content areas. A good font, and good leading. Gives it a real clean, open and airy look. I refreshed the page and it took even longer to initialize again. Between 45 seconds and a minute. Also after I refreshed, I couldn't get any of the content to appear. It was just the scrollers and borders. I think it is a little confusing to have all of the windows just stack on top of each other. And I didn't realize the arrows at the bottom were used to minimize the windows for quite a while. It would be a lot easier to navigate if you used the standard "X" at the top to close the window. The arrows on your scrollers are offset from the square button boxes. They don't line up properly. And some other things I would say if I could get the page to load again.... (won't load now that I've refreshed)

Overall I think a site like this would work a whole lot better if it was done in Flash. I'm not a fan of flash or these types of sites at all, but I think that this site has all the drawbacks of a Flash site, with the added problem of not working 75% of the time. Flash would be a lot smoother. Also I can't imagine what happens to the site on an old browser. And maybe a Mac browser. (unless you have tested it on that) But basically I think you have some cool ideas, it would just be a lot better executed in Flash (I never thought I would say that...).

Well, now I finally got the page to reload, and the layer stacking problem isn't so bad. Seems to be different every time the site is loaded. Anyway... I guess that's enough. Bottom line, it's very pretty, but could be done better in Flash or a static HTML page.

the load-time is a problem as deker told you.

The look and feel of the site are really nice, nice color-scheme and such.

okay, that was the good news. The bad news is that visitor's need to search much to long how to navigate and play with your site. You've got a help-section, but i think it scares people to find a help-section on a webpage!
Maybe this isn't a problem because it is your resume, and those haven't to be ordinary.
Maybe use deker's tip ('X' to close windows) and it will be a lot better. Good work though...

Well I didn't have a problem with the loading time, but I'm on a good connection, so that's not much a problem if all of your users are on 500k+ connections.

But my main beef was that all the windows opened on top of one another. It was all going good until I opened the "pictures" window. After that, I could not close the window, and every link I clicked on after that progressively opened on top of (or under) the pictures window. See:Here

If it'll help ya' out, I'm using Internet Explorer 6.0 on a PC

I'm on a DSL connection, so that wasn't the problem. It downloaded quick enough, it just took forever to initialize all the code that had to be run. And I think it could be initialized a lot faster in Flash. But like *NL* said, it's a portfolio site. So if you're wanting to demonstrate your dHTML skills, then that's what you gotta do.

Nice concept and design...
I like the colors and the layout in general but the inconsistant loading of the page and the windows that popped up "under" another window made it a little disheartening. I did notice they were draggable.
I just think overall it makes the user think to much.. the navigation should be more descriptive....
I'm just not gonna use a help section to navigate a webpage.

Just noticed.

For those who haven't looked at the picture I posted, unless you want to wait for a 120k image to download, don't go look at it.
I thought it was much smaller than that when I posted it. Gonna' fix it later when I get back home.

Thanks for the tips!

1) Mattboy_slim: by the looks of the picture you posted, you had your transparency all the way down. If left at the default setting or higher you don't have these problems

2) About flash: I don't do flash, its a crutch that should be thrown out the door for more useful (and more advanced) ways of doing things (JavaScript and the DOM). I am a programer, not a WYSIWYG scripter. But I wouldn't mind incorporating it into the site, if you though it would help. And yes, it is true, it is my resume, and Javascript gets paid more than flash.

3) Thanks for your comments! (Post if you think I'm wrong about anything, but make sure you prove me wrong).

very nice.

it looks like this site would be better off built in flash (believe me, i never say that!). but since the site was made to show off your coding skills, i love it! VERY effective.