# Check it out - new website for my facility



## sdauditorium (Jul 10, 2011)

I just finished re-designing our auditorium's website. If you would, take a look around and give me your opinions and any suggestions for content and layout/design.

Southern Door Community Auditorium


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## cpf (Jul 10, 2011)

In no particular order:

The JS dropdowns could use some tuning (sometimes they pop up in the wrong place http://cpfx.ca/screenshots/2011_47_10_7dbe4.png , it's a bit touchy in terms of closing before it should, and the fading could be much faster). 
The little menu thing on the bottom-left could be rearranged, the >'s and the current arrangement made me thing some CSS hadn't loaded. 
A photo gallery area with paste performances would be cool. 
Some links don't seem to point to the right place (e.g. "Rent the..." links to the sponsorship page). 
Grammar issue with the button in the bottom right of the homepage ("do you have Facebook?" not "do you have a facebook?", or just drop that phrase entirely since it doesn't serve any purpose for that button). 
The mp3 on the home page only starts at 00:13, I thought it was broken at first (and I have some niggles with that recording, but not a website issue).

Other than that, very nice website, and it has the most important feature of any website: real content.


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## sdauditorium (Jul 10, 2011)

cpf said:


> In no particular order:
> 
> The JS dropdowns could use some tuning (sometimes they pop up in the wrong place http://cpfx.ca/screenshots/2011_47_10_7dbe4.png , it's a bit touchy in terms of closing before it should, and the fading could be much faster).
> The little menu thing on the bottom-left could be rearranged, the >'s and the current arrangement made me thing some CSS hadn't loaded.
> ...


 
Thanks for the feedback.

What browser are you using? The reason I ask is that the drop-down menu has the same problems with regards to its placement in Google Chrome, but it looks good in Internet Explorer.

As far as the Facebook grammar, the background image I used for the button itself was from somewhere else and had the text embedded. I'll see if I can camoflauge the text somehow. 

I'm working on re-doing the bottom 3 links so it doesn't seem as if some code hadn't loaded properly.

Thanks for the input.


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## Tex (Jul 10, 2011)

The photo gallery was in German for me. XP/Firefox 5.0


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## DuckJordan (Jul 10, 2011)

Not sure if its anything you can fix, but the Facebook link doesn't take me to the actual pages it just takes me to my homepage. It happens on other websites to that have a link to Facebook. Tex how did you get to the photo gallery, I'm using XP/Firefox 5.0 and it shows its "coming soon"


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## chausman (Jul 10, 2011)

Tex said:


> The photo gallery was in German for me. XP/Firefox 5.0


 
(Viewing on Mac OS X 10.6)
I got that, and this error, Den gewënschten Album oder Datei existéiert net! (I see you removed the link for the gallery)

I would make the grainy picture of tickets on the front page link to ShowTix4U, and check the link at the bottom of the paragraph. It links to a page that says No events, then redirects a few seconds later to a correct page.

The directions page has two maps, one of them doesn't seem to have any information on it.

I might add some basic specs to the Technical Specs page. Things like Total Capacity, or capacity with different configurations.



DuckJordan said:


> Not sure if its anything you can fix, but the Facebook link doesn't take me to the actual pages it just takes me to my homepage. It happens on other websites to that have a link to Facebook. Tex how did you get to the photo gallery, I'm using XP/Firefox 5.0 and it shows its "coming soon"


 
The link worked for a little while, and then was removed.


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## sdauditorium (Jul 10, 2011)

Tex said:


> The photo gallery was in German for me. XP/Firefox 5.0


 
No clue what happened there..not fluent in German? 

I'm looking for a new photo gallery that is streamlined and looks clean. Any suggestions?


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## sdauditorium (Jul 10, 2011)

I removed the photo gallery link for now until I can find a new gallery interface that I like.


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## sdauditorium (Jul 10, 2011)

chausman said:


> (Viewing on Mac OS X 10.6)
> I got that, and this error, Den gewënschten Album oder Datei existéiert net! (I see you removed the link for the gallery)
> 
> I would make the grainy picture of tickets on the front page link to ShowTix4U, and check the link at the bottom of the paragraph. It links to a page that says No events, then redirects a few seconds later to a correct page.
> ...


 
I tried clicking the tickets link but didn't have any problems with the show popping up. I took your suggestion on making the ticket picture an active link as well. The direction page with maps is a Google product. As far as I can tell, there's no way for me to alter it independent of Google.

I like your suggestion about basic tech facts and will incorporate that in as well.


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## sdauditorium (Jul 10, 2011)

DuckJordan said:


> Not sure if its anything you can fix, but the Facebook link doesn't take me to the actual pages it just takes me to my homepage. It happens on other websites to that have a link to Facebook. Tex how did you get to the photo gallery, I'm using XP/Firefox 5.0 and it shows its "coming soon"


 
I clicked the image and, for what it's worth, it did bring me to the correct page on FB.


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## MarshallPope (Jul 11, 2011)

One small picky thing - I would tighten up the kerning (space between the characters) in the "20" in the header. It feels like they are pulling apart.


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## cprted (Jul 11, 2011)

The #1 important thing for me is to be able to access your tech specs in three clicks or less. Thank you for doing that!


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## sdauditorium (Jul 12, 2011)

cprted said:


> The #1 important thing for me is to be able to access your tech specs in three clicks or less. Thank you for doing that!


 
No problem. I am going to try to re-organize the information under the "Rentals" link to make it a bit more streamlined as well as adding a basic tech specs section so that people don't have to download the entire packet if they don't require it.


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## sdauditorium (Jul 12, 2011)

MarshallPope said:


> One small picky thing - I would tighten up the kerning (space between the characters) in the "20" in the header. It feels like they are pulling apart.


 
Taken care of..thanks!


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## NickVon (Jul 24, 2011)

sdauditorium said:


> Taken care of..thanks!


 
Love how you have organized your Rental information for the space and equipment. Might have to take afew pointers from it


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## FACTplayers (Jul 24, 2011)

Everything displays great in OS X 10.6 on Safari. The menus also work great. They expand where they should and the accent function is great. 

And now I know about your theatre. We are located in Freedom, so not too far away


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## chausman (Jul 25, 2011)

FACTplayers said:


> Everything displays great in OS X 10.6 on Safari. The menus also work great. They expand where they should and the accent function is great.
> 
> And now I know about your theatre. We are located in Freedom, so not too far away


 
10.7 on Safari, menus got a little weird. Sometimes the open where they should, sometimes they open to high. It is seemingly random, but repeatable.


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## NHSTechCrew (Jul 25, 2011)

Great work. I am really impressed. What program did you use. My theatre is really interested in getting a Web site just like yours.


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## sdauditorium (Jul 25, 2011)

Thanks. I just used WordPress to get the basic infrastructure down and then tore it apart and continued tweaking it to fit our needs. Other that that, I did most of the coding myself and embedded some java script apps and things like that through Dynamic Drive.


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## FACTplayers (Jul 25, 2011)

chausman said:


> 10.7 on Safari, menus got a little weird. Sometimes the open where they should, sometimes they open to high. It is seemingly random, but repeatable.


 
Updated my OS X to 10.6.8 and now I am getting the same issue, but only when I first mouse over the link. After the first time it displays correctly. I wouldn't worry about it. Seems to be an issue with Safari. I'm sure Apple will correct it in the next update.


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## CSCTech (Jul 27, 2011)

I'm getting a 404 error after clicking the "Technical Packet" link on the Equipment Rentals page.

Cheers


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## sdauditorium (Jul 27, 2011)

CSCTech said:


> I'm getting a 404 error after clicking the "Technical Packet" link on the Equipment Rentals page.
> 
> Cheers


 
Oops, try again. Re-uploaded the packet today and forget to change some code.


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## sdauditorium (Jul 27, 2011)

FACTplayers said:


> Updated my OS X to 10.6.8 and now I am getting the same issue, but only when I first mouse over the link. After the first time it displays correctly. I wouldn't worry about it. Seems to be an issue with Safari. I'm sure Apple will correct it in the next update.


 
The same thing happens in Chrome as well. It works fine in Explorer but not sure what the deal is with the other browsers. I messed with the java script a bit and nothing changes it.


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## CSCTech (Jul 28, 2011)

sdauditorium said:


> Oops, try again. Re-uploaded the packet today and forget to change some code.


 
Perfect 

I'm getting the same drop box positioning problem with Chrome as well. All I know is that every time I design websites, a lot of things that work fine in I.E. don't work anywhere else, and things that work everywhere else don't work in I.E. 

Good Luck


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## FACTplayers (Jul 30, 2011)

CSCTech said:


> Perfect
> 
> I'm getting the same drop box positioning problem with Chrome as well. All I know is that every time I design websites, a lot of things that work fine in I.E. don't work anywhere else, and things that work everywhere else don't work in I.E.
> 
> Good Luck




I've been doing web design for over four years now, and i've learned that you should just ignore IE in its entirety. I know it is used very often by a lot of people, but that is the hardest browser to make happy (firefox is a close second).


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## chausman (Jul 30, 2011)

FACTplayers said:


> I've been doing web design for over four years now, and i've learned that you should just ignore IE in its entirety. I know it is used very often by a lot of people, but that is the hardest browser to make happy (firefox is a close second).


 
Go Safari!!!


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## douglasheriot (Jul 30, 2011)

FACTplayers said:


> …you should just ignore IE in its entirety. I know it is used very often by a lot of people, but that is the hardest browser to make happy



Unfortunately, because IE is used by lots of people, it really means you kind of have to support it well, as painful as that can be. 

I suggest you use something like Google Analytics to track how many people visit your site, and what browsers actual visitors use. People that aren't as technical are less likely to be using Chrome or Firefox. Google Analytics allows you to get heaps of useful information, like where visitors actually come from (and do things like see which visitors came from ControlBooth and might create a bias in your other statistics, compared to other visitors)


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## derekleffew (Jul 30, 2011)

douglasheriot said:


> ...I suggest you use something like Google Analytics to track how many people visit your site, and what browsers actual visitors use. ...


Indeed. See http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/off-topic/23621-browser-wars.html .


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## FACTplayers (Jul 30, 2011)

douglasheriot said:


> Unfortunately, because IE is used by lots of people, it really means you kind of have to support it well, as painful as that can be.
> 
> I suggest you use something like Google Analytics to track how many people visit your site, and what browsers actual visitors use. People that aren't as technical are less likely to be using Chrome or Firefox. Google Analytics allows you to get heaps of useful information, like where visitors actually come from (and do things like see which visitors came from ControlBooth and might create a bias in your other statistics, compared to other visitors)




I do monitor all of my websites in my cpanel. Safari is the #1 browser with 45.7% followed by IE with 25.8%. Then its FF, Android, iOS. Thanks for the Google Analytics tip. I'm going to sign up and compare results.


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## Tex (Jul 30, 2011)

FACTplayers said:


> I do monitor all of my websites in my cpanel. Safari is the #1 browser with 45.7% followed by IE with 25.8%. Then its FF, Android, iOS. Thanks for the Google Analytics tip. I'm going to sign up and compare results.


Based on browser usage 'net wide, those stats sound a bit skewed.
File:Web browser usage share v2.svg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
How many unique page views have you had?


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## FACTplayers (Jul 30, 2011)

Tex said:


> Based on browser usage 'net wide, those stats sound a bit skewed.
> File:Web browser usage share v2.svg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
> How many unique page views have you had?


 
I know they are skewed a little bit, but that's what they are. The site averages around 100 unique visitors per month (it's only been around for 2.5 months and I never said it gets a lot of traffic). My target audience is different than another websites target audience. And yes, I'm not counting the hits from my computer.

My take on the whole IE thing is that IE is too big of a pain to worry about. The site will display fine, not perfect, but useable. So I don't see a huge reason to spend hours to fix one little bug. I know this is not the "professional" opinion (to ignore IE) or a the "popular" one, but it's what I chose to do.


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