Ok, so maybe that was just a bit too giddy there in the title.
One of the things that’s always bugged me about my site is that even though I’m a developer, the site is always behind the times in terms of looks and technology, because I don’t spend as much time on the infrastructure as I should.
For months I’ve had in mind the changes I’d like to make to the site to make it a little more friendly and easy to use, and over the weekend I completely rewrote the site in .NET Web 2.0
That means we have dropdowns and other nifty features, just like you expect a computer application to have, and hopefully that makes my site a lot easier to get around in.
Let me know what you think! I’ve got it up now at http://www.tinwhistler.com/index.aspx
but I haven’t taken the original interface down yet. I’ll probably completely switch over by the end of the week.
The Site does require IE5 or better (or Netscape 6 or better), with javascript and Windows Media player 7 or better. It works just fine in my version of Firefox at work (1.5) and at home (2.0). So I think I probably have about 99% of the world covered there. But please do let me know if you run into any problems!
One annoyance when viewing the site with Safari (on Mac): On the review page, the righthand (“inexpensive”) drop-down menu was initially partially covered by the Google ads; I had to resize the window before I could use the menu.
Similarly when viewing a tune, the right side of the image is covered by the Google ads, and in this case I can’t make the window wide enough to see it all (since I’m using a small laptop). A left/right scroll bar would be handy, or perhaps a way to close/minimize the ad bar.
Otherwise, I like the new features.
Edit: That is, I liked it until I tried to listen to a tune. That’s a no go.
I liked your CD recommendations on the site and even ordered one by Turlach Boylan. Thanks!
I know from experience how much time it takes to redo a site. It’s hard work. Recently I’ve begun experimenting with content management systems (CMS) to simplify site maintenance and the addition of new content.
I didn’t like the drop down menus for the reviews because it makes it too hard to scan the instruments you’ve reviewed.
I had trouble with the ads covering controls on the chat page. Achieving a page layout that is easy to use and fairly consistent across the major browsers is the most difficult aspect of design, in my experience.
Hmm. Come to think of it, you’re using frames and/or i-frames, so the validators may not be able to test anything but the front page. (I’m not sure about that.)
I don’t use frames because they’re confusing for users. Plus, it’s impossible to give someone a link to a specific page. I was going to post a link to your recommendations page, but the page link is the same as for your home page.
I’d want my content to be searchable in Google, so that alone would convince me to ditch the iframes and frames. It’s possible to work around some of the problems with frames, as this article explains: http://www.highrankings.com/framedsite.htm .
But it appears that the content in iframes won’t be indexed by search engines: http://www.highrankings.com/issue039.htm .
Also, the banner covers the sheetmusic, as slud said.
But those complaints notwithstanding, I still appreciate all the work you have put into this site. It was one of the first sheetmusic sites I found, and I still go there a lot. Thanks.
Everything looked great to me until I got to the tunes. The Google stuff covers the right side of the music just as they said. Although most everything worked ok for me, I think I liked the old setup better. Just my preference, that’s all. I guess I’ve just grown accustomed to the old one. Anyway, if you fix the music display I think it will work ok on IE. I don’t know about the Mac at all.
the site looks very nice, especially the recommendations-section. Also the chat-section is new to whistleworld. I find it hard to find whistlers to talk to because there aren’t many around. Chatting is a very nice alternative for the postreplies on the forums. The scrolling in the tunes-section I find a bit awkward, but that’s personal.
Thanks for the replies, folks…I work in a slightly larger screen size, so I had a fear for the 3-column layout not working.
I’ll work on moving the ads to some other location, so that there’s more left-to-right real estate for actual content.
I also was worried about the click-to-play…I’m using a Windows Media Player embed for that, so I am not surprised it doesn’t work on macs. I’ll probably scrap those and re-institute regular links to the files until i can figure out a Flash solution that will work cross platform.
I am using iFrames to keep everything within the main menu window. Google will index and keyword the entire site because I use their sitemapping service–I put an xml file on my page that tells google where to find everything. As for the w3 validator warnings, their parser is pretty terrible for anything other than straight and simple html. Almost all of those errors are due to it’s inability to parse the complex links Amazon uses in it’s Associate Programs ad. Some of the warnings are due to me using deprecated, but still valid, HTML. That said, I’ve never made a single dollar from that Harry Potter ad, so I think I’ll drop it anyway when I push the ads around.
I know that some people will prefer the old site. And the old site is a bit “simpler” in terms of layout. But I’ve also run into the situation where I’ve tried to show people things on my site and had them searching the screen for where to click. Until you got used to where everything was, it didn’t have “fast aquisition” to let the user see immediately what their options were and how to get to them. I’m hoping the new layout solves that problem.
Edit: I’ve made the changes to the layout to hopefully keep the right side from getting clipped. It doesn’t quite fit into an 800x600 screen size, but I don’t think my old site really fits 800X600 that well either. Most people (87% or so) use a higher resolution.
I’ve also taken out the media-player embeds for tunes, and instead went back to old-style linking, like my old interface had. I will probably keep searching for a good Flash approach, but I may have to custom-write one, as I haven’t found any that do both MIDI and Mp3.
The more I visit the new site the better I like it. You fixed the music display. The ads are gone and I can see the whole music score now. Good job. I didn’t know you are into gourmet cooking. We should get together sometime as I am into gourmet eating. “Louis, this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
