Hooked On Golf Blog

Site comments requested please!

Written by: Tony Korologos | Tuesday, August 16th, 2005
Categories: Site News

Ok folks. My template here has two fixed columns on the outside which always remain the same size. The center column (where the posts and comments are) is a variable width.

From a design standpoint it is tougher to make certain articles and images format well with the variable width of the center. Plus, I have some sponsors who will be putting in some banners soon and it is difficult to specify what exact width these banners would need to be.

In the interest of making it a better experience here, I’m considering changing from the current fluid layout to a fixed one. This would make design a little easier on my end. But before I spend any time on this I’d like to get some opinions.

If you wouldn’t mind, please comment on my design/layout with any opinions you have, good or bad. And please also comment on the following questions:

Do you prefer fixed width or variable width?
What screen resolution are you running?
Is there anything about the current layout you do and don’t like?
What is missing here?
What would you like me to get rid of?

6 responses to “Site comments requested please!”

skostiuk says:

August 16, 2005 at 11:38 am

From a design standpoint, fixed width is more suitable, especially for growth purposes.

1024 x 768

What I think would be neat to see is dynamic drop down menu’s. For instance, you have a section labeled “In my Bag”, instead of having the text right below it in the gray box, just have the green header as a link. When the link is pressed, a dynamic menu appears below it listing what you have in your bag. They are easy to create, I can give you some great references if you need them. But this would save a lot of room on your site and give it a cool design look.

Nothing comes to mind as far as you missing something

My opinion, these are things that should be cleared of:
1) Whenever I make a comment, I get this result lable below where I am typing. Like right now it is showing 31 queries. 0.172 seconds, which…well, it’s unnecessary.
2) At the bottom of the left hand column is “Feeds:” What is this and is it necessary for the average joe to know that this page is validated as XHTML 1.0 transitional?
3) You have two comments in the upper right/left hand corners…they are funny, but they never change. If they are to remain constant, I don’t think you need them, otherwise, it would be cool if they changed every week or every other week.
4) You have a section on the left hand column that is for “Recent Posts” However, if you scroll down to this section, you are all ready at the end of posts listed under that section since you only list 5. There is only 1 main problem with that section, it’s the location. I say move that up near the top, so it’s more useful. Otherwise cut it as it’s not needed (5 posts only listed and viewing it now gets you to the end of those 5 post).

My final comment to you is this – if you go ahead and get sponsor links…please don’t have any pop-up banners/ads, etc.
mediaguru says:

August 16, 2005 at 12:06 pm

skostiuk: Awesome reply. I love to hear something from someone else.

-I hadn’t thought of the menu idea but I may do some of that.
-The queries thing is part of wordpress. I can take it out or leave it. Funny thing is, how much extra time does it take to run the query?
-The comments yes! My pal MJ sent me a plugin which will rotate quotes in and out. When I implement that, I’ll go to one quote. Excellent.
-Recent posts has been moved up
-Feeds is also another built in function of wordpress. I can take it or leave it. You’re right, who cares if it’s validated?
-As far as sponsors go let me just say this. I hate spam. I hate popups. Any sponsor banners will be modest and tasteful, with NO popups or any crap like that.

Awesome. Keep the comments coming!
skostiuk says:

August 17, 2005 at 8:26 am

Also I had this idea. That image you had planted in the top center of your page, the golf ball with Hooked On Golf around it…I think that would be better as a link to your main index. Here’s why – if I enter in comments and submit them, in order for me to go back to the index site, I have to click on a very small link in the upper left hand corner that says blog home. I say leave that link, but also make that center image a quick link to your index page.
mediaguru says:

August 17, 2005 at 9:34 am

Done. Good idea!
skostiuk says:

August 17, 2005 at 1:06 pm

Beautiful….great site by the way, I’m a huge fan!!!!
mediaguru says:

August 17, 2005 at 6:38 pm

You are very kind.