Back for more feedback, Version 3.0 launched!

[jer2eydevil88]

I posted a while back asking for feedback on my site, you guys helped so much that I am posting here again with our latest rendition.

Check it out - http://www.zigzap.com
and our new forum design - http://forums.zigzap.com

Note: We already know there is a glitch with the navbar when you hover over it for the first time that causes a flashing effect. We should have a fix in place sometime this weekend.

Thanks for all the feedback its much appreciated!!

 

[angelwatt]

Just did a quick look over so far,

• Apart from the issue with the navigation menu you mention, it also is unaccessible when JavaScript is disabled.
• You have some invalid HTML (http://validator.w3.com/), most of which is easy to fix.

 

[jer2eydevil88]

Just did a quick look over so far,

• Apart from the issue with the navigation menu you mention, it also is unaccessible when JavaScript is disabled.
• You have some invalid HTML (http://validator.w3.com/), most of which is easy to fix.

Thanks for the quick reply,

• I think most browsers support javascript but if there is a way to build a seperate navbar like Apple did on their site for when javascript is turned off I would love to know how.
• Fixed the validation problems

Click to Validate

 

[angelwatt]

Thanks for the quick reply,

• I think most browsers support javascript but if there is a way to build a seperate navbar like Apple did on their site for when javascript is turned off I would love to know how.
• Fixed the validation problems

• 
  
  It's not merely about browsers being able to support JavaScript. Some people disable it purposely for security reasons, and some companies have filters that block JavaScript in certain situations. Also some screen readers don't process JavaScript, or don't use it well and can't access the menu links. I occasionally turn it off because I get annoyed by what some developers do with it.
  
  Often the way to get around this is to have the top element (the visible part) be a link itself rather than the href="#" that you have currently. So for instance, a user should be able to click on your "Services" menu item and be taken to a page which will contain the links that are embedded into the menu. This creates a hierarchy for the site.
  
  The other way to handle it is not using JavaScript for the menus, but CSS instead. This would take something of an overhaul though with the current setup so I'm not suggesting that, but something to think about for later down the road.
  
  Also the "Products" menu only has one item so doesn't need a drop down menu, though you may be planning on adding other items later.
  
  A suggestion for accessibility, your search field has no information about what the text field is for, except for the visual cue of the magnifier, but that doesn't help blind visitors. One way to handle it would be to give create a label tag for it and use CSS to set the font-size to 1px. A screen reader doesn't care what size text is, it will read it the same. Though you have to make sure not to use display:none or visibility:hidden as these will often hide the text from screen readers. At the bottom of this post you'll see a way I use to hide text visually, but still allows screen readers to find.
  
  Glad to see you got the HTML valid now.
  
  

  <label for="searchinput">Search</label>
  <search field>

  #searchbox label {
   display: block;
   font-size: 1px;
   width: 1px; height: 1px;
   overflow: hidden;
  }

 

[jer2eydevil88]

Wow Angelwatt, just wow.

Thank you for providing so much information to me on this. I will go through this and a few other suggestions I got over at neowin tomorrow.

As a side note looked at your website and found you went to Wright State! I went to the University of Cincinnati and have been up that way many times to visit friends who serve at Wright Patterson. I really appreciate the help and maybe sometime if you find yourself down this way you should shoot me a pm so I can buy you a drink!

If you have any feedback of the forums please feel free to post it here.

 

[angelwatt]

Wow Angelwatt, just wow.

Thank you for providing so much information to me on this. I will go through this and a few other suggestions I got over at neowin tomorrow.

As a side note looked at your website and found you went to Wright State! I went to the University of Cincinnati and have been up that way many times to visit friends who serve at Wright Patterson. I really appreciate the help and maybe sometime if you find yourself down this way you should shoot me a pm so I can buy you a drink!

If you have any feedback of the forums please feel free to post it here.

Your welcome. That's cool you're in my area. I don't drink, but thanks for the offer. I'm just glad to hear you care about the accessibility issues I mentioned. So many designers just toss that advice aside because they don't care or don't think anyone with a disability visits their site, or they just think it's too much work. But as I showed here it doesn't take a lot of extra effort. If you notice on my site, if you tab through the links the 2nd link is a hidden one, but becomes revealed as it becomes focused. This is a slightly hard technique, but can be helpful. I work with the government on some projects so I have to care about Section 508 and other accessibility issues so I make sure to practice them when I can.