🚀 go-pugleaf

On Fri, 11 Apr 2003 18:02:56 +0100, "PDA-Search.net"
>http://www.pda-search.net

Nice to see a clean layout without heaps of graphics to slow it
down for anyone connecting via a cell phone or other slow network
connections.

Very good to see a PDA version up already, and that is what I
will comment on.

I note that neither version are written in valid HTML, as
confirmed by http://validator.w3.org

Neither include even a Doctype.  A Doctype is needed to let  a
browser know just how to render the page (after all, browsers
need to know the rules).

List of Doctypes http://www.w3.org/QA/2002/04/valid-dtd-list.html
Choosing a doctype
http://htmlhelp.com/tools/validator/doctype.html

I tried specifying that you were using HTML 4.01 Transistional
(which apart from HTML 3.2 is probably the most relaxed about
rendering rules).

Naturally "topmargin" and "leftmargin" threw up as errors.  These
attributes of the body tag are actually IE specific, not part of
standard HTML, and you therefore can't count on any other browser
actually  using them.  You might also note that your img for your
logo requires an alt tag.

Apart from actual HTML errors, I am also worried about several
usability issues, of the type people like Jakob Nielsen note
about many web pages.  See http://www.useit.com or one of his
books such as "Designing Web Usability".

For example, why are you using a fixed width layout? Your tables
are variously set to 800 and 240 pixels.  I note most older Palm
OS devices use 160x160 displays, while newer ones are more like
320 wide.  However, I've also noted a recent Palm OS 5 device
with a 160x160 monochrome display, aimed at the RIM market.  On
my PDA at least, I can zoom the display to suit my vision.  If
this capability is in many browsers (and it is in most Windows PC
mainstream browsers) then at large zoom factors, a fixed width
presentation requires horizontal scrolling.  This is totally
obnoxious to most users.

I'd suggest dropping the fixed width stuff.  You just don't know
what size future displays will be.  However one thing I'd mention
is that in the Europe and Middle East, Symbian device sales are
up over 900% this year, and now make up more than 53% of the
entire market, outselling Palm and Windows CE combined.  These
phones have browsers (and many other PDA applications), and you
don't seem to be taking this into account in your web page
design.

Use of Verdana as a default font also seems to me unwise in the
long term.  I know it is a great readable font (it was specially
designed to be readable in small type sizes).  However, it is
totally different in size to all other fonts.  If a browser
doesn't have it (and remember it is a Windows specific font) then
they will substitute fonts such as Ariel or a generic SanSerif
font, which will appear much smaller. 

-- 
Eric Lindsay          http://www.ericlindsay.com/guff
Airlie Beach Qld Australia - Great Barrier Reef entry
Psion & Epoc site     http://www.ericlindsay.com/epoc